twins - I hate em - or they hate me

[cypressfarms]

Just finished checking on them about 2 hours ago. Tubed them again with kick start and some more milk. Moma still seems to care for both of them. It appears that they are sucking somewhat. Only bad thing is that it's raining already tonight. Should be in the high 30's tonight, and in the 20's tomorrow night. I'll wake up at daylight and see if I can get the twins and moma up to the front pasture. This is not going to be fun, but for that moma to have a good chance at raising those calves, she's going to need some extra groceries. Not to mention the fact that if I don't get some serious groceries in her, she'll never get bred back this spring. Well I'll have one miserable morning - but I will say that I was in a much better mood when I saw both of the calves alive when I got there late this evening.

If everything works o.k., I'll have some pics to posts tomorrow. I hate the cold/rain!

 

[cfpinz]

Grab both of the little farts and throw them in the back of a pickup or mule/atv, whatever you have. Mama will follow, just make sure she can see/smell them. Wish someone had a camera this past year. I have a drop basket rack extender on the back of our new 4wheeler, had two calves shoved in that thing, me riding backwards holding them down and the wife driving the thing. Front wheels were off the ground more than they were on it. Cow was not amused.

cfpinz

 

[cypressfarms]

Grab both of the little farts and throw them in the back of a pickup or mule/atv, whatever you have. Mama will follow, just make sure she can see/smell them. Wish someone had a camera this past year. I have a drop basket rack extender on the back of our new 4wheeler, had two calves shoved in that thing, me riding backwards holding them down and the wife driving the thing. Front wheels were off the ground more than they were on it. Cow was not amused.

cfpinz

That's the plan cf, I'm going to put them in the back of the mule and walk the cow; although I may be able to tie their legs and put them in a 1/2 plastic drum (I use those plastic 55 gallon drums cut in half longways to feed with). I could drill a hole in the plastic drum, tie it to the mule and drag it. That would probably be better, as the moma would be able to see and smell the calves the whole way. This cow is very tame - She let's me do whatever I need to do with the calves, but never fails to stand there and watch me. She's talking to them the whole time I'm tubing. I'm still amazed that this second time mother had both of these alive and cleaned off before I got there. She knows what to do - she just still appears dazed by having two of them to worry about. The weather is too bad for me to get my girls out in this, so I'll be doing it myself. I'll feel better once the cow and calves are in the front where I can watch them more. I've never saved twins before. In all the times that I've been around calving one or both died either at birth or soon after. The fact that they are two days old and still alive and trying to suck is encouraging. I just asked my wife to have the hot chocolate ready for me when I come in. From the looks of this cold downpour, though, I may need something much stronger ;-)

 

[dun]

That's the plan cf, I'm going to put them in the back of the mule and walk the cow; although I may be able to tie their legs and put them in a 1/2 plastic drum (I use those plastic 55 gallon drums cut in half longways to feed with). I could drill a hole in the plastic drum, tie it to the mule and drag it. That would probably be better, as the moma would be able to see and smell the calves the whole way.

Good idea but it probably won;t work. Calf gets to wiggling and the barrel will roll/tip over. I made a cage out of an old pice of expanded metal for the floor and hog panel for the cage itself. It's mounted on a frame with a pice of square tubing that fits the reciever on the mule. Get the calf/calves in it, latch the door (I use a bungy cord) and drive away. Rough ground, hills and hollers don;t affect it and the cow can walk with her nose right on the calf/calves.

 

[cypressfarms]

Last night we got 2" of rain and about 35 degrees, so when I went to check this morning I wasn't expecting much. Right away I found one of the calves - tubed it with some Kick Start and it seemed o.k. I could not find the other calf. I did use the half barrel scenario and the calf only rolled out once. :lol:

Moma followed me right into the small 1/2 acre or so paddock that is right behind my back yard. Went back to look for the second calf. I looked for 3 hours. :( Finally when I was about to give up, I saw it (it was over 200 yards from where it's brother was huddled in a little ball). I tubed it also and brought it to the moma to join the family.

Both calves are sucking, so I'm beginning to get optomistic. No more rain for a couple of days - but the weather will dip down to 28 tonight. I don't think they should have any problem with that, as long as there isn't the rain factor.

This is actually the first time that I have successfully (so far) had a cow raise twin calves. The moma is really good - she accepts them both well. Here are a couple of pics.

Moma giving me the rasberry for not getting her more food:

Both calves sucking - almost looks like baby goats hitting moma from all sides:

Anyway, now all three are up front and will get square bermuda bales, and plenty of feed. The guy at the Feed Store recommended Omylene 300 - he said it will provide her the protein and minerals to put out the milk. $13 a sack, though :shock:

Now I just need to get moma gaining some weight so she'll be ready to breed in a month or two.

