Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T02:48:44.148Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Feeding Experiment with Twin Cattle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2016

J. W. B. King*
Affiliation:
Animal Breeding Research Organisation, Edinburgh
Get access

Extract

Since 1948 the Animal Breeding Research Organisation has been collecting twin cattle in the West Midlands of England. The dairy cattle population here is dense—an important factor in reducing cost of collection. Propaganda was issued in various forms all directed at getting in touch with farmers owning one-egg twins, i.e. twins originating from the splitting of a single fertilised egg as distinct from two-egg twins coming from two fertilised eggs. As the twinning rate in cattle is only 1-2% of all births, and probably only about 1 in 20 of these twins are one-egg, their purchase and collection under British conditions is rather costly. Up to the end of 1952, 103 pairs of one-egg heifers twins had been collected.

Type
Current Research in Scotland
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1953

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Black, W. H., Quesenberry, J. R.,and Baker, A. L. 1939.Wintering steers on different planes of nutrition from weaning to 2.½years of age. U.S.D.A. Tech. Bull. No. 667.Google Scholar
Bonnier, G., and Hanson, A. 1948. Identical twin genetics in cattle.Heredity 2 : 1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brookes, A. J. 1951.Some aspects of rearing cattle for beef. journ. Farmers’Club, Pt. 5.Google Scholar
Dick, I. D., and Whittle, P. 1951. Contributions to the statistical design of identical twin experiments. New Zealand Journ. Sci. & Tech.B. 33 : 145.Google Scholar
Hancock, J. 1949. Studies in monozygotic cattle twins. New Zealand journ. Sci. & Tech. A. 30 : 257.Google Scholar
Kronacher, C. 1932. Zwillingsforschung beim Rind. Z.f. Züchtung B 25 : 327.Google Scholar