rat tail calfs

[Anonymous]

Ibought some cows last fall that were already breed. one of the calfs my friend told me was a rat tail. He said that it would bring 10.00 to 15.00 per 100 less at sale because of this can any body tell me why.

 

[dun]

Generally, remember that term, rat tails are purported to to not grow as well as normal calves. If you keep it for the freezer or sell it as hanging you won't get docked.

dun

 

[Jake]

They dock them because they can. They sort them off and sell by themselves. They are spose to have trouble growing but that isn't true

 

[Anonymous]

I bought some calves for replacement a few years ago, and when the vet was out for pre breeding work up she mentioned the herd of 89 had rat tail. Most of them were missing the long haired part of the tail, a few had excessively long tail hair, touching the ground, and a very few were normal. The were F-1 Angus X Hereford, from well known herds. They may have grown slower, maybe, but they were averaging #1200 at calving.

 

[Jake]

I bought some calves for replacement a few years ago, and when the vet was out for pre breeding work up she mentioned the herd of 89 had rat tail. Most of them were missing the long haired part of the tail, a few had excessively long tail hair, touching the ground, and a very few were normal. The were F-1 Angus X Hereford, from well known herds. They may have grown slower, maybe, but they were averaging #1200 at calving.

They could have just had the switch of their tail stepped on and pulled off. and the tail touchin the ground usually means they're really old

 

[Beefy]

True "rat-tailism" is typically found in gray cattle with some combination of simmental and angus or charolais and angus. Baldies shouldnt have much (if any?) true "rat-tailism" which is some kind of genetic "deformity" for lack of a better word, but may have shorter tails from other factors like having them stepped on, caught in a tree or fence, possible mineral deficiency, showgrooming gone awry, etc.

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

Re: short or no tail switch --- could just be from eating a lot of fescue.

 

[Anonymous]

Rat-tail calves as mentioned in an earlier post show up in gray cattle (Angus X Simmental or Angus X Charolais). They typically have really short hair so winter feeding is a problem. Their rate of gain is about 0.5 lbs per day less than their contemporaries and that is why they are discounted.

 

[Rustler9]

There's also an interesting article about rat tails at this site: http://home.austin.rr.com/doublehelix/defects.html. This is a Texas Longhorn site and it talks about the effects of inbreeding. Rat tailed calves can occur as a result of inbreeding. Just thought that this was an interesting read even if you don't raise Longhorns.