Luke Collins figures he’s seen at least a thousand calves born in his lifetime.
“But I’ve never seen one like this,” he said this morning.
A two-headed calf, born to a 3-year-old Red Angus cross, died about 20 minutes after it was born this morning north of Piqua.
The animal’s heads were conjoined at their base. It had two distinct mouths and noses and four eyes.
Collins figures the calf developed its second head because of a second, undeveloped embryo — “sort of like how twins are born,” he said. “But the second embryo never fully developed.”
Collins said the carcass would be frozen and stored and made available to the Kansas State University Extension Agency for further research.
“I’d like to know what exactly happened,” he said.
The mother cow appeared to make it through the birth with no long-term effects, Collins said.
“We thought she was going to have the calf on her own last night,” Collins said. “When she hadn’t given birth by this morning, I called a friend and we roped it to see what was going on.”
The cow gave birth shortly after 8 a.m. today.
Two-headed calf born near Piqua
