twins - I hate em - or they hate me

[cypressfarms]

A real fine beefmaster cow I bought last year had twins early this morning. When I bought her, she was bred to a beefmaster bull that I really didn't care for, but she's such a good moma - she had a fine heifer calf on her side when I got her - I wanted her. She came in a package deal of beefmasters (I bought the guy out basically). I'm now going through all of the cows that I got from him, checking the exact dates, and hoping that they were bred by my bull. Looks like if they can hold out another week and a half (or so) they will all have calves sired by my Angus plus bull.

Both calves were doa. The smallest looked premature. The bigger of the two looked o.k. - maybe if I'd been there I could have helped it, but I doubt it. Dang twins, no good that's for sure.

The next closest beefmaster that is due up is HUGE, but hasn't bagged at all. Maybe she could have the cursed twins also.

Buying bred cows can be good; but it can be horrible as well.

 

[TxSimbrahShower]

Sorry about you loss.

We have a Simmental/Beefmaster cross cow that had her first set of twins in May 2006 and on Dec. 22, 2007, yes back to back years, she had her second set. Knock on wood, we havn't had any problems. Also, one of her daughter's that a friend of ours owns had twins a couple of days after her in December.

This is our third set of twins in 19 months. One of my sons Simbrah's, a former show heifer, had twins in May, 2007. It's all the momma's, because all three sets were sired by different Simbrah bulls.

 

[CWT Angus]

OK, now you're scaring me. I bought a bred 3yo reg. angus cow last year & after the fact found out she had had twins on her 1st calving. Delivered & raised them both. She slipped her calf inbetween preg check & sale date. I bred her back & she's due in April. Guess I'll just have to watch very carefully since I have her AI date.

 

[cypressfarms]

I've never seen any hard fast science stating a cow that has twins once is more likely to have them again; but then I haven't done a lot of looking either.

Last year the same cow had a registered beautiful beefmaster heifer.

I'm kind of leaning torward the bull side of the equation. The bull from her calf last year was a fine specimen. The bull that sired these twins looked bad (as in inbred or worse). I was hoping that my bull would have had time to work his magic before she came into heat - but alas that didn't happen.

I will not get rid of this cow; not yet, anyway. She raised too nice of a heifer last year. I'll give her one more year with a good bull.

 

[capparelli]

How does the bull being crappy have any impact on her having twins?

 

[mrl]

i've read about a cow herd in Neb. that repeatedly kept the heifer calves out of every set of twins. they did this for quite a few years, can't remember how many. anyway last i heard the herd was consistently over 50% twins every calving season. think i read it in a beef producer magazine about a year ago. if you could find those guys they might be good to talk to.

 

[cypressfarms]

How does the bull being crappy have any impact on her having twins?

I'm not necessarily saying that it does. One of the two calves was deformed (the premie looking one) Really big head, like a bulldog, and deformed looking body.

When I went to this guys farm he had some really nice looking beefmasters; and some small runty looking ones (which were all the young heifers). I asked him about his breeding strategies but he was very unclear. Of the 13 that I bought from him a little more than half were registered. This coincided with the ones that looked nice. He had no papers on the "scraggly" looking ones, and couldn't really tell me their background. He insisted on selling them all as a package. So I made him an offer based on what I thought the nice ones were worth (The nice ones were 2-4 years old). He took the offer. While at his farm, I looked at his current bull. He didn't look like much. He had mentioned that it was the son of an older cow that I didn't want. The sire of the bull was recently deceased.

My hunch is that the scraggly ones were inbred within his herd. The reason he gave me for selling all of them was to improve the quality of the herd. IMO, he only needed to get rid of the "mutts" and put a really good bull on the remaining good stock he had. So that's what I did. I bought most of what he had; sold the runts/mutts - and kept the good looking ones. I'm guessing that his bull (which came from his own small herd) bred this one cow before I bought her.

With any luck the rest will calve out a week or so later - I'll know instantly once the babies hit because I kept them with my Angus plus bull. (The twins mentioned before were not angus plus sired).

 

[MoGal]

The herd of 20 that I bought my red poll heifers from, have twins every year....... not from the same cow mind you.. but they have a set every year. None of mine had twins last year.

I had one charolais heifer have twins last year and today #24 had premature bull twins (she was preg ck'd on 10/22 to be in L1st).

It sucks to say the least..... and I don't want twins. Sorry you lost yours.

 

[backhoeboogie]

A brindled white face I bought had twin heifers. No problem. Usually twins are a problem. Normally I get a free martin.

