Farmers breeding 'twinner' cows producing 60pc more beef and less emissions

A number of Victorian farmers are breeding 'twinner' cows which produce 60 per cent more beef and less greenhouse gas emissions.

The idea, first struck by a group of farmers in Marc, Nebraska, US, could see significant gains in beef production if explored further.

That's according to those giving it a go.

John Keiller, Cashmore, has been running a herd of 110 twinner cows the past 15 years and slowly but surely, he is upping their calving percentage.

Higher calving percentage, exactly the same trait as the high lambing percentage which is chased in the majority of Australia's sheep flocks, essentially sees more cows have twins and triplets, rather than single calves.

In the Marc herd, cattle breeders worked their way up to have about 700 cows producing calves at 160pc.

That is, about 60pc of the cows in the herd have twins each year.

The typical twinning rate in Australian beef herds is less than 5pc.

Mr Keiller's herd currently calves down at approximately 120pc, with one in five cows having twins each year, and he is working towards the 160pc mark.

His twinner herd is a mix of Hereford and Angus cows, with a little bit of Simmental through them.

"That was their heritage," Mr Keiller said.

"Since I've had them, we've tried to make them a bit more uniform, just like British continental cattle now, blacks and reds with a few baldies.

"We've got them to about 120pc at this stage and slowly moving ahead by just using more high-content twinner bulls and just letting it come up as we go."

The thinking behind twinner cattle was simple - all about production gains and efficiencies.

"A cow with a set of twins produces about 60pc more beef," Mr Keiller said.

"However, not every cow will have twins in the herd.

"If you take them to 160pc, you might be able to wean something like 140pc calves.

"If you map it out at a systems level, across the year, you're producing about 20pc more beef."

He said much of the performance improvements in the beef industry, such as better growth rates, were achieved at a rate of 0.5-1pc each year.

Mr Keiller said therefore, even the 20pc more beef was an "enormous efficiency gain".

"That's why I've been so interested in it and prepared to put some effort into it and see where we can take it," he said.

Like many farmers who have a high-performing cow or sheep, Mr Keiller was keen to have not just one, but many doing the same thing.

"What's really interesting is you go out there and there are cows which have repeated sets of twins year after year," he said.

"You look at them producing 60pc more beef.

"Probably one of those things that you see with genetics, when you have a cow like that you'll say 'I've got one, could I have two, could I have 10, could I have 100?'."

Twinner cows not only produce more beef, but they also produce less greenhouse gas emissions - which could be another win for the industry.

"Those animals are very, very good for greenhouse gas [reduction] because they're highly efficient," he said.

"When you raise the reproduction rate in cattle, it's the same model as sheep.

"There's less energy going into the cow and there's more going into the beef production coming out of her."

He described it as simply a two-for-one deal where a cow was fed mostly the same feed and produced the same emissions, but reared two calves instead of one.

However, the management of twinner cattle did require some differences, compared to a typical beef cow herd.

"You just change your management a little," Mr Keiller said.

"Rather than doing nothing, you do something."

He said twinner cows were pregnancy tested at 30-90 days gestation and any cows carrying twins were separated and preferentially treated on better paddocks.

"The singles just get treated as normal cows, they're no different," Mr Keiller said.

He said cows having twins also needed a little bit more supervision at calving, as not all cows were good at delivering twins.

"We put some effort into them at calving time," he said.

"Some cows calve easily, some cows aren't just as easy as they should be."

Mr Keiller said some cows also needed a little encouragement to mother two calves, rather than just the one.

"After that little bit of work around calving and the cows accept the calves, everything just goes out in the paddock and it's no different [from a cow with one calf]," he said.

"It's just really a couple of extra management energy levels and after that, it's the same as everything else."

Leo and Liz Cummins, Admetus, Byaduk North, are also keen twinner cattle breeders.

They have been working on refining their herd's genetics - and increasing calving percentage - for many years.

Mr Cummins was previously a scientist who researched beef and sheep with the then Victorian Department of Primary Industry.

After his retirement in 2002, he and Ms Cummins embarked on their twinner cattle journey.

The couple has led the development of the few commercial herds of twinning cattle in Australia, based on imported embryos and semen from the herd at Marc.

Mr Cummins said these embryos were first implanted into the couple's cows in 2004.

"The progeny are now producing twin calves at a rate of about 50pc (calving percentage of 150pc)," he said.

"We have made several other importations of both semen and embryos since then."

He said many farmers had an unnecessary aversion to their cows having twins.

"This is largely due to the fact that in normal herds, twins are rare and unexpected," he said.

"Cows with twins do need extra supervision at calving and watching during lactation to ensure that they don't lose excess live weight.

"When twins are expected, the extra management required can be arranged."