Will and Lee Scott, Cobrico Meadows Holsteins, Cobden, witnessed something last week that many dairy farmers will never see in a lifetime - the birth of Holstein triplets.
The odds for such a birth, with all three calves being the same sex (heifers), are estimated to be one in 2 million.
Mr Scott said the dam, a now six year old cow, was purchased at a farm in Heywood two years ago, as part of the family's move to expand the autumn-calving cows in their commercial herd.
When the Scotts had the herd pregnancy tested, the vet reported the cow was going to have twins, so the family put her on lead feed for longer, to decrease the risks associated with multiple births.
Fortunately, they'd moved her into the yard when she started to calve down because she was having troubled with the first calf.
"The first one had her head twisted over her shoulder, so we had to get in there and help to pull her out," Mr Scott said.
The second heifer calf came out easily and then the family was surprised to see she had another calf to drop.
"We've never had triplets, my dad Peter has been on the farm for years and he's never had triplets before, but he reckons his father did."
Despite all being born alive, one of the calves was dead when Mr and Mrs Scott returned to the yard a little while later.
"They were only little things."
The mother cow is going well, but Mr Scott said having a cow have triplets was better as a once in a lifetime thing.
"I'm not sure how much fun it is for the cow."
