horn strength

[cowGirl87]

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!

[OldKat]

@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.

[Theloggerswife]

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.

[Vicki]

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!)

[sanhestar]

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.

[sanhestar]

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.

[Vicki]

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

genetics of horns in cattle

[Vicki]

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

another description of the same genetics

[sanhestar]

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

[Author]

Posts