Twins

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76 Bar

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One for the books. 11-4-2009 Registered RA cow just calved calved her 12th and 13th calf. 365 calving interval. 5th set of twins born today. All by different sires. No fuss no muss. Spits them out like watermelon seeds & polishes them up post haste. Will report the BWts tomorrow.
 
76 Bar said:
One for the books. 11-4-2009 Registered RA cow just calved calved her 12th and 13th calf. 365 calving interval. 5th set of twins born today. All by different sires. No fuss no muss. Spits them out like watermelon seeds & polishes them up post haste. Will report the BWts tomorrow.

Bar, do you leave both twins on her each time or do you pull one? If she has raised both and bred back consistently, each time, she is truly remarkable.
Congrats
 
She's raised all her twins through weaning. Pasture and a daily flake of alfalfa. The (now well established :D ) drill is to pull her from the cows when the babies are capable of traveling a short distance and put her in the 1st CH pasture for a little TLC. Hesitated at first knowing heifers can easily be duped but it's the only option. Amazingly, I've never seen her calves steal a meal. At this stage I'm pretty sure #947 would think something was amiss if she had a single!
Pics from 4/2015.


Haven't weighed her recently but she's probably ~ 1350 lbs & moderate frame. Stays in good shape, nice udder and especially considering the circumstances and age. Typical of my cows, excellent disposition. Never looks as though she's packing twins. Excluding yesterdays heifer babes the actual 205 total wt of her prior calves is 5945 lbs. In reality, its significantly more. I weigh when the calves average 205 days but don't actually wean until they're around ~ 245 days to take advantage of the flush of grass post the official 205 wt timeline.
Whatever, "Fertile Myrtle" has definitely earned her keep.
Not a twin fan either but it can come in handy for grafting purposes and of those I've had, only a couple cows over the years failed to accept both and or lost one at birth.
 
I read a study recently about twins becoming more and more common in cattle and they think it's caused by good quality feed. The higher the protein the more likely. And the older the cow, the more likely twins. They call it a "going out or business sale". Same is true for humans.

I've picked up many sets of twins from the local dairies and raised. I love raising twins but they always end up slightly smaller than my singletons.
 
I think that is generally true - they are smaller. The set I have
are smaller than their contemporaries. But doing very well.
 
Bright Raven said:
I think that is generally true - they are smaller. The set I have
are smaller than their contemporaries. But doing very well.

My bull calf twins. Got these two for free bcs they were so small. I bottle fed them 3x a day for 6 months to give them some extra size. I call them thing 1 and thing 2.


 
76 Bar said:
70 & 68 lbs heifers. Dinks but healthy & loved by momma. ;-)

They are big compared to what I pick up! Double heifer...that's luck. Enjoy them
 
76 Bar said:
70 & 68 lbs heifers. Dinks but healthy & loved by momma. ;-)
In my world that's a perfect size for a first calf heifer and probably what my one & only (live) set of twin heifers weighed from 6 year old cow. The twin I kept is now probably a good 1400 lbs & by far raised the largest steer I just weaned. BTW she was also rejected & subsequently my bottle baby (sold her sister as bred).
 
cowgal604 said:
I read a study recently about twins becoming more and more common in cattle and they think it's caused by good quality feed. The higher the protein the more likely. And the older the cow, the more likely twins. They call it a "going out or business sale". Same is true for humans.

I've picked up many sets of twins from the local dairies and raised. I love raising twins but they always end up slightly smaller than my singletons.

Increased milk production results in higher twinning rates as well. Cows with higher milk production have more blood flow through the liver, where hormones are broken down. Higher hormone clearance through the liver lowers a cow's progesterone levels, which increases the risk of double ovulation at estrus.
 
I got rid of this cow because she wasn't productive enough, First thing she did was have twins at my buddy's place.. She was pretty sick of the suckers by this time.. she was SO proud of them when they were born though!


Then there's this one.. She had twins, but what the heck, why not let a 3rd one steal some milk (middle one)
 
Buck - that's interesting. Well, if they are high milk producers, they could raise the twins - LOL
Edit: Simmental breed used to be considered one of the highest average of twins (like 13% vs 8%). Maybe that's why?? I always said it was because they are Fertile Myrtles!!!
 
One for the books. 11-4-2009 Registered RA cow just calved calved her 12th and 13th calf. 365 calving interval. 5th set of twins born today. All by different sires. No fuss no muss. Spits them out like watermelon seeds & polishes them up post haste. Will report the BWts tomorrow.
20201020_182557.jpg
This girl is catching up. Had her 4th set in a row last week. She had a single bull calf for her first and then has had all heifer calf twins since. She has raised them all to weaning, too!
 

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