Let the cud times roll - farm welcomes triplet calves

The eight-year-old Charolais, who was bred on the farm of Matt Curran in An Spideál, delivered two heifer calves and one bull calf last Sunday morning.

The Barna-based vets who delivered the calves initially thought it was twins – but after delivering two calves she put her hand in to check, and “to my amazement” there was a third inside.

It is understood that the odds of a cow delivering triplets are as high as 40,000/1.

The calves – Limousin-Charolais crosses – were standing up Monday morning and drinking milk. The cow is also doing well after the natural labour.

“This was the first set of triplet calves I delivered. I have delivered many twin calves and many sheep triplets but this was my first set of triplet calves. I was very happy and so was the farmer that they’re all alive and well,” said Sara Roche, a veterinary surgeon at West Coast Vets in Barna, who helped deliver the calves.

She arrived on the farm shortly after midnight last Saturday, having received a call from the cow’s owner to say that her waters had broken an hour previous.

“I put on protective gear and gloves and checked cow in crush. When I put my hand in, I could feel two heads side-by-side and four front feet.

“The calves were upside down but coming forward,” she recalled.

The calves were separated, turned into the correct position in the pelvic canal, and using ropes on their front feet, with gentle traction, were pulled out one-by one.

The two calves, weighing 40/50kg, were alive and well and she massaged them gently to help with breathing while on the ground.

“Before we were going to let the cow out of crush, I said I would just put my hand into the cow to check her in case there was another calf and to my amazement there was.

“The calf was mispositioned, the head was back and upside down. I had to use a head rope to get the calf into canal and once positioned corrected I delivered the third calf safely. We milked the cow and all three calves were given colostrum with a stomach tube,” said Ms Roche.

Barna native John Mulligan and his business partner, Ms Roche, the daughter of dairy farmers from Kylemore in Abbey near Portumna in East Galway, set-up West Coast Vets in Truskey West two years ago.