I had a cow have twins recently. She had never had twins before. The unusual thing is that I didn’t see one of them for three days. I came in one day and there’s a new calf with mom. It looked a little smaller than usual, but it looked healthy. I saw it with mom for three days. Then, I go check on the cows one morning and there is two. The cow seems to accept both, and both appear equally healthy. Both have been hanging with mom ever since. Is it common for one to hide out a few days while the other hangs with the cow?
Twins
- Thread starter herofan
- Start date
True Grit Farms
Well-known member
Hiding a twin calf is fairly common here, and the cow always claims the smaller calf.
Nesikep
Well-known member
I've always had them claim the FIRST calf.. the second one is the one that's going to be a challenge to get accepted if there's going to be a problem
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Had a similar situation. Tagged a newborn, left a cow to be. After a couple days see that the cow is with an untagged calf... Tagged that one too. Later both started walking with their mom. Usually there is one calf at first, which walks with mom more, while the second one stays hiding after the meal. At least from my experience.
76 Bar
Well-known member
Don't know your environment but its possible you've had twins previously but not aware it happened. The scenarios posted are typical including never finding the mate to the twin. Some cows readily accept both, others aren't so inclined and especially if there's a delay between the respective births. I always suspect twins when a calf is decidedly below herd/cow norm for birthweight e.g. notably dinky. She's a good girl to willingly take both! Last but not least, very few cows are able to raise two relatively decent calves without additional supplementation/TLC.
