HORNS

[tja477t]

trying to find out if sire is Heterozygous polled and dam is Homozygous polled what the results of the calves will be. can any of them have horns and if so what percentage will be homo or hetero polled or horned

 

[Muddy]

The resulting calves won't be horned since homozygous polled is dominant over horned. However I don't understand how the scurred genetics work.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Polled cow will knock horns off, off spring will be 50/50 - Same as the parents, half will be homo polled, half will be hetero polled.

But only for that homo cow. If there's more cows involved it depends on their horn status.

 

[tja477t]

thats what i thought but i wasnt sure if it made any difference if it was the sire or dam. i know a homo polled bull cant throw a horned calf, wasnt sure about the dam. i think scurs are a different gene all together

 

[dun]

thats what i thought but i wasnt sure if it made any difference if it was the sire or dam. i know a homo polled bull cant throw a horned calf, wasnt sure about the dam. i think scurs are a different gene all together

Yes, scurred gene is different from horned. On cattle that have been dehorned the scur gene carrier can be hidden since the area removed with dehorning also removes the area that scurs grow from.
Frequently when a screwy looking twisted horn thing grows people refer to them as scurs. If the animal was dehorned, it's usually the result of a botched dehorning rather than it being a scur

 

[Dubcharo]

I thing an homozygous polled bull will not show scurs on his head but can have the scurs gene and pass it to his offspring. It take 2 scurs gene on a cow to express scurs on her head.

 

[Nesikep]

I have NEVER seen a cow with scurs, though I've had a bull calf get them (same breeding).. I've kept dozens of heifers long enough to notice if one showed it

 

[Muddy]

I got a scurred black cow here from Hereford breeding few generations ago.

 

[Ebenezer]

Two sets of scur genes: one is specific on Brahman cattle.

Only horns here on the farm are under the truck hood! :lol:

 

[TexasBred]

Two sets of scur genes: one is specific on Brahman cattle.

Only horns here on the farm are under the truck hood! :lol:

Amen to that bro.

 

[Muddy]

Two sets of scur genes: one is specific on Brahman cattle.

Only horns here on the farm are under the truck hood! :lol:

Then there's an African horned gene. Seen few F1 Watusi X Angus and F1 Watusi X Homo polled Black Sim crosses last fall at exotic sale, they have horns. Big horns as their Watusi mommas...but there's few individuals that was polled in the same batch.

 

[Dubcharo]

@Nesikep We have 4-5 cows with scurs

 

[Caustic Burno]

The resulting calves won't be horned since homozygous polled is dominant over horned. However I don't understand how the scurred genetics work.

There is an exception to the rule if the dam carries the African horn gene
you can still get horns. Lot of Brahman and LH carry it.

 

[Nesikep]

@Nesikep We have 4-5 cows with scurs

I like the look of the cow standing in the background

I have a SH cross cow that may have scurs.. she's got a little pair of nubbins, I can't remember if we had tried to dehorn her and botched the job or not, I do remember her momma was absolutely fierce and protective (the reason we may have skipped the procedure)

 

[Lucky_P]

Good presentation of the current knowledge on horns/scurs, here:
http://homepage.usask.ca/~schmutz/polled.html

Scur gene can float along unexpressed in horned cattle for generations; and also in homo polled cattle, until you introduce the horn gene with a horned or hetero-polled bull/cow.

The scur gene is out there in the Angus breed - several foundation sires (Shah, Hanton 80) had scurs (and, thus, you'd also know that they were hetero-polled)... and although the horn gene may have been selectively (and effectively) bred out of the breed, the scur gene is still hitch-hiking along ... some Angus cattle can produce scurred offspring if bred to hetero-polled cattle.

I have one cow in the herd right now with scurs; sired by an AI sire from the Gardiner Angus Ranch... out of a polled 3/4AN-1/4 SM cow - who likely goes back to one or more horned or hetero-polled Simmental sires used back in the 1980s-1990s... or a Holstein cow from 1986... She's almost certainly hetero-polled, and has two copies of the scur gene.

 

[dun]

Horns do pop up apparently from polled homo-polled parents (or the bloodline is so old that there was some horned stuff that snuck in years before). We have a cow that goes back about 4 generations to nothing but 100% angus cattle. That's the only thing this particular herd has ever had on the place for the past 40 years. There is 1 cow that shows up as horned, only one for generations. She's Red Angus and classified as 100% angus but with the disqualifying characteristic of horns.

 

[Muddy]

Sometimes I hates these unexpressed genes that went unnoticed for countless generations till it show up unexpectedly. I know Black Angus herdbook are supposed to be closed, but I have doubts.