“It was phenomenal,” the farmer in the southern town Bad Waldsee said of last Saturday’s birth.

“The cow was restless, and when I came into the stables, twins had already arrived.”

Shortly afterwards, mother cow Gitana gave birth to a third and fourth calf – without help from the farmer, her husband or the veterinarian they had called.

Gina, Georg, Gebhard and Gregor were born 18 days early, but the calves and their mother were completely healthy, Kappeler said.

“The chances that a cow will give birth to quadruplets are one in 11 million,” Ariane Amstutz, spokesperson of the state farmers’ association, said.

In 2018, another German cow had given birth to quadruplets on a farm near Radolfzell on Lake Constance close to the Swiss border, but died a few days after giving birth.