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Holy cow! It’s triplets

Limousin beef cow at Cambridge area farm gives birth to three calves in a farming rarity

A statistical anomaly happened at a farm located on the edge of Cambridge on Good Friday when one of their cows gave birth to triplets. 

A cow giving birth to twins is uncommon, but for triplets it’s one in every 100,000 births. 

Paul Serpa owns a small hobby farm just outside of Cambridge in Flamborough. He’s been on the farm for almost 40 years and has never seen anything like it.

“We were shocked. We’ve never heard of a cow having triplets,” said Serpa.

The family did not know that the 15-year-old Limousin beef cow had three calves in her belly until they were born.

“We had no way of knowing she was carrying triplets. We found out when they popped out,” said Serpa

The cow was not artificially inseminated and gave birth 100 per cent naturally. All three of the babies were born healthy and happy.

The female cow was bread with a speckled bull, and this was their second year in a row producing multiple calf births, with twins last year.

Serpa has seen many amazing things on the farm before, but this was one farm phenomenon he couldn’t keep to himself.

“I’ve seen in the Ontario Farmer newspaper interesting things about sheep and cows, but I’ve never seen anything about triplets, It’s pretty cool,” said Serpa

At birth the calves are usually the size of a large dog and weigh around 65 to 95 pounds according to the Canadian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. 

The cows on Serpa’s farm are raised as beef cattle and only stay with them for about a year.


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Joe McGinty

About the Author: Joe McGinty

Joe McGinty is a multimedia journalist who covers local news in the Cambridge area. He is a graduate of Conestoga College and began his career as a freelance journalist at CambridgeToday before joining full time.
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