Black
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Jake
Well-known member
the largest problem with breeding black cows to a charolais bull is the rat tails. Get 3 or 4 of them in a hundred head and that significantly reduces your average price per head.
randiliana
Well-known member
Probably about 30% of our cows are black or BWF. They are good enough cattle. However, if it were up to me I would go to a red based herd, but hubby likes to have the blacks around. Preferably shorthorn x. Good milk, good mothers, good attitude and they keep their condition well enough. Plus we have an easier time finding a market privately for our red heifers. We sell the main part of our steers in one bunch, red/black/hereford etc and we have been at the top of the market for them. Quality counts more than color...
BAGTIC
Well-known member
Probably about 75% black and 25% white as I raise Belted Galloways.
movin' on
Well-known member
Jake, I believe rat-tails and tight kinky coats are caused by a Simmental influence. I don't think Charolais/Angus crosses would have either but I've never done it so I can't say for sure.
VanC
Well-known member
movin' on":i87vho4f said:
I could be wrong, but I thought rat-tails could occur when you cross a black animal with one that carries a dilution gene, such as Chars, Simmies, or Gelbviehs.
Jake
Well-known member
VanC":1sbikb2d said:
true, chars, simmies and gelbs are the three breeds that carry diluter genes and cause rat tails. I absolutley hate when I buy a good black cow to put in the lot and she pops out an albino calf that 1/8 of the time is a rat.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Inheritance of the "rat-tail" syndrome and its effect on calf performance
R. R. Schalles and L. V. Cundiff
Department of Animal Sciences and Industry, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66506, USA.
A form of congenital hypotrichosis, commonly know as the "rat-tail syndrome," occurs in a small percentage of calves produced by crossing some Continental cattle breeds with cattle that are black in color. These calves are characterized by short, curly, malformed, sometimes sparse hair and a lack of normal tail switch development. In our first study, performance of 43 rat-tail calves was compared with that of 570 non-rat-tail calves of the same breeding and contemporary groups. All rat-tail calves were sired by Simmental bulls and were from cows with various percentages of Angus breeding. The rat-tail condition had no effect on birth weight, weaning weight, or gain from birth to weaning. However, rat-tail calves had significantly lower rates of gain during the winter months from weaning to yearling than non-rat-tail calves, resulting in a 19 kg lighter yearling weight. Gains of steers from yearling to slaughter were not significantly different, but rat-tail steers were 36 kg lighter (P = .01) and 13 d older (P = .15) at slaughter than the non-rat-tail steers. In a second study, Angus-Simmental F1 males and females with the rat-tail condition were mated to produce 64 F2 offspring that were used to determine the mode of inheritance of this syndrome. Analysis showed that the rat-tail syndrome is controlled by interacting genes at two loci. Cattle that express the syndrome must have at least one dominant gene for black color and be heterozygous at the other locus involved. *********************************************
From Clemson Univ. Paper:
"The term "rat-tail" comes from the lack of a switch on the tail. A more serious condition is called "elephant- hided" calves. The elephant-hided calves have a genetic condition where the calf is almost hairless. The rat-tail calf is a variation of the same condition. In our project the rat-tail calves performed as good or better than their counterparts. If the rat-tail condition is a mild form of the elephant-hide condition, it does not seem to effect feedlot performance. Let it also be noted that all calves were fed through the winter months which should work against eared and rat-tail calves. The moral here is if they are good calves and you know they will be discounted at the sale, feed them."
Inheritance of the "rat-tail" syndrome and its effect on calf performance
R. R. Schalles and L. V. Cundiff
Department of Animal Sciences and Industry, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66506, USA.
A form of congenital hypotrichosis, commonly know as the "rat-tail syndrome," occurs in a small percentage of calves produced by crossing some Continental cattle breeds with cattle that are black in color. These calves are characterized by short, curly, malformed, sometimes sparse hair and a lack of normal tail switch development. In our first study, performance of 43 rat-tail calves was compared with that of 570 non-rat-tail calves of the same breeding and contemporary groups. All rat-tail calves were sired by Simmental bulls and were from cows with various percentages of Angus breeding. The rat-tail condition had no effect on birth weight, weaning weight, or gain from birth to weaning. However, rat-tail calves had significantly lower rates of gain during the winter months from weaning to yearling than non-rat-tail calves, resulting in a 19 kg lighter yearling weight. Gains of steers from yearling to slaughter were not significantly different, but rat-tail steers were 36 kg lighter (P = .01) and 13 d older (P = .15) at slaughter than the non-rat-tail steers. In a second study, Angus-Simmental F1 males and females with the rat-tail condition were mated to produce 64 F2 offspring that were used to determine the mode of inheritance of this syndrome. Analysis showed that the rat-tail syndrome is controlled by interacting genes at two loci. Cattle that express the syndrome must have at least one dominant gene for black color and be heterozygous at the other locus involved. *********************************************
From Clemson Univ. Paper:
"The term "rat-tail" comes from the lack of a switch on the tail. A more serious condition is called "elephant- hided" calves. The elephant-hided calves have a genetic condition where the calf is almost hairless. The rat-tail calf is a variation of the same condition. In our project the rat-tail calves performed as good or better than their counterparts. If the rat-tail condition is a mild form of the elephant-hide condition, it does not seem to effect feedlot performance. Let it also be noted that all calves were fed through the winter months which should work against eared and rat-tail calves. The moral here is if they are good calves and you know they will be discounted at the sale, feed them."
Jake
Well-known member
dun":wvzbr619 said:
exactly, no matter what the research shows it's showed the same for 20 years. They will continue to dock for rats as long as they can which may be forever.
