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Triplets

R

rancherfred

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 3, 2007
Messages
444
Location
Western Nebraska
I was working calves yesterday and had a four year old cow have a little scrub of a calf that weighed all of 49 pounds. It sure seemed like there should be a twin somewhere but I couldn't find it. Tonight when I went out to check there was a little runt of a calf with hollow sides a couple hundred yards away from the cow that no one seemed to want. It didn't have a tag so I figured I had finally found the twin to the one I had worked yesterday. I took it over to where the cow was with the other calf and set him down she started mothering him. I thought I had it all figured out until I realized that the calf the cow had been with wasn't worked either. It was starting to get a bit confusing and I was reasonably certain that I hadn't imagined working the cow's calf yesterday. After searching for a while longer I finally found the calf I had worked yesterday a couple of hundred yards the other direction, on the other side of the fence buried under a pile of tumbleweeds. When I got them all put together the poor cow looked like she was trying to herd cats. All three of them were going different directions and every time one of them would bawl she would go after it and bring it back.

We usually have several sets of twins every year but we have never had triplets before.

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That's amazing!

So far we've had two pairs of twins this spring and I have 1 1/2 pairs to show for it - 2 calves and one cow. Been bottle feeding the orphan but had a dead calf yesterday so will try to graft the bottle calf onto the other momma.

Had to help a heifer calve last evening and she wouldn't more than look at her calf once we had it out. Brought the dog into the pen and that sparked a fairly intense reaction. :shock: An hour later she was licking it off and feeding it.
 
Have you gotten moisture out of these last two systems? We got over 4 inches of rain/snow in the last 10 days. Hope calving is going smooth for you.
 
Congratulations on the triplets, rancherfred. Probably about twenty years ago, JF Ranch had a cow that had triplet calves. He and his wife were also the proud parents of four energetic little boys. The owner of the local newspaper was notified of the calf triplets, so came to take a picture. He also wanted all four little boys in the photo with the three calves. It was quite difficult getting the subjects to look at the camera simultaneously. He remarked later that "it was like holding seven apples underwater all at the same time."
 
Nicky said:
That is cool, hope she can keep track of them.
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had a couple sets of twins so far and after about 5 days of packing one or the other clear across the pasture to find mom, i pulled them and brought them to the barn.. kids needed more chores anyways. :wink:
 
Justin said:
Nicky said:
That is cool, hope she can keep track of them.
Click to expand...

had a couple sets of twins so far and after about 5 days of packing one or the other clear across the pasture to find mom, i pulled them and brought them to the barn.. kids needed more chores anyways. :wink:
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good plan to me. That way the calves prosper and so
do the kids. :D
 
I would bring the cow and claves to the barn, place in a small lot with great alfalfa hay and grain and keep her there till the claves are eating well then turn her back with the herd.

Sounds like with a little help she could really make you some money this year.
 
The price on those bum calves sure has dropped around here... A month ago they were $400-$500... Yesterday at the salebarn they had 10 and you could get for around $200-250...
 
When I went out and started working calves today the cow had one in the corral and the others were no where to be found. I started wondering if I had imagined the whole thing. That would have been real embarrassing to have to come on here and say, oops guess I was wrong. When I got done working everything else I started looking for the little guys and while I was working the others she had gone and found a second one and the third one was found about where I left them last night. They weighed 61, 49 and 40 pounds. The smaller ones are quite possibly identical but the bigger one is a lighter shade of red. I have a cow for one and until I get a second cow they are both going to nurse the one cow. It won't take much milk to feed them.

BMR: You saw them, they are red. I have already exhausted the neighbors supply of red calves.

Big Swede: April was pretty dry, but we got about an inch out of the last storm and it sounds pretty promising for tonight and tomorrow. We are in pretty good shape because we had a real wet fall, so we went in to winter in pretty good shape. We should hit twenty percent by our due date.
 
Yesterday was my due date, and since I no longer tag I have no idea what percent I'm at. There sure is a slug of calves out there though. I sold my June calvers though so it's going to be fast and furious.
 
Whenever I have triplet lambs,the odd one gets sent to the neighbors.......I have come to the conclusion that sheep can count to two alright but most have problems counting to three......
 
about twenty years ago we had a set of triplets out of a commercial hereford cow and a red angus bull. they were identical red white faced calves with a red spot on their nose. vet said that was once in a life time experience. so far he is right.
 
rancherfred said:
When I went out and started working calves today the cow had one in the corral and the others were no where to be found. I started wondering if I had imagined the whole thing. That would have been real embarrassing to have to come on here and say, oops guess I was wrong. When I got done working everything else I started looking for the little guys and while I was working the others she had gone and found a second one and the third one was found about where I left them last night. They weighed 61, 49 and 40 pounds. The smaller ones are quite possibly identical but the bigger one is a lighter shade of red. I have a cow for one and until I get a second cow they are both going to nurse the one cow. It won't take much milk to feed them.

BMR: You saw them, they are red. I have already exhausted the neighbors supply of red calves.

Big Swede: April was pretty dry, but we got about an inch out of the last storm and it sounds pretty promising for tonight and tomorrow. We are in pretty good shape because we had a real wet fall, so we went in to winter in pretty good shape. We should hit twenty percent by our due date.
Click to expand...


Saving them up for another cow is a pretty good plan. With the twins we've had, I pen them in a really small pen for a few days and the mother seems to get a good handle on them.

We always fed up and creep fed twin and the ne set of triplets as well as better feed for the cow. I figure the second calf makes the extra worth it. Nurse cows are handy to have as well.

Best of luck!
 

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