no whiteface on calf

[tja477t]

bought this bull last year as i couldnt find much else and time was running short. I was expecting white face calves but my first calf showed up solid brown. I had always thought the white face was dominant. no making fun of the cow, my parents like the looks of them so we keep a couple around. we eat the highlanders and sell the angus and herefords.

 

[Nesikep]

I don't know for sure how it all works, but I would guess the bull isn't homozygous whiteface, which is why the calf doesn't have it

 

[Caustic Burno]

I don't know for sure how it all works, but I would guess the bull isn't homozygous whiteface, which is why the calf doesn't have it

I got a solid black out of a registered Hereford Angus cross.
Someone that is better at genetics explained it to me the cow had a dominant and recessive gene yielding a black calf one out of four were the odds. Bull could be the same way I assume

 

[Nesikep]

If whiteface is dominant, and the bull is heterozygous WF, the odds should be 50% for whiteface. If both parents were hetero-WF, the odds should be 75%

I had a whiteface cow (Mother was brockle, father was solid red) and she threw 2 whiteface calves and 1 brockle, all bred to solid red bulls..

 

[Muddy]

Could that it's a possibility that the bull wasn't straight Hereford?

 

[Caustic Burno]

Could that it's a possibility that the bull wasn't straight Hereford?

There were some green papered bulls that had some questionable breeding years ago. That was a long time ago never seen one that didn't throw white face calves. I never owned a Hereford bull or sold one that didn't throw white or brockle.

 

[Ojp6]

I saw some calves last week, all out of a nice horned Hereford bull. 34 calves, 30 black or red baldies. Three solid blacks and one solid red. Registered bull, cows mostly purebred black or red angus. I don't know why some where solid colored.

 

[Muddy]

I saw some calves last week, all out of a nice horned Hereford bull. 34 calves, 30 black or red baldies. Three solid blacks and one solid red. Registered bull, cows mostly purebred black or red angus. I don't know why some where solid colored.

Sounds like these solid calves weren't his. Probably a neighbor's bull bred the four cows.

 

[js1234]

I saw some calves last week, all out of a nice horned Hereford bull. 34 calves, 30 black or red baldies. Three solid blacks and one solid red. Registered bull, cows mostly purebred black or red angus. I don't know why some where solid colored.

It'll happen some.

 

[DLD]

Yes, it does happen. Maybe it means the Hereford isn't 100% pure (it happens, papers or no - the impurity may be many generations back), but I'm not sure that's necessarily so either. Just like Polled Herefords and Red Angus, maybe they're not all homozygous for that particular trait.

 

[tja477t]

nope he wasnt purebred. pretty much a mongrel that looked all hereford. i cant remember his sires name but he was from genex, his dam was an angus cross. i had just heard that the whiteface was always dominant until this happened and then i looked into it.

 

[greatgerts]

nope he wasnt purebred. pretty much a mongrel that looked all hereford. i cant remember his sires name but he was from genex, his dam was an angus cross. i had just heard that the whiteface was always dominant until this happened and then i looked into it.

It would be dominant in the first cross (your bull).
We had a RED 75% Gert cow, out of a BLACK 50% Gert x 50% Angus cow. I guess in laymen's terms, the percent of the dominant trait gets lower, and is not as dominant.
I might be totally off, but it sure sounded good, lol.

 

[Muddy]

Yes, it does happen. Maybe it means the Hereford isn't 100% pure (it happens, papers or no - the impurity may be many generations back), but I'm not sure that's necessarily so either. Just like Polled Herefords and Red Angus, maybe they're not all homozygous for that particular trait.

Isn't Horned Hereford most purest of any breeds? Had it been a Polled Hereford I'll believe it he sired the solid calves.

 

[DLD]

My point was that Polled Herefords came from an apparent genetic mutation from purebred (theoretically anyway) horned Herefords. Same for Red Angus from black Angus.


As far as whether horned Herefords are more pure than polled ones, all I have to say is that no breed is immune to human influence. Somewhere in every breed there are going to be cattle that aren't what they're supposed to be. Hopefully it's a small percentage, but it's gone on for generations (and almost certainly will continue) and thus continues to spread exponentially beyond it's sources. If you believe otherwise, you're very naive, but I certainly admire your faith in humanity.