For Wantabadgery locals, near Wagga Wagga, Trevor and Magaret Robb, calving is a time of year that is looked forward to but this year it brought a surprise nobody expected.
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After joining four of their mature aged cows to a neighbour's Poll Hereford bull this year, the couple were not expecting to walk out the back and see their Angus cow, Bessie, standing next to a set of twin calves, let alone to walk out five days later to see their Poll Hereford cow, Annabell, also with a set of twins.
Both cows were purchased as weaners out of the Wagga Wagga Saleyards eight years ago, being foundation for the family's small herd, and have always calved down each year with twins being a first for both the cows and the bull.
Mrs Robb said the first set of twins were born on December 27 when Mr Robb saw Bessie with the calf beside her.
"Trevor said 'I think Bessie's had a calf' so he went up he said 'yes she's had a calf, I'll just go up and check all the others'," Mrs Robb said.
"He came back and he said 'hang on there's another one there', so in that 20 minutes that he was gone, she'd had another one."
When the second cow, Annabell calved down the couple couldn't believe it at first thinking the new set of twins were Bessie's set, to then find out both cows had given birth to twins.
Bessie to a heifer and a bull calf, Annabell to two heifer calves.
The couple were very surprised by the arrivals.
"I spoke to one of our neighbours who runs a large scale cattle operation and he said 'yes we get twins, but you've got to remember we've got a substantial number of calves'," Mr Robb said.
"He said 'for you to have two sets of twins out of four cows is extremely unusual - especially out of two different breeds'."
