Black More Dominant?!?

[libertyfarms]

My three black girls came from the same breeder and are out of Woodmagic lines. The breeder mentioned that their mommas/grandmothers were two of the three cows she called the three witches because they would push all the other cows in the herd around.

My neighbor has a Dexter herd with all three colors, and sure enough, her black girls chase all the others around and are always first to the best food.

I also have a Jersey/Guernsey cross that is the size of a big Jersey and she is head cow in the same pasture with my son's yearling Limousin show heifer. My 2 year old Dexter heifer, Neila, is due to calve in April so I brought her into the pasture with the "big" girls so she could learn the "milking" ropes. I've been worried about doing this since I thought the big girls would push little Neila around...boy was I wrong!! Neila pushes those big girls away from the round bale, she chases them from the water, to the point the big girls have been slamming into fences and gates trying to escape her wicked path! It's only been two days, and I assume they'll settle in. Also my Dexters are some of the most docile I have been around, so I'm not worried about it being a temperament issue that needs to be culled for...they aren't mean, just want the rest of the cow world to know that they reign supreme!

Those of you with mixed colors or other breeds in your herds, have you noticed similar behavior??

Rya

[dexterfarm]

They will settle down after they have been together for a while. We use to have Jerseys with the dexters and they were the lowest on the totem pole. A lot of who is boss cow is attitude. Our boss cow is dun.

[libertyfarms]

I figured they would

It's just too funny that all three of the people I know with black girls in their herds, they are definitely head honcho...with attitude to spare

Was curious if others had noticed similar, or if it was just a freak thing with the ones we knew of. We've started calling our girls the three witches as well

[hamonsdexter]

I have a Dun as head cows.

[lavacaw]

My bull (black Dexter) managed to hop a couple of fences into a pasture with full sized mixed breed cows. The owner's bull was a charolais more than twice the size of Zorro. Zorro promptly took over his herd and chased him into the woods. The owner wanted to know where he could get one of those little black bulls!

[lakeportfarms]

Feb 14, 2013 23:12:04 GMT -5 lavacaw said:

My bull (black Dexter) managed to hop a couple of fences into a pasture with full sized mixed breed cows. The owner's bull was a charolais more than twice the size of Zorro. Zorro promptly took over his herd and chased him into the woods. The owner wanted to know where he could get one of those little black bulls!

That is funny!

[Cascade Meadows Farm - Kirk]

If you visited my herd of 25 - 40 mostly red dexters, with a handful of blacks, you would indeed see that the blacks seem to be very bossy and you might conclude that the color is to blame.

But if you knew more about the family structure of my blacks, then you might doubt the color connection. Every Dexter on our farm was born on our farm except for one cow (she is one of our originals and the only original that we kept). She is black. Her name is Hillview Heather.

Heather is the oldest cow on our farm and she is naturally strong and dominant too (she's a real beauty and her calves hit the ground running). She is the herd boss and takes her job VERY seriously. All of our blacks descend from her.

Daughters born to boss cows automatically get dominant status in a herd, so her daughters are untouchable (to other cows).

In our case, it seems that it's just a coincidence that our oldest cow is black and therefore a coincidence that blacks are the most dominant in our herd.

But, let me give you some color-behavior science theory.

Pigment cells and nervous system cells are VERY closely related to each other. In fetal development, nervous system cells and pigment cells come from the same root cells (some go on to be brain and spinal cells, while some become pigment cells). In fetal development, the parent cells to the nervous system/pigment cells line up along the neural crest of the fetus (neural crest is top of head and along the top of the the back). The cells then differentiate and some form the brain and spinal cord, while some become pigment cells and migrate over the surface of the fetus.

There are several theories that talk about pigment genetics having an influence on behavior because of the strong linkage between pigment cells and nervous system cells.

It's possible that black genetics influence behavior dominance, but without a TON of scientific study, I wouldn't want to jump to conclusions.

PS. It's also possible that the color black presents a more bold visual statement that is more intimidating to other cows, and that bold visual statement gives a somewhat dominant cow an edge to become the lead boss-cow.