selling freemartins

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carla

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I went to a dairy replacement sale the other day and was amazed at the prices that replacement Springer heifers brought. They was a guy there that was buying a lot of the smaller heifers. There was no way for him to tell which ones were freemartins. They were too young for them to test. My question is this: What kind of market would you have for the freemartins that he ended up with? I realize that he could not sell them at a dairy sale. I seen a freemartin sell that day and it brought very little. Would there be any kind of market for them as feeder heifers at a regular sale? I guess that my question sounds silly, but I have never seen a hoestein Heifer sell at a regular feeder calf sale
 
carla":2mv8mb0v said:
I went to a dairy replacement sale the other day and was amazed at the prices that replacement Springer heifers brought. They was a guy there that was buying a lot of the smaller heifers. There was no way for him to tell which ones were freemartins. They were too young for them to test. My question is this: What kind of market would you have for the freemartins that he ended up with? I realize that he could not sell them at a dairy sale. I seen a freemartin sell that day and it brought very little. Would there be any kind of market for them as feeder heifers at a regular sale? I guess that my question sounds silly, but I have never seen a hoestein Heifer sell at a regular feeder calf sale

I don't do Holsteins, but...

I suppose buyer was buying the heifers real cheap, planned to feed them, then turn them into ground beef when they got large enough... ;-)
 
We just bought some hutches from a person who bought holstein heifers from a sale barn to raise and sell as springers. He bought them at bottle age. Out of 120 heifers he had 30 that were freemartin or had other reproductive problems (wouldn't conceive). Buying replacement heifers that young from a sale barn is a good way to waste money. At least in central WI. Holstein heifers aren't the most profitable animals to feed out after you have raised them to breed.
 
franseen":2e708k19 said:
Buying replacement heifers that young from a sale barn is a good way to waste money. At least in central WI. .
About anywheres else in the country too. If a person needs a calf to graft onto a cow that has lost a calf that's one thing, otherwise IMO a person has to be mad at their money.
 
carla":2ihnorn2 said:
How old do they need to be before they can be tested to see if they are a freemartin?

You can pull some tail hairs and have the dna test done at any age.
 
MikeC":3jie9kpg said:
carla":3jie9kpg said:
How old do they need to be before they can be tested to see if they are a freemartin?

Who does the DNA test from hair? That's a lot simpler then the blood test we had done at UC Davis.

dun
You can pull some tail hairs and have the dna test done at any age.
 
Does anyone know how much either the hair or blood test is? Do you know where I could find out anymore information. I would like to know how expensive it is and how long it takes to get back the results. Thanks
 
Freak holstein heifers feed pretty much like the holstein boys...in fact you can feed em in the same pen...not mcuh difference carcass or efficency
 
carla":1belleh2 said:
Will they be discounted at a feeder sale because buyers will know that they are freemartins?
if its really a feeder sale they wont...guys buying feeder heifers wont care...anybody else there will know somethings not right with em or else they wouldnt be there...theyd be at a dairy sale. If I was buying big heifers to feed they would be worth a little bit more to me...during processing I could save my shot of lute on those..and if you had enough of em not cycling to make up a pen you could leave the mga out of their ration...ever little bit helps
 
Is there some way to tell if they are free martins with out testing? I was helping a guy work cattle for AI ing a few years ago, and someone said looks like that one is a freemartin. All he did was lift the tail and look at the rear end. Sure enough, the vet said it didn't have the equipment. I looked at the rear and it looked like the rest to me.
 
Read somewhere that some will show a tuff of hair, kind of stiff like. But I don't think that all of them are that way.
 
I had two sets of twins born this year, both had heifers that were twins to dead bulls, I going to keep them and feed them out to butcher. The one looks normal out back but the other one has no vagina , she pees out a little thing down almost between her legs. I've never seen this before, she also has 2 small hairy pouches where the testicles would be ( they are empty ) she also has nipples.
 

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