Longhorn Colors

[LonghornRanch]

What are the different colors you have seen on Longhorns? I was told about a Blue Texas Longhorn Bull by a Vet, who gave me the ranchers phone number. I called him to see if he would stud his bull, he said yes. I dropped off the cow and the Bull had tiny blue spots. Very cool!

I am hoping for a calf with blue color........ but you know with longhorns, you never know what you will get.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

What are the different colors you have seen on Longhorns? I was told about a Blue Texas Longhorn Bull by a Vet, who gave me the ranchers phone number. I called him to see if he would stud his bull, he said yes. I dropped off the cow and the Bull had tiny blue spots. Very cool!

I am hoping for a calf with blue color........ but you know with longhorns, you never know what you will get.

Longhorn colors are like fingerprints...no two exactly alike. The blues and blue roans are very rare colors. Photographs of both sides of a Longhorn + Your Brand = can always identify your animal if it is stolen...can't exactly do that with Angus or some of the other "solids"...lol.

 

[warpaint]

You hit the nail solid on the head when you said you never know what you're gonna get. Even a cow that's bred back to the same bull as last season, there
's no guarantee the calf will be the same color as the one before it.
Our first calf of the year is due next month, red cow, brindle and white bull, who knows what color combination will arrive. One of the assetts of the breed for me.

 

[Rustler9]

I have a blue roan cow that I bred to a dun roan bull-he's a Levi 6 son (Roundup grandson) and she had a blue roan bull calf last Sunday. He's white with black ears, feet and nose. He has black hairs all through his coat. He'll be speckling up really soon. To me that's one of the pluses of the breed-one thing about it, you don't get bored looking at them. I believe it was J. Frank Dobie who described them as having more colors than the rainbow.

Here's a list of colors/combinations and variations that a Longhorn can be. This is listed on the TLBAA site:

Description Word List
above, across, and, ankles, around, back, bald, base, behind, belly, below, belt, between, black, blaze, blonde, blue, body, both, bottom, brindle, brisket, bronze, brown, buckskin, by, cape, cast, center, chest, chin, circle, circles, color, colored, cream, crest, crown, dark, dewlap, diamond, dirty, down, dun, ear, ears, end, eye, eyebrow, eyebrows, eyed, eyes, face, faced, fawn, feet, few, five, flank, flanks, flecked, flecks, foot, fore, forehead, foreleg, forelegs, four, freckles, from, front, frosted, golden, gray, grey, grulla, hair, halfway, head, heart, hind, hindleg, hindlegs, hind-quarter, hip, hips, hocks, horn, horns, hump, in, inner, inside, irregular, jaw, knee, knees, knot, large, left, leg, legs, light, line, lineback, lines, loin, long, lower, marking, markings, maroon, mealy, medium, midway, mixed, moon, mottled, mouth, mulberry, multi, muzzle, narrow, navel, neck, nose, of, on, one, orange, outer, over, paint, parker brown, patch, patches, pink, points, poll, purple, quarters, rear, red, ribs, right, ring, roan, rose, rump, rust, seven, shallow, shank, shield, shoulder, shoulders, side, sides, silver, six, slash, small, socks, solid, some, smokey, speck, speckled, specks, splotch, spot, spots, spotted, star, streak, streaked, streaks, stripe, striped, strips, switch, tail, tan, tawny, the, thigh, thighs, three, throat, tip, tips, to, top, topline, tri, triangle, trim, two, udder, under, underline, v, white, wide, with, withers, yellow.

 

[Jensen]

Hi, new to the board, but not new to Longhorns. It looks like you longhorn breeders are under pretty heavy fire most of the time, so I thought I'd better join up to provide some support.

Have you all seen the articles by David Hillis on coloration? They are the ones that ran in the trails last year or can be found on his website. http://home.austin.rr.com/doublehelix/color.html

There are possible colors that I could get with each mating and colors that are not possible depending on what genes the parents carry. What I find making it complicated are the interactions between color genes to produce no color (ie. white).

I have started keeping charts on what possible color genes each of my longhorns could have. I've been using a solid wild type, double bred Roundup grandson to reduce the white in mine. At one time I thought I had some roan cows but I found out that they were colorsided which can look like roan. I have been AI'ing to Roundup himself and he does appear to have one copy of the roan gene.

