TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
Here's the back story. My favorite Jersey cow Daphne is 13, she would be 14 if she calved again. She has always lived on the ranch and had 7 calves by Black Angus bulls. All were black or nearly black. While I was gone to Oregon in 2016 a fire burned onto the ranch and she and the rest of the herd were evacuated to the auction yard across the river. He big steer calf was sold. She had open teats and was left in a dirty auction yard pen with big beef cows beating her up. When I got back a week later she had mastitis in all 4 quarters and was septic. She had 5 kinds of pathogens in her udder. I saved her but she lost her hind teats but she could still raise calves. One of the pathogens is Staph aureus. It never really goes away just dormant until they come fresh and it flares again. Last time she calved I noticed one of those front teats was just producing a serum. She's done milking and I'm keeping her for a pet.
All her life I have wished to get a Jersey heifer from her but there were only angus bulls. She's too old to breed. Embryo transfer- There are no vets around that can do it and I'm not sure she has many eggs anyway like an old hen. The last calf of her life is a first calf heifer bred from a black bull now lives on the ranch across the road. She is black, actually a black brindle. You can see the very faint undertones. She has a black calf at side.
Her sire was a homebred black bull that probably has some Charolaise in the wood pile. A previous calf by him out of Daphne was fawn colored so I guess he's not homozygous.
He lived into his 20s still siring calves but they finally culled him.
So this is what I have to work with. If AI sex selected Jersey semen was used on this black daughter I will probably get a red brindle, right? If I breed the brindle back to Jersey how many generations will it take to suppress the black gene and get a heifer calf that looks something like Daphne?
All her life I have wished to get a Jersey heifer from her but there were only angus bulls. She's too old to breed. Embryo transfer- There are no vets around that can do it and I'm not sure she has many eggs anyway like an old hen. The last calf of her life is a first calf heifer bred from a black bull now lives on the ranch across the road. She is black, actually a black brindle. You can see the very faint undertones. She has a black calf at side.
Her sire was a homebred black bull that probably has some Charolaise in the wood pile. A previous calf by him out of Daphne was fawn colored so I guess he's not homozygous.
He lived into his 20s still siring calves but they finally culled him.
So this is what I have to work with. If AI sex selected Jersey semen was used on this black daughter I will probably get a red brindle, right? If I breed the brindle back to Jersey how many generations will it take to suppress the black gene and get a heifer calf that looks something like Daphne?
Last edited: