Twins

[Hereford76]

This is one of my better cows (10 years old) - wish i could get twin heifer calves by certain cows more often.

 

[blackgloves]

You lucky dog. TWINS?? wow. Nice looking trio though not a fan of hereford

is that a 4 strand fence? Does your neighbor have cattle too?

 

[novaman]

Twins are the devil. More often than not you end up on the short end when twins become involved.

 

[MO_cows]

Good cow, her udder has held up fabulous. This must be the year of the twins. Lots of the CT members posted they had twins. We had our first set, too, also twin heifers and also out of our top cow. Even the deer around here had twins, we've been seeing a big old doe with twin fawns browsing in the neighbor's soybean field come evening. I guess when everything goes well, they are a blessing but when you get freemartins, dead calves or bottle calves you couldn't help but consider them a curse.

 

[Bez+]

Hate twins with a passion

Anyone who wants twins has not been around cows long enough nto experience the bad that comes from them

Decent cow

Regards

Bez+

 

[hillsdown]

Congrats they are adorable. I would pull one and bottle feed or find a surrogate nurse mom. It takes special cow to raise two spectacular calves.

I am just curious as to what your breeding season is ,and are you a seed stock producer ?

As far as fencing, some of you must have shYtty cows and Shytty neighbors, as that 4 strand will do just fine, especially if one has a little heat to it.

Like Mo said, it is the year of the twins and the triplets.

Herf babies are way too cute.

 

[blackgloves]

Ive bottle fed many calves before and Ill take twins every time if they both survive like these did.

and for the comment on the 4 strand fence and shytty neighbors? We have yet to have a single neighboring bull get on our place with our 6 strand fences. We have not had any cattle end up on the wrong side of the fence with 6 strand. We had many problems with 4 strand and some with 5 strand. We are not a fan of electric fences either though we are aware of the pros with using them

 

[Hereford76]

Hate twins with a passion

Anyone who wants twins has not been around cows long enough nto experience the bad that comes from them

Decent cow

Regards

Bez+

I don't get many twins out of typically 130 registered cows... maybe one or two sets every 3 or 4 years and sometimes longer. Never lost a twin calf born here, never had a set of twins born dead, or had to pull one out. Have had a set of twins drag their mother down late in the summer but she rebred and bounced back next spring.... But I guess I haven't been around cows for long enough to experience the bad that comes from twins. Didn't mean to say that I want a whole herd of twins but I'll take them like this every so often. That cow will do just fine nursing two calves - they might wean lighter but they will fit right in with the rest of the females when they come home as bred heifers.

You lucky dog. TWINS?? wow. Nice looking trio though not a fan of hereford

is that a 4 strand fence? Does your neighbor have cattle too?

Its a 3 strand fence although most of our fence is 4 wire. we are an isolated ranch surrounded by straight farmers ... no worries about cattling mixing with mine but do have to deal with straight farmers seeding wheat/barley right up to our perimeter fences. Over two years I pulled all the staples and moved the wires up on all the fences to help allow the antelope get through with out taking them down and also to help on the dry years when some of the farmers to the west of us let their fallow ground get out of hand and their weeds start to blow through our place - they can blow right under for the most part.

Congrats they are adorable. I would pull one and bottle feed or find a surrogate nurse mom. It takes special cow to raise two spectacular calves.

I am just curious as to what your breeding season is ,and are you a seed stock producer ?

As far as fencing, some of you must have shYtty cows and Shytty neighbors, as that 4 strand will do just fine, especially if one has a little heat to it.

Like Mo said, it is the year of the twins and the triplets.

Herf babies are way too cute.

seedstock - yes and i start calving April 1st for 45 days. this cow was the one exception this year, I usually pull bulls after 45 days but left this particular sire with them all season last year. This cow was with a yearling bull, 10 other cows, and 25 yearling heifers last season. He bred 24 of the 25 heifers and all 11 cows only got her late. Of the 36 head that yearling bull was with he left one yearling heifer (youngest heifer in the group) open, bred all 11 cows, and all but this cow calved in 27 days time.

 

[KNERSIE]

My conditions are too tough for twins to be a blessing, I have a very fertile herd and won national fertility awards in the past few years, the downside to that is a higher incidence of twins, this year is the first in many that I didn't have a set of twins (yet).

It seems that whenever I really want a heifer out of good cow I end up with a mixed set of twins.

 

[JHH]

I had a set of twins this year too second set since 04. I hate them. Mine are mixed 1 heifer 1 bull.

I will see if I can get pics sometime soon.

 

[novaman]

Never lost a twin calf born here, never had a set of twins born dead, or had to pull one out.

Consider yourself lucky. Very few can say that. I had two sets of twins this year and both sets were aborted about 6 weeks prior to the due date. If that wasn't bad enough they were out of two of my best young milk cows. They both hit the road because I can't afford to run a cow that isn't producing squat with prices the way they are. I would hope I have nothing but singles from here on out but that likely won't happen.

 

[showing71]

It seems that whenever I really want a heifer out of good cow I end up with a mixed set of twins.

Same here Knersie, I have a good 4 yr old cow that has had 2 sets of twins, both mixed sexes. Luckily the bulls have always tested good.

 

[herefordchick]

I think the maintenance level of the cow has much to do wether she can handle twins or not. A higher maintenance cow has twins and it is the curse - just about impossible to get them to breed back on time. At least in my herd this has been the case.

It was interesting for me to see this spring having straight herefords and hereford continental commercial cross cows running together. A good number of the crosses came up open and were culled last fall while I had 3 old Hereford cows that all carried sets of twins full term and never missed a beat ........... they appear to have bred back fine and one I even put an egg in. Two mixed sets and one set of heifers - in the mixed set the heifers were 10 lbs smaller than the bulls, in the heifer set there was only a 6 lb spread. BW's ranged from 72 to 91. All six are doing great.

I know a little bit of luck was involved but over the years I average a set of twins for about every 12-15 cows to calve. Generally a mature Hereford I consider it a blessing. If there is much continental blood I figure I better pull a calf off if I want them to breed back on time. The exception is 2 year olds that have twins - I consider that a curse or at least feel like I am being tested.

I run a high number of twins but the craziest thing about the 3 old Hereford cows that had twins - the dams of two of the set are twin sisters. What are the odds of twin sisters having twins in the same calf crop. One set was out of an AI bull and one set out of the herdsire.

Nice heifers 76- hope they grow up to make momma proud.

 

[rocket2222]

Wouldn't bother me if I never had another set of them. I've had 6 sets over the years, 4 sets were twin heifers, never kept any of them. Seems like from what I've seen, heifers from twins are more likely to have twins.

Hope yours do well.