Horned Heifer

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rocket2222

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I thought this was unusual, maybe it's not, makes me wonder if the breeding on one of them is really correct, this is her 6th calf, they've all been polled so far. I'd not been paying a whole lot of a attention to the calves lately, they're just kind of out there growing. I was really surprised when I checked them the other day though, when I noticed a 4 month old heifer I have is horned, first horned animal in her pedigree on the sires side is 6 generations back on the sires side, and 7 generations back on the dams side, that sure seems like some long odds that they would both be carrying the horned gene through 6 generations of polled breeding. Oh well.

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Could be some funky gene in there somewhere. Had the same thing happen to me once-had a calf out of two registered, purebred Angus that had horn buds-they never grew but you could feel them. I figured either there was a weird gene or someone wasn't honest somewhere along the line :?
 
Horns or scurrs? I'm under the impression scurrs are a different gene than horns. But I could see horns on a calf with horns in the background, but I agree the odds would have to be small.

Alan
 
Alan":30t1km7n said:
Horns or scurrs? I'm under the impression scurrs are a different gene than horns. But I could see horns on a calf with horns in the background, but I agree the odds would have to be small.

Alan

from what I have seen, scurs dont grow that fast. I have a coming 2 yr old Aubrac polled bull that has scurs about 1.5 inches long. Others I have seen have a similar growth rate.
 
I'm not an expert on scurrs, so not trying to argue the point. But we took scurrs off a yearling Hereford heifer about 7 yrs ago. I'm 100% sure they were scurrs, not attached to the scull, moved very easy, they were about 2 inches long.

Alan
 
Alan":36js9wa0 said:
Horns or scurrs? I'm under the impression scurrs are a different gene than horns. But I could see horns on a calf with horns in the background, but I agree the odds would have to be small.

Alan


Yes, two different genes. These appear to be attached and she already has that horned look to her head.
 
I have seen scurs on mature animals from nothing but a scab that looked like a silver dollar laying flat on the animals head to one that had scurs 7-8 inches long dangling loose down beside the animals head and everything in between. It varies from animal to animal.

Circle H Ranch
 
Nice horned heifer! Rocket, any calves from your Churchill bull yet?

I've got the first two out of my Star Lake bull in the last couple of weeks - both heifer calves - and they look to be what I was looking for from him - if they grow! The first was from a first calf heifer (by my Keynote son) and is moderate/small and the second is from a Pure Gold daughter and she is actually on the small side. They were both over a week old before I saw them so I didn't try to catch them and actually weigh them. But they're both little chunks - filling out fast! Should have a couple more in the next week/10 days!

George
 
the calfs dam an sire both have horned blood somewhere in their pedagees.an yes a horned calf can pop up on the 7th generation.
 
Herefords.US":392g3bgl said:
Nice horned heifer! Rocket,

uummm.


Herefords.US":392g3bgl said:
any calves from your Churchill bull yet?

I've got the first two out of my Star Lake bull in the last couple of weeks - both heifer calves - and they look to be what I was looking for from him - if they grow! The first was from a first calf heifer (by my Keynote son) and is moderate/small and the second is from a Pure Gold daughter and she is actually on the small side. They were both over a week old before I saw them so I didn't try to catch them and actually weigh them. But they're both little chunks - filling out fast! Should have a couple more in the next week/10 days!

George

George, still waiting for some calves, got a couple cows that are bagging up, so it shouldn't be too long now. Good to hear that you like your Pounder sons calves, going to be hard for them not to grow, with all those high growth bulls stacked behind him in his pedigree.
 

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