Shorthorn cow gives birth to healthy triplets, unaided on Australian farm

A Shorthorn cow in a small Victorian community has defied the odds by giving birth to three healthy calves.

The triplets were delivered by the six-year-old cow at Gippsland stud Doben Park Shorthorns, Buln Buln, on May 25.

Veterinarians say cows have a one in 100,000 chance of having triplets, and an even more remote chance that the triplets are born alive.

The first-born calf weighed 32 kilograms, while the second and third calves weighed 30kg.

Doben Park Shorthorns stud principal Doug Benson, who has bred Shorthorns since 1977, said it was the first set of triplets born on his West Gippsland property.

"The calves were born naturally over three hours, however, the third calf was breeched," he said.

"We've only ever had two or three sets of twins born on the farm, so to have a group of triplets born here is quite remarkable.

"She wasn't a huge cow... and I never thought she would have triplets in my wildest dreams."

The stud and commercial operation, located eight kilometres north of Warragul, comprises 115 breeding cows on 78 hectares of freehold land and 25ha of leased country.

The Bensons have lived in the district since 1951 and purchased their main, larger property in 2016.

Mr Benson said the six-year-old stud cow, Doben Park Wakefield Mary Q272, had displayed quality maternal instincts since birthing her latest offspring.

The cow was sired by Outback Sprys Index R310.

"I went down the paddock at about 8am on the Sunday morning and she had the first calf sitting beside her," Mr Benson said

"Then I checked the rest of them, and as I was coming back, I thought she looked like she was going to have a second calf.

"I rang my daughter-in-law and asked her to come down and keep an eye on her because I had to leave the farm, and sure enough, she came down and witnessed the third calf being born."

The three calves, including two white calves and one red calf, were born as bull calves.

"We breed Shorthorn cattle for their temperament, fertility, and ease of management," Mr Benson said.

"We're not sure what we will do with these calves at this stage; we will act on the advice of vets, but we have retained a bull calf from this cow before, so that is a possibility."

Holbrook Vet Centre veterinarian Steph Ferguson, a mixed-practice veterinarian, who works at Holbrook, NSW, said cases of triplet calves being born alive were significantly rare.

The vet clinic conducts about 90,000 pregnancy tests on cows and heifers each year.

It means the clinic has tested close to 1.5 million cattle in the last 15 years, but its team of 10 veterinarians have witnessed just two instances of triplets in that time.

"Approximately one in 100,000 beef cattle in Australia will have triplets, and of those triplets, only 33 per cent have all three born alive," Dr Ferguson said.

"Most cows who give birth to triplets will have at least one dead, so this is a very rare case."

Dr Ferguson said Simmentals and Charolais were the most common beef breeds to mother triplets.

"Genetically, we generally select away from cows having multiple births at once because it tends to cause a lot of issues during calving, and there can be a high proportion of mis-mothering," she said.

"The majority of the research comes from dairy because it's more advantageous to have multiple calves, but in this case, it is significantly rare that all three cases survived."