Blue roan breed to red roan shorthorn

[Hallie]

I have a red roan shorthorn heifer. I would like to breed her to a blue roan shorthorn bull. I understand that 25% would be red roan, 25% blue roan 25% white. I'm just wondering what color would that last 25% would be? Would it be black, red, or a mixture of the 2?

Also is there any health concerns with breeding 2 roan cows together?

 

[farmerjan]

There would be no guarantees on the percentage, since you don't know what the blue has as the dominant color and how the recessives might also combine. You could get all red roans or all solid reds....I think it would be doubtful you would get black or mostly black since the black should be only from the blue roan, but you don't know that for sure???? Was the blue roan on offspring of an angus and a shorthorn?? Was it from a roan shorthorn or a solid color?

I know of no reason there should be any health concerns from breeding 2 roans together unless one has a recessive that could cause birth defects or something. I have never heard of a birth defect being linked to a color gene but maybe someone else on here breeds shorthorns and would know better....

 

[Hallie]

Is there any possible way the red and black in both cows could show through that the same time on a calf?

 

[Boot Jack Bulls]

Not likely. You will probably get a red roan or a blue roan calf. The chances of getting a solid colored calf from two roan Shorthorns is less likely. Getting a red and black calf (brindle?) is highly unlikely.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I have been taking care of a SH herd of my running buddy that is in bad way.
I am always amazed at the patterns that come out there has to be a rhym or reason I just haven't figured it out.
He has a Brangus/SH cross heifer that is marked like a Holstein with a SH body with a Brangus head.
SH genetics are stout when it comes to chrome

 

[DLD]

I'm not sure that those percentages are necessarily valid when crossing blue roans with red roans. Based on my experience (which is not huge, we run a handful of Shorthorn and blue roan cows in our club calf operation - many of our friends do too), crossing a blue roan with a red roan will most often get you a red roan. If you're trying to raise blue roans from red roans, you'll get a greater percentage of blues by using a homozygous black bull on your red roans. If you're trying to continue getting blue roan calves out of blue roan cows, breeding them to a white Shorthorn bull or a blue bull or even a black one seems to get more blue calves than a red or red roan. It seems like though the roan coloring may remain dominant, the blue has already diluted the black enough that the red ends up dominant over blue.

But just like Caustic said, if there's rhyme or reason to the Shorthorn cross color patterns, it's pretty hard to see. Best way to look at it when you're playing with those color patterns is every calf is like unwrapping a present - just when you think know exactly what it's going to be - surprise!