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Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 1:25 am
by Colin
How and when can you tell whether your new born calf is naturally polled or horned ?
Colin
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 9:01 am
by Rutherford
Unfortunately there isn’t a simple answer. In my own experience I can usually feel the horn buds at birth. However, I am informed that in some cases the herd owners are unable to tell for several weeks. I can only think this is due to an earlier outcross in their background. My vet tells me that my Dexters are unusually well endowed, compared with other breeds.
Beryl (Woodmagic)
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 9:20 am
by Broomcroft
With mine, if you feel little bumps then they're horned, if you don't they may still be horned. Sometimes even at 4-6 weeks there's little showing but you can feel them. I've also had polled calves from a polled bull, for example, with varying degrees of scurs (little horns that aren't horns and are loose). The scurs haven't generally shown up till later.
Can you tell from the parents background? Meaning if there's no history of polled can you get polled calves, don't know, not my dept.
Edited By Broomcroft on 1200385322
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 10:05 am
by Rutherford
At least one parent must be polled to get a polled calf. However if that parent is mixed for the polling and has one horned gene, it will depend on whether it throws the dominant polled gene to the calf, if not the calf will still be horned.
Beryl(Woodmagic)
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 11:35 pm
by wagra dexters
Horned calves have a whorl of hair, a 'cow-lick', or 'crown', at the bud site. I haven't had much to do with polls, but I haven't seen that same curly whorl on any, at that site.
Two polls can have a horned calf, only if they are both heterozygous for poll/horn, and they both pass on the recessive horn gene, so far as I understand it.
Margaret.
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:57 am
by Minnie
Hi Margaret,
I've got a horned cow with both her sire and dam poll.
Initially I thought she'd carry a poll gene, but of course not... she was just unlucky to get both from here parents.
Vicki
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:20 am
by wagra dexters
Hello Vicki,
That is the kind of recessive outcome for which we are hoping, from a black bull & black cows all carrying red genes. 25% chance.
We got the tail of your weather front, could use some more though.
Margaret.
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:55 am
by groubearfarm
I think that if there is polling in their genes (her sire was heterozygous) that this can have the effect of delaying the growth of a horn, a friends cow did not grow buds which we could disbud until she was about six months old , they were not just scurs, and now her daughter has done exactly the same thing.
I also have a calf which was out of two polled parents and she grew horns.
I think it is just Dexters trying to catch us out!!
Fiona
Groubear Farm
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:14 am
by Inger
I've had a calf or two that I thought were polled at birth, but months later started growing horns.
However, if there is a hollow where the horns should be, they are always polled.