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Twins

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PPRM

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Had a great mother cow calve last night, when I arrived this morning, she was fussing over a brand new hiefer calf and letting it nurse. Then I saw another calf that was dead. She was a huge pregnant cow and I had suspected twins. I checked all the other cows and there was nothing else that had calved.


This is the third set of twins in 4 years I have had. The first cow raised them good, but we had to put her in a pen a few days as she would get confused with two calves. Last year, I had a cow lose one, luckily it had gotten Cholostrum in it, but we didn't find it until the next day....This one I can only suspect she lost track of while she went and had the other one.

So, who has had luck with twins. Do you find the cow needs to be locked up with both to accustom her to two calves??? I will say all three cows are great mothers on singles, I would give them 10 on a scale of 1-10 with singles,

PPRM
 
My experience with twins has not been good either. Some cows will take them both but only a small percentage here.

If both calves are born in the very same place she might lick one dry, let it suck while she's licking the other one, but if they are born a few hundred feet apart she usually forgets the first one.

Cows are not known for high IQ's. :wink:

Sorry to hear your bad luck but you might be better off in the long run.
 
Mike,

The second calf is never expected, so I lost a bonus, not my paycheck. Her sister started to calve, both of these are Blue Roans from my number one cow, great udders and great mothers. One had a steer calf that didlbs per day in our steer futurity. I can't remember the mother of the calf that did just over 4 pounds, but it might be the other.....

The first cow did raise both and both turned out great,


I'll try to get some pictures,

PPRM
 
On the grass they usually take off with the first one that can follow them-I just leave things be and hope they mother up or learn how to steal. The odd time if the kids Jersey is fresh we'll pack one in and put it on her.
 
One of my cows back home last year had twins! They just sorted her off and put her in by the barn where she could claim them both and also so they could give her some extra cake. She wanted them both right away but to save on confusion or her leaving one they left her locked in one of the corrals by the barn for a few days. She raised them good and they sold right with the big bunch this fall!
 
We don't mind them at all. It's nice to have a spare around in case of a mishap, and we've found the mature cows can often raise two at a time that are as good as singles. If a heifer has twins, we usually take one away and adopt it out to save her from coming home open. Twins are pretty hard on first calf heifers.

We have five or six sets a year, on average. One year our son, who was still in high school at the time, had two sets out of three cows. 8) Best calving percentage I ever saw. :shock: They all calved within a week of each other, so it was quite the thing to see.

We had one cow that was a regular in the twin department. It was funny to see her calf, because as soon as she was done delivering one, she'd start looking for the second one. In her little mind it was normal to have two.

The biggest problem we have found with twins is if they get all tangled up in the cow. You get more breech calves with twins, and they can be bad because the cow doesn't go into real hard labour with them. If you're not watching, it can be too late by the time you catch what's going on. You've got to keep an eye on things, but it's worth it.
 
I havent had a lot of twins,but the few that I have had did good,one in particular,comes to mind few years back had an ole brangus x bred cow that had two bulls calves weaned both at around 6 weight.................good luck
 
I think most people think I'm nuts but :D :D I LOVE TIWNS :D :D

I have had nothing but good luck ( possibly a little work) out of twins. This year I had 4 sets out of 30 cows and only had to pen one cow up with her calves for two days.

One of the sets this year was mixed so I will not keep the hiefer as everyone tells he she will not breed. :( The rest were bulls. :D If you look at the twins they are slightly smaller than the other calves their age but still work great unless you are trying to sell show calves and there are enought other calves to chose from.

One of the reasons I like them so well might be that I have a small herd allowing me to pay extra attention to them.
 
With our Brown Swiss around we don't mind the twins, but it wouldn't bother me if we didn't get any. Calving on June pastures don't work too well for it, b/c very few cows have the sense to take care of 'em both when there's yotee dogs and such around.
 
