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dr p 
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Joined: 24 Feb 2019
Location: new york
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 Topic: Fertile free martin
Posted: 30 Oct 2024 at 5:22am |
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Site seems a little slow so thought i would share this even though i know there aren't a lot of cow guys left. Had a heifer that was born twin to a bull calve yesterday. In 40 years of dairy farming that is the first one i have ever had that was fertile. Dad had one i think too. And guernseys unfortunately have a lot of twins.
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jaybmiller
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: Greensville,Ont
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Posted: 30 Oct 2024 at 6:10am |
gotta ask... What's wrong with twins ?? TWO for the price of one ,seems like a deal ??!!
Somehow( don't ask...) , my office here became a nursery 5 years ago to a lamb, that was a twin. seemed momma ewe wasn't feeding it so 'we' took over. cute little guy but.......
Jay
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3 D-14s,A-C forklift, B-112
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Never burn your bridges, unless you can walk on water
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Pat the Plumber CIL
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: Springfield,Il
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Posted: 30 Oct 2024 at 7:12am |
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We raised and milked registered Guernsey cows untilwemovedoff thefarmwhen I was 16. Yes lots of twins and almost every time they are bull calves . Dad was always upset when bull calves were born . Looking for more milking cows. He would find someone that was looking to replace a calf for a cow that had lost a calf and get rid of them as soon as possible. Figured dad would cut them and feed them out ,but he never wanted to mess with them.
Edited by Pat the Plumber CIL - 30 Oct 2024 at 7:13am
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You only need to know 3 things to be a plumber;Crap rolls down hill,Hot is on the left and Don't bite your fingernails
1964 D-17 SIV 3 Pt.WF,1964 D-15 Ser II 3pt.WF ,1960 D-17 SI NF,1956 WD 45 WF.
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klinemar
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Posted: 30 Oct 2024 at 7:24am |
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In all of the years that my Dad and I milked cows we never had a twin born heifer that would conceive. Veterinarian had a probe that he could insert at 500 lbs.to confirm the reproductive tract was developing and we never had one. We usually raised them them as a steer for meat. As my Vet said Cows are not made to have litters!
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Tbone95
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Location: Michigan
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Posted: 30 Oct 2024 at 7:44am |
 jaybmiller wrote:
gotta ask... What's wrong with twins ?? TWO for the price of one ,seems like a deal ??!!
Somehow( don't ask...) , my office here became a nursery 5 years ago to a lamb, that was a twin. seemed momma ewe wasn't feeding it so 'we' took over. cute little guy but.......
Jay
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In the beef business, quite often the cow doesn’t have enough milk for two calves. Quite often, she’ll reject one right off the bat. And if it’s a male/ female pair, more often than not the female will be sterile.
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klinemar
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Posted: 30 Oct 2024 at 8:12am |
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One year I had Cows deliver 16 sets of twins on 100 Holstein milk cows. No one could determine why. Veterinarian finally said it must be your well water as he didn't have any answer. The problems with twins in milk cows is they take so much more out of a cows health. They can get hypocalcimia,which is a calcium imbalance. Displaced abomasum which is one of the cows 4 stomachs decides to twist resulting in surgery. Also retained placenta which can result in serious infection of the uterus. I could go on but most of you get the picture.
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Tbone95
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Posted: 30 Oct 2024 at 9:02am |
klinemar wrote:
One year I had Cows deliver 16 sets of twins on 100 Holstein milk cows. No one could determine why. Veterinarian finally said it must be your well water as he didn't have any answer. The problems with twins in milk cows is they take so much more out of a cows health. They can get hypocalcimia,which is a calcium imbalance. Displaced abomasum which is one of the cows 4 stomachs decides to twist resulting in surgery. Also retained placenta which can result in serious infection of the uterus. I could go on but most of you get the picture. |
Yep, as my veterinarian says, cows are meant to have 1 calf! I had triplet heifers born one time, in absolutely terrible weather conditions. I was so confused rounding up the two out, and mom, then there lay the third one! Third one was dead.
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Harvey/pa
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Posted: 30 Oct 2024 at 11:17am |
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Bought a registered Ayrshire cow about 1996. She was bred to a Holstien but was on DHIA test. Found out later she was #20 in the Ayrshire Blue Book. I wanted a heifer out of her in the worst way. she had 5 bull calves and then her last lactation had twins, yup bull & heifer. Heifer did get bred and had a bull calf and turned out to be a 3/4 cow. I complained about it to my Vet and he said I should be thankful that I still had the bloodline. She got milkfever and died 3 days later, moral is don't complain I guess...Harvey
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dr p
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Posted: 30 Oct 2024 at 6:32pm |
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Guernsey cows seem to be metabolically more fragile than, well, everything. But sometimes they surprise you. Maybe ten years ago, came home from the office and a fall yearling had twin heifers and all three were waiting at the gate.
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Ray54
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Posted: 18 hours 6 minutes ago at 3:30pm |
I have cousins that are into Shorthorn beef cattle. The one has had a number of cows that have had more than one set of twins. Then had triplets that he kept alive. The Milking Shorthorn influence probably helps them raise a twin better than my Hereford and Angus genetics.
My cows are in more brush country, so no matter how much you check on them it is easy to loss track of them calving ( 2000 acres to run 75 cows). So survival of the fittest, very few calving problems. (This will probably jinks the whole thing an probably have lots of trouble yet this year.) Probably had a set of twins this year. A number of things happened this year to disrupt things. Did not get the cows moved until we had a dozen calves already. Have one calf that tried returning to the other side of the road. No cow showed any sign of missing a calf. My son traded it away rather raising it on a bottle.
As a few years ago another rancher gave him an unclaimed calf. After much special care she was a free martin, which he could not bring himself the sell or butcher after bottle raising her. So he takes her to Ag Education days where kids come and pet her.
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Tracy Martin TN
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Posted: 16 hours 21 minutes ago at 5:15pm |
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Dad had a black and white baldie that throwed twins every time.They were bulls, bull and heifer, sometimes same color, sometimes one red and one black one. Later on he had to put her down, she got cancer around here eye and face. Tracy
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No greater gift than healthy grandkids!
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Tbone95
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Posted: 8 hours 37 minutes ago at 12:59am |
Tracy Martin TN wrote:
Dad had a black and white baldie that throwed twins every time.They were bulls, bull and heifer, sometimes same color, sometimes one red and one black one. Later on he had to put her down, she got cancer around here eye and face. Tracy |
Did you know that cancer issue is a trait of white face cattle? Vet told me that. We’ve only had a few that got that but sure enough they were white faced.
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klinemar
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Posted: 2 hours 48 minutes ago at 6:48am |
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I had 3 cows in my years milking that had cancer.1 a white cow had eye cancer. Another had jaw cancer,her teeth started falling out and she couldn't eat. And the last one had cancer in her uterus,Vet would palpate her every month at herd check and the tumor got bigger than a basketball. Had another cow with emphysema and she didn't smoke!
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