A South Taranaki dairy farmer says he got the surprise of his life when the twin heifers he was helping deliver turned out to be triplets, then quadruplets.
When Michael Kavanagh and his parents converted their 100ha farm near Maxwell from dairy grazing to dairy production in 2015, they purchased the majority of their Friesian herd from a farm near Stratford where they routinely named their cows.
During a routine check of the springer mob last month, Kavanagh discovered one of these cows, 6-year-old Becky, beside a small heifer calf in the paddock. He helped her deliver a second heifer, before discovering a third.
"At this stage I was pretty amazed, triplets are rare, but not unheard of. In 11 years farming, I'd not come across them myself though. After checking they were all healthy, I sent out a Snapchat to my friends saying 'triple the fun', but a little while later, the joke was on me."
When he checked Becky's uterus for tears, Kavanagh says he discovered a fourth heifer hiding inside.