Twins, cow's or bull's fault?

[tom4018]

We have been having several sets of twins. seems like I remember reading that it is caused by the cow. We have had most of them by this bull.

 

[ANAZAZI]

Cow is to blame. She either has two eggs or one egg ready when she is in estrus.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Always the cow. Twins are either two eggs, which she provides, or an egg that splits, also her body. I have seen evidence that twinning rate can be related to improved nutrition at the time of conception. We call it "flushing" when breeding pigs. Bump up the sows nutrition pane about 30 days before breeding and you can expect larger litters. I assume it could work the same in cattle.
But, really, more likely random. We visited a farm yesterday that has been in operation for 30 plus years. He was sharing that he had hardly any multiple births, then one year a few years ago he had not only several sets of twins, but two sets of triplets. Totally random, and unexpected.

 

[dun]

In theory, where the bull comes in is the cows sire. If he was a twin supposedly there is a higher probabiity of his daughters twinning.

 

[Rafter S]

I've known of cases where a cow had two sets of twins, so I guess I'd have to agree with everyone else that has responded.

 

[bigbull338]

we had a holstein years ago that had twin bulls 2yrs in a row.i was hoping she would keep having twins.but the 3rd year she went back to having 1 calf.

 

[ga.prime]

Probably just a superstition I have but I think the larger the scrotal circumference of the breeding bull, the more twins you'll get.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Cow is to blame. She either has two eggs or one egg ready when she is in estrus.

Depends if they are identical twins or not. Identical twins come from the same egg.

 

[alisonb]

Cow is to blame. She either has two eggs or one egg ready when she is in estrus.

Depends if they are identical twins or not. Identical twins come from the same egg.

Spontaneous split of the egg resulting in two fetuses Sim but still from the cow's side...

 

[Son of Butch]

We have a winner.

Always the cow. Twins are either two eggs, which she provides, or an egg that splits. I have seen evidence that twinning rate can be related to improved nutrition at the time of conception. We call it "flushing" when breeding pigs. Bump up the sows nutrition about 30 days before breeding and you can expect larger litters.

Correct concise answer with interesting aside fact.
Dun gets bonus point for pointing out sire's heritable influence through his daughters.
I believe this is also the direction ga prime was going, inherited reproductive influence with the scrotal mention.

 

[Alan]

We have a winner.

Always the cow. Twins are either two eggs, which she provides, or an egg that splits. I have seen evidence that twinning rate can be related to improved nutrition at the time of conception. We call it "flushing" when breeding pigs. Bump up the sows nutrition about 30 days before breeding and you can expect larger litters.

Correct concise answer with interesting aside fact.
Dun gets bonus point for pointing out sire's heritable influence through his daughters.
I believe this is also the direction ga prime was going, inherited reproductive influence with the scrotal mention.

X2, although I did not know about the point Dun made. With that in mind, I have a pair of twins, young cows, both bred. Because they were twins, fraternal, will they have a bigger chance of having twins than a single calf would?

 

[djinwa]

I blame the bull. If he would stay away from the cow, twins would not happen.

 

[dun]

Some years ago, several poeple and ABS developed what they called "twinners". The were supposed to past on a higher dgree of heritability for twins. I don;t recall the exact number but it seems that iven with twinners bred t twinners it was still only in the 30% range for twins.

 

[Nesikep]

We have a family of cows that have historically had the most twins.. One year 3 cows in the same family had twins (all 3 failed at it some how)... We kept one of those twin heifers as a replacement, and she's had 7 calves I think.. no twins. I haven't had twins for a few years now.. I don't mind having 1 set a year, it can make up for a lost calf, etc and give an otherwise dry cow something to do for the year

 

[Putangitangi]

Cow is to blame. She either has two eggs or one egg ready when she is in estrus.

Depends if they are identical twins or not. Identical twins come from the same egg.

Spontaneous split of the egg resulting in two fetuses Sim but still from the cow's side...

There is a theory, which I find quite compelling, that a protein in the sperm cells of some bulls, will prompt the embryo to split, thus identical twinning may well be caused partly by the bull. The other side of that theory is that some cows' eggs will be susceptible and some won't.

How many of those twins were same-sex and did any of them look uncannily similar?

 

[tom4018]

Out of 50 cows he has bred that have calved there has ben 5 sets of twins, unless we missed one. Only one 1 set of twins before this bull. This year 3 set are same sex, last year they were split.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Do any of you think that it could also be due to syncing cows at the wrong time, that are already preparing to drop an egg naturally?? Just curious if that could play a role.

 

[cow pollinater]

Do any of you think that it could also be due to syncing cows at the wrong time, that are already preparing to drop an egg naturally?? Just curious if that could play a role.

It shouldn't as gnrh only causes them to drop the egg that she was already going to drop by herself it just does it when we tell her to. I HAVE seen sets of twins and even a few triplets born to cows that were synced in the past that I blame on the "more medicine is better" mentality being applied to FSH drugs.

 

[greybeard]

I've never had a cow have twins, but I am familiar with twins, and agree it is somehow inheritable--or a huge coincidence.
My father sired twins in 1950--me and my identical twin brother.
2 years later, Dad's brother in Calif sired twins--my male 1st cousins. 20+ years later, one of those cousins sired maternal twins.
I married a woman who had a daughter by her 1st marriage--unknown to me at the time we married, that daughter (my step daughter*) was a twin-the other was stillborn.
I sired a set of identical twin sons in 1974. One of those sons has sired a set of twins-my grand daughters.
My *step-daughter has blessed me with a set of identical twin grandsons.

I don't know how or in what way genetics fits in, but sure seems to odd to just be coincidental.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Here is something interesting; I know of several sets of twins that are the direct result of a frozen implanted embryo! That means that THAT particular embryo split AFTER it was implanted. They are put in at day 7 post conception, so the split into two happens at that point. Of course, they are always same sex, but the markings can be different.
There is a clubby bull by the name of Man Among Boys that has been cloned (now, remember, a clone is an exact duplicate of its donor). Of the three clones, NONE of them are marked the same. I have been told that the white can migrate...not sure how that works.
We have a cow I have put on here before. She twinned this year for the third year in a row. All three sets have been identical. The first two sets were Bulls, and this last set is heifers. The likelyhood of that I am sure is rare, but I am seriously thinking of putting an embryo in her this year just to give her a break and allow her to raise one calf next year. Unless of course, she figures out how to cause the embryo to split ;-)