AlphabearPSK t1_j6kxelt wrote
Reply to comment by Ok-Table-3774 in TIL When a cow has opposite sex twins, the female twin is usually born intersex and infertile. This happens because the twins blood supplies are linked, which exposes the female to male sex hormones. by awawe
It does not happen a lot in other ruminants. Considering we want at a minimum twins in small ruminants, this occurring would be detrimental. In 29 years of raising sheep and goats, I have never had a freemartin.
On top of that, if it were to occur they wouldn't just euthanize the calf/kid/lamb since it is perfectly healthy. They would try breeding if they were uncertain of freemartinism occurring and if it wasn't successful it would then become meat.
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