A southwest Missouri cattleman has been delivering calves at his farm for a long time, but a calf born this week sure was different. This one had two heads.
Scott Clift said he delivered the chocolate-colored male calf Wednesday morning at his farm near Aldrich, in Polk County. Clift said the calf had two fully-formed heads that appeared to be connected to its body just behind the skull.
Clift said late Thursday that the calf lived about a day and a half. It was unable to walk, so Clift and his family bottle-fed the animal until it died at 6 p.m. "We've never seen anything like it," he told the Springfield News-Leader.
"He obviously wasn't going to make it if he couldn't get up and suck," Clift said.
University of Missouri Extension livestock specialist Eldon Cole said such births do happen — the condition is known as polycephaly. But Cole says "they're pretty darn rare."