(Photo: AP/Jimmy Barling)
The odds of the live birth of 4 calves in one pregnancy are 1 in 11.2 million. It’s extremely rare, but it happened to Dora Rumsey-Barling, the owner of these 4 calves in rural northeastern Texas. She’s named them Eeny, Meeny, Miny, and Moo. They’re three bulls and one heifer. It’s such a rare event that Rumsey-Barling will have DNA tests taken on all four calves to prove that they’re quadruplets.
The mother cow can’t nurse all four calves, so Moo is staying with her while the three other calves are spending time with other caretakers.
My dairy farmer relatives never used to name female calves after women they knew, but never named the bull calves after men they knew. That was because the boys eventually became steaks, where the girls became milkers.
I thought cows came perfectly-equipped to nurse four calves.