Farmer writes: Pros and cons to multiple births

The next three weeks are always the busiest time here every year. I enjoy it, dealing with the new arrivals and seeing the results of the breeding plan become reality.

Calving has been progressing pretty slowly here. Prior to Friday morning, seven had calved and I hadn't seen any of them calving. That all changed when I moved one of the older cows to the calving pens. I handled her and felt two front legs and mouth so I left her be and headed back to the house. She had been scanned as a single and she knows more about calving than me. When I returned I found her forcing hard and when I handled I was greeted by the tail and backside of a calf. Twins.

Setbacks

I tried to push that one forward in an effort to get its back legs up to get ropes onto them. The cow kept pushing against me, it was easy to see why she calved so easily before. Unfortunately, I had no luck or much power in my right shoulder. I've been carrying a shoulder muscle injury the last few weeks that requires painkillers and rest, very inconvenient timing. I had little alternative but to call the vet. We got the calves out, dead.

Typically she's one of the better cows in the herd. She turned nine years old on Valentine’s Day, is an eighth calver, has a five star maternal rating and a lifetime calving interval of 363 days. She's the type of suckler cow you'd like in a herd; no fuss and gets on with the job.

To be honest it pissed me off for a while and I was surprised that it did. When numbers rise you, can't afford to dwell on small setbacks but I'm a competitive person and don't like to lose. There was the constant what ifs. All is done now and as disappointing as it is, the situation could be a whole lot worse.

Twins

Twins have been a regular feature of calving season here for a good number of years. Usually there are four or five sets every year with nine sets of twins in 2012 being the on farm record. Some 13 out of those 18 survived and we've scanned for twins ever since.

There are pros and cons to multiple births on a suckler farm. Yes it's extra output but it comes at a cost in terms of getting the cow back in calf and labour. There's a lot to be said for a straightforward single calf.