It was described as “rare” and “remarkable” as a cow gave birth to four calves on a Saskatchewan farm earlier this week.
The birth took place at Moxham Farms near Leross, Sask., on Tuesday afternoon.
The mother cow is named Dot and is seven years old. She has already had five births.
Dot gave birth to four calves last year, but the quadruplets didn’t make it because they were premature.
The birth hasn’t only been a lot of work for Dot, but the family as well.
“We’re dealing with that pretty heavy right now because she doesn’t have enough milk for all of them, so we’re out there bottle feeding and milking from another cow,” said Carman Moxham, Moxham Farms owner.
“You’re dealing with stuff you don’t really have time for, but there’s really no choice.”
Dot was named after Moxham’s mother, who passed away two years ago at the age of 95. His mother spent her entire life on the farm and had a special place in her heart for the cattle.
“It’s pretty cool to have this happen on your farm. If my mom was alive, she would be living in the barn with the calves,” Moxham said.
“We expected it to be a multiple birth right way based on the size and her past history. We hoped, but didn’t expect it.”
Calling this a miracle would be an understatement.
Experts say the odds of a cow giving birth to quadruplets is one-in-700,000, and the odds of keeping all four alive is one-in-11.2 million.
“They’re doing really good. They’re up sucking, they’re running around playing and definitely enjoying the fact they’re alive,” Moxham said.
Their names are Trixy, Dixy, Moxy and Ben.
Moxham said Dot is also doing well and enjoying her time with the calves.