My previous neighbor’s granddad’s cow had 4 calves how rare is this?

Question: My previous neighbor's granddad's cow had 4 calves how rare is this?
- Keywords:
  calf,
  cow
Asked by Bethany is @home! on 18 May 2020.
- Hazel Rooney answered on 18 May 2020:
  
  Hi Bethany, wow that is rare indeed! Usually cows have 1-2 cows on average so for four to arrive is pretty amazing! I hope they were able to come up with names for them all?
- Aruna Chandrasekar answered on 18 May 2020:
  
  Yes, like humans, cows usually only have 1-2 calves at a time. But just like humans also have triplets and quadruplets in rare occasions, cows do too.
  I hope you got to meet them all?
- Tommy Hayden answered on 18 May 2020:
  
  That’s pretty rare!
  I grew up on a farm. It was unusual for cows to have twins but some cows were more likely to have them than others. Out of about 20 cows calving, I’d say we had a set of twins roughly every second year (so around 1 in 40)
  We had cows calve triplets once that I can remember (so around 1 in 500 based on what I can remember of our cows)
  We never had quads. I’d say the odds are less than 1 in 100,000
  I hope all the calves survived – they are likely to be a bit delicate initially – cows aren’t really designed to carry that many calves simultaneously…
- Aisling Ryan answered on 19 May 2020:
  
  Wow, that’s amazing!
  Dairy cows usually give birth every year or so, and would only really be expected to give birth to four calves over its lifetime. Giving birth to four calves at the same time is very rare! I’m sure they had lots of fun playing together 🙂
- Sonia Lenehan answered on 19 May 2020:
  
  Wow that is pretty rare! I grew up on a farm and it rare for cows to have twin calves, never mind four of them!!!