From the archives: this story was last updated in January 2019.
The chances of a cow giving birth to quadruplet calves are said to be one in 700,000. And the odds of keeping all four of them alive are one in 11.2 million!Farmer Chuck Beldo struck lucky when one of his cows unexpectedly delivered four calves in his family farm—Chuck and Deb Beldo’s beef cattle farm—near Sebeka, central Minnesota.
Even more surprisingly, the all-black calves—two males and two females—appeared to be in good health.
“I’ve been around cows my whole life, and I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Chuck’s wife, Deb, told WCCO.
Coincidentally, the rare birth on the farm collided with the birth of Chuck and Deb’s new granddaughter.
That day, the couple went to pay a visit to the newest addition to their family. And when they returned to their farm later in the evening, they certainly didn’t expect to see one of their cows going into labor.
The cow had given birth to single calves before, but this time round, she seemed to be having twins.
Speaking to Minnesota Public Radio, the Beldos’ daughter, Jamie Belz, said, “Mom had noticed she was large, but didn’t think too much of it. Twins are fairly common.”
Chuck and Deb thought the cow had twins—at first. But then the third and fourth tiny newborn calves came out of their mooing mother.
Deb posted the exciting news on Facebook, writing: “A very unusual event yesterday. One cow gave birth to quadruplets. All are doing well. Mama was looking a bit overwhelmed but had them all cleaned up. From what we can find, chances of a cow giving birth to four calves is one in 11.2 million.”
The baby calves were really small and black. Usually, a calf would weigh between 50 and 70 pounds (approx. 23 and 32 kg), but these quads weighed around 25 pounds (approx. 11 kg) each.
They were separated from their mother as they weren’t able to feed properly due to their miniature size.
The post soon went viral, garnering over 82,000 shares, reaching social media users all across the United States and even in Australia.
Following the rare birth, Chuck and Deb had their hands full bottle-feeding the calves nearly all day and all night, about once every four hours.
“We are looking for volunteers for that midnight feeding,” Chuck Beldo jokingly told Duluth News Tribune.
Chuck and Deb were so busy with feeding the calves that they eventually had bottle holders installed so that they wouldn’t need to handhold the bottles any longer.
“They’re just like any other baby. They get fed, they’re tired, and they lay down,” Deb said.
Indeed, the quadruplets are a rare and curious case.
“It’s a novelty, but I hope somebody else can have the next experience because once is enough,” Chuck Beldo said.
Just in case you’re wondering how the two bull calves and two heifer calves have been doing, in August 2018, Deb updated on Facebook, “Almost two months old. They are eating grain and hay and are doing well!”
In September 2018, she wrote, “Eating hay and grain. Nearly three months old now.”
We’re glad these quadruplet calves are doing fine!
