Went out this morning to find a Silky Cousteau heifer, Calamari, with a new calf. This was not a huge surprise as she was due and had the look the night before.
In fact before I left the barn I bedded her deeply with hay and chaff and filled the gutter behind her with lots more of same.
When we came in for chores, the boss, who went out first to feed and set up, told us that we had a new baby heifer, so we went back to look. It was a nice husky black one, standing up and taking nourishment already.
However it looked like a bull to me so I lifted its tail and decided that it was indeed a bull. Later Alan swore it was a heifer.
And so it went until mid-afternoon when we were cleaning the stable. Deciding to settle the question once and for all, he took a real good look.....
And, well, we were all right. It had rudimentary female equipment and small, but unmistakable male apparatus as well.
It is not uncommon to find heifers that are born twin to a bull to be infertile because male hormones shared in utero mess up their reproductive systems. They are called freemartins. This calf was obviously a singleton.
I guess we will just pretend that it is a regular bull and raise it for beef.
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"I guess we will just pretend that it is a regular bull and raise it for beef."
Then you better not name it. I hear it's bad form to eat something with a name. (At least that's what my sister tells me when I shoot Bambi. ;-0)
Now that is my first....
Linda
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Well, now, wasn't THAT a surprise?! I never knew that hermaphrodites occurred among cattle, although I know that they do among humans. Your barn might be quite the center of attraction for the curious.
Joated, we pretty much name all of them as calves and treat them just like the girls headed for the milking string. Then when they assume the size of small pick up trucks they all seem to morph into either that big, black steer, or the big, black heifer.
Linda, Liz thinks she remembers having a similar one off the same family... I don't really remember it, but her brain is much younger than mine.
WW, it sure is an odd ball. I really don't know whether to call it a he or a she, although I am leaning towards she.
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