A Friesian cow has given birth to twin heifer calves in two different years.
The first calf was born in 2020, while the second was born this year, according to farmer, Charlie Goadby.
She delivered the first calf at approximately 11:40, while Goadby returned to the farm shortly after midnight to discover the second.
The owner of the popular, Thisfarmlife, blog is asking followers to help name Jana’s new arrivals.
In a post, he said: “Mother and her newborn twins. Twin girls born in different years, one in 2020, and one in 2021! What a way to end 2020 and welcome,”
He has created the Facebook page, which has just shy of 9,000 likes, to “help the wider community understand farming and food”.
Twin calves born nearly a fortnight apart in Mayo
Meanwhile, last year, a Mayo farmer claimed that his suckler cow had twin calves close to a fortnight apart.
Michael Lynch, who farms near Swinford, told That’s Farming about the rare occurrence involving an Angus-cross-Shorthorn cow.
“I was waiting for the cow in question to calf, so the vet called out three weeks ago. The vet said the cow had another few days to go before she would calf.”
“However, I came down to the yard the next morning and found a small, newborn Simmental heifer calf. She didn’t bag or take to the calf, so I gave him colostrum and started bucket-feeding him.”
“Two weeks later, I noticed that she hadn’t lost condition or weight, but she started to flag. I came down to the farm one morning and saw part of a cleaning.”
“The cow had cleaned in the feed place, so I went to remove it. When I went to do so, I found a white calf lying on top of the feed.”
“She has taken to the calf and I have kept the other one separate. The second calf is white with grey spots running through her and I would say she’s normal-sized. The first calf was born on November 12th and the second one was born on November 25th – nearly two weeks apart.”
The cow was inseminated by Sean Hyland from Bova AI Services and was served to two different AI sires at two different intervals. The first insemination, he explained, was recorded in October 2019, while the second took place in February 2020.
It is not known if the calves are heteropaternal (sired by two different bulls) or if they were conceived at the same time – DNA samples will be analysed, Hyland told this publication at the time of interview.