We don't have many twins and usually we try not to have the cow raise them both. However, the last two sets of twins we didn't need to graft on anything, so the cows raised them. The first set was off a heifer 2 years ago, and we did supplement her to help. This year, the twins were from a mature cow. We got her in and put the three of them in a big pen for a few days and that's all we did. Turned 'em out for the summer. When we pre conditioned them Sept. 26 they both weighed right at 600#. The cow bred back right on time, too, and that was a bit of a concern that turned out fine.

I do think this cow this year raising both calves and doing such a good job with no extra help was an exception.

Most of the time twins are just extra trouble that we don't need.
 
Ever notice with twins that it's always the good one (usually the male) that dies and the scrawny one (usually a freemartin heifer) that is mothered up :???: :???:
 
I have been thinking about it,

1) I want to calve without having to pay to much attention. I calve out on pasture away from home. We check them once a day unless we suspect something. I have to do it this way....

2) I do calve hiefers at home where we can keep an eye on them and get them in.

3) My cows have the ability to raise two calves, I have the resources to help them a bit, and they are on pretty good grass when they get going....

I might seperate the cows that preg as having twins and keep them at home with the hiefers. How early can the vet tell if they are pregnant with twins? I like to preg right before spring turnout (I fall calve). I think the bonus and my propensity to have twins justifies this change.


Thanks for the feedback. Be intersting to watch a cow that has had twins before when she has her second set, maybe she wold know how to count, LOL


PPRM
 
As twins go-we had 4 sets this fall(that I know of).One cow has both and others just wanted the bull calf out of the deal so bottle feeding the heifer calves. I really don't like them,BUT do like to use them to graft if a cow looses a calf. Just got done putting one on a cow that lost hers and only took her 2 days to accept this twin. We fall calf on sections so don't imagine I find all the twins born. Last spring we had like 6 sets of twins-used some for grafting. Don't know the reasoning-all angus herd.
As for Mike saying that of a cows intelligence-well he must of not been around cows very much-have you ever observed one protecting her calf from coyotes or other preditors? Have you ever seen a cow keep her calf alive on a below zero night and come up the next morning with a nice healthy calf? Just pay attention to them and you will find that a cow is a lot SMARTER than you give her credit for!
 
I had a set of twin's the cow had them about 150 ft apart when I found them she would feed one then go tend to the other this went on for about 2 weeks.I robbed one to put on another cow turned them back out with the others about a week later the old cow went right back to feeding both.So one calf had 2 moms all summer worked just fine.

As for as cows being dumb I had a cow last spring thats calf had the scours and could'nt get up the cow would strattle the calf till her bag was in his face then he would nurse laying down.Now to me that's a smart cow but they are all black angus cows here.

Mike has the white cows and I am sure where he live's Real Cold is'nt an issue..
 
Cows do some amazing things, but counting isn't one of them. I have watched these Angus base cows and it seems to me, if you want hem to take two calves, you have to pen them toghether in a smaller area. Otherwise you can see the cow is just confused,

I saw a deal once where biologists would go into a blind and then one would leave. I think it was next to an eagles nest. Well, one would leave and the bird would fl in. They said it works because animals can't count,


PPRM
 
I know our old dog can't count. We have a 16 year old poodle (please don't think badly of me because of the dog, my mom got him when I was 8 and for some reason he got attached to me so I took him when I left home). Anyway, my husband, the dog and I will all be in the same room and all of a sudden he decides there must be another person he can pester. So he goes around and opens the bathroom door to look for someone in there, then the bedroom door. And we are the only one's in the house! So that's what we figure, he just can't count and thinks there's someone else to look for. Or maybe it's due to the fact that he's as old as dirt and just not all there anymore, lol.
 
cowsense said:
Ever notice with twins that it's always the good one (usually the male) that dies and the scrawny one (usually a freemartin heifer) that is mothered up :???: :???:
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Only in Herefords. Never with the galloway. :wink:
 

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