Bull's genetic dominance

[Toothacre]

I've heard that beef bulls provide 75% of their calves genetic expression. Is that true?
Is that why many small herds, under 50 head, have a PB Black Angus bull, and a hodgepodge of cows? Does anyone ever keep good looking, farm-born bulls as future herd sires, or is purchasing PB bulls the only way to go?

 

[WalnutCrest]

Lots of ways to go and lots of opinions on how to get there.

The replies to this post will be as varied as the types of cattle available to you.

 

[Backbone Ranch]

We keep our own bulls for future herd sires. It depends on the bull when it comes to genetic expression. If you have a bull who is strictly paternal, he will "stamp his quality" on the calves that he sires. We sold a Murray Grey bull to a man who has a mixed herd of cattle. He typically runs his group of cows with Charlois bulls. He threw the yearling Murray Grey bull in with the cows. By the time those calves were 4 months old, he was able to tell the difference in quality between the Murray Grey sired calves and the Charlois sired calves.
However, if you buy a bull who isn't masculine, he will never produce sons who are high in quality. His daughters might produce lots of milk, but his bull calves will rarely be high quality.

 

[skeeter swatter]

A calf gets 50% of its genes from each parent, dominant/recessive depends on genes not which parent.

 

[Toothacre]

We keep our own bulls for future herd sires. It depends on the bull when it comes to genetic expression. If you have a bull who is strictly paternal, he will "stamp his quality" on the calves that he sires. We sold a Murray Grey bull to a man who has a mixed herd of cattle. He typically runs his group of cows with Charlois bulls. He threw the yearling Murray Grey bull in with the cows. By the time those calves were 4 months old, he was able to tell the difference in quality between the Murray Grey sired calves and the Charlois sired calves.
However, if you buy a bull who isn't masculine, he will never produce sons who are high in quality. His daughters might produce lots of milk, but his bull calves will rarely be high quality.

Thanks for the insights. I've also noticed that stamp of quality. Most of our cows are Black Baldies,3/4 Black Angus 1/4 Hereford, and our bull is a registered Black Angus. All of the bull calves and most of the heifers look like the sire, black and big. the bull calves seem to me to have their father's personality, aloof and deliberate.
THIS STUFF IS FUN !

 

[dun]

The promary reason a bull may "seem" to be more genetically dominant is if he is purebred versas the cows he's bred to and if his genes are more homozygous, i,e like a line bred bull. We had one old cow that put HER mark on every one of her calves. Through the years she was bred to a dozen or more different bulls and yet all of her offspring look like peas in a pod. Didn;t matter if she was bred to a Hereford, Simmenthal, Gelbvieh or Red Angus. They all have/had the same boxcar on legs shape to them.