# Holstein Twins



## she-earl (Dec 15, 2011)

We had a cow deliver full-term calves yesterday afternoon.  They are very small for Holsteins.  Are calves are often 90 - 100 pounds at birth.  Together these two may weigh a combined 100 pounds.  The littlest one is a heifer I call Jill.  The larger one is a bull I call Jack.  Their sire is "Hill" hence the names.  A neighbor's ten-year-old daughter will be getting them next week after I have them started.  [


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## SheepGirl (Dec 15, 2011)

Are twin calves always male/female? My friend has a 400-cow dairy and all the sets of twins they have (though very few) are always male/female. And the female's always a freemartin so they usually sell her at auction along with her brother.


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## she-earl (Dec 15, 2011)

Not all sets of twins are mixed.  We have sets of twin heifers that we will raise.  However, bull twins and mixed sets are sold.  We are maxed out just raising our replacement heifers.  Buyers prefer holstein calves be somewhere between 95-105 pounds.  When they are as small as these, we would probably end up with a bill.  We went a small once and won't do it again because they obviously shot it.  We have different neighbors that are interested in our "freebie" calves.  You are right that in a mixed set the heifer is a "freemartin".  I raised a freemartin that did come into milk without ever calving and I didn't give her hormone shots either.  She had enough reproductive something to make her come into heat and then into milk.  She was giving one gallon of 4% milk every day.  It met our needs as well as others.  She was tame and I never tied her to milk her.  I even would kneel beside her and stand a bottle lamb on my lamb so it could nurse directly from the heifer.  They were a pair.  The heifer and lamb together even though lambs mother and brothers were in the same meadow.


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## nuts4goats (Dec 15, 2011)

Dumb question...but what exactly is a free martin?


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## marlowmanor (Dec 15, 2011)

From Wikipedia: A freemartin is an infertile female mammal which has masculinized behavior and non-functioning ovaries.[1] Genetically and externally the animal is female, but it is sterilized in the womb by hormones from a male twin, becoming an infertile partial intersex. Freemartinism is the normal outcome of mixed-sex twins in all cattle species that have been studied, and it also occurs occasionally in other mammals including sheep, goats and pigs.


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## nuts4goats (Dec 15, 2011)

VERY interesting!  Thank you!


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## ThreeBoysChicks (Dec 16, 2011)

Well you learn something new every day.  They are beautiful.  Thanks for sharing.


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## Stubbornhillfarm (Dec 16, 2011)

They are beautiful.  Congratulations on a healthy birth and the ability to give them a great home!


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## fortheloveofgoats (Dec 16, 2011)

They are cute! Thanks for sharing. I love the names too! Very well thought out.


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## jhm47 (Dec 16, 2011)

Actually, a freemarten has no ovaries.  Their reproductive tract ends where their urethra enters the vagina.  I have found many of them over my many years of AI breeding heifers.  Their vulva is usually quite small, and undeveloped.  You can check a newborn calf with a pencil.  If it goes into the vagina more than 4 inches, the calf is not a freemarten.  However, be sure to use the blunt end of the pencil, and don't use a lot of pressure.


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## marlowmanor (Dec 16, 2011)

jhm47 said:
			
		

> Actually, a freemarten has no ovaries.  Their reproductive tract ends where their urethra enters the vagina.  I have found many of them over my many years of AI breeding heifers.  Their vulva is usually quite small, and undeveloped.  You can check a newborn calf with a pencil.  If it goes into the vagina more than 4 inches, the calf is not a freemarten.  However, be sure to use the blunt end of the pencil, and don't use a lot of pressure.


Thank you for the clarification and that information. That is very useful information.

ETA: I am no cattle expert, heck I'm no expert at any livestock, so I really appreciate someone sharing this kind of knowledge. I know I didn't know you could check a calf with just a pencil.


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## rd200 (Dec 19, 2011)

There are some sets of heifer/bull twins where the Heifer turns out to be okay.  You can have your vet take a vial of blood and they send it in and like 2 weeks later you get the results back to if they are good or not. I want to say that the average is 8% that is good in the end, which isnt a whole lot, but i think the test is only $40-50 and if the calf is good, around here a newborn holstein heifer calf is worth anywhere from 200-400 depending on genetics, etc.


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## SDragon (Mar 26, 2012)

My granparents own a dairy farm.   I have herd that it is the male's sperm that produce's twins or singles but I have a hard time believing this.   They had one cow that had about 6-7 sets of twins with 1-2 singles.   Three of those sets of twins were female/female.  One of the calves, caught something and died, but they still have 5 half-sister, twins around their farm.   My grandparents get a new bull every 1.5- 2 years so it cant be the bulls that are making twins, cuz all of those sets have different dads.   The oldest set of female/female twins are preggers right now so I am curious to see if their mother had a gene that increaded the chance of twins, and was maybe passed on to her daughters.


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