White calf

[nurseynicole]

Hi all, new here and I have a quick question. We are raising beef cattle just from the sale barn and have been at it about 3 years now. We had a new calf yesterday who is all white. The cow is red/white and bull was black. Just though it was odd. It's a little heifer who is good size and nursing well. Thanks for any input!

 

[HOSS]

I had the exact same scenario last year. A Charolais x Limi cow bred to a Homo black Balancer bull produced an all white calf that, aside from the black nose, could have passed for a Charolais. I guess that Charolais white can be dominate sometimes. I will let the board gene experts explain it cause I will just get lost trying.

 

[Mat Man]

We had a white heafer breed to hereford bull=Black calf???

 

[Bigfoot]

Been years since I had genetics. Seems like I remember professor talking about cross over. I'm probably confused. Its been years.

 

[nurseynicole]

If we sell her will this affect her value as we aren't holding anything back this year...

 

[BC]

If we sell her will this affect her value as we aren't holding anything back this year...

If she is dark nosed, there shouldn't be a problem. Around here the Charolais cross cattle sell for as much or more than the black cattle.

 

[Lucky_P]

Color inhibitor gene from Charolais, or color dilution gene from Simmental & Gelbvieh-type cattle do odd things.
Used to have a little yellow white-faced cow with finching - that would throw white calves when bred to a black Angus bull - looked like Charolais.
Have one of her daughters, also yellow/whiteface, by a red SimAngus bull, that has thrown three white calves and one black, bred to the current Angus sire.
Those white Angus-sired heifers are heterozygous black - (some 'whites' could even be homo black) but may have white hair, if the Charolais color inhibitor gene is present - so it wouldn't be out of the question for a white heifer bred to a red bull(like a Hereford) to drop a black calf if it inherited the black coat color gene from her but not the inhibitor gene.
I've seen some red Simmental-influenced cattle that you'd swear were not dilution gene carriers because they were SO red, but bred to a black bull or cow, they'll sometimes produce gray calves.

Good in-depth discussion of coat color inheritance in cattle here: http://www.braunviehcenter.com/cattle_g ... part2.html