Triplet birth story brings back memories for area man

When Darryl Josephson of rural Minneota read last week’s Mascot article about the triplet Red Angus heifers delivered from the same mother on the Luke and Marla Moorse cattle farm, it brought back memories.

He recalled how three steers were born and raised on his father, Roseville Josephson’s, farm in the 1960s. “I helped feed and load ‘em,” said Josephson.

Once ready, his father Roseville took them to the Sioux City stockyards for butchering.

“They were three Black Angus steers,” noted Josephson, who farms on his father’s land five miles north of Minneota on the Yellow Medicine County Line.

After he saw the Moorse story, Josephson began to hunt down the photos of the three steers. He found one of the three in his own storehouse of photos.

But the other of his father in the stockyards eluded him. It was finally found by his sister.

She also supplied a copy of the Minneota Mascot from the 1960s that said the, “Triplets Angus steers, who when born, were about as large as a good-sized rabbit, were almost ready for market in the feedlot at the Roseville Josephson farm.”

The article added that, “Triplets were rare and were one in 350,000 births — and it’s hard to survive the rigors of calfhood.”

“It was a real rarity,” Josephson said of the three steers all born of the same mother.

They also hadn’t seen this before at the stockyards where the animals were delivered.