Anyone owned or have pictures of a freemartin? LOOK!

[BARNSCOOP]

I would like to see some pictures of freemartins at several different ages if possible.

 

[Bez+]

I have probably owned several as mixed twins will make that happen. A very rare chance it will not when mixed twins are born.

Sold them all for meat - never bothered to waste my money for a vet exam - sent them to be killed when fattened

Why a pic?

You cannot tell anything from a picture - they look quite normal on the outside and taste just fine when you kill them.

Bez?

 

[angie1]

I too have raised a freemartin. You would never know by looking at her that she was a freemartin. She was a twin with a bull calf. The cow took the bull and left her, so the farmer called me to take her. I never had her tested either. As Bez said, she was raised and ate just like the steers.

 

[KNERSIE]

Although I agree that in some cases they look completely normal (and feel completely normal when palpated), often their genitalia aren;t as developed as their peers and often they lack femininity (in most cases when palpated at around breeding age their reproductive organs are dimunitive). If you have a heifer with an unknown past with genitalia visibly less developed than her peers, with a bullish neck and a reverse wedge shape you can make an educated guess that if she isn't a freemartin she'll be likely less fertile than her peers.

Barnscoop why don't you post the photo of the two behinds and the one where her head and neck is in the left of the photo along with the one where she is walking to the right?

 

[regolith]

I have two in the herd at the moment - one a yearling (HFxJ), one just under two years old (Jersey) who I'll probably be shipping next week. I'd need to get photos, but I might have a few of the yearling as a baby hanging around my computer.

The older one is actually quite obvious. She looks halfway to a steer - but didn't when she was younger. If she had a bull twin it was resorbed or matched to another cow (I actually did have what I presumed were twin Angus bulls the day she was born, and there is the possibility that her dam could have conceived to AI and the Angus bull on the same day).

 

[Loch Valley Fold]

We've had several over the years the ones we have kept until 2yr olds look mostly like bullocks
This heifer was destined to go on the next truck but she now looks to be in calf so she will stay & I'll see how she goes next season

We kept a twin heifer that was born with a bull this year if she don't go in calf she will go in the freezer I often refer to their look as "a Jersey bull" - big front shoulders & no butt

 

[CKC1586]

I have a freemartin heifer and she looks normal in every way, I had her blood tested to determine if she was positive. Was real disappointed that she was. She is on her way to the freezer but not gaining as well/fast as a steer would at her age. I have posted pictures of the twins on here, they were born April 6 2008.

 

[BARNSCOOP]

Knersie,

I have been unable lately to post pictures.. You have them as well as several more I sent you just now. Can you post them from your location? For everyone else. She is a 1/2 Limo 1/2 Murray Gray I purchased therefore I do not know her background. She is 16 months old. I have a call into the breeder for more information.

Bez+,
I have a suspected freemartin and I wanted to see pictures of others as Knersie has told me in some cases you can see a physical difference. I guess I need to have her blood checked to be sure but would also like to learn the signs, via eyesight, so I do not purchase a second one.

 

[Bez+]

Knersie,

I have been unable lately to post pictures.. You have them as well as several more I sent you just now. Can you post them from your location? For everyone else. She is a 1/2 Limo 1/2 Murray Gray I purchased therefore I do not know her background. She is 16 months old. I have a call into the breeder for more information.

Bez+,
I have a suspected freemartin and I wanted to see pictures of others as Knersie has told me in some cases you can see a physical difference. I guess I need to have her blood checked to be sure but would also like to learn the signs, via eyesight, so I do not purchase a second one.

Let me say that you can never guarantee a freemartin with the eye - you can only make an educated guess and even that ios only a guess - and I have been in the biz for my entire life - there are cattle I would not buy due to eye appeal - and there are cattle that I might buy due to eye appeal but - I would never make a buy strictly on a visual appearance / appraisal. We have owned a great number of cattle that visually could have met all the criteria mentioned here for an FM - and they were all breeders.

So - first off - you need to do a search on my criteria for buying cattle - one thing I would never do - is buy from a private source without a vet check - money well spent - it is old but should still be around - look under - buying, purchasing cattle, "run to you", "run from you", infrastructure, high headed and anything else you might consider - authors would be or could be - Bez, Bez?, Bez+, Bez! and a few other derivatives of Bez - should be about 50 or 60 posts on that topic alone - most would have been written about 2-4 years ago - I cannot remember as I have had so many Bez names.

Sale barn buys are great if you know what you are doing - however I have had good and bad luck there

You are too new in the biz. I guarantee you I could put together a group of 20 great animals and you would like them all - but once the vet got done you might only want three of them.

Heck I have been doing this for a long time and still figure I know nothing - so do your due diligence.

