twin calves

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Anonymous

What are the odds of a COW, not a heifer, having twins that are the opposite sex? And she only takes care of the first born (hiefer) of the two.[/b][/u]
 
Different breeds have different twinning occurences. That only one is cared for is apparently more the norm then for her to take care of both. BTW, you are aware that with different sex births the chances of the heifer being sterile (freemartin) is well over 90%.

dun


Nathan Mundy":3mat5sao said:
What are the odds of a COW, not a heifer, having twins that are the opposite sex? And she only takes care of the first born (hiefer) of the two.[/b][/u]
 
Odds are very high that they are one of each. Not sure of an exact number thinking it is well over 50%. New studies are showing that the freemartin occurance is lower than the old nonety perecent. Ne research shows that about 60-70% are freemartin in english based cattle.
 
Nathan Mundy":5q4glebq said:
What are the odds of a COW, not a heifer, having twins that are the opposite sex? And she only takes care of the first born (hiefer) of the two.[/b][/u]

Its quite common for the cow to only take care of one calf- many times they leave the second twin and never even lick it off. If the cow can handle 2 calves you can get them to accept both by corraling them and using a few grafting techniques.
 
Other then keeping a possible freemartin until she calves, the only dead bang way of knowing for sure is a DNA bloodtest at UC Davis. Since the affects of the mixing of the fluids between the bull and heifer that causes freemartins can run the gambit from the most obvious, an enlarged and bristle brush looking vulva to complete reproductive organs but insufficient hormones to maintain a pregnancy, either a live calf on the ground (2 years minimum) or a bloodtest (2 weeks) why feed an animal for a couple of years that will be (probably) butchered anyway. I know, a run on sentence. I just couldn't figure out a logical place to break it and start a new one.

dun


skip":12q5iswl said:
Whether it is 90% or 60 to 70% chance of being sterile, I don't think it's worth the gamble to keep one for replacement.
 
Agree, you need to take the heifer out, with the high % of having infantile uterus or infantilism it does not worth keeping her. Last year, in a 600 cow herd we had five opposite sex and none the same sex, set of twins, less than 1%, 2 A.I. (1 Simmental, 1 Simbrah X Tarentaise) and 3 regular mount (1 Simbrah X Simmental, 1 Simbrah X Limousin and 1 Simbrah X Jersey), we had .68% of twins in our total cow herd.

dun":3pzrdvsv said:
Other then keeping a possible freemartin until she calves, the only dead bang way of knowing for sure is a DNA bloodtest at UC Davis. Since the affects of the mixing of the fluids between the bull and heifer that causes freemartins can run the gambit from the most obvious, an enlarged and bristle brush looking vulva to complete reproductive organs but insufficient hormones to maintain a pregnancy, either a live calf on the ground (2 years minimum) or a bloodtest (2 weeks) why feed an animal for a couple of years that will be (probably) butchered anyway. I know, a run on sentence. I just couldn't figure out a logical place to break it and start a new one.

dun


skip":3pzrdvsv said:
Whether it is 90% or 60 to 70% chance of being sterile, I don't think it's worth the gamble to keep one for replacement.
 
I'm not sure of percentages nationally but in my case i've only had two sets and hope never to have another. One always seems to do better than the other. They were of both sexes and in both cases the heifer out weghted the bull calf at birth and had to ween the bull early .
 
Arancher":17d1ot3w said:
I'm not sure of percentages nationally but in my case i've only had two sets and hope never to have another. One always seems to do better than the other. They were of both sexes and in both cases the heifer out weghted the bull calf at birth and had to ween the bull early .
do the heifer got pregnant? I recall 9 years ago a heifer of our twins (opposite sex) got pregnant and it was because we never wean her and the rancher just liked her that we kept it, but since then the vet check all twin heifers at 12 months of age before slaughter (freezer beef) and all of them had infantile uterus.
 
We raise Pinzgauers and I have been told they have a high incident of twins. In the last 4 years we have had 187 calves with 9 sets of twins. Of the 9 sets 4 had one calf die either at birth or shortly after. 3 sets both calves lived but one was bottle fed. 2 sets the moma took care of both. 7 sets were the same sex. 2 sets were different sex. The free martins were considered steers. The 2 sets where the moma took care of both was the same moma with a single birth inbetween. 5 live births 5 weaned in 3 years if all our cows would produce like her I would love twins but she is the exception the expense of bottle feeding plus the time is bad. All the other momas were slow in breeding back so you gain just to loose it back.
 
saw a cow go thru the sale barn and it was adv. that shed had twins for the last 3 yrs and raised them both...the next lot was her twin heifer both 1 and 3rd stage...

im a twin, so i guess i think it isnt so bad
donna
 
What they probably didn't say is how much supplement and extra-ordinary managemnt it took for that cow to raise her twins and breed back on time, if she did breed back on time.

dun

donnaIL":3eg8ypdp said:
saw a cow go thru the sale barn and it was adv. that shed had twins for the last 3 yrs and raised them both...the next lot was her twin heifer both 1 and 3rd stage...

im a twin, so i guess i think it isnt so bad
donna
 
Freemartin is a heifer born to a heifer-bull twin birth. 90% of the time they are sterile because of the hormones they get while in utero from the bull calf.

CopeMan":2rn67n4f said:
whats a free martin?
 

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