We have had 5 sets of twins this year. One cow died during birth and the twins did not live. One cow had one and retained the other, the cow later died. This same cow had a set of twins born last year and she raised both of them. We are currently bottle feeding 4 babies. I know this is not common. Could this be nutritional? or what? We have never had this in the past, last year was our first set of twins ever.
Twins
- Thread starter lmidkiff
- Start date
Help Support CattleToday:
GMN
Well-known member
That does seem like alot of twins. We have had only 2 sets of twins in 11 years, the last set was twin heifers, in November, born to an older cow. Do you AI or run a herd bull, if a herd bull, might be his bloodline has a quirk for twins or something, or maybe it is just a fluke? Have they been boy/girl twins? Thats what our first set was, and the Vet said 99% of the time the female would be sterile, just a little info if you didn't know it already. Let us know if you find out it is anything nutritional, can't see how it could be though, I'd go for genetic, or just a plain fluke.
Gail
Gail
warpaint
Well-known member
Twins are I believe hereditary. Might want to look into changing sires.
Last year in this area there were a lot more twins then is common. Older cows that had never twinned had twins, heifers had twins. Asked the vet about it and his impression was that sometimes it jsut seems to happen a lot. Other years there are hardly any.
I just lay it to being one of those vagaries that nobody really understands and it's just the luck of the draw.
dun
I just lay it to being one of those vagaries that nobody really understands and it's just the luck of the draw.
dun
NCSU Maverick
Well-known member
I've been wondering the same thing. We had five sets last year and five sets so far this year. We assumed it was just a fluke but that many twins makes you wonder.
NCSU Maverick
Well-known member
some of ours are simm. influenced. Four of the five sets this year are out of a simmental bull.
I never really thought of a sire being responsible for twinning though. I understand how a dam could be prone to twins but how could a bull affect twinning?
I never really thought of a sire being responsible for twinning though. I understand how a dam could be prone to twins but how could a bull affect twinning?
The bull that sired the twins has very little effect on the number he himself throws. It probably isn't his fault. I would look to the bloodlines of the cows. Then i would look at nutrition and mineral programs. They will have alot more effect on twinning than the bull used last summer.
When you say 5 sets is alot. How many cows in the herd? How many are calved out? We need a little background to determine what alot is.
When you say 5 sets is alot. How many cows in the herd? How many are calved out? We need a little background to determine what alot is.
NCSU Maverick
Well-known member
Last year we had 5 sets out of right at 100 cows.
This year there's 5 sets with prob. 30 more cows to calve.
And, two of the cows that twinned this year twinned last year, so they prob. need to be sold. I guess if you didn't count these two cows, then we've had 3 sets of twins the past two years, which might be closer to normal.
This year there's 5 sets with prob. 30 more cows to calve.
And, two of the cows that twinned this year twinned last year, so they prob. need to be sold. I guess if you didn't count these two cows, then we've had 3 sets of twins the past two years, which might be closer to normal.
sidney411
Well-known member
As was said, I don't see a coreleation between the bull and twining. The bull does not produce the eggs, the cow does. Nothing the bull can do will make a cow produce multiple eggs. There may have an influence on his daughters fertility, but not the cow he is breeding.
sidney411":3c8prm6f said:
This is true, Sidney, but it would only come into play with fraternal twins. Identical twins develop from the same egg due to a split. I've read a couple of articles that stated that twinning is effected by chromosome #5, and that cows are more inclined to produce twins as they get older due to increased levels of FSH/ and another hormone that I can't remember - so it stands to reason that if the bull possessed the twinning trait and the circumstances were right, would not chromosome 5 passed from a potential twinning bull to the offspring not have the potential to trigger the egg splitting and twins would result? Your thoughts?
ALACOWMAN
Well-known member
The influance a bull has over twins if he is a twin himself are the decendent of twins over his off springs. the dam dropping mutiple eggs into the oviduct is were the twins originate. so the bull aint at fault.
ALACOWMAN
Well-known member
im with you but im speaking of fraternal twins. ive also read were identical bull twins can sire his brothers calf. im just confused how the fertilized egg splits being caused from the bull. keep in mind im a dumb ol cowboy ;-)msscamp":3c24jxqq said:
When an egg is fertilized the DNA from the sperm is combined with the DNA from the Egg creating one complete set. This set is replicated. If by chance this embryos splits the calves will have the exact genetic makeup. Identical twins in all species are essentially clones. MY aunts that are twins have kids. Their kids are all half brothers and sisters from a genetic standpoint. As far as a bull causing twins due to the contribution of a gene on CHromosone #5 i haven't heard that. I'll have to look it up.
sidney411
Well-known member
I haven't delved into he genetics of cattle twinning so I can't comment on that MSCAMP, but the posibility does seem interesting - I would like to know more information about that.
Beef11":25w45fmw said:
Problem is, not all identical twins are identical. Check out these two guys
http://abs-bs.absglobal.com/beef/angus. ... o=29AN1463
http://abs-bs.absglobal.com/beef/angus. ... o=29AN1464
dun
Phenotype is a product of genetics and enviroment. There EPDs seem fairly close and both seem to put good bags on cows. They do look differently though no disputing that. On holsteins some clones will be marked differently than the others. This is explained by the spotting being genetic in one direction and somewhat random in the other.
