Comments on: A New Type of Twins

By: mudranch

mudranch — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:15:06 +0000

Hi Patsy,

I haven’t learned much more about the mysterious twinning in cattle but I have talked with a little old lady who is my neighbor who was the wife of a cattle rancher for years until widowed. She said that she remembers that happening to them at times and it had to do with their nutrients and feed over the gestation. I don’t know how much of that is science and how much is cowboy logic (I prefer the latter ). But thank you so much for responding! It is interesting to hear from someone else who has had this happen to them. There sure isn’t much to find on the internet about it.

Joan

By: Patsy Fox

Patsy Fox — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:37:30 +0000

This is really interesting. We have beef cattle. Red Angus bulls, cross cows, Charolais, black baldies,and black Angus. Fall cows are calving right now. We have 64 to calve and 26 have calved already. Here is the kicker we have had 5 sets of twins out of the 26. All are living and just fine. Had to pull the 2nd set. first one out of the shoot was breach so we called the vet. All was taken care of in ample time so they both are fine. Was looking to find the stats on this when I ran across your web page. We have one pasture now that is a nursery. We pulled one calf off and we are bottle feeding. She was a first calf heifer and the 1st set of twins. Thinking might need one to put on cow at sometime if we loose one. never hurts to be prepared, and she will raise one lots better than two being her first. Can’t really find any info on the oddity of this. If you have any more information would like to know.

By: Got a Good Name? « Mud Ranch’s Real Dirt

Got a Good Name? « Mud Ranch’s Real Dirt — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:19:41 +0000

[...] second (technically our third) calf was born at the end of last week. We came home late one night from being out at a [...]

By: Desperate Horsewife

Desperate Horsewife — Wed, 27 May 2009 05:25:13 +0000

Sorry the twin didn’t survive, but still an exciting event.

Those flies are driving me nuts, too, lol!

By: mudranch

mudranch — Wed, 27 May 2009 04:54:06 +0000

Thanks for the insight from your vet Marjorie! Mama is doing well today — yesterday she “gave-up” motherhood for a while and one of our other cows took care of Pigpen for her while she relaxed in the marshy spot of our pasture. Pigpen is doing great though and spunky so he must be getting what he needs as far as nutrition. I’ll be doing another post on him shortly… When I get a round tuit (ever found one of those?)

But about our other mama cows, they are like a large family in that they’ll even nurse eachother’s calves if it comes down to it. It’s quite amazing to see them work in their family unit.