Southern Manitoba cattle producers, Henry and Deena Wolf, were given a special Valentine's Day surprise on Tuesday night; a set of triplets born to one of their black angus cows.

The Wolf family farms north of Holmfield, east of Killarney.  Henry and his brother, Peter, have farmed grain crops together for years, and both sons farmed with their father in cereal crops as well as about 150 cattle.  However, Henry has only been in the cattle industry as an independent producer of commercial black angus by himself for just 2 years.

Needless to say, to have 3 calves born Tuesday night was a huge surprise, as that is a rare occurrence in the cattle industry!

"I went out to check the cows and I noticed one was getting close, so I put her in the barn and sure enough, it wasn't too long, and she had a calf," explains Wolf. "We had been watching her for a while and was thinking that either it was a very large calf, or there were two!"

"Sure enough, there was a second one but it was breech. I had to get in there and set the calf and get it pulled and we were so excited to see that there were twin calves, and they were both alive," he adds. 

It took some quick thinking and muscle to turn the calf and pull, and it was a slow start to get the calf up and moving. But when all was well, Henry returned to the house for a clean-up and a cup of coffee.

"I left mama for a half hour just to let her bond with her calves and I came back to check and low and behold there were not twins, but triplets!  I called my wife and told her I needed her in the barn," he laughs, wanting Deena to see the surprise for herself.

Deena went online to see how often beef cattle produce triplets.  "Apparently, it is one in 100,000 and to have all three be bull calves is even more rare," he adds.

Last month, Wolf attended a calving seminar with the Manitoba Beef Producers. He attributes his quick thinking and jump to action that saved the set of calves, to this hands-on training.  Participants used a simulated cow/calf to practice different scenarios.  

"It was very helpful to go through that and to gain that knowledge, which definitely came into play that night, because calf #2 was breech and backwards and luckily that was the scenario I got to practice at the seminar," shares Wolf.

"So, having Manitoba Beef Producers put on that clinic, I truly believe saved those calves life and possibly even that cow.  In something like that if I wasn't able to get a vet out in time, or in this case be able to do that myself, it definitely could have gone very bad, " he adds.

Wolf says he went straight to work to revive the calf which had had a traumatic birth and wasn't breathing at first.  He saw life in its eyes so began vigorously stroking its head and body and then lifted it up by the back legs to drain the fluid out of its lungs.  "The time that was spent already with the cow struggling to try to calve, that calf was touch-and-go but working vigorously we got to get it back to life and nursing!"

"With the vet shortage," notes Wolf, "I encourage anybody to look to the MB Beef Producers and get into some of these seminars and take advantage of them.  They're there for producers.  I also encourage anyone who is thinking of veterinary school, please we need more vets in this province.  We're very fortunate where we live in southwestern Manitoba that we do have excellent vets who are readily on hand here, but I'm hearing from other producers in other parts of Manitoba it's not that way.  There's just too big of a shortage."

Back in the barn, Henry and Deena and their 3 daughters are thrilled to watch mama cow interact with her triplets.  "We're definitely going to have some milk replacement on hand just in case mama is unable to take care of all three, then we'll definitely step in, but if mom's doing good and babies are doing good, then we'll just let them do their thing and keep a close eye on them."

"It's pretty exciting!"

It is incredibly rare for a cow to give birth to triplets. It’s only a 1 in 105,000 chance that it happens in the first place, and when it does, many times one or more do not survive.  And oftentimes, the mother cow will often not accept all three calves as her own. 

Please listen to the audio clip with Henry Wolf below: