question about twins

[Kato]

We had an old girl once who always raised a 650 pound calf. Then she had twins and raised the two of them. Both exactly 650 pounds at weaning. They stuck together until they were finished, and at that time weighed about 5 pounds different. They were the most identical set we've ever had.

A 1400 pound cow raising 1300 pounds of calf is a beautiful thing to see.

 

[roger dodger]

Twins are ok get some almost every year nice to draft on other cows. As long as timing is right. About fifteen years ago we had a grade hereford cow that had a set of red angus triplet bull calves that were identical. She had them all by herself and saved them. The vet said the oddes of that were one in a million. They were red white faced with a red spot the size of a silver dollar on their forhead. We did take the two extra calves off of her and put them on other cows. That fall all three weighed about five hundred pounds. rd

 

[randiliana]

I'm with all the guys on this page. I like twins. Sure sometimes we have problems with them, but I find that in the end, the benefits outweigh the problems. We rarely leave both calves on the same cow, most of our cows don't seem to be able to handle 2 calves, and usually we, or a neighbour can use the extra calf. I don't mind selling the odd calf in the spring, it sure helps with the bills. Now, we have a couple of nurse cows around, that way we can keep all the profits to ourselves, what with newborns only worth about $100. The nurse cows we have are worth their weight in gold. Will take any calf I want them to with a minimum fuss. We usually have about 3 sets a year.

 

[Grassfarmer]

I don't mind twins, there is always the chance of getting a bonus calf and we rarely get a wipe out. In Scotland we preg checked using ultrasound so knew our twin carriers for sure at least 6 months before calving. This revolutionized our twin carrier management and we rarely lost a calf after that. Kept the twin carriers in a little better condition through early winter then fed them double the pellets the other cows got in the last 8 weeks before calving. They calved in good shape and usually bred back no problem although we rarely had them rear both calves as we always seemed to lose calves off other cows through stupid accidents if nothing else. Unfortunately in Canada my local vet lives in the dark ages and won't invest in a decent ultrasound machine.
Also in Scotland there were a group of farmers who fed pot-ale syrup to their cattle at breeding time (in winter as they had fall calvers) and swore they got regular 30% twinning rates. Pot-ale syrup is a high energy whisky byproduct, a liquid that has high phosphorous and copper levels.
As for the comment about not keeping twin heifers - sure they will be breeders, but very often twin breeders too as it seems to be a very inherited trait. Keep the twin heifers if you want more of their kind!
Personally we are getting less and less twins in our herd as we push selection towards smaller, thicker, lower maintanence and less milky cows. Had a few pure Simmentals years ago and we always had 20% twins. One cow line was the most consistent - had 3 sets in 4 years but she was built for it - an udder with 3 working teats on each side plus the little extra teats up the back of the udder!

 

[Big Swede]

I always figured that genetics played the major role in twinning but some of you brought up nutrition and that makes a lot of sense when I thought about it. Deer and coyotes come to mind when I thought about the wild animals that have more babies when there is a plentiful food supply. Learn something new everyday!