What breed am I?

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I would DNA the calf. I have yet to see many Upgrade's with a white face, let alone any white on the body. We have had many Upgrade calves, and have yet to have one with any white on the face, let along any body white. We love our Upgrade calves, and they go on to make fantastic cows. But, like I said, I would DNA. Likely mislabeled, or the cow has something crazy in her...
 
Wow and those are some unusual markings also. They appear to be black on white, as opposed to being white markings on a black calf. Really cute!
FS is right. Only way to know is DNA on this one.
 
Okay, so could someone help me? What are the steps to getting DNA parentage? What information does the report yield? Thanks for the help! She is a heifer so parentage may be important moving forward.
 
Just go here:
http://www.simmental.org/site/index.php ... ontact-asa

Call Leoma, she is real easy to work with. She will send you a blood card, with instructions. You want parent verification back to the sire, I think it is $30 if I remember correctly. Take a small blood sample, put it on the card, and mail it (all of the stuff is included in the DNA kit). They take a few weeks to get the results, but it will be recorded with ASA, and if she does DNA back to Upgrade, then you can get half blood papers on her. It is that easy!
Hope that helps
 
So if the bull you AI bred to was tested as homo black then he would always throw black calves, your calf is black. Couldn't he be, in fact, homo black, but hetero spotted? Would a genetic test for homo vs. hetero black/red have anything to do with the spotting gene? Wouldn't it be on a different part of the chromosome than the part that they would be looking at to determine black/red?
It's either that or somebody mislabeled a straw, or somebody's neighbor has a Holstein bull that gets around.
 
Other then being black instead of red it looks liek a traditional marked Simmenthal to me.
 
Wow. That's chromed up!
No telling what's behind that cow... but, to my knowledge, Upgrade is not a spot gene carrier - but I'm not sure he's necessarily been tested for it. Some of the solid black Simmental bulls out there today are known to be 'spot carriers' (GW Lucky Man, etc.).

Have a dumpy little black cow here - with probably more white on her underline than the Angus folks would accept. Has some old spotted Simmental genetics back behind her 20 years back. Bred to a solid red Shorthorn bull last year, she dropped a flashy red & white bull ( not as much white as yours, bpwagner), and one of her Angus-sired daughters has delivered two consecutive mostly solid-color calves with significant white spots, both by solid red SH bulls...
Sometimes you don't know what's sliding along under the radar.

Noticed a 5-yr old BWF cow in the herd this weekend... 3/4 Angus, daughter of GAR Yield Grade, I still have her dam and her reg. Angus maternal grandsire here...she's got little scab scurs. Not surprised that she might have horn or scur gene floating along undetermined from the Simmental side, but you don't *usually* expect scurs from an Angus bull - though there were scurred bulls back in the early days of the breed.
 
Lucky, funny you mention that about the scurs. We have a friend that has a nice bull, out of a simmental cow and sired by Connealy Final Product (Angus). He is a registered half blood, but he too has huge scurs. The joke is, where did they come from (dam is polled).
I do not think Upgrade is a spotter, but the color could come from the dam. You will never know if you do not test.
 
The color from that calf would have come from both the cow and the bull. That type of spotting is a recessive trait. The spotting that happens in pinzgauers and the type that happens in Herefords is a dominant trait only needing one copy to be present, but the Simmental spotting is recessive and needs a copy from both parents. All European simmentals were homozygous for the spotting gene, so it is bound to be present in many simmentals today. Face coloration is separate from the spotting gene and can come from either the Hereford spotting gene or a blaze gene that is fairly unique to simmentals. One thing is certain, that calves sire and dam carry the spot gene.
 
It is definitely possible (probable) for the cow to carry the spotting gene, but this has to all but rule out Upgrade being the sire...I would think. I find it hard to believe he leads Simmental association in registrations and would be a spotting gene carrier, let alone an unknown one. She was exposed to a 3/4 Simmental herd bull (Yardley High Regard x 3C Macho) who threw a baldie calf last year with white feet/face. That seems much more logical that he would be the sire, since bulls were turned in the day after TAI.

I will still likely DNA test just for the fun of it, but regardless of the sire...what do I do with her? She isn't going to fit in real well in the feedlot. Cow has been a good cow for a long time...If she were kept as a replacement and bred to a homo black bull, could we expect mostly black calves? Man she is going to look weird out in the pasture with an all black herd.
 
Yes you can keep her as a commercial cow as long as she is bred to a homo black bull that do not have any spotting gene, she will always have blacks or black baldies.
 
Standing out is a good thing. You can pick her out of your herd from a mile away. The rustlers will shy away from that one, too. Some of the first people to push for solid black cattle stole cattle for a living, not sure things have changed.
 
Very cute calf.
FS - Our current herd bull is an Upgrade son. He has a big blaze on him. Did not see his dam so it could come from her. Odd though, we got our first calf from him the other day. Our bull bred a white face PB sim and she is gray ( yes old sim in her recent past). We were expecting a black white or white some where. Results, not one stitch of white on the entire calf. Kinda weird but very interesting.
 
bpwagner115":1xqtenez said:
It is definitely possible (probable) for the cow to carry the spotting gene, but this has to all but rule out Upgrade being the sire...I would think. I find it hard to believe he leads Simmental association in registrations and would be a spotting gene carrier, let alone an unknown one. She was exposed to a 3/4 Simmental herd bull (Yardley High Regard x 3C Macho) who threw a baldie calf last year with white feet/face. That seems much more logical that he would be the sire, since bulls were turned in the day after TAI.

I will still likely DNA test just for the fun of it, but regardless of the sire...what do I do with her? She isn't going to fit in real well in the feedlot. Cow has been a good cow for a long time...If she were kept as a replacement and bred to a homo black bull, could we expect mostly black calves? Man she is going to look weird out in the pasture with an all black herd.
Click to expand...

I would keep her if you like the genetics. Seems "chrome" is coming back in for the Simmental world! :) But, if you DNA and can trace the sire, I bet there is someone out there that will pay a premium for her if you do not want her. She definitely has value, if not to you than to another breeder who likes the color. Simmental cattle are used to breed to Clubby bulls, and the more color the calves have the more money they seem to bring.
And I bet you are right, the bull got her. The genes on the bull are pretty nice (I like both High Regard and Macho), so either way she will be a nice breeding heifer. She can get 1/4 papers if he is the sire.
 

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