Oh, and DUN, the feed trough the cow is eating from was the sled used to pull the calf. Went real well through shallow ditches and puddles :)

 

[dun]

Oh, and DUN, the feed trough the cow is eating from was the sled used to pull the calf. Went real well through shallow ditches and puddles :)

You had a lot better succes then I've ever had. But our terrain is rather rolling/slanted/tilted. Can;t hardly walk through most of it without turning an ankle if you're not carefull.
Somtimes cows will stash twins in different locations and visit them back and forth.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

Cow looks pretty thin to raise two. Feed her good or pull one.

 

[cypressfarms]

Cow looks pretty thin to raise two. Feed her good or pull one.

That she is. She's a little thinner than I'd like. Normal years events go - summer get fat and healthy. Early winter make it off of hay alone. Mid to late winter they go into ryegrass fields and hay. All of my cows have just started on the ryegrass about a week or two ago. I like to time there getting the ryegrass within a couple of weeks from the start of calving season. The ryegrass will give 'em a big boost to provide milk for the calves and to better their condition. By early spring - Feb/Mar they should all be ready to rebreed. I don't believe in feeding cows - they have to forage to make a living- and with our mild growing season most years the ryegrass fits the bill well.

The last couple of weeks this particular cow has been walking very slowly and labored (no pun intended). Well I guess we know why now. She'll do fine now - she's all mouth eating ryegrass, hay and feed. I see no need to pull one calf off yet as she has bonded with both already. If her condition deteriorates with feed, hay and ryegrass then we have a problem.

 

[Beefy]

she doesnt look bad. she'll perk up a lot not having to compete.

 

[cypressfarms]

she doesnt look bad. she'll perk up a lot not having to compete.

O.k. Beefy,

I have to come up with names for these fellas. (both steers). My daughters will not allow any calf to not have a name. Even though we sell them every year, they still are assigned a name. So I need your help to come up with a creative name for the both of them. Obviously they are twins, so some sort of combo or variation of would be desired. Like "Peanut" and "Butter".

Oh, one of them has a small white spot about the size of a quarter on his forehead. Otherwise, they're both black as coal.


Any ideas???

 

[dun]

Jose and hose b

 

[cypressfarms]

Jose and hose b

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

Now that's funny, I don't care who you are!

 

[Beefy]

hmm lets see...

B.A. and Murdock
Webster and Willis
Jet and Pitch (the Blacks)
Rambo and Sambo
if one was gray you could have Michael and Jermaine
Mutt and Jeff
Calvin and Hobbs
Milo and Otis
Big and Rich
Abercrombie and Fitch
Ricky and Bobby
Rick and Bubba
Pete and Repeat
Vin and Deisel
Miley and Billy Ray
i could go on and on, the possibilities are endless...

 

[cfpinz]

Lunch and Dinner

cfpinz

 

[cypressfarms]

hmm lets see...

B.A. and Murdock
Webster and Willis
Jet and Pitch (the Blacks)
Rambo and Sambo
if one was gray you could have Michael and Jermaine
Mutt and Jeff
Calvin and Hobbs
Milo and Otis
Big and Rich
Abercrombie and Fitch
Ricky and Bobby
Rick and Bubba
Pete and Repeat
Vin and Deisel
Miley and Billy Ray
i could go on and on, the possibilities are endless...

You know Beefy, you can come up with some creative ones. My daughters liked the one you came up with on another thread. Peanut butter. Peanut being the all black calf and butter being the one with the white spot on the forehead. I'm kind of leaning to pete and repete though :)

 

[Beefy]

my bottle calves last year were Cornbread, TaterSalad, and TurnipGreens

normally i just call them Peckerhead for boy, or Peanuts for girl.

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

cypress, if you haven't already named them, consider:

Amos and Andy
Kingfish and Lightning
JaMarcus and LaMarcus
Demetrius and Octavius
Midnite and Pepper
:D

 

[cypressfarms]

Thanks to everyone for the names and well wishes.

My daughters decided on peanut and butter.

Happy to say that moma and both twins are doing fine. I give moma about a 1/2 gallon of feed in the morning and the same in the evening. She gets several flakes of the best square baled hay I have. She's in a small paddock by herself. That's about the presidential suite at my place. I'm hoping that by March she'll be back on the upswing and I'll put her back with the cows and the hereford bull.

I'll try to remember to post pics in a couple of months.

 

[rockridgecattle]

bert and ernie

 

[pauline]

Wow! By reading the postings here about twins, they could be double trouble. I think people who have live twin calves don't post their stories.

I always thought sheep have twins,but cattle seldom have twins, at least not on my farm. After ten years of farming, we had our first set of twins in November 2007. Before calving, we just noticed that the mother cow had a really big belly and walked very slowly. One day when my husband did his usual round to check on the cows, he saw a black baby standing in front of the mother. That second a second baby came round from behind the mother, my husband's jaw just dropped - what is that?

We have twin bulls and they just suck on the mother and run around happily. They are now almost two months old and doing very well. We did not do anything but just stood by admiring them.

Now I know it could have been a disaster with the twins.

Pauline