Twin Heifers

[dt34715]

I had a cow with twin heifers This past fall. I ended up bottle feeding one and the cow accepted the 2nd one.
The 2nd one really looks good and I was wandering being a twin should I keep her or not??
Will she breed okay?

 

[Silver]

She has the same chance to breed as any single born calf. In my experience she will be more likely to have twins at some point in her life, although I'm not sure that accepted science will agree with me.

 

[Ky hills]

She has the same chance to breed as any single born calf. In my experience she will be more likely to have twins at some point in her life, although I'm not sure that accepted science will agree with me.

That has been my experience too that once a cow has twins she is likely to again and her daughters are likely to as well.

 

[TCRanch]

Kept my bottle twin & sold her sister to a neighbor as a bred heifer. 8 years later, neither one of them have had twins - knock wood!!! Prob jinx myself now.

@dt34715 were you concerned she might be a freemartin? That's if the twins are bull/heifer and it's not 100% the heifer will be unable to conceive.

 

[76 Bar]

That has been my experience too that once a cow has twins she is likely to again. I have one a that had 7 sets of twins in a row with a 268 day CI & she accepted both no fuss no muss. Pretty amazing. Finally caught with her this year...calves were back wards & lost both. Left one dead one in the corral overnight before shipping her the next morning. her wailing could be heard far & wide.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

U S Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska (that's from memory) ran Twinning Herd Tests for several years.
Can't remember how many they had when the test was closed. Some of the bulls were producing an abnormally high
number of multiple births. I would think the results of the research would still be available. From what I gathered the research
all but closed the door on the cow being the carrier of the twinning gene.

 

[sstterry]

U S Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska (that's from memory) ran Twinning Herd Tests for several years.
Can't remember how many they had when the test was closed. Some of the bulls were producing an abnormally high
number of multiple births. I would think the results of the research would still be available. From what I gathered the research
all but closed the door on the cow being the carrier of the twinning gene.

Is this it?

 

[coachg]

Have had 4 different sets from 4 different cows . Have lost one on 3 momma's and both on the fourth. Thought I had it licked last year . Moved them into our small pasture at the barn where I could monitor them better . 4th or 5 th day little heifer died but saved the bull calf . Mom had enough milk for both , at least for a couple of months.Not fond of twins !

 

[Silver]

I'm not a fan of twins either, but this year 16 cows gave me 28 live calves. Three of the cows are raising full sets, I sold a few as bottle calves (nice little bit of cash income), and a few got grafted.