Monallock Pastoral, Monomeith, welcome female Angus triplets

Philip and Janine Green, Monallock Pastoral, Monomeith, found triplet female calves to an Angus four-year-old cow at their commercial beef property about one week ago.

"I couldn't believe it when I first saw it," Mr Green said.

"The family has had the farm for 75 years, Mum is 97 and she's never seen triplets."

He said they checked on the cow to find two calves and took them to avoid rejection, but on returning found the third.

"When we went back, there was a third calf just lying in the drain near her," he said.

He said he immediately contacted his agent and vet, who both agreed it was "very unusual".

"When I spoke to my agent he explained to me how rare it is," he said.

"My agent took photos and confirmed they were all her calves, all the older farmers didn't believe it."

Mr Green said the three calves were healthy and the dam had taken well to all three and had calved twice before.

"She's very quiet, you can walk in the yards with the three calves and her and she looks after them, she's not aggressive, you can walk around her and you can pat them," he said.

Mr Green said they have had several sets of twins, and average about three sets of twins a year.

They calve about 120-head each year, with most arriving in spring.

"Even from Google it said [the chances were] one in 200,000, but the survival on that is even higher," he said.

He said he hadn't made any plans yet for the calves' future, but would "definitely give the mum an extra rest".

"They're very healthy and doing very well, the mum is a great mum," he said.