Raising twins

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

I am pretty sure this girl can do it, but just looking for advice on how we can help. This three year old raised another cow's twin last year because her calf got crushed (we think) between the hay and a cow on a cold night (the calf was about 12 days old). Irony is that now she has twins, bull calves, and we have no extra dam around to help. Simmentals are known for good milk, and she comes from some of the best genes for milk production (Macho), but I do not want her to get sucked down. So, do cows raising twins need extra supplement? I am thinking daily diet of DDG's, since they are easy to use. When we show pairs, we feed the cow a little extra so she looks good and does not get sucked down. I guess I am not sure how much extra to feed?
Here is a photo of her on Wednesday (or Tuesday, can not remember for sure)

And her this morning

 

[Taurus]

We had a cow that had her sixth set of twins, we never give her extra supplements and she do a fine job of raising the twins. Heavyweights too!

BTW this cow is a simmental cross.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

I talked with the vet tonight, and he said the same thing, that she should be able to raise them without any assistance or help. But it would not hurt to supplement if we wanted. She has taken them both, and it is real fun to watch them nursing at the same time! Husband wants to call them Hose A and Hose B (say it with out thinking of the spelling, Jose' - and fire fighters always has several hoses ), daughter wants to call them Jacob and Esau. Of course, her name is Rebekah!!! The vet said they are identical (same sac), and we CAN NOT tell them apart! We usually do not tag our calves until breeding age, but we might make an exception here!

 

[dun]

I talked with the vet tonight, and he said the same thing, that she should be able to raise them without any assistance or help. But it would not hurt to supplement if we wanted. She has taken them both, and it is real fun to watch them nursing at the same time! Husband wants to call them Hose A and Hose B (say it with out thinking of the spelling, Jose' - and fire fighters always has several hoses ), daughter wants to call them Jacob and Esau. Of course, her name is Rebekah!!! The vet said they are identical (same sac), and we CAN NOT tell them apart! We usually do not tag our calves until breeding age, but we might make an exception here!

The old joke is "Jose and Hose B"

 

[chippie]

Congratulations! Your cow is lovely and the calves look great : )

 

[snake67]

Turn her out and leave her alone - she will be fine - if she is not then she should be sold - any cow unable to raise her own on fair pasture is not worth keeping.

 

[Taurus]

Turn her out and leave her alone - she will be fine - if she is not then she should be sold - any cow unable to raise her own on fair pasture is not worth keeping.

well let's hope it's an one time deal thing.

 

[redcowsrule33]

I would keep them in for a week then turn them loose if everything looks okay. That girl could use some extra groceries w/o competition to get her gut filled back out (she didn't have a lot of space for her rumen as of late with those two plus the fluids in there) and you want the calves to form a tight bond, since the cow will sometimes "forget" about one at first if they get turned out too early. I have a simmi girl that has had twins every other year and with this little bit of extra work has raised them both with good success. Just don't expect them to be as big on her at weaning as if they were singles, if she is a good milker you will probably have 2 average calves, but they usually catch up nicely after weaning. If you feel like they aren't doing well you can always peel one off early.

 

[circlew]

you want the calves to form a tight bond, since the cow will sometimes "forget" about one at first if they get turned out too early.

That is the only problem we have ever had with twins.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Thanks for the replies. We put her in our calving pasture, right next to the house, for now. She is by herself right now, and doing a great job with the twins. She always has them together (or they stay together), and always is right next to them. She had a hard time leaving them for water the first time, it was sad to watch her look at the calves (about 100 feet away), look at the water tank (about 150 feet the opposite direction), and back again. I finally put out a bucket of grain to convince her it was OK to leave them for a few minutes. She drank down half the tank and went right back to her boys. I will keep her here until probably next weekend when I know they are past the danger time of scours and doing great. We seem to see scours right around 10 to 14 days old on some calves. Then she can go back out with the rest of the fall group.
It sure gives me joy watching both of them nurse at the same time; one on each side! But so far they are fat and fluffy!

 

[Baldie Maker]

Who is the sire of those calves? jw

 

[MO_cows]

Agree with what redcowsrule said. Also would like to add, due to the drought your forage and hay probably is less quality than normal. So I wouldn't hold it against the cow by any means to have to supplement her this year. Or, you could creep feed the calves and "cut out the middleman".

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Who is the sire of those calves? jw

Rendition. We had a bull calf last year by Rendition, and he had a big white face with white rings on his back feet and white on his belly. Just sold him at Farm Fest. We were really surprised when there was not a stitch of white on these identical twin boys! Especially with Macho in the figure!
I am supplementing her for now. Have her on about 8 pounds of DDG's what I get wet. Our grass is sup par this fall, but I am waiting for our bigger pasture that was seeded in annual rye and orchard to get a good enough stand to graze. She should do real well on that! The calves are looking awesome, fat and fluffy. But the weather has been great, warm days (60's) and cool nights (high 40's to low 50's).
Thanks for your help!

 

[greybeard]

I've never had a cow that had twins.
How does the actual calving differ (if it does at all) --from a single calf birth?

 

[dun]

I've never had a cow that had twins.
How does the actual calving differ (if it does at all) --from a single calf birth?

It;s frequently a real mess. The calves may be tsited together one is ussually backwards and the umbilicals csan be twisted up around them.

 

[WORANCH]

I've never had a cow that had twins.

You're a lucky man

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Maybe we have been lucky, or blessed, but I would take twins any day! Our first set was last year, and I looked at it like an extra paycheck! We took the freemartin heifer to the sale barn when she was weaned and got $800 for her. That is $800 more than what we would have had without the twins. Plus, the heifer that lost her calf got a calf to raise and learn with! The twin bull sold for $2500, so not bad for one pregnancy.
This set of twins is healthy, and the cow has taken them both! She is doing a great job raising them. Now, with this one, I have a $60 vet bill for the vet coming out to my farm, since the cow had not broke her water after an all night light labor (switching tail, tail cocked up, some minor pushing). One of the calves was backwards, thus plugging the exit Once he moved the calf around, they both came without problems. I can see problems, but we manage our cattle pretty closely, with only 30 in the herd that is not hard to do. Here is an updated picture of the twins at 5 days old:

But I have heard that most twin pregnancies terminate early. We consider ourselves lucky that we have had two successful twin births. And no bottle calves :banana:

 

[Lawson Farms]

We have had 5 sets of twins in the last 2 months. Just had the last set yesterday. All out of the same bull. And I know there are 2 others that haven't calved yet that the vet said were twins when palpating. We lost one set completely that calved prematurely, and another pair we lost on of the calves. We have never had this many sets of twins at one time. Usually just 1 or 2 per year.

 

[rosti]

We have a big cow (when people see her from the distance, they think she is a bull) and she has had two sets of twins in 6 pregnancies. She always has very easy labors and raises her calves wonderfully. I don't know if it makes a difference, but she is mostly Salers. (sp?)

 

[glacierridge]

Turn her out and leave her alone - she will be fine - if she is not then she should be sold - any cow unable to raise her own on fair pasture is not worth keeping.

That's horrible!!! My heifer had twins and no bag to speak of (probably from being a first pregnancy) but she wanted to be a good momma to both. After the first couple days it was clear there was no way ever going to be enough milk and we had an old "8th" timer who came fresh a couple days before the twins help since she has a little dairy in her and her milk is rediculously abundant.
Is that also what you would tell a woman who ate well but couldn't produce enough milk for her child or if she had twins?
Keeping my cow. She is a wonderful mother except being short on milk for twins on her first pregnancy. Will have plenty for a single birth, and the twins are doing beautifully.