If all cows could do this....

[greenwillowhereford II]

...it might change our thinking about twins.

I called Richard Day the other day to wish him a Merry Christmas, and get an update on the bull calves just weaned, as I am planning to get one from him next spring. He said that he had one in mind for me if I was interested. It is a twin; the cow had twin bulls, and mothered them both. The smaller one was castrated, but the other weaned at 600#, with a 71# BW. The smaller calf weighed over 400# at weaning. This cow raised over a thousand pounds of calf without creep this year. I'd love to have a whole herd just like her.

For the record, I doubt he has a cow over a 5.5 frame score, but they'll probably easily average 1200#.

 

[CPL]

keep us posted if you get your bull

 

[greenwillowhereford II]

keep us posted if you get your bull

Will do. It's actually going to be a partnership with him on the bull, and I'm very excited about it.

 

[TB-Herefords]

I had an eight year old cow wean two 525 lbs (rounded) heifers last year; and she bred back on time. I weaned them at about six months too. Took some out of her but she did good. I wouldn't say though that the heifers were replacment quality though, and she's about a 6 or better frame cow.

 

[Nesikep]

we've had a couple cows raise some really nice twins, it often takes its toll on their body condition.. the two we had that did really well both were fat pigs in spring and skinny racks by fall, despite being on great pasture.. they were probably a little bigger than the FS of 5 mentioned earlier, but they weaned calves in the high 500lb range

I'll just say this, as long as the cow has milk for two, can count to two, and can wrap her head around the concept of having two calves, she can go ahead and have twins all she wants. if she's not going to be able to take care of them, then she better stick with one

 

[greenwillowhereford II]

The calf was sired by his "400" bull, who is a maternal half brother to the "943" bull that has been pictured on the Breeds Board some time back.

He is in his forty somethingeth year of raising line-bred Hazlett/Turner Ranch Herefords, and the Turner Ranch had a number of years of developing the line started by Robert Hazlett before that.

 

[Nesikep]

If all cows could do this... (have twins)... the price would be $0.40/lb

 

[dun]

The problem with twins just doesn;t relate to the cows ability to raise them well and breed back. The biggest problems is that one or the other calf and frequently the cow dies if they aren;t attended close enough. And that doesn;t even address the freemartin problem in mixed births.
A few years back there was a line of twinners that was being promoted. I notice that they're not being promoted anymore, there has to be a valid reason they aren;t.

 

[Nesikep]

a couple years back we had a cow give birth to twins, two identical white steers, who were cute as buttons, but she died, and we had no other cows who had calved yet, so we called up our neighbor across the river and gave them to him, he got both of them grafted on to other cows, and we could see them from our place, which was neat... apparently they did really well
they were pretty small, probably 60 lbs, i carried both of them up from the field at the same time.

the past few years we've had more twins than usual, usually we'll see a set of twins about every 40-50 calves, but recently it's been every 15..

 

[CKC1586]

Interesting stuff here. What are your thoughts on that twin bulls birth weight in so far as his progeny? Just how accurate is it to consider his birth weight since if he had been a single obviously would have weighed more?? Since he is a twin will he promote twining in his progeny??

 

[dun]

Since he is a twin will he promote twining in his progeny??

That's how the linr of twinners was developed. There was a producer in IA or some other place north of us that selectd for multiple births and even after years of selction he still ran, if I remember correctly, only in the 30% range for teins.

 

[haase]

I agree with Dun, We have a cow that had twin heifer calves last spring raised both of them fine.Went to check on the cows in the morning, she was trying to calve, went on for about four hours, put her in the chute and noticed the calve was turned, pulled both calves, easy pulls, both calves weighed around fifty pounds. If we werent there both calves and cow might have died. If she has twins again this year she is going.

 

[dun]

The MARC in Clay Center, Nebraska has a line of "twinners" they are working with!

That may be the bunch that ABS used to carry semen for.