How to breed out black coat color

[Warren Allison]

IMO, you are making this harder than it needs to be because you want to retain a "bloodline" that really doesn't exist. You had/have a great cow that is no longer producing calves and anything from her is mixed blood... If you want Jersey heifers to sell then it's kind of a no brainer to acquire a Jersey to produce them from. Skip all the mind games and just get another Jersey. You're making it more difficult than it needs to be and with questionable results for little reason. It's not getting you anywhere by being in love with your cow and the idea of trying to breed up a line from an old cow that has timed out.

Best advice yet. @TexasJerseyMilker,If you are wanting to raise family milk cows to sell to folks, why would you want them to be 1/4 Angus?

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Then how did this happen? Pure bred red Jersey X black heterozygous bull? Some how the black gene did not dominate. Her previous calf from the same bull is black.


(previous daughter in background, same bull)

 

[Travlr]

Then how did this happen? Pure bred red Jersey X black heterozygous bull? Some how the black gene did not dominate. Her previous calf from the same bull is black.
View attachment 43773
View attachment 43778
(previous daughter in background, same bull)

A heterozygous bull is carrying one black gene on the opposite side of a chromosome which has a red gene on the other side. You get only one side of a divided chromosome, so either black or red... not both. In this case you got the Jersey fawn from the cow and a red gene from the bull. If you'd gotten the black gene the calf would have been black.

 

[Warren Allison]

Then how did this happen? Pure bred red Jersey X black heterozygous bull? Some how the black gene did not dominate. Her previous calf from the same bull is black.
View attachment 43773
View attachment 43778
(previous daughter in background, same bull)

You answered your own question. The bull was hetero for black.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Thank you for this advice. I know the bull was hetero for black. So, he had a red gene and a black gene in his chromosome pairs. He was black because the black gene dominated. Daphne, the original mother cow, has only red chromosome pairs. Red is recessive.

I'm trying to picture this.
Each parent splits their chromosome pair and contributes one strand of chromosome to fertilize the egg. Red cow could only contribute recessive red genes. The bull could either contribute black or red. He contributed black so it dominated and Lily of Valley is black but she carries recessive red.

The next calf from that same pairing was red (fawn). That's because this time the bull donated a a red chromosome. Unfortunately that heifer did not live.

So . . . Lily of the Valley is heterozygous black. She has a black coat and carries a red coat gene. Bred AI to a homozygous Jersey bull that can only contribute red genes, that calf's color will depend on if she threw a red or a black gene.

So, its a 50/50 chance her Lily of Valley daughter could be red.
If it was a red heifer she would be homozygous for red and could only have red calves if bred to Jersey bulls. That is what I'm looking for. I have Factor D (determination)

Yes it would be cheaper, quicker and less trouble to just buy another bottle heifer from a dairy. But she would not be related to Daphne. Am I sentimental? Heck yes.

 

[MurraysMutts]

I know how ya feel @TexasJerseyMilker

I purposely kept my heifer out of Bessie and my black mutt bull because I really liked them both. I do regret selling her as a heavy bred heifer even tho she brought really good money.

Do what you love!

We are fortunate that folks on here share valuable information, even tho some might say it's best to just move on.