Though cattle farmer Hans Brinks thought early in the evening on Wednesday that he had just found a moment of peace, his helper in the goat farming suddenly storms into the kitchen. “Twin kids have been born,” the message reads. Brinks laughs when he thinks about it, because it didn’t stop with those two. “No, the counter stopped at five”, he says proudly. “Twins or triplets sometimes happen, but five? Pretty unique, I think.”
The farmer of goat farm De Slagen in Veenoord received this confirmation when he quickly looked up how unique goat quintuplets really are via Google. “In general, it does not often happen with goats and sheep that quintuplets are born. With pygmy goats, yes, but these are dairy goats, so it is less obvious,” says Brinks.
Eye in the sail
“Great news, of course, and it went really fast,” he continues. “When our helper stormed in, two goats had already been born and when we arrived at the stable, the third was already there.” Since he then had to milk the other goats, his wife kept a close eye on the pregnant goat. “The fourth came quickly, and when my wife turned around, the fifth was already there. So the pace was good.”
Due to the baby boom on goat farming, the number of goats at Brinks has gone from 120 to 125 in one fell swoop. “Four females and one male. But after such an event, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were even more tomorrow morning,” he laughs. The goat that gave birth to her quintuplets tonight, according to Brinks, was the first goat to lamb this year. “And often one goat ignites another, so who knows what else will come this spring.”
Rusk with mice
The birth of the quintuplets is certainly something that will be remembered in Veenoord, says Brinks. “The boys actually wanted to go to the supermarket right away to get rusk with mice, but because we still had to milk all the goats together, it was too late. So buying rusk and mice is the first thing we will do on Thursday morning.”