TWIN CALVES

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6864, 20 March 1929, Page 10

TWIN CALVES

QUESTION OF BREEDING. ggrr Where twins are born and both animals are of the same sex. both animals will breed. Where a heifer is twinned with a bull, the heifer, as a general rule, will not breed, but the bull will prove a breeder, says Hoard's Dairyman. In most eases where a hciter is twinned with a bull, the heifer is not a true female, and does not the fully developed female organs. This is explained on the basis that oidiuarily iho twins will be included in one membrane and for some reason the circulation of the blood from one calf to the other tends to destroy the development of the true female organs. If the twins arc born in separate membranes, as is sometimes the ease, a true heifer develops. This is somewhat unusual, but is I lie occasion that gives Tise to the opinion that, when a heiier is born twin to a bull she may prove to be a breeder. This happens so mircquently, however, that it is considered unwise to attempt to raise the heifer unless she may possibly have come from an extremely valuable cow, and one desires to run the chance of her proving a breeder. Ordinarily, the heifer calf is best disposed of for veal, but the bull may be raised for breeding purposes.