Well-known North Clare farmer, Tom Clair, certainly had his hands full after checking to see his cow calving on his farm at Maghrea, Lahinch this week.
“I checked her at 1.30am on Sunday and nothing was happening but when I returned at lunch-time on Sunday, I could not believe my eyes. She had two calves standing in front of her, there was one behind and, to my amazement, a fourth had made its way out of the building.”
The mother is a Hereford cross and the four healthy charolais heifer calves are identical in weight and colour and are by a pure-bred Devon Cottage charolais bull.
Tom has named them Rosie, Fluffy, Mia and Jennie. “I will keep them on the farm until they die,” he said.
It is believed that the odds of a cow having quadruplets with all calves born alive are 11.2 million to one.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.