Twins???

[ScottyB]

I have a 7 yr old cow that I bought and she had twin heifers. I don't have much experience with twins, but the calves are now 3 months old and doing great. They are the same size of the other calves and not having any problems. My question is, Will this cow have twins every year or is this usually a one time thing? I couldn't find hardly any info on the web about cows having twins every year becasue it is genetic. Any info is appreciated.

 

[dun]

This is an easy/hard question to answer accuartely. If she twinned once she may do it again, or not. The twin heifers both are likely to twin sometimes, but not necessarrily every year.

 

[backhoeboogie]

A set of my cows are six years old now. They were twins. They have never had twin calves. They came out of a brindled heavy bred I kept for a few years. She only had twins once.

Grandaddy had a cow who had twins a few times. I don't remember how many times.

There is a huge study on it conducted in Greenland with dairy cow having twins. You might find it on the net.

 

[dun]

If you do a internet search for twinner cattle you will get a ton of stuff, a lot of it is way to scientific for me to understand

 

[Workinonit Farm]

I once had a cow that had had twins the year before I bought her. She had 3 more pregnancies prior to me selling her, and those 3 pregnancies resulted in single-calf births. The one female of hers that I kept has not had twins......yet, she has had 3 pregnancies all resulting in single-calf births.

I also have a cow that was a twin (to another heifer), she has had 2 pregnancies so far, both resulting in single-calf births.

That's all I have to offer here.

Katherine

 

[msscamp]

My question is, Will this cow have twins every year or is this usually a one time thing?

Probably not. We've had a number of twins over the years - all of them out of different cows, and no cow has had twins 2 years running.

 

[ufo_chris]

The guy i get my Hay from told me he had a cow for almost 20 years that had twins every other year. He figured the single calves in between were to get her rested and her reproductive organs ready for the next set of twins! I was asking because my Cow has 3 month old twins and wanted to know what the chances are of a repeat :wave:

 

[talldog]

The guy i get my Hay from told me he had a cow for almost 20 years that had twins every other year. He figured the single calves in between were to get her rested and her reproductive organs ready for the next set of twins! I was asking because my Cow has 3 month old twins and wanted to know what the chances are of a repeat :wave:

Amazing !!!

 

[mnmtranching]

You never know? I'd say odds are she will have singles.
I had an old cow that raised 3 sets of twins in her lifetime. In fact her last calving was twins. I thought I was going to loose her. She got so heavy and being old. I mean :shock: talk about a hard time for her to stand. She made it, raised her twins sold her at weaning time. And a couple of her heifers also had twins.

 

[ScottyB]

That is all interesting. It sounds as if it is a crap shoot. I wonder how much the bull has something to do with it as well. I wish there were more studies done on this topic that I can understand.
Dun, I looked up twinner cattle and there is a lot of mumbo jumbo and then there is some rancher trying to raise nothing but twins to improve his profit margin. Sounds like a good idea but it seems there is just not enough information on the matter.
:tiphat:

 

[dun]

That is all interesting. It sounds as if it is a crap shoot. I wonder how much the bull has something to do with it as well. I wish there were more studies done on this topic that I can understand.
Dun, I looked up twinner cattle and there is a lot of mumbo jumbo and then there is some rancher trying to raise nothing but twins to improve his profit margin. Sounds like a good idea but it seems there is just not enough information on the matter.
:tiphat:

There was a guy in one of the norhtern states that selected for nothing but twinners for years. He still only averaged (if memory serves) a little over 35% twins each year

 

[mnmtranching]

Scotty, for sure the bull has nothing to do with it. The bull supplies the semen. Just like in humans. The female has to produce the twin or multiple eggs. We as males, as in cattle and humans produce tons of little swimmers. :clap: :cowboy: WE, bulls and men supply MANY little swimmers. STILL :nod: The lady has to supply the eggs to be fertilized.

On the other hand. A bull [and in humans and other critters] can and do pass the genetics on to their daughters.

 

[djinwa]

There was a guy in one of the norhtern states that selected for nothing but twinners for years. He still only averaged (if memory serves) a little over 35% twins each year

Well, that's a shame. My crazy thought for the day is that a cow has 4 teats and has one calf, while a sheep has 2 teats and often has 2 lambs. Who planned that? I just read at this site sheep average 150% lambing rate (150 lambs from 100 ewes).

http://books.google.com/books?id=baz2TC ... te&f=false

Here's an excerpt:

Although the heritability of fertility and fecundity (lambing rate) appears to be low, prolificacy of sheep has been increased through selection. The most important traits of the Finn sheep and the Romanov ewe are their high prolificacy in lamb crops of 250% to 400%, and their shorter lambing intervals. Therefore, systematic crossbreeding with these breeds could lengthen the natural breeding season and increase litter size of traditional breeds.

 

[dun]

There was a guy in one of the norhtern states that selected for nothing but twinners for years. He still only averaged (if memory serves) a little over 35% twins each year

Well, that's a shame. My crazy thought for the day is that a cow has 4 teats and has one calf, while a sheep has 2 teats and often has 2 lambs. Who planned that? I just read at this site sheep average 150% lambing rate (150 lambs from 100 ewes).

http://books.google.com/books?id=baz2TC ... te&f=false

Here's an excerpt:

Although the heritability of fertility and fecundity (lambing rate) appears to be low, prolificacy of sheep has been increased through selection. The most important traits of the Finn sheep and the Romanov ewe are their high prolificacy in lamb crops of 250% to 400%, and their shorter lambing intervals. Therefore, systematic crossbreeding with these breeds could lengthen the natural breeding season and increase litter size of traditional breeds.

Kind of apples and oranges. Sheep are weaned long before breeding season for one thing, there is also the growth factor. Horses only have 2 and they have single foals. Numbers don;t really mean a whole lot, unless they cause problems