Unknow sire

[vclavin]

Never thought this would happen. Now I'm wondering how often this occors in other herds.
I lost my paperwork as to who was exposed to which sire. Sent off for DNA verification on all calves including xbreeds. These were yearlings this year. We can't find the sire! They said dna was totally different from the herd sires and does not match any AI sires. The dam (906) was kept with blind heifer after weaning as company so was not exposed to any bulls except herd sire and AI. I'm lost? This yearling (103) will have to kept as commercial and her dam will not get credit for any data, not to mention I don't understand how this could be. I had the test redone with a fresh sample and same results. I'm testing all calves from now on so this will never happen again.
Valerie

 

[SSGenetics]

Yikes! Sounds like you would want to check all of your yearlings.... :?

 

[Galloways1]

When you say doesn't match any of the AI sires, is it just sires you submitted?

Could have had a mislabeled straw. Saw some embryo calves out of a hereford one time that were black baldies.

 

[Taurus]

Are all of your male calves fixed? There are few possibles: Mislabeled straws, a sneaky neighbor bull, or horny bull calves but it's just few possibles I can think of at this moment.

 

[cow pollinater]

It happens to me all the time on my grade cows as I'll just throw a straw of semen into them if I see them in heat close to the truck. I'm pretty careful about my registed herd though... It's not that I'm a good recordkeeper, It's just that I'm such a perfectionist about my mating choices that by the time the cow gets bred there's no way I could forget who the daddy is. One of these days I fully expect to have a calf born with wings and maybe even a halo.
The best way to jog your memory when you suspect a calf might be something you want to know about is to dig through your semen tank or purchase history and see if anything rings a bell. That's how I figured out where all those half charolais calves at my jersey customer came from. :bang:

 

[cow pollinater]

As far as mislabeled staws- Pretty rare if you're dealing with a reputable company but I do know of one case where customers of an independant competiter of mine were paying big bucks for sorted female holstien semen. It stuck so well they bought tons of it... Imagine their surprise when those half brahma heifers started hitting the ground. :lol:

 

[vclavin]

When you say doesn't match any of the AI sires, is it just sires you submitted?

Could have had a mislabeled straw. Saw some embryo calves out of a hereford one time that were black baldies.

Angus assoc has all AI sires in a data base, they tried to match her to any/all of them...no match.
Valerie

 

[vclavin]

Are all of your male calves fixed? There are few possibles: Mislabeled straws, a sneaky neighbor bull, or horny bull calves but it's just few possibles I can think of at this moment.

No neighbors with cattle... she was locked away from herdmates (bulls) at weaning .
Valerie

 

[Taurus]

So herd sires and AI Angus sires in the database were rule out. You said the blind yearling heifer isn't daughter of AI sires or herd sires, correctly?

 

[vclavin]

So herd sires and AI Angus sires in the database were rule out. Yes, All AI sires were ruled out)You said the blind yearling heifer isn't daughter of AI sires or herd sires, correctly?

The blind yearling (907) was AI'd , the dam of the #103 heifer, with no dad, is #906 ( a Mytty In Focus Daughter). Trying to remember where I filed my info for that season. 906 was either AI'd on natural heat cycle or she was Sequenced and turned out to herd bull at the time we were to time AI (tech was put in hospital so I had to turn out cows/heifers to herd bulls)
This just is not possible! I've left a message with the AI tech to see what other breeds he has in tank just in case. I don't know what else to do. Assoc said I could send in pieces of frozen steak to run tests on but by now all of that meat would be more than likely eaten.
Is it possible she is Chimera? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics)
Her dam just had another heifer calf this season, I think I'll have dam and heifer dna verified.. should be interesting.
Valerie

 

[Taurus]

Is 906 alone in the pen beside the blind yearling?

 

[vclavin]

Is 906 alone in the pen beside the blind yearling?

906 was kept in the same pen as the blind heifer till turned out with herd bulls. pipe fence!
Valerie

 

[regolith]

Found a discussion on a Jersy forum that might interest you.

