rodderz
Member
Hi all, I am a dairy farmer with a small herd of 170 cows. I had a curious occurrence with my replacement heifers this year. After pregnancy testing I found I have 3 empty heifers out of 31, all of them "freemartins" (that is to say that they had no or deformed sex organs) Now I am well aware that in a male/female set of twins, the female is very likely to be sterile. It has never been my practice to keep the female from a male/female set of twins. I accept that in the throes of seasonal calving it is entirely possible that I failed to correctly identify a female twin. But three! In my decade of dairy farming, I have never had a single one before.
Is there another cause for this mutation or is it just coincidence?
Rod
Is there another cause for this mutation or is it just coincidence?
Rod