Comments on: Twin calves – boon or bane?

By: Brittany

Brittany — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:53:17 +0000

Everyone’s tricks for getting cows to accept their twin calves are great! From experience, I know that some tricks work for certain cows and the ones that don’t work will work on other cows. It is important to remember that each circumstance is different than the last, and not to get frustrated too easily and try-try-again.

For those of you who find it works best by using grain or afterbirth from the other twin or dead calf on the grafted calf, you should try O-No-More, made by Springer Magrath (http://springermagrath.com/o_no_more.asp). Put it on the calf when still wet from birth or dampen the calf with a wet towel and apply. It’s ingredients smell good to cattle and also encourage cows and heifers to clean their calves.

In the spring of 2011 we had a terrible time with the Central Missouri weather in the spring with deep snow and extremely cold temperatures, and the cows were not wanting to clean their calves completely or even claim them. The claiming part could be due to that we were calving out large numbers of cows in a small area. Once I discovered the O-No-More and got our first shipment in we started using it right away. It was a complete turn around with both problems. Calves were licked clean and dry…thus preventing them from freezing due to still being wet in awful weather. And mothers were claiming babies.

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 02:46:21 +0000

Hi Everyone. this is just great reading about the twin calves, we have been very lucky with them, the mother has always taken the second calf so far ( shouldn’t talk to load ,will back fire one day, now after reading all the troubles out there) only thing we see is, yes the mother doesn’t seem to have enough milk, so on the last pair we had, gave both calves a bottle, then they would turn around and go right to the mother and suck, they are cute. Once they got out on green grass, the mother had enough milk for both. All depends on the cow, had another, we fed the one calf, yes hieter calf on the side till weaning. The comment on them not catching right away, haven’t had that, the twins mother were right on schudule……. Oh, here’s one more thing, had one cow have twins two years in a row, there the poor girl had to work hard and the the third year she was open, but she was old then too and think a bit wore out.
Will try some of the grafting tricks on the first time heifer’s that give us trouble.

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 03:14:56 +0000

Dianne

Yes it is true that if they are male & female, the female will not be fertile, but the male will be fertile. But, if they are both females the will both be fertile, and if they are both males, both will be fertile.

Rob

By: Dianne

Dianne — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:12:39 +0000

i am seeing that we were very fortunate with our twins. The mom accepted both and raised both with no problem. It did take a toll on her but she was an exception to the rule. We had twin heifers and they are still with us. We wanted to see if both would calf. The verdict is still out. They should have calves by March.

By: kera

kera — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:49:43 +0000

I was told that twin cows can’t have children.. Is this true?? please help

By: John Bonds

John Bonds — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:21:15 +0000

I will do anything not to bottle feed! I have several sets of twins each year. Before I started here they were sold for $100 right away. When I asked why I was told that they would be abandoned or just not grow. So I now keep all of them, its free money right? I put them in a small pen . I put the stronger one (the one that eats freely ) on the outside while the other tries to eat. If the mother wont allow it I put her in the chute open the side and nurse the calf. Usually after about 3 -5 days the cow starts to let the calf nurse on its own. If that doesnt work, I try to use a cow that the calf was born dead. (if I have one) I put her in the chute. and nurse the calf. I put that cows pee, poop, after birth (if its still there) on the calf and it almost always works. Once the cow gets used to the smell of the baby. I usually have 4 or more sets of twins a year. So far it has worked out really well. 5 days uf nursing the calves on the cow beats bottle feeding any day. Especiall if you use milk replacer. Not worth it. I dont know everything but you can email me anytime.
John
JVB@RanchoAlantro.com

By: Nathan Boles

Nathan Boles — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:24:18 +0000

Hello Fatih,

Twin calves are relatively rare in any beef breed, so I don’t know of any breed which is likely to produce multiple births regularly. You might want to read the article at http://animalscience.ag.utk.edu/beef/pdf/NaturallyOccurringMultipleBirthsInCattle-FDK-2004.pdf for more information on the incidence of twins in beef cattle.

By: Fatih

Fatih — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 06:21:06 +0000

Hi Everybody;

Im looking for a kind of cow whihc is giving twin or more calves in every born. Do you know any kind of cow like this? Maybe I can import my country…

By: Nathan Boles

Nathan Boles — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:06:46 +0000

Well, if the orphan is nursing another cow, it’s not really weaned, I’d think. But, my suggestion would be to pen the orphan for a couple of weeks and feed it to really get it weaned. That way you can keep it away from the surrogate cow that’s letting it nurse. I agree with you that the mother cow might start “kicking off” her real calf if you put the weaning ring on the orphan.

By: betzler

betzler — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:48:16 +0000

i have a problam.we have an orphan calf and it is weaned and we have a cow with a calf that lets it suck but her bag is small (not a big anouf for both). want to get it a weaning ring with the spikes.But im scard that the cow will not let its real baby suck because of the other what do you think.