 

[warpaint]

Howdy Jensen, you're right, we need all the support we can get here! ;-)

 

[Rustler9]

Hello Jensen, good to have you on board.

Yes, those articles by David Hillis are very interesting. I don't follow those guidelines for color that much but I do try to reduce the white by not breeding a bull with alot of white to a white cow. The Levi 6 son (Roundup) that I have actually appears white until you get close enough to him and you can see the roan in him. I have been pretty careful not to breed him to white except for the blue roan cow that just calved. I thought that I would get roan form this mating but I wasn't sure if it would be blue or red. I usually breed this Levi son to dark cows and have gotten excellent results-either red or black roans and speckles.

We have a Tabasco son that we have gotten some white calves from especially if they were heavily Butler influenced as he is. Still, I've seen some white cows that sold for high dollars. But, I don't want too many white ones in the herd.

 

[Jensen]

Rustler9,
I used a Roundup son out of Owen Mc Gill's Skillet that was white with a few roan hairs like the bull your describing. When he turned four he roaned in so much that he looked solid colored from a distance.
I called the guy that wrote the longhorn cross feeding article that you posted about. You had the correct figures and he stands by them. The yearlings came off the Chihuahuan Desert into a feedlot. If there ever was an opportunity for compensatory gain, thats probably it. He must have done all right with them. He just bought 40 more head of longhorn crosses to feed out.

 

[Rustler9]

Jensen,
Here's a photo of the Levi 6 son I was talking about. He's already four and probably won't color up any more but he sure puts the spots and speckles on the calves. You may be able to see that he looks kind of dirty-actually it's the dun colored speckles on him.

 

[Rustler9]

Jensen,
Here's a photo of one of this Levi bull's heifers. She's a black and white lineback daughter of our Tabasco son. About nine months old in the photo.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Good looking Longhorns!

Yes, David Hillis is one of the experts on coloration and other genetic issues.

 

[Jensen]

It looks like your Levi 6 son is one to throw wild colors! You wouldn't happen to have a picture of Levi 6's dam (Spook) would you? I've never seen a picture of her, but she must have been dun since Roundup isn't. I saw a picture of a Butler bull of yours on the board. What is his total horn measurement? He looks like he has alot of horn. I must be crazy, but this is my favorite color-solid wild type.

Silent Bob McGill (Wyoming Roundup X Ima Whiz)
70" total horn

 

[Jensen]

Yes, David Hillis is one of the experts on coloration and other genetic issues.

Yes, I've emailed him pictures of calves and the sire and dam to confirm my diagnosis on what possible color genes they could have. It usually takes me about a half hour to come up with my theory. If he's online I'll get a reply in a couple minutes explaining where I'm wrong and exactly what the possible combinations are. Sometimes it seems like some people are just alot smarter than others.

 

[Rustler9]

I've never seen a picture of Spook so I don't know what color she was. I like your Owen McGill bull. What's his horn measurement? I don't the measurements on the Butler bull that I have-we've never measured him but he has alot of horn. I suspect he's in the mid sixties tip to tip but there's no telling how much total horn he has.

We've just started a new website-it's still under construction but we already have some on there. If you get a chance check it out.

http://www.btfarms.net

 

[Jensen]

That picture is from a year ago. I was going to take some new pictures today but I got too busy getting ready for the next blizzard that's due tomorrow. He measures 55 3/4 TTT and 70" TH. His horns go forward quite a bit.

 

[DOC HARRIS]

You hit the nail solid on the head when you said you never know what you're gonna get. Even a cow that's bred back to the same bull as last season, there
's no guarantee the calf will be the same color as the one before it.
Our first calf of the year is due next month, red cow, brindle and white bull, who knows what color combination will arrive. One of the assetts of the breed for me.

Please present me with a compelling argument why red, white, polka dot, and blotched specs is an asset in the BEEF breeding BU$INE$$, other than to OTHER Longhorn Breeders who desire to have Red, White Polka Dot and Blotched Specs in their pastures!

DOC HARRIS

 

[Brandonm2]

Please present me with a compelling argument why red, white, polka dot, and blotched specs is an asset in the BEEF breeding BU$INE$$, other than to OTHER Longhorn Breeders who desire to have Red, White Polka Dot and Blotched Specs in their pastures!

