Black cow....white calf

[HOSS]

A couple of months ago my neighbor bought a heavy bred black cow at the sale barn. She calved and the calf was white....solid white like a Charolais but with a black nose and black skin pigmentation. I have never seen this before. What are the statistical chances of this I wonder. Most charolais x black angus are smokey grey to a darker color. This cow is solid black and the calf is solid white. It looks funny to see it nursing in the field on green grass......what a contrast that is.

 

[alacattleman]

A couple of months ago my neighbor bought a heavy bred black cow at the sale barn. She calved and the calf was white....solid white like a Charolais but with a black nose and black skin pigmentation. I have never seen this before. What are the statistical chances of this I wonder. Most charolais x black angus are smokey grey to a darker color. This cow is solid black and the calf is solid white. It looks funny to see it nursing in the field on green grass......what a contrast that is.

ive seen it, it can happen .and the calf was white as a albino,, he got beat like a stepchild at the market even though the calf, was good and performed well .......

 

[grannysoo]

Statistically speaking, the odds are not high. But it happens. The calf most likely got a good dose of the genes from the father or one of the grandparents.

 

[alacattleman]

Statistically speaking, the odds are not high. But it happens. The calf most likely got a good dose of the genes from the father or one of the grandparents.

im thinking its moma don't know exactally which gene... but im guessing she might not be pure black angus

 

[dun]

I see it all the time at the neighbors. She has 2 herds, one runs with a blk Angus the other with a Charolais. Heifers retained from the black bull go to the charolais and heifers from the charolais go to the black bull. She's been rotating back and forth like that for 30 years so she has very few black cows that are really black gene wise.

 

[dyates]

Statistically speaking, the odds are not high. But it happens. The calf most likely got a good dose of the genes from the father or one of the grandparents.

The odds are actually quite high. My cows are smokies (Char x Angus). In years when I used a black angus bull, yes purebred/ homo black, 1 out of 10 calves will be as described. That's with only 25% charolais in the calf. Cross a purebred angus with a purebred charolais, you will get even more white calves. Never had a problem at sale time. It does seem that certain lines of charolais are more likely than others to throw heavily diluted (white) calves.