What is THAT?!

[dosthouhavemilk]

That was Carina's calf sticking out of her left side. The picture was taken the end of July. The only time you are likely to bump a calf on the left side is usually in the last month of gestation with a huge calf or if the cow is carrying multiples...

With Carina, twins was a possibility. She had been cystic. In heat constantly for a couple of weeks. She was treated using Cysterillan (I can never spell that!) and Lutalyse. She was running with the stray bull at the time. According to my notes she was due the 22nd of August or so.
She delivered this morning;


Horned heifer calf on the left and a polled bull calf on the right.
Depending on cost, we may go ahead and have her blood tested for Freemartinism, but seeing as she is half beef, she isn't really worth a whole lot.

[ksfarmer]

If I'm not mistaken, the heiffer of a bull-heiffer set of twins is nearly always a freemartin. No real problem except she can't be breeding stock. Still make good beef.
Nice looking twins tho.

[Goat Servant]

Originally Posted by ksfarmer

If I'm not mistaken, the heiffer of a bull-heiffer set of twins is nearly always a freemartin. No real problem except she can't be breeding stock. Still make good beef.
Nice looking twins tho.

What is "freemartin?'

[genebo]

When a bull calf and a heifer calf share the same uterus, the hormones from the bull calf can retard the sexual development of the heifer. Usually, she never fully develops and is sterile. She is called a freemartin. I don't know where the name comes from.

Like ksfarmer said, she makes good beef. She may make even better beef than a fully functioning heifer, due to the male influence.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

[Ronney]

No matter what Roseanna, both the calves and the cow seem to have it sorted. They look great and such a relief to see them both nursing? Unlike my neighbours twin bull calves, one of which is blind.

I believe something in the region of 5% of freemartins are viable but if your not looking at wanting to breed from this calf, it's probably not worth the expense and bother of testing.

And I'm really annoyed because just recently somebody told me where the name freemartin came from - and it ran through all the holes in my brain, commonly called a sieve

Cheers,
Ronnie

[dosthouhavemilk]

When the heifer and bull share a placenta, they also share the blood supply from the mother. The male develops first and the testoterone from the developing male goes into the blood stream affecting the female. Females are the base gender. They develop due to a lack of testoterone.

It was 3-5% fertile last I heard. I just figure there is a higher chance she could be clean since the cow was likely cycling out of both horns at the time.
I haven't looked at the cost yet. We have time to decide.

They hadn't figured out how to nurse before I got there. I milked out two and a half pounds of colostrum for each calf and bottle fed them. Then I got them latched on. Both look like perfect little calves. Close in size and both are pretty bright...well, the bull is a typical bull. He wasn't as cooperative about me showing him where the teats were.

[Wags]

This site gives some of the possible origins of the term and a pretty thorough description of what it is.

[KSALguy]

what is the cow? dairy? and you said "stray" bull? so she had a visiting boyfirend come round,

[dosthouhavemilk]

Carina is a 3/4 Jersey, 1/4 Norwegian Red 6 year old cow. Her udder is not very good, but she produces an easy 80 pounds a day. The milker hangs on after about two weeks of being milk.
The bull was a stray beef bull that escaped from the local Sale Barn last August and bred 25 of our dairy cows and heifers. The owners never came forward to claim him. There are two cows left to calve to him. We've had 9 heifers (one DOA) and 16 bulls (one DOA) born.
We'll most likely end up selling the pair to be raised for meat.

[KSALguy]

well that doesnt do much for your dariy stock but you will have alot of beef for the freezer,

the heifers would probably be easy sellers as replacements in beef herds.

what happend with the bull? did you eat him or sell him off?

[dosthouhavemilk]

We have to hang onto the heifers for now. We had only two AI calves born this year, a bull and a heifer. Only two replacement heifers to show for last year, so we can't afford to sell these off just yet. Hopefully we get a slew of replacement heifers this coming year and can afford to sell the beef cross heifers.

We ended up shipping the bull after waiting four months for the owners to come forward. The check just about covered the vet bills that were incrued (aborting underaged heifer and the vet call for the heifer that almost died delivering the dead bull calf).
I've moved all the bull calves quite easily. They are nice stocky little calves.

[KSALguy]

what dairy breeds do you have? its possible that these heifers might make decent milkers if the need is there, we had two HUGE Angus/Holstine cows that would have been great milkers if we didnt have them as beef makers

[dosthouhavemilk]

We have purebred registered Jerseys and Jersey/Norwegian Reds (these range from 3/4 J, 1/4 NR to 15/16 J, 1/16 NR).
Depending on what the bull was, there may be the chance for decent milkers. Some of the heifers look more dairy than the others. Their dam are nice milkers, so we shall see if it comes to that. If not, being hand raised, they'll make easy to work beef cows.

[sungirl]

I have had a few twins in my time. All were sold as beef, since I don't believe in passing on problem animals to others for a fast buck.
I wonder if you could check her like some have done with goats, (sticking a pen in so far?) Just a thought.

Patty.

[KSALguy]

goats dont normally have the same issue with mixed gender multiples, only once have i seen a doe born with two male siblings that was steril, and that was because she was a hermafrodite,