Twins

[Meador_m]

don't see how she would be any cheaper OR easier to feed. She's going to need the same amount of feed as any other animal would. And as for just grass/hay/silage, she would finish faster with grain in the ration. As for taste, again, no different than any other animal, and it is going to depend some on what she is fed. The only differece with a freemartin vs a regular heifer is that she won't breed

The reason for this is that staying alive is at the top of the nutritional needs... Reproduction and lactation are at the bottom. Reproduction is actually the last thing, thats why when a pregnant cow runs out of food she will abort a calf, then dry up, loose hair, etc. etc. etc, before she finally falls over dead.
Therefore, since a freemartin does not worry about these needs at all, she can use all of the protein and amino acids for strictly staying healthy and putting on more weight and fat.
So in summary there is a huge difference... however, i would not do this unless i just had an abundance of grass, there is no way i would feed this aninal grain if she could not make me some money down the road.

 

[ANAZAZI]

The free martins that we have finished and butchered ourselves always finished faster and were marbled much better and had better fat cover than steers that we do.

If you want to know for sure you can have a blood teat done for around 30-40 dollars.

Congrats on your new acquisition . :tiphat:

I have never heard of a blood teat unless it had mastitis in it some. Is this some new fangled treatment I dont know about yet?

Blood test IE a testst to see if a specifific animal is a free martin.