Calf terminology

[violetsky888]

I'm always looking for more calves to buy especially beef heifers and keep running across descriptive words that leave me baffled. Some words seem to be only relevant locally. For example, "freemartin" does not seem to be commonly understood in southern TN, but is widely known elsewhere. (that one is easy to look up) What the heck is a "bum" calf or a "****e" calf? It be nice to hear from people how they refer to their cattle in general and word origins if they know them.

 

[jhm47]

Freemarten is a calf/heifer that was born a twin to a bull calf. Occasionally a heifer is born alone, but she was actually a twin during her early development in the uterus, and the bull twin died and was resorbed. When I breed heifers for my customers I sometimes run into a heifer that is a freemarten. The owner will be adamant that she was born a single. It sometimes is difficult to convince these owners that she may have been born a single, but she was a twin in the early stages of her development, which was enough to allow the male hormones to cause her to not develop naturally.

A "bum" calf is an orphan that may have lost it's mother for some reason. These calves sometimes steal milk from other cows, thus they are called bums.

I am not familiar with the ****e term.

Hope this helps.

 

[violetsky888]

How do you tell that their was an original bull that got reabsorbed? That's really interesting. I always look to see if there is a spare bull calf the same age and type hanging around before buying a heifer
but never thought about an in utero one.

 

[jhm47]

Any freemarten heifer that is born a single had a bull as a twin in the early stage of her development. It doesn't take many male hormones to cross the placenta to make them freemartens.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

How do you tell that their was an original bull that got reabsorbed? That's really interesting. I always look to see if there is a spare bull calf the same age and type hanging around before buying a heifer
but never thought about an in utero one.

You usually can't tell unless a certain test, called the "test tube" test is done. Most cases the heifer won't reabsorb her brother (but it does occur, and has), rather it's the sharing of the placenta that will cause freemartinism in a heifer-bull twinning scenario.

If you want a more science-y answer, it's the fact that testosterone produced by the male fetus (in early gestation, not late) will inhibit estrogen production in the female fetus that will cause a heifer calf to either be a freemartin (obvious female characteristics but no way to get her breed--unless she defies that 90%-chance-of-being-infertile percentile) or a hermaphrodite (heifer calf that grows into an animal that is neither female nor male, but rather both: retaining bull-like physical characteristics and behaviours, but retaining other characteristics indicating it is genetically female in utero. I've seen this case in person with a heifer that was born twin with a bull, never reabsorbed her sibling.) One-hundred percent (or, ALL) of the time a heifer born a freemartin is not born pre-determined a freemartin by genetics and natural selection (a "special" sperm bonding with the egg), but rather en utero at the early gestation phase and when either twins, which may be paternal especially if the zygote during the very early stages of gestation split into two and keeps dividing, share a placenta.

In many, many situations if a producer is selling a freemartin heifer her brother will not be along side her, but sold separately.