free martins

[farmershane3]

our heifer we think may possibly be a free martin.  i was wondering if she is, can we still plant embryos in her.  any suggestions are appreciated

 

[shortdawg]

Was she a twin to a bull ? If she was 98 % of the time she will be a free martin. Free martins have a dead end and can't support a pregnancy ( natural or embryo ).

 

[DL]

why do you think she is a freemartin?

 

[justintime]

If she is a freemartin, she will have a incomplete reproductive tract, so the answer is no, she cannot be used as a recip. Was your heifer a twin to a bull calf? That is the only way you can have a freemartin heifer. If she was twin with a bull calf, there is about a 10% chance that she will be normal. If she is normal, she would have had to be in a seperate placenta during the pregnancy and that occurs about 10% of the time. If you want to know if you heifer is a freemartin, have her checked out by your vet. Should be able to tell you if she is... or isn't.

 

[farmershane3]

thats what i thought but wasnt sure.  we are not 100% positive that she is a free martin, but we AIed her in July and one of our feeder steers jumped her 21 days exact and she didnt move.  so we took her to two diff bulls and neither of them were interested.  hopefully with winterbreak upon us we are going to take her and get preg checked

 

[Sly]

How early can you tell if they are. Got a nice heifer that is twin to a bull.  However, they are nothing alike. The heifer is big and black.  The bull is small and red and looks nothing like his sister.  A person coming to the pasture would not know they were twins unless you see them both nursing at the same time.

 

[Titangurl]

Doesn't necessarily mean she's not preg we had a cow would cycle regularily her entire preg but always calved on the money.  Needless to say that first year we wasted a lot of semen till we had her checked out !

 

[CAB]

How early can you tell if they are. Got a nice heifer that is twin to a bull.  However, they are nothing alike. The heifer is big and black.  The bull is small and red and looks nothing like his sister.  A person coming to the pasture would not know they were twins unless you see them both nursing at the same time.

  Like one of the above pots said 98% of the time you can tell 1/2 second after both twins are born and as long as it takes you to sex them.

That of coarse would leave a 2% chance that your heifer Farmershane was not effected by the high levels of testosterone during gestation and could be fertile, cycle regular, settle, & calve. You may want to get her reproductive tract checked out. Most PPL just go ahead and market their Freemartin heifer possibilities B/C of the very low chances of them being able to reproduce. Brent

 

[DL]

thats what i thought but wasnt sure.  we are not 100% positive that she is a free martin, but we AIed her in July and one of our feeder steers jumped her 21 days exact and she didnt move.  so we took her to two diff bulls and neither of them were interested.  hopefully with winterbreak upon us we are going to take her and get preg checked

I am confused - was she twin to a bull or do you think she is a free martin because the feeder steers jumped her after you AI 'ed her? The latter would not be a reason to think she is a free martin, the former would

There are occasions when a live heifer (not twin to a bull at birth) turns out to be a free martin - chances are that she was a twin to a bull and the bull calf died in utero and was resorbed or was aborted - since there is mixture of blood btwn the twins, you can determine that she was twin to a bull by karotyping or other genetic tests which identify male cells in the heifers blood stream

Re when can you test - there is a test tube test that can be done very early - days - basically the tube only goes in the vagina a small amount with free martin

You can also ultrasound or palpate a heifer to determine if she is a free martin but she needs to have some age on her 4 months or so and a vet with a small arm

 

[kanshow]

I'm confused too.  Has she been in heat?  I didnt' think a freemartin would even cycle. 

 

[DL]

I'm confused too.  Has she been in heat?  I didnt' think a freemartin would even cycle. 

depending on what pieces and parts they have they can cycle - ie if they have one or 2 ovaries but (for example) no uterus they could have the hormonal stimulation to cycle - but I am still confused 

 

[farmershane3]

we arent positive that she is a twin. the people we bought her from are now in tennesse and have no way of getting in contact with them.  2 of our family friends that are big into cattle mentioned something about her being a free martin.  hopefully in the next couple weeks we can get her checked

 

[CAB]

Why can't you get in contact with them? Google search.

 

[farmershane3]

we took her to the vet today to get preg checked and she is bred. pretty positive she is bred to boyd beef maker

 

[aj]

Could it be that a "freed martian" may be at work here?

 

[Cattledog]

we took her to the vet today to get preg checked and she is bred. pretty positive she is bred to boyd beef maker

This is off topic but have fun with the Beef Makers.  Those were some seriously stupid calves.  Reminded me a little of the snotty EXT calves!

 

[EONF]

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.

 

[farmboy]

Similar question : do free martins show heat?

 

[farmershane3]

thats no good.  this will the first time i have a calf born on my farm and its got to be a "stupid one" ha oh well got to start soemwhere

 

[shortdawg]

EONF, That heifer calf is a free martin and will not have her running gear thus be no good for breeding. There is only about a 3 % chance that she will be fertile. A vet could check her to be sure. Hope this helps.