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Twins

Silver

Silver

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Joined
Mar 23, 2005
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BC
I understand nutrition to be a factor in the twinning rate of cattle, and genetics to a point, but some years twinning seems to get carried away. All things being equal is it just chance?
 
Twinning is genetically influenced by a twinning gene. Simmental influenced cows in this area are known to twin more than any of the other beef breeds. Personally I don't want twins as they are a labor intensive and you tend to lose some no matter how well you manage them. The nutritional requirements for a cow carrying twins seems to be quite high as every cow that I have seen here that delivers twins is about a half a body score less than her contemporaries. Nothing worse for me than having them get tangled up and delivering two dead calves. PS I hate twins.
 
I understand the genetics part. What I'm really wondering is aside from genetics, if cows are in the same body condition year in and year out, are there any environmental considerations that could cause an increase in twinning rates from year to year.
We seem to be having more than our fair share here this year.
 
Yes the nutrition during breeding season will affect twinning rate. Grass and mineral vary greatly from region to region and year to year.
 
As of last night we were twinning at a rate of 25% on 48 cows calved. Hopefully it levels out soon, I'm pretty sure that's a pretty high percentage regardless of nutrition, and I'd like to assume that the number is high at this point because twins tend to have a shorter gestation period.
 
We have our usual 4 sets out of 200 ish, so far. A couple are draft babies, a couple on the bottle for now. If I could swap the drafting for every cow having a live single... Silver, I hope you don't average down the next couple years, or you will miss the extras. My pet group is calving 102 percent currently and that's counting a dead premie whose mother came to her milk for a draft. Not bragging, just thankful. The last hand full will bring the percentage to earth.
 
I like your percentage Haytrucker, I'd be quite happy with that. It's always nice to have a couple spare calves on hand when things go bad.
As it sits we have quite a little pen full ready for any eventuality :-)
Fortunately we have not had a set for a couple of days now, so maybe the rush is over. We've managed to have 15 or 20 cows calve since our last set so maybe I just panicked to soon :dunce:
 
Did I read that right? 25% of 48? You have 12 sets of twins, Silver? :shock: That is a lot, for sure.
Might be interesting to go back and see if those cows were twins themselves.

One time I was at the vet clinic and there was a list of people who had twin calves for sale.
Every one was a customer of ours, so I am sure that nutrition plays a part--along with genetics.
WB's comment about the body score on cows carrying twins was interesting to me.

I too, think twins make more workload. Hopefully you are past the big rush!
 
Faster horses said:
Might be interesting to go back and see if those cows were twins themselves.
Click to expand...

I did look back and none of the cows were twins themselves. We may be out of the woods now, we've had 15 or 20 in a row without twins. Looking online now to see what bottle calves are worth, might try to unload a few of them. I have two cows doing segregated on good feed and water that are doing a good job on their twins right now, I'd like to keep those twins until I have need for them and sell the rest if the price is right.
 
Tomorrow will see the end of the bottle chores. Down to 100.8 percent, not cause of any loss, just more calves. Heifers and the north bunch using my surplus. Could have a lot worse problems. All the bad storms haven't done much here, although today started icy. Melting by sundown and warmer days for the rest of the week. Clean overalls didn't last long today.
 
Sold 3 bottle feeders yesterday for $450 ea. Took no time after listing, folks showed up with cash and hauled them away. As of today the twins that are left are in a pen with their mothers in case I need to steal one.
 
A pretty good read on affect of nutrition on pregnancy rates, incidence of multiple births etc. Protein, Energy, Vitamins and Minerals are all extremely important. Not the high incidence of twins in dairy cattle with their extremely nutrient dense diets compared to beef breeds.

https://en.engormix.com/dairy-cattle/articles/influence-nutrition-livestock-reproduction-t36126.htm
 
That's almost worth listing the calves right off the cow! Nice to have a time consuming chore gone for the right price. I think sometimes twinning is exacerbated by forage conditions peaking (rain or other factors being just right) just as breeding season starts, and especially so if cows are going into breeding just a touch thin. I don't like twins here, but for the most part we don't intervene, graft or bottle feed a twin.
 
RSL said:
That's almost worth listing the calves right off the cow! Nice to have a time consuming chore gone for the right price. I think sometimes twinning is exacerbated by forage conditions peaking (rain or other factors being just right) just as breeding season starts, and especially so if cows are going into breeding just a touch thin. I don't like twins here, but for the most part we don't intervene, graft or bottle feed a twin.
Click to expand...
so if you have a cow have a dead calf and you have a set of twins,so you cull the cow with the dead calf?
 
jodywy said:
RSL said:
That's almost worth listing the calves right off the cow! Nice to have a time consuming chore gone for the right price. I think sometimes twinning is exacerbated by forage conditions peaking (rain or other factors being just right) just as breeding season starts, and especially so if cows are going into breeding just a touch thin. I don't like twins here, but for the most part we don't intervene, graft or bottle feed a twin.
Click to expand...
so if you have a cow have a dead calf and you have a set of twins,so you cull the cow with the dead calf?
Click to expand...

Sure do. Anything we help at calving for any reason (even a heifer) gets an orange ear tag and then it goes in the fall regardless of the resulting calf. We are a bit odd in that we don't tag anything (other than purebreds) at birth, but we tag and DNA at processing. If we treat a calf we put an orange tag in the calf and if the mom is around we put her number on the orange tag. That way we know the calves to check and if they have been treated and can/can't go into a natural beef program. Most of our twins we would never see born and might not even know about for a few days. Not the system for everyone, but works for us. Being heartless/ruthless about culling means I am not very good at dealing with calving problems anyway, since we don't get a lot of practice here.
 

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