Ottawa County rancher seeing double with 13 twin sets born

Among the milestones of a cow-calf rancher’s calendar is springtime, when the cute little calves are welcomed to the pasture. While it’s most of a year before the babies will provide much income, calving season is always special, Tim Myers said, and critical to any operation. It’s been that way for generations at his family’s operation in southern Ottawa County, where he farms and ranches with his brother, Sean, and their father, Ray. But this spring is different, with many gestations resulting in double the faces from a cross of Hereford and Angus cattle. The family has counted 13 sets of twins this season. “It’s more than normal,” Tim Myers said, and probably the most ever for the Myers ranch. The family has been in the cow-calf business for most of a century. Their grandfather, Darrell Myers, was in the calf production business since the 1940s, Tim said. “I can remember having eight to 10 (sets of twins) in one year,” he said. Caring for twins is a bit more time consuming. “We bring them up and put them in a close pen so they bond. We make sure both are nursing and that the mom is claiming both of them,” Myers said. Rejection hasn’t been an issue during calving this year that lasts roughly from Jan. 20 to May 1. Of the 13 sets of twins, he said, three calves did not survive, but thanks to the mild spring weather, most of the new recruits are flourishing...more