Polled Dairy cattle

[Anonymous]

One of my workmates and I were discussing the differences between polled and horned cattle, in general, and got to wondering whether there is and dairy breed that is wholly polled? Alot of them are dehorned or have developed poll strains, but we haven't been able to come up with any that are entirely polled....

So, the question is, does a (wholly) polled dairy breed exist?

 

[kenny thomas]

Not sure as there is not a lot of them but I have never seen an Ayershire with horns.

 

[dun]

Not sure as there is not a lot of them but I have never seen an Ayershire with horns.

Ayrshires are naturally horned, as are Holsteins, Jersey, Guernsey, Brown Swiss, Montbéliard (and the other versions of Simmenthal), Dutch Belted and Normande.

 

[funky 4-Her]

Some holsteins are polled.

 

[bigbull338]

as said all dairy breeds are horned.an every now an then you do run into a muley calf.an the calf would be from horned bloodlines.in 27yrs i think weve had 2 or 3 muley calves.

 

[glover36]

we have some polled milking shorthorns in our herd

 

[Keren]

Yep, I was gonna say you would probably get some milking shorthorns that were polled.

Also, I'm not sure about this but can you get polled Illawarra's?

 

[Loch Valley Fold]

Jersey cattle were origionally polled but were eventually bred with horned animals. There is a guy in New Zealand that has a registered stud polled Jersey farm, tghey have been breeding them for many years.We've started going the polled route but it is extreemly hard to find new polled genetics. We had a polled jersey bull that was ear marked as a future herd bull but we lost him to a snake bite we're hoping his mother will give us another polled bull the nest time she calves in. There is also the polled Aussie Red sire ARBKOOKA he has several generations of polled breeding behind him he has produced a beautiful polled red & white roan heifer. We have a polled Red & White holstein that we bred ourselves, also have 2 with scurs that have so far produced 100% polled calves.

 

[Anonymous]

So, the question still remains, IS there a naturally polled dairy breed? Not one that has a poll strain in it, but one that is ENTIRELY polled?

I don't have any prizes for you if you can find one, but you will receive great gratitude! I really don't think there is one...

 

[Loch Valley Fold]

Well apart from Jerseys which had the horned gene bred into them the only other one I can think of is the Norwegian Red they are a dairy breed but I don't know too much about them I have been told they would make a good cross over my polled red & white holstein & Aussie red cows

 

[Keren]

Is the MRI horned?

 

[Anonymous]

Keren, I think the MRI may be horned- I haven't been able to find any info either way, but looking at pictures, alot of them look to be dehorned.

The Norwegian Red definintely has horns.

Also, both these breeds are dual purpose, not straight dairy. Keep trying guys!

 

[Anonymous]

I FOUND ONE- it's a dual purpose breed, but traditionally dairy.

And it is....

the IRISH MOILED!

 

[Loch Valley Fold]

I think that in modern times it will be very hard to find a naturally polled dairy cow without going back to the dual purpose cattle & even than there will be horns that will be found. My only other sugestion is to join the Polled Dairy cattle @ yahoo groups

 

[brandonm_13]

The Red Poll is, but it's dual purpose. With the correct breeding animals, it could become a pure dairy breed withing a few breedings though.

 

[Jovid]

The Red Poll is, but it's dual purpose. With the correct breeding animals, it could become a pure dairy breed withing a few breedings though.

Brandonm.....beat me to it. So you could say that Red Polls are a polled dairy breed.

Yes there are people still milking Red Polls. Not too much her in the states but in other countries I understand they still do. We have sold some heifers that were going to be used as milk cows to make cheese and butter.

 

[ANAZAZI]

There are strains in both swedish reds and norwegian reds that are polled. There are two breeds in sweden called Fjäll ( means mountain) and Rödkulla (means red polled). They do not produce very much but they do alright being so small, both under 500kgs for mature cows. Same size but more milk is icelandic cattle, out of which roughly 90% are polled.

 

[dun]

There are strains in both swedish reds and norwegian reds that are polled. There are two breeds in sweden called Fjäll ( means mountain) and Rödkulla (means red polled). They do not produce very much but they do alright being so small, both under 500kgs for mature cows. Same size but more milk is icelandic cattle, out of which roughly 90% are polled.

In the 70s when I was in Iceland most of the dairy cattle you saw regularly were Holsteins, or at least fairly large black and whites.

 

[GMN]

So, the question still remains, IS there a naturally polled dairy breed? Not one that has a poll strain in it, but one that is ENTIRELY polled?

I don't have any prizes for you if you can find one, but you will receive great gratitude! I really don't think there is one...

Some of the cross breeds are polled, say a holstein bred to a angus bull, etc..It happens but not every calf is polled.

GMN

 

[Lynn Augspurger]

Red Poll, Irish Moiled are considered polled dairy breeds. There are some Swedish Red Poll cattle, but not many. All main breeds now have identified homozygous polled animals.

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Lynn Augspurger