Black/Brown calfs/What breed are they ?

[Stepper]

I had 9 black mixed breed heifers bred to a registered black angus bull. They are all calfed out except for one now. I bought the heifers at the sale barn when they were 550 lbs in October of 2005 and waited until April of 2006 before putting them with the bull. Before i put them with the bull I had them vet checked to make sure they were not bred. And they were not exposed to any other bull except mine up until they started calfing in Febuary of this year.

So i am sure they did not get bred by another bull. But 3 of the calfs that were born are a cinnomon(brown color) but arround their eyes and nose, just about their ankles all thoes areas are black. I am pretty sure they got these traits from the genetics of their mothers.

What breed of cow would be colored up like that ? I was kind of thinking a lomosuine ?

 

[IL Rancher]

I have seen that on a few calves and generally they ended up pureblack by the end of summer...Sometimes they would have a black line down their back and the skin around the anus was also black....

Folks always said simmi's and limmi's in the woodpile but I saw it a lot in photos of Dexter calves...They were always had a black line on their backs however.

 

[Cowdirt]

I had 9 black mixed breed heifers bred to a registered black angus bull. They are all calfed out except for one now. I bought the heifers at the sale barn when they were 550 lbs in October of 2005 and waited until April of 2006 before putting them with the bull. Before i put them with the bull I had them vet checked to make sure they were not bred. And they were not exposed to any other bull except mine up until they started calfing in Febuary of this year.

So i am sure they did not get bred by another bull. But 3 of the calfs that were born are a cinnomon(brown color) but arround their eyes and nose, just about their ankles all thoes areas are black. I am pretty sure they got these traits from the genetics of their mothers.

What breed of cow would be colored up like that ? I was kind of thinking a lomosuine ?

This is a fairly common coloration for calves from breeding black angus on black crossbred cows. Many times these calves will darken toward black as they get older. Wouldn't suspect limosine any more than anything else having brown or red in the gene pool.

 

[Stepper]

These 3 dont have black lines down their backs. But 2 of the 3 just sort of have a light covering of rusty brown color to them and i think they will eventually go black.

But that one calf is pretty well a rusty brown color except for the black arround his eyes nose and up his legs a little bit. And arround his ears where they come out of its head.

 

[Beefy]

theyll turn black. dont fret none.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Shucks Stepper. If they fetch enough nickels at the sale barn, I'd let the buyers call them anything they want to call them. They are sired half angus, and that is all you can give your word on anyway. Everything else is postulation.

 

[Stepper]

backhoeboogie,

Your 100% right. I dont care what the buyer calls them or what he does with them. And the color is not bothering me really. The only reason i was tring to figure out what breed they were was because one of the 3 that is mostly a rusty colored brown was or is a huge calf for his age. And i was thinking the reasor for it was because of his breed. He was the only one that i had to pull that was a necessary pull.

And these 3 rusty colored calfs seems to be a more stocky built calf than the others. I had a bull calf born last Saturday and he weighed 90 lbs according to the hoof tape. And even though he was probably as big as the calf that i had to pull. He was a lengthy built calf. My wife and daughter checked the heifer about 5 hours before i checked and found that she had the calf. So i dont really know how hard of a time she had giving birth to it. But i guess she done alright. I had to chase it down to tag and band it. even though it was just a few hours old.

I was thinking about maybe culling the cow that had the big calf that i had to pull.(affraid she might have another big calf next Spring and not make it the next time round.)

But any way that is why i was tring to get some sort of idea as to what breed the calfs were.

 

[DOC HARRIS]

I had 9 black mixed breed heifers bred to a registered black angus bull. They are all calfed out except for one now. I bought the heifers at the sale barn when they were 550 lbs in October of 2005 and waited until April of 2006 before putting them with the bull. Before i put them with the bull I had them vet checked to make sure they were not bred. And they were not exposed to any other bull except mine up until they started calfing in Febuary of this year.

So i am sure they did not get bred by another bull. But 3 of the calfs that were born are a cinnomon(brown color) but arround their eyes and nose, just about their ankles all thoes areas are black. I am pretty sure they got these traits from the genetics of their mothers.

What breed of cow would be colored up like that ? I was kind of thinking a lomosuine ?

Stepper-

All of these thoughts are very possible, and I wouldn't worry about the coloration. I just wonder if your Black Angus Bull is carrying a red Gene?? Very possible.

DOC HARRIS

 

[KNERSIE]

I was thinking about maybe culling the cow that had the big calf that i had to pull.(affraid she might have another big calf next Spring and not make it the next time round.)

Although it would probably be good practise to rid your herd of such genetics (if it was indeed genetics that caused the problem), I would be surprized if she have calving difficulty the second time round.

If she raises a good calf keep her, and if you are really that concerned that it might have been genetics, just don't keep any replacements out of her

 

[Badlands]

It's an interesting phenomenon that has occured in Black Angus since the mid 70's. You would never see a "brown" calf before then.

Badlands

 

[MikeC]

Brown Swiss

 

[jnowack]

Could possibly be that one of the cows is a red carrier. I use a homozygous black bull. Out of some of the cows (angus) all the calves are jet black. Out of the cows that are red carriers the calves are and remain throughout their lives a chocolate color.

It is not the presence of the red gene that dilutes the black color. Cattle can be homo black can still have a really brown tint to them and hetero black animals can be jet black. It is most likely caused by a fawn or dun gene. The ones that do come out brown, reddish, or mousy will be significantly darker or even jet black when they get a little older and slick off.

 

[MoGal]

I'll try to find it, but I do a lot of reading about minerals and I do remember reading about the lack of a certain mineral can cause the brown hair on a black calf. Not saying that is what it is (unless you're one of those that uses a "trace" mineral block). They will turn black but they have a brown cast to them as a calf when first born.

 

[MikeC]

I'll try to find it, but I do a lot of reading about minerals and I do remember reading about the lack of a certain mineral can cause the brown hair on a black calf. Not saying that is what it is (unless you're one of those that uses a "trace" mineral block). They will turn black but they have a brown cast to them as a calf when first born.

Copper