Colour of calf - Surprise

[KenseyparkDexters]

Hi all. One of our Dexter Cows calved this morning, all ok, but the surprise was that he's a Dun colour. His sire and dam are both black. This mating has always produced black until this morning. My bull is by a dun bull and the cow is out of a red cow so is this a surprise or a long awaited predicted calf colour. All answers gratefully received. Thanks

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Since your bull is by a dun bull, he is certain to carry dun because the dun bull would be homozygous (ie carry two dun genes, one from each parent) so he could only pass on dun genes all his offspiring will either be dun or carry dun.
If you look back the pedigree of your cow by the red cow, you will see several generations back there are dun animals, which will have passed on the dun gene - if an animal carries only one dun gene it will be black or red, and the dun bit remains hidden until it meets up with another dun gene from the second parent in a mating. Probability tells us that if you mate two animals which carry dun, you will get 25% dun, 25% not carrying dun, and 50% carrying dun unseen.

Not the clearest of explanations, but it is a very cloudy day here!

Duncan

[ann]

I got a similar surprise last year, dun calf from 2 black parents and i went back 10 generations before I hit dun on either side. I am not a lover of dun but she is turning out a nice dark dun and a nice little heifer at that.
that's the joy of breeding dexters you never know what might turn up

[Rob R]

We got even more of a surprise with our first dun calf by our dun-sired black bull, out of a black cow, in that the calf came out as black as any other calf. It was only after about 3 months of age that he slowly started to change colour & was fully dun by the time he was slaughtered at nearly 30 months of age.

I like having all three colours in the herd but my dun efforts have been largely unsucessful. The first dun heifer didn't make a great cow so we had to cull her. The dun cow I bought in had a black calf and then died before she could have another and time will tell with our third effort, with a bought in heifer from the last York rare breeds sale.

[monica a waltho]

Just need a good Dun bull Rob !!

I had Black cow who carried dun who I put to my dun bull her first 5 calves were black and I had given up her throwing me a dun when her next 5 calves were dun then her last 2 calves were black

I now have a dun bull who carries red and since I have some red cows and red carriers I was hoping for some red off him not happened yet but have had a dun calf out of a red cow which I didnt expect !! been kept as a bull if anyone interested about 9mths old

[Rob R]

Just need a good Dun bull Rob !!

True, but first I need a few more steers to pay for one...

[KenseyparkDexters]

Thanks everyone. As clear as mud Duncan. No, i sort of understand as i have a leaopard spotted Stallion (standing at 31" tall) and the genetics with the 'spots' is mind boggling too. Very interesting. I've re-checked the pedigrees and the bulls parentage has quite a lot of dun in his lines, but there is NO dun on the cows lineage, well that goes back on the 'green' paper version i have anyway. Maybe if i was to search further back something might crop up. Strange its never shown until now and this is her 7th calving. Oh.........and by the way, don't be offended, we've called him 'Duncan', not after you, but because he's 'Dun'.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Relatively easy to check pedigrees a fair bit back with the DCS online herdbook. Go to dextercattle.co.uk and then to the online herdbook section. Go to animal search section, enter your membership number in the owner box, and all the animals you currently own should be listed. Click on the one you are interested in, look at the list of sections along the top, such as pedigree, progeny etc, and click on pedigree. When the pedigree appears, it will list similar to the green cards, but you can then click on any name there and do the same again, going back the generations. I looked at the kenseypark herd last night.

Frankford Bluebell-Wellandview Primrose-Seamer Supreme Siskin-Birchwood Buttercup-Eastbrook Princess-Eastbrook Snowdrop-Eastbrook Queen of the May: Eastbrook Queen of the May was sired by Woodmagic Dormouse, who was dun.

Maybe that is not the cow in question, if not try it yourself. There could easily be dun in other lines for Frankford Bluebell, I just followed the dam line all the way to see what was there.

I must investigate if I have a legal claim on all calves called Duncan.

Duncan