Against the odds — Toab cow calves quadruplets

There was delight and astonishment at a farm in Toab over the Easter weekend, as a 12-year-old cow unexpectedly gave birth to four healthy calves.

The Limousin cow at Stembister Farm calved the Aberdeen-Angus cross quadruplets on Saturday evening, at about tea time on Saturday — with no help needed from the vet — said farmer Brian Omand.

Speaking a few days after the calving, he said: “It’s a very rare occurrence, surely. They’re all healthy, all the same size and full of life. The cow is healthy too. She’s quite old at 12, but she didn’t look like she was going to have an amountable birth beforehand — she was just on a normal diet with the rest of them.

“Normally, if a cow has twins or more than one calf in them, the cow will drop in condition, but she hadn’t. It was just a total surprise.

“We’ve had plenty of twins before, but never more than that. We’ve certainly never had anything like this.”

It is thought the odds of a cow having four calves is around one in 700,000, while the odds of them all being alive and healthy is one in 11.2 million.