We strated calving the first week of January and s far we got 40% twins. We use to calve in Feb/Mar but we moved up to Jan/Feb this year would that have anything to do with the increase? Also everyset of twins is one bull and one heifer. Is this the most combanation of twins? I sure hope that we stop getting the twins but I am happy cause so far no problems other then one TH calf.
Year of the twin
- Thread starter TPX
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Rocky Hill Simmental
Well-known member
One of my uncle had a cow have twins already this year.
We've never had twins born here, we've had some twins we bottle raised from other people but that's it. We're still having mostly heifers. Our bull (the one under my user name) has only thrown 1 bull calf in the three years we've been using him. We've had 2 little heifers already this year.
Good luck with those twins.
We've never had twins born here, we've had some twins we bottle raised from other people but that's it. We're still having mostly heifers. Our bull (the one under my user name) has only thrown 1 bull calf in the three years we've been using him. We've had 2 little heifers already this year.
Good luck with those twins.
showsteerdlux
Well-known member
Well two calves means double the money. Can't complain about that! ;D
Are they all healthy and vigorous at birth?
Are they all healthy and vigorous at birth?
That's a pretty high percentage of twins! We usually get several sets every year, sometimes they are more work but in the end.. 2 calves are better than one. One thing to watch out for on heifer/bull sets is that the heifer may be a freemartin (infertile). You can have them checked when they are a little older but before you've spent a lot of time & money into developing a breeding heifer that will never breed. I do think it is genetic and environmental. Our biggest year of twinning followed a breeding season where the cows were on really good & lush wheat pasture. Seems like Siimmis in general have a higher rate of twinning. I was talking to my dad about this and in all the 40+ years they raised Herefords, they only had one set of twins ever. I think we had 8 or 9 sets last year.
Jill
Well-known member
I hate twins, you can have them all!
justintime
Well-known member
Twins give me pains where I don't have windows! I will take a good single to most any set of twins. Occasionally, you luck out and have a good set of the same sex, but usually they are one of each sex... or one is dead at birth.... or the mom will only claim one.... or they drag the mom down so much that she calves late the next year etc etc etc. They usually are more trouble than they are worth.
I don't know why, but we always seem to have an abundance of twins here. Last year was the least we ever had with 5 sets, but 5 years ago we had 23 sets. I have tried to keep track of genetics involved and there is no pattern. We have Shorthorn, Charolais, Angus and Maine Angus cows and they all have had twins. Last year 3 of our 5 sets were out of first calf heifers. Twins did help us achieve our first 100% calf crop at weaning, last year, in many years. That is, we weaned more calves in the fall than the number of cows we bred the previous year. Must be the water that is causing all these twins.
Another thing I am experiencing, is a high number of heifer calves. Not sure if this is linked to anything or not. In the last two years we have been over 80 % heifers on our purebred cows. Three years ago, we had 60% heifers. Our ET calves born three years ago were 13 heifers and 2 bulls. Four years ago, we had 58% heifers with all our ET calves being heifers. I think we may have used up a big portion of our luck that year as we implanted 18 embryos, got 17 pregnancies and 18 heifer calves ( one embryo split and resulted in two identical twin heifers). We are just approaching our first calves this year. Maybe the averages will even out this year with a bunch of bull calves.
I don't know why, but we always seem to have an abundance of twins here. Last year was the least we ever had with 5 sets, but 5 years ago we had 23 sets. I have tried to keep track of genetics involved and there is no pattern. We have Shorthorn, Charolais, Angus and Maine Angus cows and they all have had twins. Last year 3 of our 5 sets were out of first calf heifers. Twins did help us achieve our first 100% calf crop at weaning, last year, in many years. That is, we weaned more calves in the fall than the number of cows we bred the previous year. Must be the water that is causing all these twins.
Another thing I am experiencing, is a high number of heifer calves. Not sure if this is linked to anything or not. In the last two years we have been over 80 % heifers on our purebred cows. Three years ago, we had 60% heifers. Our ET calves born three years ago were 13 heifers and 2 bulls. Four years ago, we had 58% heifers with all our ET calves being heifers. I think we may have used up a big portion of our luck that year as we implanted 18 embryos, got 17 pregnancies and 18 heifer calves ( one embryo split and resulted in two identical twin heifers). We are just approaching our first calves this year. Maybe the averages will even out this year with a bunch of bull calves.
Jill
Well-known member
At this point we are 100% heifer calves, we have only had heifers calve so far, hopefully that means our "steer" matings will have a better shot at bulls.
dutch pride
Well-known member
Just wondering how long it will be before sexed semen is commercially available? With different bulls more geared to heifers and others for steers and bulls, sure would be nice to guarantee what you will get with a specific mating. Also sexed embryo's.
DLZ
DLZ
We dont like twins either b/c it does take alot out of the cows. We did talk about if we get more we might have to do some creep feed this year just to take a little pressure off the cows. We did get more rain then usual last spring so that probably had something to do with it.
renegade
Well-known member
I dont know how many on here have used select sires but one of the guys that works around here for them said that they can already seperate semen into heifers and bulls with some machine they have. But its a lot more exspensive
