horn strength

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  • May 7, 2010 at 6:15 pm #41646
    cowGirl87
    Participant

    Is a calf out of one polled parent and one horned parent going to have different horn texture than a calf out of two horned parents? Is horn strength hereditary or due to environmental factors, or simply not an issue? I am enthused about getting some oxen but very, very green with it all… Thanks for your help!

    May 7, 2010 at 6:58 pm #60020
    OldKat
    Participant

    @cowGirl87 18110 wrote:

    Is a calf out of one polled parent and one horned parent going to have different horn texture than a calf out of two horned parents? Is horn strength hereditary or due to environmental factors, or simply not an issue? I am enthused about getting some oxen but very, very green with it all… Thanks for your help!

    It has been my observation that “generally” such a calf would be polled, those that are not polled will usually have “scurs” or “buttons” and not actual horns. There may be exceptions to this, but I don’t know that I have ever seen such an exception; i.e. a full set of horns on the offspring of a polled x horned mating. They may be out there, I just don’t remember seeing any.

    I know that there are some books or charts on genetics available that would indicate what the possibility is of getting a specific color calf by mating parents of different colors, and best I can recall there is also information available on the results of a polled x horned mating, but I don’t have any of that info handy. I have never seen anything published on what the nature of such a horn would be; wall thickness, color, etc.

    May 7, 2010 at 7:29 pm #60019
    Theloggerswife
    Participant

    We have a polled highland/Angus cross cow. She has no horns. We breed her with a full highland bull every year and the calves have always had horns…for the past 8 years. I am actually rasing one of the highland/angus crosses for a freezer fill-up.

    I sold a lot of 5 full highland calves to a guy a couple towns away from us. He bred them all with a polled angus bull…..no horns on any of the calves.

    This is just my personal experience.

    May 7, 2010 at 10:40 pm #60016
    Vicki
    Participant

    The polled gene is dominant, so any cross of horned x polled will be polled. Those cross offspring will have a horned gene and a polled gene, so if you cross them with a horned mate you have a chance of getting a horned offspring or a polled one.
    Scurs can indicate the presence of a (recessive) horned gene, so with a horned mate a scurred parent might produce a horned offspring (I had that happen, happily!)

    May 8, 2010 at 5:16 am #60021
    sanhestar
    Participant

    Vicki,

    I’m not sure on that but then I can only speak for goats.

    In goats the polled gene is also dominant but if you cross a polled with a horned goat you will get a percentage horned animals because you can’t breed goats that are 100% polled in heritage (these would be hermaphrodites and sexless). For polled goats to be able to breed they need to be 50% polled and 50% horned in their DNA (wish I knew the correct phrase in English).

    I know that hermaphrodism from polled x polled breedings are no issue in cattle but as there sure will be some polled cows with mixed DNA, getting a horned out of polled x horned breeding should be possible.

    May 8, 2010 at 5:20 am #60022
    sanhestar
    Participant

    and speaking of horn strength: our horned goats out of horned/polled breedings have strong horns like the ones out of horned/horned breedings.

    I can see a difference, though, in horn strength regarding to castration age and general heritage. The bucks I left intact for breeding for two years have longer horns than the ones castrated at 5-6 months. And form, shape and thickness of horns can be traced through the ancestry of the goats.

    May 9, 2010 at 11:01 pm #60017
    Vicki
    Participant

    http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/an_sci/extension/animal/news/aug96/aug96-3.html

    genetics of horns in cattle

    May 10, 2010 at 3:23 am #60018
    Vicki
    Participant

    http://home.purebreddextercattle.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=79

    another description of the same genetics

    May 10, 2010 at 6:54 am #60023
    sanhestar
    Participant

    same in goats, and thanks for the link. The word I was searching for was homozygous 🙂

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