Beef cattle farmers David and Julie Ingram were left shocked after their purebred Hereford calved quadruplets.
The multiple birth took place in May and marked the second time the cow had become pregnant at their property in Bonang in east Gippsland.

Last year she gave birth to twins.

“I said to Julie the night before she calved ‘there’ll be a set of twins there tonight’,” Mr Ingram said.

“But when we went down the next day, we counted one, and then two, and then three, and then oh … there are four.”

The couple are familiar with multiple births, having recording 12 sets of twins on their property in 2018 and eight other sets this year alone.
However, they were taken aback by quadruplets, after preparing themselves for the cow to reproduce twins like she had before.

“We had a little paddock near the house with good feed and we just kept her there on her own because we were pretty sure she’d have more than one,” Ms Ingram said.

“It’s very unusual; I’ve never heard of four before.”

The birth, in May, produced two heifers and two bull calves around three to four weeks premature, causing concern for the Ingrams.
“We were amazed she actually fed two of them and she’d cleaned and mothered the four of them,” Mr Ingram said.

Ms Ingram said they knew the calves would die if they were left outside overnight.

“So we took them all up to the house and put them in the shed and left her close to them,” she said.
The Ingrams decided to leave the strongest calf with her mother and took in the remaining three as poddies, meaning they would be hand-reared to give them the best chance.

About a week later, they let the other heifer calf return to her mother.

Three were monitored in a private paddock for six weeks before being released to the remaining herd.