 

[cfpinz]

We have a couple sets each year. We pen mama up with the runts for about a week or so and grain her pretty good, then get the smallest one started on a bottle and sell it privately, I can't stand to run them thru the market. Sold two this year, $100 each with the option to buy them back for a short period if we need one. Prefer to cut my losses early.

Kinda ironic this year, we lost two calves the first week of calving season and winded up with two extras towards the end. Timing is everything.

cfpinz

 

[cypressfarms]

Kinda ironic this year, we lost two calves the first week of calving season and winded up with two extras towards the end.

cfpinz

That sounds like my kind of luck!

 

[Engler]

I don't know much about the Beefmaster breed, but I do know that they are part shorthorn. I also know that the shorthorn breed is fighting genetic trash of TH that is caused by a recessive gene and results in deformed calves that often come dead or die almost right away.

Is there a possibility that this could be the cause for the screwed up calf? I don't know, the BM breed may be clean of TH but just something I thought that I'd toss out there.

 

[Susie David]

Guess that I'm the odd duck as we have never had a set of twins...and the heifers don't look like they are carring more than one. I'll have to wait a little longer, I suppose. DMc

 

[Hippie Rancher]

I don't know much about the Beefmaster breed, but I do know that they are part shorthorn. I also know that the shorthorn breed is fighting genetic trash of TH that is caused by a recessive gene and results in deformed calves that often come dead or die almost right away.

Is there a possibility that this could be the cause for the screwed up calf? I don't know, the BM breed may be clean of TH but just something I thought that I'd toss out there.

What is TH?
edit: google is my friend! http://www.shorthorn.org/asa/tabID_3834/tailored.aspx

 

[cypressfarms]

O.k.

So I posted about twins a little while back. Well today another one of my cows had twins. This time both are alive, although small. Both bull calves, both between 45 and 50 pounds each. Very small, but the moma have accepted them both. While one is a little stronger, both appear to be sucking (and pooing - an important sign) I'm kind of preparing myself for the smaller one to die - bottle feeding is not an option.

Weird year this year. These twins are from my Angus Plus bull. Below is a pic of the moma I'd taken a year or so ago. She weaned a good calf last year - but if both are living by the weekend, I'll bring her to the front pasture and start supplement feeding for her.

Old brockle nose:

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Cypress,
Good luck with this set of twins. I hope they both make it. I also hope you have no more twins.

Katherine

 

[cypressfarms]

Cypress,
Good luck with this set of twins. I hope they both make it. I also hope you have no more twins.

Katherine

Thanks Katherine,

I had decided to just let the smaller die if that what mother nature intended. However, when my daughters found out, they straightened me out. My middle daughter (10) just finished helping me. She shined the light for me. I went out and gave both calves a stomach tube full of Kick start. Then gave both of them a little mixed (powdered supplement) milk as well. The moma still cares for both - so I'm gonna try to keep both of these little buggers. I'll go out tomorrow evening and hit them with another kick start and more milk. I figure that when they get to the point of running away from me, then they are strong enough to make it. I'm also going to bring this cow with her twins up to the front and feed her daily. As much as I hate feeding any cow - she deserves it if she is going to have to carry two babies. This is a simmetal mix commercial cow - she does not have the milk of a holstein, that's for sure. But we'll give it a go. If they are still alive Saturday, I'll post pics of them.

 

[TxSimbrahShower]

We had another set of twins born last Sunday evening. One of my sons Simbrah show heifer's, bull twins, they were good size, one 84 lbs. the other 72 lbs. mom and babies all doing great. Moms got plenty of milk, looks like she has a 55 gal drum for a bag.

Good luck with your new twins. Hope everything works out.

 

[Matt Schiel]

We have had three sets of twins this year alone. One dam has have multiple sets as her dam, so yes I can say that it does run in families. Another was a bull/heifer set that we had to bottle the bull calf, she only took the heifer calf. The kids bottle fed the bull for serveral months. If your good a bottle feeding, it really takes no more time than it does to feed the dog. We set the calves up in our dog run and they stay in it until they are weaned from the bottle and then we let me out with either our growing heifers. That way they stay close to the house, but out of our hair. The last set were born early and were DOA .

I also have a set of "human" twins. I can say with that the male will have no help in making twins, unless he passes that on through is daughters. I do not think any bull has any magic potion to make a cow ovulate two eggs or split an embryo. I think it is just dumb luck in most cases or like any other problem we can just blame it on "Global Warming" :lol2:

Matt

 

[cfpinz]

Personally, I'd put them in a pen and start getting the little twin to take a bottle. Then ask around for someone that wants a started bottle calf straight off the farm. Not that hard to get rid of them and your cow will thank you later.

cfpinz