'One in 100,000': Sask. farmers welcome set of triplet calves born unassisted

A Saskatchewan farmer woke up to quite a surprise when he discovered one of his cattle gave birth to triplets, unassisted.

Whitewood, Sask. farmer Mark Beutler said the cow had given birth to one calf the night before, but when he walked into the barn the next morning, there were three.

"I just kind of assumed that she was done, I couldn't believe it,” he said.

The triplets are all happy and healthy, along with the mother. Mark's wife, Jennalee, said she couldn't believe the news.

“He called from the barn and he said, ‘I think we have triplets.’ My first reaction was no, it can’t [be]. It's not triplets, like something else must have had the calves,” she said.

One of the next phone calls for the family was to veterinarian, Rebecca Gervin in Moosomin, Sask. She said in her 24 years she hasn't seen a successful birth of calf triplets — until now.

“It's about one in 100,000,” she said. “For them to be born unassisted and all alive. [It’s] a lot more rare than one in 100,000."

Regardless of rarity, the family’s’ three young boys are very excited.

“They’re used to twins and that kind of thing, but the youngest was like, ‘triplets? What does that mean? How many is that,’” Jennalee said.

The family got together and ended up naming the new additions to the herd: Sparkle, Spike and Spur.

Mark added his dad pulled off the rare feat of calving triplets in the early 80s, but said those calves weren't born unassisted.

Gervin said the whole ordeal may be a testament to the kind of farmers the Beutler family are.

“Its good herd health and good husbandry that let that cow be in good shape and carry those three calves to term and have them born healthy, so kudos to them for taking such good care of their cows,” Gervin said.