Double Shot of Twins, trouble getting one cow to accept them

[e/bcattle]

Its been an action packed weekend to say the least.  Saturday morning I pulled a set of Johnny Walker Red heifer twins out of a White Boy cow and they are doing great.  This morning we had a set of Texas Twister twins ( bull and heifer) out of one of our Charolais cows.  Calves look great but the Charolais cow doesn't want them. We have never had a cow reject her calf and I am unsure what to do.  I have already moved them to a small pen and separated them from the herd to keep the cow from wondering off, she is mildly aggressive with them but I don't think she will hurt them. 

Any help or suggestions on how to get her to accept both or even one of them?  She is an aged cow that has had 8 calves and is always very protective but not this time. 

Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[KCF]

If you have a chute, you can put the cow in the chute and let one or both calves suck that way she gets used to them. Also have had a some luck with either putting some salt or a little feed on the backs of the calf. It sound silly but it gets the  cow to lick on the calf and transfer her sent to them.

 

[kanshow]

Will she take one if you pull the other away?    We frequently get several sets of twins every year and some cows just never do want that 2nd calf.   

 

[kjd farms]

I agree with KCF, use the headgate/chute as much as possible and keep them separated as you are.  The main thing is to be persistent and don't give up on them.

 

[doc-sun]

sell the heifer calf (a freemartin) for a bucket calf and let the cow raise the bull.  easier to manage now and more profitable over time.

 

[e/bcattle]

The cow is doing better with the calves but not 100 percent accepting of both.  She's taken a little more to the bull calf than the heifer but she seems to be doing a lot better.  Luckily I have some small holding pens behind our chute and thats where I've got them housed right now, have had the calves nurse 5 times today.  Thanks for the idea of the salt I never would have thought of that and will give it a try a little later on tonight when I head back out to check on them.  The calves don't look to bad and even though she is a free martin I think she may do some good as a market heifer but only time will tell.

Thanks again for the help.

Eric

 

[Dyer Show cattle]

Anyway you do it you prob want to pull one calf off her. Vary few cows can raise 2 quality show calves at the same time. Most of the time you leave any twins on any cow and you can always tell they are twins just don't grow as good when splitting the milk supply. My best cow had a set of My turn heifers last year, pulled one off and the heifer that the cow raised is one of the best in the lot. She milks great but I know that heifer wouldnt have turned out nearly as well if I kept both calves on her to raise all year.

 

[ruhtram]

Do you have any pictures? I would love to see the twins

 

[clubcalve]

I would love to see the Johnny Walker Red Twins I have has some great calves out of him and would like to see more of his calves

 

[e/bcattle]

I will get some pictures up as soon as I can remember to take a camera out there with me and figure out how to get them uploaded.  Luckily one of my buddies has offered as much milk as I need from the dairy to supplement the calves, so leaving them on the cow plus supplemental feeding may turn out to work alright.  Plus it ill take some of the strain off me to keep up with growing calves.

 

[woltemathangus]

my best 2 market animals i have ever had were both freemartin heifers.