Breeding Charolais Cattle

[Rowdy]

Why? Why would anyone want charolais as their maternal cow herd base? Guess feed prices weren't high enough last winter?

You must not be familiar with the modern Charolais cow that's mature weight is less than that of angus or Herefords. And better milking than the latter to boot.

 

[bigag03]

You are fighting 2 different genes to get Charolais from White to Black. 1st is the diluter gene and 2nd, the base color gene, which is recessive red in Charolais cattle. There are some Charolais that are referred to as "red factor". These are Charolais cattle that are already either heterozygous (straw color) or homozygous (red) for the non-dilution allele (i.e. they have lost their diluter gene already).

If I wanted to make Black Charolais, that would breed true, I would tackle the genes one at a time. 1st, use a red breed of your choosing and use that breed to inject the non-dilution allele while maintaining the red allele (or find red factor Charolais). Then grade back up to Charolais while selecting for straw color, then red Charolais. Once you get them red, turning them black is easy since it is dominant. Will still take a few generations to get them homo black, but you won't be fighting dilution at the same time.

Thanks Biaga03
You have presented a great explanation. Let me ask a question. In situations where I see White (Charolais-ish) cows with Black calves, I can assume that they have lost their "diluter gene. A person who collected a group of these such cows would more than likely face what other hide colors.... Red , White and Black ?

Not necessarily. This is where visual appraisal is not as cut and dry. A purebred, WHITE, Charolais cow is homozygous for the dilution. Her calves, when bred to a solid bull (red or black), will be mostly straw or smoke in color. If you are looking at a White cow of unknown origin with a black calf, one of two things is happening...1) The cow is really not white, but a light straw or smoke herself; or 2) The calves are not "really" black. There are lesser known (or not known at all other than acknowledging their existence) genes that can affect the intensity of the color expressed. In extreme cases these genes can go so far as making a red (genetically) calf look black and all other kinds of variations as well. If everything were simple, I would say it is impossible for a White cow to have a Black calf, but it is not always that easy.