Shaunavon farm beats odds with two sets of three of a kind

One Saskatchewan farm is getting adept at tripleheaders.

Last week, one of the cows on Kelly Oberle’s farm just east of Shaunavon gave birth to triplets — a one-in-100,000 occurrence among cattle, according to experts.

Well, on Wednesday, another of Oberle’s cows decided to milk the idea for all it’s worth and also had three of a kind.

“There’s lots of people that congratulate us and all that stuff,” Oberle told The Greg Morgan Morning Show on Thursday. “I mean, (there’s) not much we really did. It’s just something that happened.”

And both instances were completely unexpected.

Oberle said his family suspected the first cow was going to have twins, so that wasn’t a surprise.

“When the first calf hit the ground, we put the cow in the chute to get the second one,” Oberle said. “Then when we got the second one, Mac, my son, says, ‘Well, we’d better check for a third one.’

“We were kind of joking and when he went in there, he found a third one.”

All three of those calves are healthy “and givin’ her,” Oberle said.

On Wednesday, another cow was giving birth.

The Oberles didn’t even think she was having twins — and she didn’t stop at two anyway. The Oberles’ hired hand, Leonard Wipf, was helping with the birth and he called Mac to tell him the cow was having triplets.

“Mac told him he thought that was a little far-fetched,” Kelly said. “My son goes, ‘I think that’s not going to happen again.’

“When I came on shift at 3 (a.m.), there were three (calves) in the pen. (Wipf) had penned the cow with the two but the third one was there, so that second cow did everything all on her own.”

Both sets of triplets comprise two heifers and a bull. Oberle said all six calves are doing well, but they’ll need to be watched closely.

“Eventually the cow won’t have enough milk to raise all three,” he said. “So we’ll draft or transplant them onto some cows that lose their calves. Or we generally sometimes get a nurse cow like the Holstein or something that we buy and put two (or) three calves on them just to raise them.”

When Morgan asked if he should call again next week to see if another set of triplets had been born, Oberle laughed.

“I’d have never believed one let alone two, so I would think we’ve run out of that deal,” he said. “But I guess who knows now?”