Tap said:
I ask this tongue in cheek, but we used what we hoped to be calving ease heifer bulls, and so far they have done that job. BUT, they also have given us 19 heifer calves out of 22 births. We are just getting a good start, so I am sure that percentage will change, but it makes me wonder if heifer bulls means they throw lots of heifer calves.
Tap-
This is a question which has been pondered over and over again since Day
1!. To answer it quickly -
NO!! To expound slightly on the premise - it has even been seriously considered that because the sex of an animal (humans included) is determined by the MALE - ( it is), one male gonad ( testicle ) produces females, (it DOESN'T) and the other gonad (testicle) produces males (it DOESN'T!) One ejaculation of a male (most any animal, human included) will produce many MILLIONS (some even say BILLIONS) of Spermatazoa, and after exhaustive research (and counting) it has been determined that the ratio of Male-producing sperm and Female-producing sperm is about 50% - 50% - the law of averages varying the ratio slightly over a great number of countings, but for all practical purposes, it is about 50% - 50%! The fortuity of whether your child, or your calves, will be female or male is determined by which one of those wiggly little tails manages to penetrate the cortex of the female egg - one with an XX chromosome, or one with XY chromosome - XX resulting in Female, - XY resulting in Male. Whichever one of the multiple MILLIONS of sperm wins the race -
determines the sex of the resulting progeny. If two Sperm penetrate the wall of the egg at EXACTLY the SAME MICRO-INSTANT - TWINS are the result! IDENTICAL TWINS! If one sperm penetrates the wall and THEN splits - FRATERNAL TWINS are the result.
First come - First served! God makes NO mistakes!
Take a coin (one with heads and tails) - flip it 100 times, and count how many times it comes up heads, and how many times it comes up tails. It will be about 50 -50. If your cows could have several thousand calves each, they would produce about 50% males, and 50% females. About.
DOC HARRIS