I had two of the calves I DNA tested this year returned sire unknown. One I believe is correct - the cow was returned to me with no mating recorded, calved alongside the others in the group that had AI calves but I've known that same cow to calve a fortnight early before. I kept the calf but most likely it was sired by a clean up bull.
The other was in the herd I worked in last year. I'd mated her to Jersey, she had a crossbred calf a few days after her due date but three - four weeks too early to have been sired by the bulls on farm. Instructed the testers of the supposed sire & that if it was a mixed up straw it was breed A or breed B from company C. They excluded the AI Jersey sire as a possibility and tried to match her with the LIC premier sires team bulls of all three common breeds. WTF? She wasn't anywhere near any Premier Sires semen and I'd told them that. As far as I know they didn't screen any of the bulls the rest of the herd were being mated to at the time she got in calf.
So I still don't know if she was sired by a mixed up straw or if her dam managed to gain access to a Holstein bull.

 

[regolith]

http://www.jersey.org.nz/forums.cfm?pag ... ic_id=1194

 

[TexasBred]

It happens to me all the time on my grade cows as I'll just throw a straw of semen into them if I see them in heat close to the truck. I'm pretty careful about my registed herd though... It's not that I'm a good recordkeeper, It's just that I'm such a perfectionist about my mating choices that by the time the cow gets bred there's no way I could forget who the daddy is. One of these days I fully expect to have a calf born with wings and maybe even a halo.
The best way to jog your memory when you suspect a calf might be something you want to know about is to dig through your semen tank or purchase history and see if anything rings a bell. That's how I figured out where all those half charolais calves at my jersey customer came from. :bang:

You are joking right??? I would beat your ass if you did that to my cattle. :mad:

 

[vclavin]

http://www.jersey.org.nz/forums.cfm?page_obj_id=22&start_row=1&forum_id=52&topic_id=1194

Oh DEAR!! Now what?
Valerie

 

[Stepbystep]

Any black helicopters seen at night around your cattle?

 

[Loch Valley Fold]

When I was a teenager my mum had a hereford cow have a Murray Grey x calf nothing unusual about that only our bull was a Piedmontese x & our neighnours bulls were Jersey, Angus & Limousin & our bull was not able to breed as he cut the tendon on his left side back leg & took forever to heal. On a closer note I did have a cow in the dairy herd that I had ai'd to a Dexter bull that I had major problems with the straw, when it came time for her to calve she went 2 weeks over her due date & 2 weeks early on her nature breeding. I kept the calf as I was curious as to what it would be turned out it was the dexter as he was polled I ended up with a nice heifer out of that bull

 

[vclavin]

Any black helicopters seen at night around your cattle?

Well.... they do fly checking the gas line on the neighbors property. Hmmmmmmm
Valerie

 

[cow pollinater]

It happens to me all the time on my grade cows as I'll just throw a straw of semen into them if I see them in heat close to the truck. I'm pretty careful about my registed herd though... It's not that I'm a good recordkeeper, It's just that I'm such a perfectionist about my mating choices that by the time the cow gets bred there's no way I could forget who the daddy is. One of these days I fully expect to have a calf born with wings and maybe even a halo.
The best way to jog your memory when you suspect a calf might be something you want to know about is to dig through your semen tank or purchase history and see if anything rings a bell. That's how I figured out where all those half charolais calves at my jersey customer came from. :bang:

You are joking right??? I would beat your ass if you did that to my cattle. :mad:

You're confusing the cows that I own with my customers cattle. I have registered and grade beef cattle in addition to the breeding route. I'm meticulous about the records on my customers cattle. The Charolais calves on the breeding route all got traced back to a relief breeder who got fired for a few similar mistakes before we found out about this one. My mistake was not even knowing it was in the tank I sent him out with. I still bought every one of those calves for what jersey heifer calves are worth and gave them to the calf ranch forman. He raised them and killed them for the employees and they liked it so much that they've asked me to do a couple a year. :lol: