Curly Calf --Explain

[BamaCowboy]

Been hearing alot about this but no one I know can explain what it is. I have looked on the web but still no help. I do know the Angus Assoc is haveing a lot of people talking about this

 

[msscamp]

Check out the breeds board. There is a link to the AAA regarding this, as well as a discussion about it.

 

[cowperson]

Apparently calves have a s shaped spine and most are born dead. It has been found in the Precision 1680 bloodline and seems to happen more often when Precision 1680 is in both the dam and sire side. The following bulls Expectation, Yield Grade and Midland to name a few are out of Precision 1680. So if you mate a Expectation daughter to Yield Grade you may see a curly calf. So far there have been 47 curly calves out of 40,000 calves, that is 0.12%. Quite small but losing one calf affects profit. Just need to be careful with mating to reduce the possiblity of getting a curly calf.

 

[Double R Ranch]

http://www.angus.org/ccs_info.html

 

[Double R Ranch]

There have just been 47 reported. There are probably lots more they just have not been reported because the AAA does not want to lose their arse.

Keep in mind that they don't just know that these problems exist and it takes time to figure out that a problem is genetic. Do you (if you own a registered herd) report EVERY problem to your breed registry. Most people don't. I don't report every cough and abortion etc.
American Angus Association whom I am a long time member has been VERY good about letting us know as soon as they figured it out. They sent a letter to all members informing of the CCS and asking for any cases each member might have had and were working on a DNA test to find the gene.
Even Select Sires is working on determining carriers of the gene. I personally have bred to a carrier and was informed imediately. Plus they are going to be testing EVERY sire in there program and Discontinuing them. All new sires are going to be tested as well.
So be careful about accusing these places of not wanting to loose there @sses. They are not in the business to hide things. They want strong healthy animal to promote there cattle not sick or Carriers.
Double R