Three of a kind

LITCHFIELD, Minn. — Evening chores on April 29 were out of the ordinary for Kristen Salzl on her farm near Litchfield. Prairie Gem CS Cruella - ET, a Guernsey cow going into her second lactation, started chores with the birth of what Salzl thought was a set of twins. But the calving ended with the birth of a third calf.

Salzl and her husband, Cory, own Corstar Farm, where they milk 25 cows and own 30 acres of land.

After Salzl got home from her day job as the coordinator for the Minnesota Dairy Initiative, she made her way out to the barn. Salzl said she had a feeling Cruella would calve that day, and sure enough, she had given birth to two bull calves when she checked on her. What Salzl did not know was that about three hours later, a third calf would arrive.

Salzl enlisted the help of her young children, Joseph and Audra, and together they got the calves into a calf hutch and then Salzl milked the herd.

“I got the fresh cow in (and milked her),” Salzl said. “I milked her because why would you check for three, right?”

As Salzl was finishing chores in the barn, she saw Cruella was pushing another calf out.

“It blinked at me and I’m thought, ‘Oh my, it’s alive, let’s get you out of there,’” Salzl said.

Salzl said the bull calves were born by 5:30 p.m., but the heifer was not born until about 7:30-8 p.m.

After giving birth to the third calf, Salzl said she drenched Cruella with fluids to help her in the recovery process.

Luckily, all three calves were born correctly with no complications, Salzl said.

Salzl said she suspects the bulls and heifers were in separate amniotic sacs, since there was such a time gap between their births.

“I’m hopeful, if she … was in a different sack, maybe even in the other horn,” she said, “There’s a chance that she is not a freemartin and I get a heifer out of this. You can tell that the heifer’s normal sized. That’s why I really think she was in the other horn.”

Salzl plans to blood test the heifer to find out if she is fertile.

Salzl estimates that the smallest calf is about 40 pounds and the largest, the heifer, is roughly 60 pounds.

After the birth, the cow and calves are all doing well, with the calves and dam aggressively eating, Salzl said.