The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Cattle => Topic started by: humphreymctush on February 07, 2011, 09:35:49 am

Title: horns
Post by: humphreymctush on February 07, 2011, 09:35:49 am

If I use a horned bull on my belted galloway cows will the calves be horned or polled?

Title: Re: horns
Post by: belgianblue on February 07, 2011, 08:43:24 pm

hmmmmmmmm.... yes they will be born horned and will be required to be dehorned when they are about month old.

Title: Re: horns
Post by: robert waddell on February 07, 2011, 09:08:22 pm

well i will disagre we used simmentals(horned)crossing naturally polled Angus and hereford cows and we had polled crosses

Title: Re: horns
Post by: ballingall on February 07, 2011, 09:20:52 pm

That depends on whether the bull you are using has a recessive gene for being horned or not. If he does, 50% of calves will be horned and 50% polled. If he doesn't have the recessive gene they will all be polled.

Apparently in Beef cattle the polled gene is the stronger. The reverse is true in goats, its always the horned gene which is stronger.

http://www.britishsimmental.co.uk/research/polledness.html (http://www.britishsimmental.co.uk/research/polledness.html)

I quite like genetics of polledness... I hate disbudding calves though.

Beth

Title: Re: horns
Post by: landroverroy on February 14, 2011, 07:49:53 pm

Lillian is right. A naturally polled breed like an Angus or Galloway will always throw polled offspring in the 1st generation. That is because pure bred polled breeds do not carry the horned gene. All their offspring therefore carry the dominant polled gene, so are hornless.

Title: Re: horns
Post by: Rosemary on February 14, 2011, 07:52:07 pm

I love this forum  ;D

Title: Re: horns
Post by: ballingall on February 14, 2011, 09:10:17 pm

Quote from: Rosemary on February 14, 2011, 07:52:07 pm

I love this forum  ;D

 ;D

Title: Re: horns
Post by: humphreymctush on February 15, 2011, 12:31:31 pm

So even a bull with really big horns e.g. Highland will still sire polled calves from a polled cow?

Title: Re: horns
Post by: robert waddell on February 15, 2011, 01:41:34 pm

not necessarily depends on the dominant genes

Title: Re: horns
Post by: landroverroy on February 16, 2011, 09:22:45 am

Humphrey - a Highland will always throw a polled calf from a cow of a polled breed eg Galloway, Angus, Red Poll etc.Pure breds of polled breeds do not carry a horned gene. But as Lilian is saying - if the cow is polled but one of its parents had horns, then it does carry the horned gene so has a 50% chance of having horned offspring.

Title: Re: horns
Post by: humphreymctush on February 16, 2011, 10:28:43 am

I think I might use a highland bull then. I wonder if the "belt" is a dominant gene.

Title: Re: horns
Post by: landroverroy on February 23, 2011, 12:53:52 pm

 Are you aiming for a hornless Highland with a white belt? Should be interesting! 
 Actually, just looked it up and the belted gene is very dominant and appears for many generations. So am looking forward to seeing a new variation of belted highlands. (Suppose in the snow they'll look like they're cut in half.)