Not as bad as I thought..............

[mooboy]

It's been a busy week. Thursday one of our heifers lost a calf. It was stuck in the birth canal and the vet helped pull it. Good news is the heifer is fine and should live to try again next year. Yesterday one of our seasoned cows did not come down to water and we knew her time was near. She was starting to calf about dusk on Saturday. Early this morning I find the cow but no calf with her, but her bag looks like it had been suckled. I think the cow has a calf hid out. Later in the morning my wife notices buzzards circling and sure enough a dead calf is found. Phooey I think two dead in a row. The hot day drags on and the cow does not show up at the watering hole (now 2 days in a row). Both wife and I think this is really strange. This evening I tell wife I'm going up on the hill to check to see if maybe she had twins. Sure enough that is the case! One calf survived! I think they are both heifers. Well this is a true blessing and one calf certainly beats none. Really, I wish that twins were never born on this farm. My experience over the past 10 years is most times the cow won't take both calves and if I know about the second calf and find it living I do try to bottle feed. But I am not greedy, one calf works out better for me and the cow too (IMHO). What is everyone's experience with twins? Maybe 20% to 30% chance cow raises two calves on this farm, maybe only 50% survive if I know about it, find it and can bottle feed.

We call this cow Hineyhead and this was her 9th and 10th calves. She is as tame as can be and I have seen her let calves that don't belong to her suckle. She is a special cow. So I took her two 5 gallon buckets of water up on the hill. At one point I thought I heard ole Hineyhead say Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh..........that's good!

 

[gdale]

Good to hear that it wasn't all loss. She sounds like quite a cow and glad that she gets to raise a calf for you.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Great news!
We have had several sets of twins, and knock on wood only lost one set. The first set, I had a 2 year old lose her calf just the day before so I took one of the twins from the cow and put it on the 2 year old so she could learn to raise a calf (the twin was a freemartin, and the cow that had the twins could have raised both but why when I had a new mommy that needed a job!). That cow that raised the freemartin twin, has had three sets of twins EACH year since her first calf. She raised the two sets that survived, all by herself, without much help. She is a great cow! This year, we put an embryo in her, to give her a year off from raising twins (she is due in October)! She is 5 years old, and has raised 5 calves, 4 of which were her own. She has calved in the fall each year, so the twins have not affected her ability to breed back. At the price of cattle today, if you can get both out and the cow can not raise them both, that day old calf is worth $500 easy!

 

[Williamsv]

I do not want twins. I had a heifer lose a set of twins in December 2013 and a cow lose triplets this last March. That is enough for me. My dad never had a cow have twins, but shortly after he passed away, up comes a cow with twins. She raised them and then a few years later raised another set. That was not my luck. I hope none of mine ever have twins again and certainly not triplets! I have lost enough.

 

[Rafter S]

I've had twins a few times. If the cow accepts both of them, I think it's best to pick out the best calf to let her raise, and sell the other one when it's a couple of months old.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Good cows raise good twins, and you'll almost always come out ahead if you keep them both alive. I only have 2 sets this year, but figure I'll have no trouble at all cracking 2k for the pair (likely approach 2400+), as opposed to even my best calves only coming out to 17xx something last year.