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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
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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

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References

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