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Cattle--Guernsey Gave birth to six calves, all still born. Gift of Frank Westerman. 3 Cheers For Ol' Susie, Her Effort Was A Doozy. Although "Susie" doesn't know it and probably couldn't care less, she may have assured herself of everlasting fame this weekend when she gave birth to six offspring. Susie is a 5-year-old Guernsey cow owned by Frank Westerman, 9087 S. State, Sandy. Monday officials at Utah State University were searching files to see if there ever has been a similar occurrence in bovine annals. Dr. James A. Bennett, head of the animal husbandry department, Utah State University, said he has heard of four and five calves being born to one cow, but never six. He said the rareness of sextuplets can be gauged from the fact that even twins occur in only 1 1/2 percent of the births among dairy cattle, and in only 1/2 percent of beef cattle births. One calf is the rule, he said. Expanding further on Susie's "hall-of-fame" feat, Dr. Bennet said triplet calves occur three times in 10,000 births, and the chance of quadruplets is four out of a million. The chance of sextuplets would be astronomical, he stated. "It would almost be considered beyond the realm of possibility except that perhaps she ovulated three eggs and something caused each to divide into twins," the animal expert said. The six little calves, all stillborn, started arriving at about 6 p.m. Friday night and contunued over a 12-hour period until 6:45 Saturday morning. Had they lived, Susie would have presented her owners with a new dairy herd all in one fell swoop, since all were heifers. Despite the fact the tiny animals never drew a breath, their bodies were all completely formed, according to Leo Taylor, veterinarian, who's caring for Susie. Incidentally, she was contentedly munching hay Monday, apparently none the worse for her ordeal, according to Mr. Taylor. Susie has had two calves before, both single births, according to Mrs. Westerman. |
