SCOUTING REPORT | Stavick miracle quad bulls, fish with mercury, a Jamestown full ride

A weekly digest of interesting local, state, national and even international developments

Readers of The Dakota Scout’s weekly Scouting Report might recall the extremely rare births of quadruplet calves on the Stavick Simmental ranch near Veblen last year. The odds of a cow giving birth to four healthy calves at the same time are as low as 1 in 179.2 million births.

The calves – now young bulls – continue to make history. All four have been sold for breeding purposes, The Aberdeen Insider reports. It means they won’t be turned into steers and enter the food supply.

“I don’t know that there has ever been a set of quad bulls sold at a sale in the United States — ever,” Stavick said told the newspaper. “It’s a pretty unique deal. They are good-looking animals. It’s unheard of to have four quad calves – all males – develop enough to be offered at sale. Since we raise breeding bulls, it’s really tough for bulls to be good enough to make the sale. They have to be the top of the top, right? So every calf that’s not of quality becomes a steer and goes into the food supply.”