# Free Martin



## arnoldw (May 22, 2003)

I understand freemartins are sterile. Will a freemartin milk cow take embryo transfer then carry to calf and be able to milk. Thanks Arnold


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## Don Armstrong (May 8, 2002)

No!

A freemartin is a female twin calf to a bull calf. Her reproductive organs were inhibited from developing fully by the male hormones. She will most likely not have a functional womb (if she has one at all), and certainly not the hormones to use one.

Mind you, not all female calves born twins to males are freemartins, but it happens often enough to not count on the opposite.


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

Free martin females happen about 90% of the time. Too high to take the risk unless you have her completely checked out by a knowledgeable vet.

Ken S. in WC TN


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## jennifer_b (Mar 16, 2004)

Im pretty sure that we have a free martin but not positive. She looks just like a bull. (big square head and built very large) Were not sure if she is bred yet. She got out on our neigbors farm and was with a bull for a couple of months. If she is bred she should be about 6 months pregnant. 

Can you tell at 6 months if she is pregnant? Should she be bagging up or would that be later on? 

Thanks,
Jennifer


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

If you can take her in to the vet they can preg. check her. Locally it runs $6. You cannot tell for certain when a cow will calve. I've had some I didn't think were anywhere close have a calf with them one morning. Others seem like the bag up weeks in advance. Consider the vet. If she is not bred, which is extremely likely, name her Hambergetta or something.

Ken S. in WC TN


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## arnoldw (May 22, 2003)

Thanks everyone. CAN this happen with twins of the same sex. Reason I ask I have twin ayshires that booth look bullish.
Thanks Arnold


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

No, two twin heifers should not be free martins. I don't think 'looking bullish' is a definition of a free martin. I have only seen one and she looked quite feminine.

Ken S. in WC TN


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## uncle Will in In. (May 11, 2002)

Do any of you know if this applies to humans. I know of quite a few boy girl twins where the girl never had any children. I also know a lady who had a twin brother, and she had 4 sets of twins and 3 singles.. However one set of her twin offspring was a boy-girl combination, and the girl never had children. 
What can anyone tell me about this?


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## wyomama (Sep 20, 2003)

uncle Will in In. said:


> Do any of you know if this applies to humans. I know of quite a few boy girl twins where the girl never had any children. I also know a lady who had a twin brother, and she had 4 sets of twins and 3 singles.. However one set of her twin offspring was a boy-girl combination, and the girl never had children.
> What can anyone tell me about this?


No, it doesn't apply to humans. Either the female twins you know didn't want kids, or something else was going on.


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## Don Armstrong (May 8, 2002)

Like wyomama said. I'm speaking from memory here, and my memory has been known to be just a tad faulty, but I THINK the problem with cattle (and cattle alone - not sheep or goats or people or cats or dogs or pigs or horses or rabbits or - well, only cattle) is that the placentas fuse, and that's where the mixing of hormones takes place. Other animals (e.g. people) the placentas will usually remain separate; or with animals that do litters (rabbits, cats, pigs) they have evolved so they don't have a problem with it).


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## Gayle in LA (Sep 6, 2002)

<<-------vet here again..............I think Don Armstrong is right. I learned about this freemartin thing 25 years ago, but I do believe the problem lies in the shared placenta. I would make the freemartin into hamburger before something happens, like any illness where you might be treating with antibiotics. She is good clean meat now.


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## Tana Mc (May 10, 2002)

Don and Gayle are right. It is called "testosterone wash" . It occurs in all mammals when the sex of the fetus is determined during early growth. Unfortunately, in cattle, it washes both fetus and causes a freemartin. Probably more tha 90% of the time. 

If a freemartin heifer has a reproductive tract, it is usually what we call "infantile". It stays very small and never grows. I don't think that I have ever known a freemartin heifer to actually ever come into heat..... Seems to occur more often in dairy cattle but I have seen it in Angus cattle. I have eaten several freemartin hamburgers!


Tana Mc


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## Guest (Apr 22, 2004)

Are uou celling some thing


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## Necie (Apr 4, 2004)

Free Martins will have incomplete female organs and may have partially formed male organs. A book that I have says that in a newborn free martin an ordinary test tube (1/2 inch by 6 inch) will usually only pass 2-3 inches into the vagina. In a normal calf it can be inserted the full length of the test tube.


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## iowamom (Apr 26, 2004)

k, this is the first i've heard of this freemartin thing. i just bought an angus heifer that was a twin but i don't know what sex the other was. how can i tell if my girl is a freemartin?


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## Jena (Aug 13, 2003)

iowamom said:


> k, this is the first i've heard of this freemartin thing. i just bought an angus heifer that was a twin but i don't know what sex the other was. how can i tell if my girl is a freemartin?


Ask the person who gave you the calf.

I just had a set of twins...a girl and boy, so I know what's up with that heifer. Too bad...I kept last year's calf from this cow as a replacement.

Jena


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## james dilley (Mar 21, 2004)

jena try selling them for a team/yoke of oxen. that might be the ticket here.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

This is one test I've heard of. Take a glass probe or an AI stylyus and insert it into the heifers vagina. if you can only get it in 6 inches, she is free martain, if you can go more she is not


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