As I have two red heifers and a red-factored cow and have now a black calf out of Saltaire Platinum, I was curious about DNA testing for colour. Does the test tell you if a black animal is red-factored and can you test for dun? I don't really understand the gentics behind the dun colour. Do dun animals have pink or black noses and do red animals always have pink noses? I saw a red the other day and the nose looked dark-coloured.
Kathy
Genetic Colour Testing - DNA for red and dun
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Kathy Millar
- Posts: 725
- Joined: Wed May 19, 2004 4:53 pm
- Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
Hi Kathy,
I will tell you what I know about the colour genes.
Red can be either wild red or straight recessive red (E+ = wild) and (e = the normal recessive red)
Now to totally confuse you the 'wild red' is only RED in Dexters in some other breeds of cattle it looks a totaly different colour but seeing as we are talking Dexters you shouldn't have to worry about that.
Anway reds can come with black noses and pink noses and pink noses with little black/grey markings. From my personal experience the ones with pink noses tend to have no black markings in there coats ... the others can - or may not - have black markings in there coats... by this I mean dark faces and legs and/or dark stipping on the shoulders and thighs ... or staight brindleing.
Both E+ and e are recessive to black... and e is recessive to E+... so if you have an animal which is genetically E+/e then it would look like an animal which is E+/E+.
Dun is also a recessive colouration tho it is not located at the same place in the genetics of the animal... so an animal can be dun only when it is black (ED).
All the best
Kathleen
P.S. I haven't been about much as I am rather busy at the moment on the farm so if you ask me something and I do not answer straight away It is not because I do not want to *smile* in fact if you want more info then it would probably be quicker -relatively speaking- to email me straight... do you still have my email address from the cattle crush info?
I will tell you what I know about the colour genes.
Red can be either wild red or straight recessive red (E+ = wild) and (e = the normal recessive red)
Now to totally confuse you the 'wild red' is only RED in Dexters in some other breeds of cattle it looks a totaly different colour but seeing as we are talking Dexters you shouldn't have to worry about that.
Anway reds can come with black noses and pink noses and pink noses with little black/grey markings. From my personal experience the ones with pink noses tend to have no black markings in there coats ... the others can - or may not - have black markings in there coats... by this I mean dark faces and legs and/or dark stipping on the shoulders and thighs ... or staight brindleing.
Both E+ and e are recessive to black... and e is recessive to E+... so if you have an animal which is genetically E+/e then it would look like an animal which is E+/E+.
Dun is also a recessive colouration tho it is not located at the same place in the genetics of the animal... so an animal can be dun only when it is black (ED).
All the best
Kathleen
P.S. I haven't been about much as I am rather busy at the moment on the farm so if you ask me something and I do not answer straight away It is not because I do not want to *smile* in fact if you want more info then it would probably be quicker -relatively speaking- to email me straight... do you still have my email address from the cattle crush info?