water acidity and male/female calf ratio

[gocanes719]

I was posed this question by a friend. I have never really heard of this and I am curious as to what others here have experienced.

Is there any correlation between water acidity and male/female calf ratio?
I know in humans there's studies that say x and y sperm perform differently depending on acidity of their environment and that a woman can take steps to try and influence the sex of the child. 

My water is typical S Texas basic (alkaline) and I've gotten 5:1 bulls to heifers.  Can it be the water, or just the bull's tendency.  The question come up because everyone in S Texas is looking for cows, but everyone has bulls. Same problem does not exist in other regions.

 

[knabe]

take some pH samples, compare with expected pH

 

[Rocky Hill Simmental]

Interesting.

A couple months ago on the news there was a story about some scientists that found how much food and what kind of food one eats has some influence on what sex the child is going to be. I wonder if the same is true for cattle.

Our current commercial bull through all heifers (except 1 bull) the first couple years we used him. Now he's starting to have bull calves too. This year we've had about equal numbers of both bulls and heifers though.

 

[dori36]

I was posed this question by a friend. I have never really heard of this and I am curious as to what others here have experienced.

Is there any correlation between water acidity and male/female calf ratio?
I know in humans there's studies that say x and y sperm perform differently depending on acidity of their environment and that a woman can take steps to try and influence the sex of the child. 

My water is typical S Texas basic (alkaline) and I've gotten 5:1 bulls to heifers.  Can it be the water, or just the bull's tendency.  The question come up because everyone in S Texas is looking for cows, but everyone has bulls. Same problem does not exist in other regions.

I know some pet cattle types, the people not the cattle, swear that adding vinegar to the drinking water ups the ratio of heifers:bulls.  I have no idea and since most of those folks have, maybe, one or two calves a year, it would take a very long time to prove the theory.  Wonder how one would add vinegar to auto waterers or natural water sources, like streams/ponds??  (lol)

 

[kanshow]

I know there are some dog breeders who feed Vitamin C because they believe they'll get more females.   

 

[chambero]

Have you actually had your water pH checked?  You only be slightly basic - maybe 7.5-8.5.  Much more than that and you may have worse problems health-wise.

All plains areas in Texas (and the rest of the country) have basic soils (clay soils).  Your only acidic areas are pretty much limited to east Texas forests.

So, if your natural water was the problem, it would affect a very large area. 

Probably just luck of the draw.  We were nearly 70% heifers in fall 06.  Back to normal this year with same bulls.