Freemartins

[Nat(wasIxy)]

Has anyone worked a freemartin? I have one here a month old, Ayrshire, and have started training – so far so good. I haven’t really worked females but as my 2nd and 3rd males had to become burgers for financial and behavioural problems respectively, and my 4th seems to have a chronic gut condition (despite a PERFECT temperament, sadly) and I’ve run out of money to tip away on steers, I’ve resorted to training one of my HerefordX heifers who is very good natured and looks set to be BIG. My one issue is that presumably she will always be cycling, which may upset her behaviour and with 6 bulls around it’ll be awkward to keep her out of calf for life so it seems sensible to breed her at some point. I figured I’d put her to the smallest dexter so the calf wouldn’t drain her energy too much.

With a freemartin, I thought/hoped keeping them out of calf wouldn’t be an issue – even if she does cycle, she’ll never get in calf anyway. But, will she be likely to be a bit hormonal anyway, like a mule colt? I mean, I’ve read about ‘masculinised behaviour’ in freemartins – does that mean I’ll be effectively working a hormonal cow and a bull I can’t castrate all in one? :eek:;):confused:

[Joshua Kingsley]

On my dad’s dairy we have had the occasional freemartin, some are like a bull that can be a bit nutty and others have been like a cow, they come into heat or not depending on the animal. One of them that we had here wouldn’t come into heat, had no bullish ness and was a great animal to work with. Dad lost track of how old she was and one day asked the vet to see if she was ready to breed or what. At that point I think she was around 4 and she was a big sweetheart. “she” had no internal sex organs at all. so as a result went for steaks.
Joshua

[dlskidmore]

Aren’t the freemartians essentially castrated when born? They no longer get hormones generated by their brother, only male blood cells and underdeveloped female parts are left as evidence? They shouldn’t be more masculine than a bull castrated at an early age?

[Nat(wasIxy)]

Just a little update on this:

There’s a question mark over Marty’s head. She’s 7months old now, and quite frankly, a bit dull! She’s the only survivor from the place I used to buy ayrshires and ayrshire Xs from, and her growth has certainly been stunted. She seems prone to parasites and eye infections too. I’ve bought in posh food just for her to try to improve her, but it’s not achieiving much. I think I could overlook caring for a sickly ox if there was a spark of talent there but I guess the lack of hormones makes her a bit….blank? She doesn’t learn very quickly.

I’m beginning to think I should perhaps resign her to a beef fate (she’ll still get 2yrs with the herd!) and get a pair of steers….from someone else! The ayrshire breed are certainyl a sensible size, good looking and with a good temperament, I’m blaming this particular guy rather than the breed as a whole.

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