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Twinning in Dairy Cattle and Its Relation to Production¹

Department of Animal Husbandry, Iowa State College, Ames

ABSTRACT

This investigation was prompted by occasional inquiries from dairymen concerning the frequency of twins among dairy cattle, and by remarks that high-producing cows are more likely to have twins, but that their production following the birth of twins is lower.

Investigations of twin frequencies among dairy cattle (2, 12) indicate differences between breeds. Frequencies obtained from herd records appear to be slightly higher than those obtained from the herd-books kept by breed societies.

Several authors have compared the milk and butterfat production of dams of twins with the production of other members of the herd, or with the herd average (8, 10, 18, 19, 22). In every case, the average production of dams of twins was higher than that of cows which produced only singles. For example, Pfau et al. (22) reported the average daily milk production of 26 dams of twins to be 30.1 ± 1.1; whereas, the herd average was 29.1 ± 0.6.

¹ Journal Paper No. J-3196 of the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. Project No. 1053. This project is part of North Central Regional Project NC-2.