Finally - if the seller will not run that animal up a chute and into a squeeze for that vet check - put your wallet in your pocket and leave - he is not your friend he is a charlatan. Let him hoodwink some other person - because any time you get mixed twins you are seriously at risk - we never kept any of them - no matter the gender - and that seller took you to the cleaners intentionally (if you bought it rather than home bred) - unless of course you bought this critter at the sale barn which is caveate emptor

So get the pics and look at them - but remember that same animal - with that same look - could very well be a breeder.

I guess I am just too stupid to see - so I physically check if I am not sure - otherwise I walk

So should you

Bez+

 

[mnmtranching]

I had a free martin that I fattened with the steers and sold with the steers. She really did good.
Her female parts that were supposed to be under the tail were on her stomach halfway between her navel and udder.
I pretty sure I have pics, if I can locate I will post.

 

[spectator]

Purebred Simmental freemartin heifer, probably 16-17 months old. She had quite a crest to her neck, you'd have thought she was male until you looked closer. Aggressive attitude, too. She went into the freezer about a month after this picture was taken.

 

[BARNSCOOP]

Thanks spectator,
This suspect doesn't have as much of a bull look to her and is not aggressive at all but is around the same age.

Bez+,
I bought this heifer from a client that wouldn't know what a freemartin is but would think that it needed to go because it never got bred had they kept it. I bought the heifer at 7-8 mths old. Actually it was a trade for auto repair and I got to pick what I wanted out of the calves available.

 

[BARNSCOOP]

I figured out how to post pictures again!! Here she is .....the suspect. The 1st, 2nd, and 5th pictures are from June 1st. The other two are from yesterday. She is the one on the right side. Let me know what you think.

 

[cypressfarms]

While there are some visual cues that can lead a person to think a heifer is a freemartin, as stated before, perfectly normal looking calves can be freemartins as well. I would not trust anyone who tells you they can visually spot a freemartin. Also, when your buying stock, it's been my experience that freemartins are not nearly as common as heifers that just have fertility/reproductive problems. We've all had the heifer that looks really good, a front pasture girl, to only be told by the vet that she'll never reproduce after she's palpated. (At least I have )

 

[CKC1586]

While there are some visual cues that can lead a person to think a heifer is a freemartin, as stated before, perfectly normal looking calves can be freemartins as well. I would not trust anyone who tells you they can visually spot a freemartin. Also, when your buying stock, it's been my experience that freemartins are not nearly as common as heifers that just have fertility/reproductive problems. We've all had the heifer that looks really good, a front pasture girl, to only be told by the vet that she'll never reproduce after she's palpated. (At least I have )

Exactly! There is a probe that the vets can use to determine but to be completely sure a blood test is the best bet. The probe has to be done early, I think before calf reaches 3 months if my memory (questionable these days) serves me correctly. When the vet probed my heifer she was "on the line" so he couldn't call it for definite sure. He said that 9 of 10 mixed births result in the heifer being a freemartin, he said the bulls are good but can sometimes have sperm counts that would not make them candidates for drawing/freezing. If you want to know get a blood test, it cost me $35.

 

[KNERSIE]

Compare the vulvas.

The one on the right is this heifer.

And for the record I didn't say the heifer IS a freemartin, I asked whether she perhaps was one of mixed twins because she looks like a freemartin or at the very best a subfertile heifer.

Either way she isn't breeding material in my opinion if profitable cattle farming is your goal.

 

[regolith]

I'll let you pick her out...

Three and a half months. She was born twinned to a bull, blood tested as a freemartin.

The not in-calf Jersey:

Had no reason to think this one was a freemartin - apparently a single birth (though I could have mismatched a calf) - until she didn't get in calf and grew up looking like this. Didn't find any reproductive tract when I went hunting for that elusive calf she's supposed to be gestating, but I'll admit I didn't look very hard either.

8 weeks old

11 months old

 

[BARNSCOOP]

I want to second Knersie. I have said SUSPECTED freemartin. I value Knersies' opinion enough that I will have a blood test done when the vet comes to palpate in September if she is not bred. Because I run a TERMINAL operation if she not a freemartin I will continue to use her. I am lucky I can get a way with not being as picky about my cows and it still works out. But, I will state it again. Our calves are terminal....meaning WE kill them.
But PLEASE look at the photos and tell me what you believe you see, your opinion is important to me....well unless your TMB. HA!

 

[dun]

Had no reason to think this one was a freemartin - apparently a single birth (though I could have mismatched a calf) - until she didn't get in calf and grew up looking like this. Didn't find any reproductive tract when I went hunting for that elusive calf she's supposed to be gestating, but I'll admit I didn't look very hard either.

If they are conceived twin to a bull and the bull is reabsorbed they can be a freemartin. The ones with no twin that turned out with either no tract or just wouldn;t settle my old mentor referred to as "functionally a freemartin"

 

[Keren]

Compare the vulvas.

Either way she isn't breeding material in my opinion if profitable cattle farming is your goal.

Exactly right, Knersie. One of my old mentors really drilled the vulva development thing into me.