Twins

[Olga]

I've been wanting to ask opinions on this for a long time.
Remember that Thomas cow that had a set of twins and then a set of triplets less than 12 months later?
And now Clive posted a beautiful picture of twins under the "I need photos" thread (the mama cow looks awesome!).

I always thought that in beef and dairy herds they cull cows that have twins or triplets. May be it's harder on the cow to carry and feed two calves. May be the calves come out smaller and have to share the milk supply. There may be a possibility of a free-martin in a heifer and low fertility in a bull that are born twin to each other. I don't know if there are any other reasons, may be difficulty calving twins?

How often are there twins in Dexters? Do we or should we cull this trait? Since Dexters are registered I've often heard the opinion that twins are a jackpot because you get twice the money for the two calves. Do you think that attitude is right? Are we increasing the probability of twins by not culling? Is it the dam or the bull that make the trait likely?

Feel free to add questions and anything relevant on the subject.

[ctownson]

I'm not sure about all your questions and will let some others weigh in with their opinions. I did a little research and found the percentage of twins a little higher (for various breeds) than what I guessed it would be - 3% was a pretty common number. The free martin outcome is well documented in twins. I don't think I would necessarily cull a cow just because she had a set of twins; I would have to evaluate the outcome and at least one subsequent breeding before making that decision.

[gulfcapt]

I called my daughter-inlaw down in south Fl.her parents have 4 dairies(around 5500 Hoisteins cows) she said they get around 6-7% of twins and typically neither twin will live, and they do not calve easy either. They also load the calves up and ship them off soon after they are born to market.. she Its not economical to keep the calves around

[wdd]

That would be my oppinion also. Birthing of twins is harder on the cows and typically leads to assistance or c-section in many beef and Dairy animals. Anytime a Dairy cows has a tramatic birth or health set back at the beginning of the lactation it affects the milk production for that lactation. So more medical cost - less milk to sell - no calf to sell (or sell calf-vet bill= negative cash flow) = freezer meat.

[Clive]

We've had just two sets of twins, which is 1% of our births. All were born unaided and easily, presumably because they were smaller? The one set were female/female and were slightly smaller but went on to breed normally. The others were mixed sex and were a bit weedy, and the female was a freemartin. Our vet said 19 out of 20 females will be a freemartin in mixed sex twins.

In my very limited experience, I wouldn't want twins.

I also investigated the chance of breeding twins and apparently it's an incredibly hard trait to pass on. It takes many generations. Our vet said he would have no problem breeding from the male if he was capable, which he thought it would be.

[kansasdexters]

There is actually a composite breed of beef cattle called "Twinners" that have been specifically selected and developed to produce twins. My neighbor raises them and he routinely gets unassisted twin births. Here is a link that gives a bit of their history:
twinnercattle.com.au/the-twinner-story/

Patti

[rdoubled]

We had a dairy/beef cross cow who had twins several times, she handled it fine but was a big cow who had lots of milk so it was never a problem. When we had our Herefords we ended up with several cows producing twins. The twin gene came from the same bloodline. With those cows the twins were miserable to have. They were often born with one stronger then the other or one larger then the other. Sometime the cows would accept the one or the other calf and we would have to work on her accepting both. Rarely did the cows produce enough milk to to feed the calves once they were about 30-45 days old so we would have to suppliment the calves.
I have had one set of Dexter twins born and prefer to never have them again.

[laughingllama75]

we had a pair of twin angus cows that when we got them they were to breed beef. Well, each had twins. Got rid of those ladies, pronto. They calved fine, produced milk fine but we were scared of what COULD happen, the next time around. Oh, both set of twins were boys. Hmmm. The little calves were nice though, big and strapping and brought a pretty penny come sale time.

[lsg]

Over the years we have had several sets of twins in our beef herd. The main trouble we have had is that the mother hides each in a different place and sometimes just goes back for one, so the other one gets left out unless we bring the cow to the home pasture and watch her and the babies until both calves learn to stick close to mom.

[Clive]

There is a theory that when they have twins the cow may try and reject one. And if it's a mixed pair, she will try and reject (or at least abandon) the female. Or is it only when it's mixed pair? Can't remember.

Anyhow, my last set of twins was mixed and the cow did just that. She didn't reject but she abandoned the female, almost as though she knew the little heifer was of no use (it was a freemartin). I had to carry the heifer over to the cow for a day or two. She always accepted it perfectly well as if to say "Oh, I forgot that one, how could I?", and then they were OK after that short period.