TWINS!!!

[3GFarm]

Hello. I have a question and request for information from anyone on here. First, I seldom post here but do read boards every day.

Anyway, after 5 years of calving a registered angus group, my wife got her wish today. My favorite cow had twin heifer calves. She seems to be doing real well, we tagged them with a white and yellow tag to tell them apart and monitor both. Both have nursed, she cleaned both up, and seems to be doing real WELL for a 3 year old 2nd calver.

Questions, A- any and all suggestions on care of the three of them is welcome. They are in the barn now due to our current monsoon.

B- what causes twins, is it predominately a split of the egg, or fertilization of two eggs?

Thanks in advance for the help. I was apprehensive of twins because you hear horror stories..but 12 hours in all seems TOO WELL.

As a side note, last year we had a "C", lost the calf and bottle fed a calf that is now my wife's pet.

Bill

 

[cypressfarms]

I would never "wish" for twins. There will surely be many CT members following with good advice, but I would basically keep her close by and supplement the cow with feed. The last set of twins born here (Maybe two years ago?), I brought the cow up to the front and kept her in a small paddock with her calves. I fed her every day - mainly concerned that without the feed she wouldn't produce enough milk and would lose condition. The end result for that cow was two calves that each weighed 350 at 205 days. If you add the weight of the two calves together, it surpasses my normal single calf weight by over 100 pounds. That moma still has a home here, and she calved the next year as well.

Some would say split the calves and raise them seperately, only one with moma. However, from my standpoint, if the cow is in good shape and can handle it let her raise them herself. It's easier on everyone (you and the calves) and you basically will just have to provide moma with some extra feed. I have seen times when a moma with twins was just left to fend/forage for herself; she lost so much condition taking care of the calves that she was open the following year.

 

[angie1]

These were my twins:

They were let out in the pasture with their mom. My vet said that increased feed will not increase a beef cows milk production if she is already in good condition ~ but she may need it to maintain condition. He did advise creep feeding the calves so that they had something to supplement. Cow stayed in great condition without the feed, and took excellent care of both calves (the cow was a heifer, so I was worried about that) ~ calves were supplemented.

Edit: As you can tell by the pics, these calves are from 2 seperate eggs.
It is my understanding that that is far more common than one egg splitting.

 

[upfrombottom]

Just wondering, since I've never had to make that decision, would you ever consider keeping twins or a twin as a replacement? I have been told by others that they would never even consider it.

 

[regolith]

Twin heifers, yes I would, especially if I liked the cow. Some people say don't, I think on two counts - the calves are smaller to start with and take some catching up, and twinning may be genetic - as in, they could go on to have twins themselves.

Heifer twinned to a bull is likely to be infertile.

Angie: is that one heifer, one bull? One calf looks much stronger than the other, it'll be interesting to see if they grow up still with the diference.

 

[angie1]

Angie: is that one heifer, one bull? One calf looks much stronger than the other, it'll be interesting to see if they grow up still with the diference.

Nah, they are 2 heifers. They are still so new in this pic that I am not sure they are fully dry yet and maybe one was still getting her legs under her. This was two calving seasons ago and, as they grew, any size difference was unnoticeable.

As to upfrombottom's question, I was unable to keep these calves ~ but I would not hesitate to keep a twin heifer for replacement. It would not be disqualified based on that.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Just wondering, since I've never had to make that decision, would you ever consider keeping twins or a twin as a replacement? I have been told by others that they would never even consider it.

I've got a pair of cows 7 year old that were twins and they are an asset.

 

[3GFarm]

Thank you for the information and suggestions. Right now, 48 hours into this all three are doing very well. They are all in the barn to stay out of our heavy rainfall this past weekend. This is a young, 3 YO cow. She still is in quite good condition. I am feeding her good hay and supplemental feed. We tried to take her into the yard for some grass, but she did not want to leave her calves.

We check on them every 2 hours during the day, then I get up once in the night..so that is about a 4 hour window. We tried a bottle on each of them with a small amount, but neither one took it...so we figured they were getting enough.

Will keep you posted on their progress..

