twins

[justme]

OK since Saturday we've had 2 sets of twins....we have never had twins in all these years.  2 Cows =2 ding bats.  Neither one can decide which calf they want.  I'd prefer they would take two but nope....  Now I have Burp and Slurp in my barn   Not sure if I'm happy but at least they are alive, and wow will my son be excited when he gets off the bus.

One set of calves are odd.  Both calves try to beller, but neither one can make a sound.  Odd isn't it?

Ok, now if I could find my sock that I lost in the mud I'd feel better! lol

 

[Simmymom1]

  ;D  Justme - You are too funny!!  I hope you find your sock and I am sure your little boy is going to be so excited when he gets home.  Sounds like you are in for some work....  Lisa

 

[Jill]

I hate twins, don't ever care if I have another set as long as I have cows.

 

[oakbar]

I'd call em Mum & Dumb but that's just me.

Good luck with your sock---at least you know where you lost it--I have about 3 dozen pairs of socks that actually made it to the laundry room together but somehow were divorced and became singles between there and getting back into the clean clothes basket!!  I going to start wearing the two that are the most different together and see if I can start a new trend.  Then I'd never have to pair up socks again!!  Maybe not, everybody thinks I'm strange enough the way it is!!

 

[showgirl2010]

I hate twins, don't ever care if I have another set as long as I have cows.

I agree with you Jill.  They are more a pain than a pleasure.  In most cases we end up loosing both so I would much rather jsut have one healthy calf.

Jamie

 

[aj]

Twins deserve special attention when th testing. If you do test...test both even if one is a free martin heifer.

 

[CAB]

aj, please elaborate on why special treatment for TH testing twins? I understand the difference between identical twins, via., split one egg into 2 verses two eggs getting fertilized could have different TH status, but why would you need to test a free martin heifer?
  I used to litterally take a chain and chain twins together to make sure that the calves would not get separated and forgotten. It worked well for me, but yes you do need to ck them often when you to something like this. The best thing would be a small pasture dedicated to the twins, but not many people would have a separate  pasture. One year we had 17 sets of twins. It was when we had way more cows than now.

 

[Dusty]

I think twins can be like a disease in some herds.  I know one guy who has an extradorinarily high % of twins every year.  He has tried going back through his records to find if there was a certain bull that brought it in, but he has not really found anything concrete.  Has anyone else experienced this??

 

[red]

not only has she lost her socks but her hubby almost rolled their tractor & it's stuck in the mud!

On a sadder note they lost their 16 year old cow named Queenie. She died giving birth & also lost the calf. I think poor Gidget had a terrible weekend.  :'( :'( :'(

Red

 

[P-F]

The poor thing. It just seems to go that way sometimes.  Whats the saying When it rains it poors

 

[justintime]

The twin thing has me perplexed to say the least. We have always had several sets of twins each year. I used to think it was coming from some of the genetics in our herd. In 1989, we lost all our cattle to a suspected brucellosis test ( we lost 558 head .... it is a very long story and not a very pretty one. Our entire herd was destroyed before we had the test results back and everything was negative when we did receive them). We restarted with a new bunch of cows with most being unrelated to our previous herd. Two years later we had 19 sets of twins. We usually have 5 to 7 sets a year. So far this year, we have had 3 sets, and I hope that is it. I would rather have one good calf anyday. Occasionally, you get a set where both calves turn out.

A few years ago, we were involved in a university study that looked at herds that had more than average twinning. After several years of collecting data, they could not find any common factors between herds that could have been responsible for the high incidence to occur.

 

[knabe]

maine's supposedly have a 6% twinning rate, one of the highest of any breed, without selecting for it, which it probably was at one point.

it will probably be very easy to develope a test for this as it works it's way up the "defect" list.  what is the twinning rate of a purebred herd versus a commercial herd?

i've posted this link before

http://www.ansci.wisc.edu/research/twin/index.html

some pretty amazing rates from the sire side.  no news letter since 2003, though i've contacted him a couple of times (Dr. Brian Kirkpatrick)

USDA ID#928507, 26.8 twinning rate EBV (USDA), polled.
Owner: Dave Serfling.
Contact Dave Serfling at 507-765-2797.

USDA ID#888521, 47.9 twinning rate EBV (USDA),
Owner: Daren Cyphers.
Contact ABS Global Inc, 1 - 800 - ABS - STUD.

USDA ID#949673, 42.8 twinning rate EBV (USDA).
Owner: Daren Cyphers.
Contact Hoffman A.I. Breeders, 801 - 753 - 7883.

USDA ID #918521, 50.7 twinning rate EBV (USDA),
Owner: Sean Smith.
Contact Sean Smith, 1211 240th Avenue, Thurman, IA 51654. 712-628-3005.

USDA ID#969549, 55.9 twinning rate EBV (USDA).
Owner: Dave Serfling.
Contact Dave Serfling at 507-765-2797.

USDA ID#998628, 64.0 twinning rate EBV (USDA), progeny test not completed
Owner: ProlifiCow Inc.
Contact Brian Kirkpatrick, 5615 Longford Terrace, Madison, WI 53711, 608-271-6904.

USDA ID#969381, 67.3 twinning rate EBV (USDA),
Owner: ProlifiCow Inc.
Contact Brian Kirkpatrick, 5615 Longford Terrace, Madison, WI 53711, 608-271-6904.

 

[CAB]

JIT, I don't know how I would have handled a complete dispersal without results back in. Sorry. I have had to test all of our cows 2 times over the years for bangs B/C of a high titer from calfhood vac. program. Just one of the reasons that I can get surly about vets, not all and I know that we need them, but??? I think that twinning % is a testament to fertility and nutrition. I think that certain breeds twin more easily than others. When we had fairly large %s of twins, we were breeding Simi in a rotational system. It seemed the higher the % simi, the more twins, and certain cow families will have higher twinning rates.