Surprise Third Horn Extremely Rare

Surprise Third Horn Extremely Rare AG WORLD 27-4-21 If it weren't for her two other perfectly normal-looking horns, Allan and Kathy Galliford's yearling Simmental heifer could truly be called a "unicorn calf." This strange young animal is getting a lot of media attention, thanks to the fact she has three horns instead of two. The Gallifords are cow-calf producers from Onoway, Alberta, and say they weren't expecting anything usual to develop at the time this calf was born in the spring of 2002. "She looked completely normal, except that there was a puffy circular area on her forehead between her eyes that caused the hair to form a "cowlick" in that spot," Kathy says. To the couple, the puffy spot has always felt more like muscle mass than a fluid pocket, due to its firmness. As the heifer grew, the lump remained unchanged and proportionate to the rest of her head, but of course the three horns became more and more visible. "We noticed the third horn by the time she was two months old and had a hard time believing our eyes. The bigger the horns grew, the more amazing she looked," Kathy added. Galliford says the third horn is bigger than her other two normal horns. Now, at 15 months of age, the nameless heifer's two ordinary horns are just starting to show the first signs of the characteristic forward curve found in bovine horns. The "unicorn" horn, however, is still straight. The calf has grown at the same rate as Gallifords' other calves and does not seem to be bothered in any way by the lump or extra horn. The couple normally dehorns their calves at two months of age but, of course, this heifer was excluded from that procedure for obvious reasons. Once the "unicalf" story was published in a weekly Canadian farm newspaper, the Gallifords were bombarded with requests for interviews and pictures from various radio and television stations, along with daily newspapers. In response to the story, one member of the public who had read about it, told them that the calf's third horn was surely a sign that the end of the world was near. The couple doesn't plan to sell their peculiar calf. In fact, she is joining their replacement heifer herd and they're looking forward to seeing what type of calves she will produce. "If someone showed interest, we would consider renting her out so she could be taken around as an oddity display at fairs and exhibitions. People might pay a dollar or two for the chance to see something this rare," Kathy says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Allan and Kathy Galliford, Box 922, Onoway, Alberta, Canada T0E 1V0 (ph/fax 780 967-3583, email: kathy.galliford@3web.net).

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