Black angus turning orange

[Dee]

I have a few Black Angus three year old cows on pasture with the commercial F-1's. In the last month two of them have hair that has turned orange across their shoulders and middle back area. One is quite large like the size of a bath towel. The other about 1 foot x 3 foot. Both have always had jet black hair. The other cattle are angus x hereford, so orange on them doesn't stand out as a problem. They have access to mineral. Could this be a sign of a problem or nothing to worry about?

 

[farmwife]

Don't know what causes it, but I have seen it in many angus cattle. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

 

[randiliana]

Could be a lack of copper. Or it could be from the sunshine. You might want to check how much copper is in your mineral, and if that is enough or not.

 

[rk]

Copper would be my first thought. Check copper level in mineral, but also check consumption. Access to mineral doesn't always mean they are consuming it. Palatability of your mineral can be a factor.

 

[novaman]

I too would look into the copper levels. I would also look at the zinc levels since copper can get tied up by zinc. If I remember correctly the zinc to copper ratio should be between 2 and 3 to 1.

 

[MrBilly]

We went through this last year with our Angus herd. The nutritionist thought if might be from a lack of copper, so we changed mineral to include one that had chelated minerals including copper - Albion. It went away, but so did the summer sun, and this year, still on the expensive chelated mineral, the sun came back and many have the rusty coat again.

I'll bet ours is due to the sun and not a copper deficiency. :?:

I bet one could do copper levels to access this, check with your vet.

Billy

 

[dun]

We went through this last year with our Angus herd. The nutritionist thought if might be from a lack of copper, so we changed mineral to include one that had chelated minerals including copper - Albion. It went away, but so did the summer sun, and this year, still on the expensive chelated mineral, the sun came back and many have the rusty coat again.

I'll bet ours is due to the sun and not a copper deficiency. :?:

I bet one could do copper levels to access this, check with your vet.

Billy

Good to see a post that deals with having increased copper.
This time of year I think, (and that's all it is is my thoughts) that it's a case of dead summer hair and affects of the sun. Many moons ago we had an ex-bottle calf that wanted to be scratched. Every year she would get that off color, primarily over her withers. I'ld scratch her hard in that area and the hair would fall out leaving the normla black hair. Come spring time she'ld turn almost completly orange and just her rubbing on stuff would shed out the dead winter hair and she'ld be black again.

dun

 

[ollie']

I think it's the acid in saliva from licking flies turning the hair brown.

 

[Susie David]

Had a baldie heifer with some orange patches this summer...appeared to be the dead hair finally shedding as we could easily rub off clumps of it. We feed a high copper and seliumium mineral as we are low on both in this area.
DMc

 

[Stocker Steve]

The standard answer is more copper in your mineral. I have had mixed success with this solution. Perhaps the red tinged animals were not consuming the original mineral???

I spoke with a PhD type on the root cause of red coats and he said some animals have "pre exisitng conditions." Could be a previous sickness that effects their digestive system, could be poor genetics that effects their mineral requirements, could be a bunch of other things that effect their hair coat...

Feed supplementation and/or fall weather usually eliminate red hair coats for me. Culling is another option if the red tinged animal is not a good doer.

 

[ollie']

If it was a vitamin, mineral, or nutrition problem, wouldn't it show up more evenly instead of on the withers?

 

[MrBilly]

Good point ollie.

Billy

 

[Stocker Steve]

If it was a vitamin, mineral, or nutrition problem, wouldn't it show up more evenly instead of on the withers?

I think the point is that there is more than one thing - alone or in combination with other things - that can cause this. Sunlight, color, nutrition, genetics, and health could all be involved.