Hermephrodite 2 day old calf

[dun]

(another dumb question...)

Why do you hate twins? Too much work/trouble?


(I am cow-dumb, I'm a horsewoman! lol trying to learn though!)

High incidence of mixed gender calves, 90% or more of the time the heifer is sterile.
Makes a huge drain on the cow raising them and contributes to failure to breed back for a 12 month calving interval.
Too often there are calving difficulties leading to 1 dead calf, 2 dead calves, dead cow, or all 3.
Frequently subsequent calves aren't as good as they would be if there hadn;t been twins born first.
Unless you supplement the snot out of the cow, generally both calves are smaller at weaning.

Other then that I don;t recall why I hate them so much, but there are probably other reasons.

dun

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Ditto what Dun said
PLUS
Retained placenta - potential for expense of meds
Calves tangled up - so assist generally needed.

Now OCCASIONALLY a cow lays down & spits out each calf on her own - yippee - than you have to deal with trying to get her bred back.
If you have a small operation, and you can grain the ever loving out of them, all well and good. Cow will probably milk enough for the two calves & will hold weight & will breed back.
I can't seperate & feed her.

I STILL HATE TWINS.

 

[dun]

Besied Jeanes addition, frequently a cow/heifer will abandon one of the calves. Then you either have to force her to take it or bittle feed it.

dun

 

[3MR]

If she has vestule male plumbing odds are she was a twin and the bull half was either sloughed or reabsorbed.

dun

Exactly!

Not sure why you would need to do anything. You cant breed it. If you leave it hanging you dont have to worry about urine pooling. Am I missing some reason rather than cosmetic to do anything.

My thought is to just fatten it up and send it to slaughter.