Tri-coloured

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Hoser

Hoser

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This is a first for us. The dam is an F1 angus hereford x and the sire is hereford. When I first saw him I thought he was still wet in the black spots then when I went back an hour later I realized he was tri-coloured. I kinda want to finish him and make a rug out of his hide.
 

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Hoser said:
This is a first for us. The dam is an F1 angus hereford x and the sire is hereford. When I first saw him I thought he was still wet in the black spots then when I went back an hour later I realized he was tri-coloured. I kinda want to finish him and make a rug out of his hide.
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My first thought was that it must be a heifer. Calico cats are always female.

I'd definitely consider breeding it to see if the color can be passed on. And I'm not a fan of breeding animals for trendy crap, but this isn't a dwarf or some kind of unhealthy (?) anomaly.

And definitely rug material.
 
Look up chimera genetics -you may have a neat anomaly. If it stays colored like that, might be interesting to contact an ag university to see if they would be interested in genetic studies (you keep the calf though).
 
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Travlr said:
My first thought was that it must be a heifer. Calico cats are always female.

I'd definitely consider breeding it to see if the color can be passed on. And I'm not a fan of breeding animals for trendy crap, but this isn't a dwarf or some kind of unhealthy (?) anomaly.

And definitely rug material.
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My wife asked if we can keep the nuts on him. The dam has good udder and feet, is easy fleshing, deep and always catches first cycle and the sire is an old hereford I think highly of so I'll keep him a bull for now and see how he matures!
 
It is definitely interesting . Curious to see how it matures.
My guess it is something similar to brindle or tricolor genetics of the highland. Coat color in cattle isn't as simple as many have been lead to believe. Turns out dominant black isn't always dominant. Scientists have documented in some charolias crossed calves as well as highland white,red and brindle , can actually inhibit black from being expressed, not just modified. It has also been documented in white Galloway ,as well as British white.
 
Hoser said:
My wife asked if we can keep the nuts on him. The dam has good udder and feet, is easy fleshing, deep and always catches first cycle and the sire is an old hereford I think highly of so I'll keep him a bull for now and see how he matures!
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I suppose he might change color as he ages. But I'm thinking he won't. The idea of a chimera that @Hpacres440p mentions is a good possibility. If so, the color pattern wouldn't be a genetic trait and couldn't be passed on. But I'd definitely find out before doing anything drastic. I'd really like to see him as a mature animal.

Gotta say, it's pretty exciting. I'd buy semen if I still had my cows.
 
They don't change colour. Had a cow years ago that was red brockle face with one shoulder from whither to toe black. Calf last year with a black patch behind his ear.
 
I'm betting on a chimera... essentially two fertilized eggs, one carrying the dominant black coat color gene, and one carrying only recessive red, combined early in embryonic development... hence the 'patchwork' coat color. Coat color is probably the only 'visible' trait we can ascertain... testicles (and any sperm produced) could be 'all red', 'all black', or... there's even a possibility of 'one red/one black' testicle pairing.
I've seen photos of chimeras created (back in the 1980s) in the 'test tube' by taking Angus, Hereford, and Simmental embryos and fusing them at, like 8- or 16-cell stage, with the resulting calf having patchwork black/white/spotted coat color - and presumably, internal organs could have different genetic origin... might have Hereford lungs, Angus kidneys, Simmental liver, etc.

There have been purebred bulls whose blood test genetic analysis did not match up with those of their offspring, because they were chimeras, and their testicles developed from cells belonging to the twin other than the one that gave rise to blood cell lines.
 

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