Billings Farm Welcomes Twin Heifer Calves

When you visit this spring, you'll see that it's been a productive winter at the Billings Farm. The calf nursery is full – and two of the newest additions are twin heifers! Billings Berretta Darla calved just over a week ago and her daughters Billings Jade Delilah and Billings Jade Daphne are robust and active.

This is exciting, because the incidence of twins in cattle births is rare - less than 5%. From these small odds, a male/female combination is most common. Twin females (or males) are less likely. We are anticipating many productive years for Daphne and Delilah.

In the world of dairy cattle, Delilah and Daphne are particularly unique – but not only because they are twins. They were sired by an exceptionally popular show bull, Giprat Belles Jade and have the potential to be 14th generation excellent cows. Only a handful of cattle in North America have achieved this pedigree.

At Billings Farm, this particular “D” family traces back to a purchase made by farm manager Bob Lord in 1987. Norval Acres Jodys Delcy produced Billings Lester Darlyne and Darlyne produced Darla, now 10 years old. It is unusual for a 10-year old cow to still be calving and producing milk; age five is the national average for a cow's last calving. Currently, there are 21 cows in the herd over the age of five that are still calving.

This is a testimony to exceptional breeding and care – objectives established by Frederick Billings when he began developing the herd in 1871 – that remain priorities today.