Rare calf triplets are born on Schneiter farm

     Reagan Schneiter was in Florida on a family trip when she got the news, from her father Ron, that calf triplets were born to a six-year-old black Angus cow on the Schneiter farm March 14.

     “Dad sent us a picture, and I’m like, ‘There’s no way,’ ” Reagan said. “I thought it was pretty cool. It was awesome to come back and see that.”

     Calf triplets happen about once in 105,000 cow births.

     “It’s very rare,” Reagan said. “My dad has calved over 6,000 in his career, and he’s never had that (before). It’s really crazy.

     “He did the calculations looking back, and about 7½ percent of his cows have twins.” 

     The calf triplets – two male, one female – weighed about 40 pounds when they were born, or about half the weight of a normal calf.

     While the mother and babies generally have just a 60 percent chance of survival when triplets are born, these triplets are doing well, Reagan said.

     “One of them was on a feeding tube,” she said. “One had leg splints for a little while and couldn’t walk perfectly. But now they’re all perfectly healthy, and the mom’s healthy.

     “They’ll be on the mom for a while, and then we’ll have to kind of wean them off because the mom won’t be able to support all three for a while.”

     Reagan’s mother, Jackie, “just thought they were so cute,” Reagan said. “And then she said, ‘We have to name them.’ ”

     Reagan chose the names Rhett, Ronan and Ruby.

     “I picked Rhett from Thomas Rhett because he’s my favorite singer,” she said.

     She then decided they all had to be names starting with “R,” which led to the other two.

     Reagan, 17, is a senior at Monticello High School. She is president of the Monticello FFA Chapter.