'Exceptionally rare' cow had five calves for Noel Moore from Killen outside Castlederg in Co Tyrone

Noel Moore, a dairy farmer from Killen, just outside Castlederg in Co Tyrone, discovered the almost impossible situation on Saturday morning.

The mother, a dairy Holstein, was giving birth at 7:30am in the morning. The calves were sired by a Belgian Blue bull.

"A cow would normally have one or sometimes two, and a very odd time, maybe three. But never any more than that," he told the News Letter.

Normally all the available eggs in a cow are fertilised, but usually they all die off except for one, he said.

He noticed that she was "very heavy" when pregnant but did not expect this outcome.

This was only her second time pregnant.

"I knew about a month ago that there were more than one. I just knew by the size of her."

Since the news broke he has been fielding calls non-stop from newspaper, radio and television journalists.

He was told by a journalist that the odds of five calves were 20 million to one.

It was not something he had ever heard of before.

"No - not in Ireland anyway," he said.

Sadly the mother of the calves passed away.

"We lost the cow, she didn't survive.

"It just took so much out of her that they couldn't get her to go again. It took so much energy out of her.

"She put her whole energy into the calves - that is why the calves are all so good.

"It was just the stress of it all."

She survived about three days.

There are two male and three female calves and all are doing well.

Instead of suckling from an udder, the calves are now feeding from a special trough with teats, in similar style to an udder.

Dr Gwen Rees, junior vice president of the British Veterinary Association, told the BBC that birthing five calves at one time is "exceptionally rare".

She said it is “high risk” for the mother as you “can’t feed a cow enough food at the end of a pregnancy to feed that many calves”.