Farm Question for the cow experts

[babysteps]

We acquired a couple of red Angus cows almost 2 years ago and a black Angus bull last fall.

So calving season started about 2 weeks ago - and so far we have 2 sets of twins. We only HAVE three cows and one hasn't even calved yet.

Twins are normal in goats and sheep, but I was under the impression that they were quite rare in cows. But I'm wondering if they're more common than I thought? We were pretty surprised and impressed when our two year old heifer had twins, but then when the next cow also gave us twins a week later we were shocked.

So far we have three boys and a girl. We are anticipating that she will be a freemartin and sterile.

Are twins really that rare for us to have gotten 2 sets (so far!) out of only 3 cows this spring? Or are we shockingly blessed - or maybe cursed, lol!

 

[moldy]

We raised black Angus for years and I only remember 2 sets of twins. We usually sold, as we didn't want to take the chance of them being sterile.

 

[BeeMan]

Been raising cows for over 50 years, along with lots of other animals. I’ve seen two sets of twins in that time. With average of 25 “momma cows” at any time. Only one male - female pair and she was not a “free martin”. Not saying they are uncommon, just that I’ve not experienced many multiple births in cows.

 

[summerthyme]

They are more common in some breeds than others. And we noticed that the dairy farmers who had lots of 5win calves generally used hormones frequently to synchronize heat cycles.

I suspect its just coincidence, although it *could* have a genetic component... if they are from lines that produced twins in the past. We had an Ayrshire cow who produced near world-record amounts of milk... and had four sets of twins in 4 years! Every set was either both bulls, or a freemartin and a bull! But aside from that, in 45 years of having up to 70 calvings a year, I only remember maybe half a dozen sets of twins.

You may never see them again, although they are more common in beef cattle.

Summerthyme

 

[babysteps]

Interesting! The cows we have are related - we bought them as a bred-back cow with a heifer calf by her side - so essentially they are mom and daughters. The youngest daughter and the mom have calved so far with the older daughter yet to go.

So if it's possibly genetic... goodness. Well at least life isn't boring!

We have kind of assumed that as a beef breed, the moms will have a harder time producing enough milk for twins. The female was rejected by mom so we are bottle feeding her, and we are watching the three bull calves to make sure they look like they're getting enough. We'll supplement if necessary.

I'm not honestly sure whether to hope for another set of twins from our last girl - or hope for NOT getting another set!!

 

[TxGal]

We've had at least 100 births in our 10+ years of raising a smallish herd of cattle, and we've never had a set of twins. Even though we were for the most part very lucky and had few problems, I don't miss having had no twins born. I'm really glad that you haven't had any calving issues with your twin births, that's great!

 

[cowboy]

While it's more common than thought it's not a good thing.

Many times a cow will lay down and have one then move and have a second, then forgetting about the first and not excepting it later on as it is weak and dying

Feeding grain will help mom make extra milk but that may take 10 to 20 pounds a day for a couple three months.

 

[summerthyme]

Yes, cows nursing twins will definitely benefit from a bit of supplemental grain... after 6 weeks or so, you could switch to feeding a 16% protein calf starter to the babies, maybe via a "creep feeder" type setup. Its more efficient to supplement the calves than to feed (Expensive! ) grain to the mamas... most beef cows can easily feed two calves for at least 8-10 weeks... after that, if you have really good pasture, they all still may do just fine. But if you don't have a way to rotate pastures, and if you have reason to believe the average forage they are getting is less than 16% protein, you may need to supplement one or both.

Just watch them (and, if possible, handle them)... they'll lose weight, but shouldn't get "ribby". A beef cow should always have at least some flesh covering the short ribs (the ribs that jut out horizontally ahead of the hipbones)... they should at least feel smooth... in a cow in good flesh, they'll be barely able to be felt. In a fat cow, you can't feel them. In a thin animal (who needs supplementation) they'll feel sharp.

We need pics!

Summerthyme

 

[cowboy]

Was mom kicking the heifer like trying to kill it or just nudging it away? Are they still together? Who's doing the bottling? Once she is sucking strong you can get her on a bucket that's hooked to the fence or something so she don't turn it over.

 

[babysteps]

Mom was actively chasing the girl away and storming her off while keeping the boy close to her. They are all in the same pasture. My teen daughters and I take turns bottle feeding her - she's just about 2 weeks old now and definitely the biggest and strongest of the group, so moving her to a bucket is probably going to happen sooner rather than later!

And I'll see if I still remember how to add pics to a post, lol. The girl is hard to get a pic of, she wants to be in our back pocket all the time. I got a few pics of her and then the three boys. Because the bull is black, the calves all are as well - except for the girl who is more dark brown than true black.

Nope. My picture files are too big. I'll have to go in and try to make them smaller before I can post them.

 

[cowboy]

Sooner is less weight to fight. Back her into a corner or wall, stradling her with bucket in one hand get her to sucking on two fingers and lead her head into the bucket submerging your fingers enough she can suck in milk, then ease them out of her mouth. Expect it to take a few lessons to get it down. I add some calf starter to the milk just to soften and give her a taste for them before putting some bright hay out and covering it with starter to get her mousing around in the hay. Once she is onto the starter she will lead the rest of the calves to a creep feeding system later on as they outgrow moms milk supply.

 

[shepherdess]

MARC or the Meat Animal Reasearch Center affiliated with the University of Nebraska had a research cow herd in the 90s that were genetically twinners. They were studying the calving ease, maternal traits of cows and natural raising of twins, weaning weights etc to determine if twinning cows would be more profitable for ranchers or if extra labor inputs would counter the benefit of twins. The study ended, and the sizable twinning cow herd was dispersed at auction. Many farmers in the area bought nice cows from the MARC herd, so twinning is common in our area still to this day. If your cows came from the Midwest (Nebraska) they could have the twin genetics that were dispersed.