twins question

We had twins last night out of maternal perfection and an Angus cow. It was a bull and a heifer is the hefier going to be a freemartin or is there a chance that she will be able to breed

Unfortunately there's only a one in ten chance it will be fertile. I've heard you can test by trying to insert a test tube into her vulva. If you can, she will have a viable reproductive tract, if not, you're out of luck. There is a blood test if you want a more definitive answer, but the odds are not in your favor.

I know there is a lot of info on here about the freemartin question.  Do a quick search.  Unfortunately, statistics show less than 10% are fertile or something like that.  During growth in mama, the male testosterone flows through both calves sterilizing the female anatomy.  The girly parts are usually underdeveloped or not right at all. 
We had a set last year out of a first calf heifer and kept the steer on mama and bottle fed the heifer as she couldn't handle both of them.
Good luck

Try this: http://geneticvisions.com/freemartin.aspx  I'm 0:3 (clean:freemartin) Just pulled blood on this year's set (4 months)...my odds should be improving?  This year's looks "normal" in vulva and clitoris, but there's more to it than that. 

Fountain pen insert into vulva,  if it bottoms out before it goes all the way in, problem.  If not should be ok.

She could make a great market heifer prospect.

Ok if i get them blood tested at what age should i do it?

Not to hijack your thread, but there is an interesting human newstory making headlines in January about a woman from the UK, Hayley Haynes (you can Google it) who was genetically born a man (has XY chromosomes), who was diagnosed with "androgen insensitivity syndrome" who just gave birth to twins.  Apparently, the androgen insensitivity was great enough that she grew up a woman, with all the visible parts of a female, never knowing about having XY chromosomes until she went to a doctor at 19 to investigate why she had never begun having periods.  Furthermore, the insensitivity was great enough that she actually had a tiny womb that doctors were able to make grow through hormone therapy to a point that it was functional enough to grow these two babies that were the result of an IVF cycle using donated eggs and her husband's sperm.

I think it is pertinent to your post because it appears the same mechanism is at work here, just in reverse.  A lack of testosterone made a genetically XY individual female.  Almost female enough to have all the working parts to reproduce as a female, but not quite, as she had to have a little help.  I'm not going to get into the political debate about transgender and gender identity and all that.  But it seems clear based on this modern example that hormones have quite the impact on the final outcome, does it not?  I hope we can have an intelligent conversation about the medical side of this intriguing story. 

Obviously in cattle at least, too much testosterone turns these free martin females who are twins to a male into something less female 90% of the time.  Interesting concept when you think about it.

Yes, the odds are only 10 percent that your heifer is not a freemartin.  To know for sure, there is a genetic test offered by Igenity that can determine whether or not she is a freemartin.  You send them some tail hair and $45 and they will run the test.  http://www.igenity.com/

Davidsonranch said:

During growth in mama, the male testosterone flows through both calves sterilizing the female anatomy.

Click to expand...

if we could only get that to work outside the womb in the air for both males and females.


might be a weapon of war in the future.