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<blockquote data-quote="MikeC" data-source="post: 118309" data-attributes="member: 1604"><p>JOURNAL ARTICLE</p><p>Inheritance of the "rat-tail" syndrome and its effect on calf performance</p><p></p><p>R. R. Schalles and L. V. Cundiff</p><p>Department of Animal Sciences and Industry, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66506, USA.</p><p></p><p>A form of congenital hypotrichosis, commonly know as the "rat-tail syndrome," occurs in a small percentage of calves produced by crossing some Continental cattle breeds with cattle that are black in color. These calves are characterized by short, curly, malformed, sometimes sparse hair and a lack of normal tail switch development. In our first study, performance of 43 rat-tail calves was compared with that of 570 non-rat-tail calves of the same breeding and contemporary groups. All rat-tail calves were sired by Simmental bulls and were from cows with various percentages of Angus breeding. The rat-tail condition had no effect on birth weight, weaning weight, or gain from birth to weaning. However, rat-tail calves had significantly lower rates of gain during the winter months from weaning to yearling than non-rat-tail calves, resulting in a 19 kg lighter yearling weight. Gains of steers from yearling to slaughter were not significantly different, but rat-tail steers were 36 kg lighter (P = .01) and 13 d older (P = .15) at slaughter than the non-rat-tail steers. In a second study, Angus-Simmental F1 males and females with the rat-tail condition were mated to produce 64 F2 offspring that were used to determine the mode of inheritance of this syndrome. Analysis showed that the rat-tail syndrome is controlled by interacting genes at two loci. Cattle that express the syndrome must have at least one dominant gene for black color and be heterozygous at the other locus involved.</p><p>*********************************************</p><p>From Clemson Univ. Paper:</p><p>"The term "rat-tail" comes from the lack of a switch on the tail. A more serious condition is called "elephant- hided" calves. The elephant-hided calves have a genetic condition where the calf is almost hairless. The rat-tail calf is a variation of the same condition. In our project the rat-tail calves performed as good or better than their counterparts. If the rat-tail condition is a mild form of the elephant-hide condition, it does not seem to effect feedlot performance. Let it also be noted that all calves were fed through the winter months which should work against eared and rat-tail calves. The moral here is if they are good calves and you know they will be discounted at the sale, feed them."</p><p>*********************************************</p><p>Brandon, It's hard to know WHAT to believe anymore. I have personally never had to defend the "Rattail Syndrome" when conferring with bull buyers. I do not know what percentage of buyers steer clear of Chars because of rattails, but in my arena, it is insignificant.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MikeC, post: 118309, member: 1604"] JOURNAL ARTICLE Inheritance of the "rat-tail" syndrome and its effect on calf performance R. R. Schalles and L. V. Cundiff Department of Animal Sciences and Industry, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66506, USA. A form of congenital hypotrichosis, commonly know as the "rat-tail syndrome," occurs in a small percentage of calves produced by crossing some Continental cattle breeds with cattle that are black in color. These calves are characterized by short, curly, malformed, sometimes sparse hair and a lack of normal tail switch development. In our first study, performance of 43 rat-tail calves was compared with that of 570 non-rat-tail calves of the same breeding and contemporary groups. All rat-tail calves were sired by Simmental bulls and were from cows with various percentages of Angus breeding. The rat-tail condition had no effect on birth weight, weaning weight, or gain from birth to weaning. However, rat-tail calves had significantly lower rates of gain during the winter months from weaning to yearling than non-rat-tail calves, resulting in a 19 kg lighter yearling weight. Gains of steers from yearling to slaughter were not significantly different, but rat-tail steers were 36 kg lighter (P = .01) and 13 d older (P = .15) at slaughter than the non-rat-tail steers. In a second study, Angus-Simmental F1 males and females with the rat-tail condition were mated to produce 64 F2 offspring that were used to determine the mode of inheritance of this syndrome. Analysis showed that the rat-tail syndrome is controlled by interacting genes at two loci. Cattle that express the syndrome must have at least one dominant gene for black color and be heterozygous at the other locus involved. ********************************************* From Clemson Univ. Paper: "The term "rat-tail" comes from the lack of a switch on the tail. A more serious condition is called "elephant- hided" calves. The elephant-hided calves have a genetic condition where the calf is almost hairless. The rat-tail calf is a variation of the same condition. In our project the rat-tail calves performed as good or better than their counterparts. If the rat-tail condition is a mild form of the elephant-hide condition, it does not seem to effect feedlot performance. Let it also be noted that all calves were fed through the winter months which should work against eared and rat-tail calves. The moral here is if they are good calves and you know they will be discounted at the sale, feed them." ********************************************* Brandon, It's hard to know WHAT to believe anymore. I have personally never had to defend the "Rattail Syndrome" when conferring with bull buyers. I do not know what percentage of buyers steer clear of Chars because of rattails, but in my arena, it is insignificant. [/QUOTE]
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