Udderly amazing: Kingsville, Ont. cow gives birth to quadruplets

A Kingsville cow has given birth to quadruplets. CTV Windsor`s Robert Lothian reports.

A Kingsville, Ont., hobby farm is the talk of the town after a cow miraculously gave birth to four healthy calves.

After starting Tuesday with only three cows, there are now seven at A&M Knelsen’s produce after a rare feat.

Abram Knelsen, who owns the farm with his wife, Maria, told CTV News they were only expecting their Black Angus beef cow, Millie, to have one calf.

“I seen something was going on there, so I went and looked, and yeah, she had one, and I went and told my wife,” Abram recalled.

When the farmer returned to Millie, he learned she had twins, and before long, discovered it was triplets.

Eager to keep his large family up to date, Abram continued to provide updates in a family group chat.

“So I was going to confess to the children because, you know, I lied to them, and I told them there was actually three. Half an hour later, there was four,” he said.

It’s estimated that the odds of one cow having quadruplets are about 1 in 700,000, according to Abram. However, he noted the odds of healthy quadruplets are about 1 in 11.2 million.

“The excitement, even in my own home with my children and all the siblings with their children, everybody was just more than excited to hear that there’s four babies on this farm,” said Christine Knelsen, Abram and Maria’s daughter-in-law.

Already happy and bucking, the family has decided to name the calves Eenie, Meenie, Miney and Moe.

“We have [had] a lot of births on this farm as far as cattle, but never four, never twins,” Abram added.

Because four can be overwhelming, the Knelsens said they are providing formula to help keep the quadruplets fed. They stressed that the entire process was natural, without any form of artificial insemination.

“They were all feeding by mommy today, so I was pretty happy about that,” Abram said.

Right now, each calf is about 20 to 30 pounds, but will grow to about 1,000 lbs. in up to 15 months.

Because their stock has grown overnight, the family says they’re planning to build a new shelter for the calves to rest their hooves under in the coming days.