Thanks.

Depending on the cow, I would just let her feed them both.  We have a cow that fairly regularly has twins and most times she raises them fine except last year where one of them was just not healthy from the start.  There is a chance that the other cow will naturally take the extra calf if she hasn't dried up yet.  I find that cows and calves really aren't that picky when it comes to feeding time, especially as the calves get older. 

If one of the calves isn't doing well, you can try to foster it over to the one that lost its calf.  This can be a pain if you have to do it confined and she isn't used to being pinned up.  I used to raise two to three baby calves per Jersey nurse cow and I can tell you the first week getting them all adjusted to each other is "exciting". 

Another option is the bottle feed one or both of the twins.  This is a lot of work but may be needed if one starts going downhill.

Cheers, Paul

So why would the female turn out sterile? Doesn't she get a normal set of chromosomes, one from each parent?  I would love to understand the biology on this if anybody would fill me in. Thanks!

Muddy Run Farm -- clean floors are highly overrated

http://www.thecattlesite.com/articles/975/what-is-a-freemartin

Cheer, Paul

They were twin bulls out of a Holstien cow.  Had to help her deliver the second one.  I hate to see bull/heifer twins......so disappointing!

Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Dairy and Meat Goats
http://www.freewebs.com/ozarkjewels/

Also Morningland Dairy Raw Milk Cheeses. www.morninglanddairy.com

Most of the time a heifer born twin to a bull is a free-martin.  The problem is when the bull developes his sex organs before the heifer, his testosterone inhibits the developement of her sex organs.  If she developes her sex organs first, she will be fine.  A free-martin actually lacks or has an underdeloped cervix, uterus and ovaries, hence steaks.  You can actually tell if the heifer is good or not when they are very young.  You can insert a blunt, well lubricated probe into the calf's vagina and measure how far it goes in.  A free-martin has a shorter vag than a normal heifer.  I don't have my Merck manual here at the moment (its at the dairy) so these numbers may not be right but its something like a normal heifer is 11-14cm in length and a FM is 6-8 cm.  I will have to check my Merck.  I haven't done it myself- we just wait and see- less akward than molesting a calf.  You can guess by looking at which is bigger at birth, that may be the one who developed first.  This spring we had a hol have a BIG bull, he died right after delivery, blinked his eyes but never took a breath.  We walked away then I saw a "bubble" coming out and there were feet in it!!  That was a heifer, yep, a little smaller than the bull.  We will wait and see what happens when she matures.

DB I have to disagree on the veal idea.  I have twin hols milking in the barn right now.  No problems (other than attitude) and the 4 calves they have produced thus far were single births.  And the first "grandcalf" was a single as well.  Is it genetic, oh yea, but I'm not worried.  The guy I'm getting my Jersey from had a cow that produced 4 or 5 sets of twins, then a single, then finally she went to town.  And once upon a time, my dad had 4 sets of twin heifers in his milking herd of 40- that means they were 20% of the herd!  And he would've had a heifer that was twin to a bull, too!  He had her with the steers at first but when he saw her in heat she went with the bull.  She was due to calve soon when she, and a bunch of springing heifers got coccidiosis and died. 

PS there was a rancher, I believe from ND, that had triplets this spring!! The cow accepted all 3 but they had her way from the herd for monitoring.  She can only support 3 growing calves for so long before they just won't gain like they should.   Then its time for calf candy!!