Udderless heifers cost farmer €20,000

Andy Darmody from Tipperary was shocked to discover his dairy heifers are missing a vital part of their anatomy.

Caitríona Morrissey

22 March 2017

Andy Darmody is with some of his heifers that calved down with no udders due to a genetic defect on the family farm at Newhill, Twomileborris, Co. Tipperary. \ Donal O'Leary

A close-up view of one of the heifers. \ Donal O’Leary

A never-before-seen genetic mutation resulted in 11 dairy heifers in Tipperary being born without any udders. Andy Darmody from Twomileborris only realised the massive flaw in his animals when the first of the heifers calved two weeks ago at two years old.

A never-before-seen genetic mutation resulted in 11 dairy heifers in Tipperary being born without any udders.

Andy Darmody from Twomileborris only realised the massive flaw in his animals when the first of the heifers calved two weeks ago at two years old.

The first heifer calved and was put into the parlour to be milked, at which point the farmer discovered that not only did she not have any milk, but no bag or teats at all.

Up until that point, Darmody had no reason to believe there was anything wrong with the heifers.

Normal calving

“I got a stock bull in 2014 to run with my heifers and they all calved down in 2015 as normal. There was no hassle calving, no visible defects that I could see,” Darmody told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“I never even looked for quarters or teats. I just checked to see if it was a bull or a heifer. It never dawned on me to look for teats.”

Unaware of any issues, five of those heifer calves were put in calf as yearlings in 2016 and successfully carried their calves right through pregnancy to birth earlier this month.

In all, the stock bull sired five two-year-old and seven yearling heifers who have no udders.

“There is just a space between their legs, it looks for all the world like if you castrated a bull with a rubber ring.

‘‘A few of them have a dwarf teat but others have literally nothing at all, no bag to fill, no teats.”

Darmody is working with ICBF geneticist Dr Jennifer McClure to determine what genetic mutation could have caused the heifers to be born without any udders.

“I’ve never heard of it in Ireland or anywhere else in the world,” Dr McClure said.

“We will study the DNA to find the gene responsible and add it to our SNP chip so that we can test calves for it and make sure they don’t go into the breeding population.

“It looks like a brand new mutation, something that no one could have predicted,” she explained. “It’s rotten luck.”

Darmody estimates that the udderless heifers have cost him “a minimum of €20,000, being very conservative.”

Deformed calves under the spotlight