free martins

[tama]

I just saw this post and figured that someone could answer this question. We had a set of twins about a week ago. The heifer is solid black and the bull calf is a black baldy. They were born about 45 minutes apart. Are the differences in color and the length of time between the births any indication of whether the heifer is a freemartin or not? They're built completely different but I know that's probably not an effective way of telling.

eonf see DL comments page one also not mentioned is reasons for not taking a chance on breeding qualities and % on a freemartin is expense to take calf to bred heifer is just not worth it on questionable calves 

 

[kanshow]

Here is how we handle our twin calves in our herd.    They are tagged different so we know when they come up the chute that the are a twin  and what they are a twin to.. bull or heifer.    When we have the vet out to bangs our replacement hfrs, if there is a twin to a bull heifer we want to keep, we have the vet palpate her.  If she is good, she gets a bangs & goes into the replacement pen.  If she is not, she goes into the pen with the rest of the feeder heifers.    However, if I were thinking about keeping that heifer for a show calf, I'd have her checked a lot earlier to save us spending a lot of time on something that is going nowhere. 

This year, we had a nice set of AI sired twins.  This cow is an older cow who never has heifers.  The bull, we castrated early.  The heifer was  really something but she's a free martin.  That one hurt.  Upside to the story is that the steer calf is a pretty nice steer that my son will show as his first steer project. 

 

[jnm]

Has anyone used the blood test from Genetic visions to determine whether heifer is free martin or not? I had twin with pretty good genetics this year so decided it was worth $25 to try the test. Test came back saying NOT a freemartin. I'm keeping and will attempt to breed in spring so we will then have better indication if test is accurate

 

[kanshow]

The longer you can wait to check, the more accurate you will be.    That works if all you are going to do is breed the heifer.  I would just hate to spend all that time halter breaking & gentling & working hair on a heifer only to find she wont' breed in 6 months.    That said, we have halter broke them as yearlings and it works ok, just takes a little longer.