Thanks again,

Bill

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

First, I will say -- I HATE TWINS.
As in your case, there are some twins born unassisted & do great. Just remember that this is in the smaller percentile of twinning.
We generally have at least 1 set of twins each year.
If we have two born alive, and "IF" we have a cow that may have lost a calf, we will definately split one off & give it to the cow without a calf. But, that's just 'luck of the draw" to have the timing right.
We generally suppliment the cow for a week or two, but if the cow is in good BCS at the time of calving & is a good milker, she should be able to raise the two calves on good pasture. Just keep an eye on her BCS - don't let her go down hill.
We have had several raise twins, never had one weigh less that 500# at 7 months of age. Would NEVER use the fact that the calf was a twin (twin to a heifer) as a reason to cull. By breeding age, she should be about caught up to contemporaries.

 

[3GFarm]

Jeanne,
A question for you then. One calf weighed 63 lbs, the other at 65 lbs. We had them out in the yard with their mother last night, too much rain to turn them into the pasture with rest of cows.

Anyway, Their mother is probably my best cow, only 3.5 years old. She raised a very good heifer calf last year. I also have her mother, first cow we bought. She has also done real good, has had 6 calves, only one heifer, the mother of the twins. My wife really wants to keep them as replacements, but then I have to get a new bull. I really like my bull now, I sync and use natural service, and he usually breeds all 10 animals within a week. I am afraid of getting a bull like my previous one, breed a cow a month and attempt to tear down a couple of gates in between.

Would they make good replacements as twins? I am worried they may be slow growers. I usually don't breed them til later, letting them calve at 30 months of age. I have a "regular" job and also my "part-time"farm job.

Thanks for the info and suggestions...

Bill

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I can't say whether YOUR calves will make replacement females. Depends on cow, management, weather, health, etc.
If the cow has enough milk for both, they should be fine. You might need to suppliment the cow with grain if her body condition score (BCS) goes down. We have extremely great pasture & heavy milking cows, so my cows can handle raising twins to a decent size.
Since you don't breed at 15 months of age, you have a longer time to give them to compensate for possibly being smaller at weaning.
Mine are usually maybe 100# lighter than their contemporaries.

 

[GMN]

I had one set of twin heifers in a holstein cow-vet said it is very rare, a sign of good luck-enjoy them as I think twins are a miracle!

 

[Lucky_P]

No more twins for me, either, thank you.
I've had two sets; twin Simmental sired bulls out of a Red Holstein cow - and she did a good job with them; and a bull/heifer pair from a big old SM/HO cow - big black bull with contracted tendons that heat-stroked and died, and a pretty red/white freemartin heifer that the cow didn't want to claim initially - she had the heifer first, cleaned her up, put her down, and went off to have the bull, and forgot about the heifer.

Angie, while it's most likely that your twins are from two different eggs, you can't tell just by looking at those two calves. Clones of colored/spotted animals, which we know are genetically identical, don't necessarily have the exact same spotting/coloration pattern. I've seen groups of cloned HO calves, produced by splitting embryos multiple times before implantation, and their spotting patterns were nowhere near identical, even though their genetics were.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

John Pollak, geneticist, told us that the "spots" are never the same - BUT, the measured amount of WHITE is the same - maybe in different places & different shapes & number of spots - but, still the same AMOUNT! go figure!!!

 

[CKC1586]

I seem to be having some issues posting pictures.... :? but anyway top pic is 2008 twins born to this cow and

This set were born May3, 2010 to her. Her name is Brooke 2, I am thinking about getting that "2" removed from her name!!

 

[jilleroo]

We just weaned a set of steer twins off a charbray cow and they are just as big as their paddock-mates, big heavy guys who hate to be parted, even for a minute. If they get separated in the mob, they dash about looking for each other, whinging mightily. The cow was unsupplemented and is still fat. We always have a few sets of twins on the go (that we know of) and, if there is any sort of reasonable grass, they manage quite fine left on the cow. We have noticed consistently over the years that twins always have extra "personality" - which they generally use for "evil" - most often being quite obnoxious little hoo-ers. Has anyone else noticed that?
We often wonder if it applies to human twins as well!