I think breeding Longhorns (with a few exceptions) is about finding enough people who think they are "Cute" that you can make money selling them cows at a premium. Eventually somebody gets stuck with more calves than there are new ranchers who want "cute" calves and those persons get annihilated with those cute calves at the stockyard. It is almost like breeding llamas or ostriches. IF you can make money doing it.....good job marketing!!!.....if you can't then you try to cover it up with a Salers, Angus, Charolais, etc bull.

 

[bwflonghorns]

and I then assume, if i were to place to packages of meat on front of you.. you could tell me which one came from a spotted animal?

 

[warpaint]

Doc and Brandom,

I'm not going to argue with anyone about the cuts we take in a public sale barn. Yes, with few exceptions we do get docked because of hide, and horn. Thats why I won't sell in a public sale unless absolutely necessary.
But believe it or not, the number of longhorn breeders goes up in this country every day. It really comes down to a matter of choice. I prefer longhorns because of their ability to forage on just about anything, ease of calving, weight gain from birth, and yes the hide and horn. Also there is a growing number of heart healthy concious people looking for a leaner product.

To compare us with fads like raising llamas and ostrices is kind of funny. This fad has been going since the 1800's.

So in short, "You do your thing, I'll do mine."

 

[Rustler9]

I can't tell you where having a variety of colors and color patterns can benefit a beef breeding program but I don't see where that has been argued either. As Longhorn breeders, I can say for myself and probably other breeders as well that we enjoy the variety and just plain like to see the variations in our pastures. I have never said that my cattle are cute and that's certainly not how I describe them when I market them to someone. Oh well, somewhere, sometimes, I have been known to say "That's a cute calf." but I have said and/or thought the same thing about Hereford or Angus or Brahman or a number of other breeds. Correct, cuteness doesn't sell them-no matter what breed they are.

You folks who don't like Longhorns are always going to find some reason to discount them and you know to me that's just fine. I know that this breed is never going to take over the commercial beef market nor do I expect it to even though 100 years ago Longhorns were the top contenders in the beef market. In my opinon, if someone wants to consider getting into this breed they need to think about what they want to achieve from breeding these animals. If they want a quick turnover at the salebarn they need to raise something black and polled. That's the trend right now as it has been for quite a while and will probably be for a quite a while longer.

Longhorn breeders raise these animals for a variety of reasons. Purebred seed stock breeders can sell these animals either at registered sales or by private treaty. Animals that don't fit the bill can be marketed as beef-there is a niche market for lean healthy beef out there but you have to work to get into that market. Of course there's always demand for recreational stock as ropers but in my experience roper buyers are as unpredictable as the weather and I don't lean on them as an outlet for my stock. Most of the time they want the calves but only if they can get them for nothing.

I see so much on here about all of these folks worrying about pulling their calves, heifer is down, calf is injured, what do I do? I've yet to understand how a person who cares so much about his or her stock can knowingly bred these young heifers to bulls that jeopardize the heifer as well as the calf's life. A Longhorn bull will give you a live, thrifty calf that will grow well and give you a paycheck at the end. When bred to solid, polled cows the Longhorn will usually give you an offspring much like the solid, polled mother. But what if you do get a colored, scurred or horned calf? I could never understand how it's better to take a chance and maybe drag the heifer off to the ditch as wll as the calf. Some commercial cattlemen have come to realize that it is profitable to breed those first calf heifers to a low birth weight bull, raise a calf and then breed the heifer back to the bull of their choice for the second go around. If properly managed, the cow will breed back quicker whereas some if they survive don't breed back at all because of stress and injuries sustained in trying to get a monster first calf out of them.

Longhorns are like alot of other things, folks either love them or hate them. I've not seen any inbetweens-anyone who likes them ok and it really doesn't matter. Longhorns do have a place in the cattle industry-but really only as an effective means in crossbreeding to other breeds for leaner, hardier, efficient beef animals. The straight Longhorn will never stand up to the beefier breeds in the commercial aspect. But their functionality in the crossbreeding program is something that many people should consider although most do not because of their prejudice against them even though in most cases they have no concrete evidence to stand on. If you have not had any experience in dealing with something, how can you claim to know anything about it? I'll get off my soap box now because I have chores that need to be done.