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Post by cathylee on Apr 7, 2016 14:41:37 GMT -5
The bull I used last year is heterozygous polled. His dam was horned and his VGL results show him to be heterozygous polled. But I believe he has yet to produce a horned calf. I know of six calves from horned cows and three from hetero polled cows. My heifer is hetero polled and won't have her calf for a few weeks. Has anyone noticed a significant tendency to polled over horned from what you would expect given the predicted percentages.
The owner (a good friend of mine) was thinking that he was homo polled because she had only gotten polled calves but before I sent in his genetics I reviewed his pedigree and reminded her that he da m was horned. I think he will be used a few more years even if she sells him. I hope to follow him to see this continues to be his history.
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zephyrhillsusan
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Caught Dexteritis in Dec. 2009. Member of this forum since Oct. 2013.
Posts: 1,502 
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Post by zephyrhillsusan on Apr 8, 2016 9:04:58 GMT -5
cathylee , I had to laugh at this being in "Breeding Issues."  We need a section called "Lucky Strikes" or something.  I would say the owners are just very lucky, and I wonder if they'd let their bull come over and have a chat with my bull about how to be generous with that polled gene? My red hetero polled bull has sired four calves--all black and all bulls.  One he sired for someone else was polled and one of mine was, too, although I didn't test him because I had him castrated and didn't want to know if he was homo polled.  Of course both the ones he sired with my best cow are horned. I don't know what Royal and Ebby have against heifers! As much of a pain as it is to do, I'm about to try the ACV thing with her before I breed her back.
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Post by Fran on Apr 8, 2016 9:48:16 GMT -5
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zephyrhillsusan
member
Caught Dexteritis in Dec. 2009. Member of this forum since Oct. 2013.
Posts: 1,502
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Post by zephyrhillsusan on Apr 8, 2016 11:32:13 GMT -5
I agree, Fran , where is that Heifer Fairy??? I'm beginning not to believe in her. Or maybe she is a he?  The last heifer born here was three years ago and she was pre-sold back to her breeder. All I've gotten is bulls for the past three years, out of two different cows and two bulls.  |
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Post by Pinevalleydexters on Apr 9, 2016 8:01:40 GMT -5
Here is a thought, just like in humans the man determines the sex of the child, wouldn't it be the same with Bulls? I would think so, some Bulls throw more of one sex than the other. Although I read that it should eventually even out to 50/50.
We have been around 50%, so far 3 heifers, 2 Bulls, with one more heifer to calf soon. The three heifers are polled, two red, one of the red heifers is out of a black cow(so now I know that is possible) one red bull horned(this is the second horned bull calf out of my hetero polled red cow) the other black bull calf is out of the cow I sold so I don't know his polled status.
So, Colette will be interesting to see if she tips the heifer scale or evens the bull side.
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Post by cathylee on Apr 9, 2016 8:54:07 GMT -5
cathylee , I had to laugh at this being in "Breeding Issues." We need a section called "Lucky Strikes" or something. I would say the owners are just very lucky, and I wonder if they'd let their bull come over and have a chat with my bull about how to be generous with that polled gene? My red hetero polled bull has sired four calves--all black and all bulls. One he sired for someone else was polled and one of mine was, too, although I didn't test him because I had him castrated and didn't want to know if he was homo polled. Of course both the ones he sired with my best cow are horned. I don't know what Royal and Ebby have against heifers! As much of a pain as it is to do, I'm about to try the ACV thing with her before I breed her back. I certainly agree that it was lucky Susan as I like polled. I'm hoping my hetero polled heifer's first calf won't be his first horned calf. At this point if you did not know his genetics the chance that he is polled based on his calf crop would be >96%. www.cals.ncsu.edu/an_sci/extension/animal/news/aug96/aug96-3.html There is one more calf expected this year from a horned dexter waygu cross. I wasn't going to check his horned genetics because we had his PDCA papers and it indicated a horned dam. But he had not produced a horned calf at that point and mistakes in registries are known to happen. |
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Post by cathylee on Aug 1, 2016 10:52:07 GMT -5
Well, luck did run out on the hetero polled bull not producing any horned calves. And in a rather surprising way. Our family pet cow a (Galloway X Angus) that should be homo polled had a horned heifer. I had not even checked her for signs of horns and then this weekend there they were. And why? It couldn't happen. The bull also produced a horned heifer out of my friends hetero polled cow. All calves from horned cows have been polled. And all bull calves that would likely become steers anyway were polled.
I left a message with the mobile vet today to dehorn the heifer or referral to a local lay person. I am so disappointed. Now that I know my cow is heteropolled and her mother could be heteropolled I guess we will be looking for a homopolled bull in the future.
The little full Dexter bull calf from my heteropolled Dexter heifer (Georgia) was carefully checked out by me on day two or three with no signs of horn buds. Of course he was the only one I needed to check or so I thought. I have not castrated him as I thought I would get genetics first. But I plan to do that before he is three months old. If he is homopolled I might watch him develop a bit more. As there aren't many ADCA bulls to choose from in the area.
On a happy note skittish Georgia is so much calmer now that she is lactating and settled for a second calf. And when I handled her calf just at a couple days old she danced around and was a bit anxious but never got aggressive. So I think she will continue to get easier to handle and more trusting. It has been slow in coming. I worried about everything I did that might upset her but even immunizations close to calving didn't seem to make things worse.
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Post by littlecowfl on Aug 2, 2016 5:09:00 GMT -5
How old are the calves now?
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Post by cathylee on Aug 2, 2016 23:22:35 GMT -5
The heifer with the little horns is about 2 and a half months old.
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We need a section called "Lucky Strikes" or something. 
I would say the owners are just very lucky, and I wonder if they'd let their bull come over and have a chat with my bull about how to be generous with that polled gene? My red hetero polled bull has sired four calves--all black and all bulls. 
One he sired for someone else was polled and one of mine was, too, although I didn't test him because I had him castrated and didn't want to know if he was homo polled. 
Of course both the ones he sired with my best cow are horned. I don't know what Royal and Ebby have against heifers! As much of a pain as it is to do, I'm about to try the ACV thing with her before I breed her back.
The last heifer born here was three years ago and she was pre-sold back to her breeder. All I've gotten is bulls for the past three years, out of two different cows and two bulls. 
