Good Morning Everyone.
Here is our first calf this year. Her mom is super attentive and she is a little beauty.
Herefords
oh, she sure is! thanks for that pic!
we don't have this beautiful scene here this year ;-( usually, any highway or FM you drive on, you will see mommas and babies. but with all the fires, those that survived were shipped off... sorry, don't mean to sound so depressed..
yours look like a champion!
tf
Besides beautiful, she is adorable and too cute, congrats!!
Beautiful calf!!!!!
Please answer a question for me: What defines Polled Herefords? Does that mean they no longer have horns? Isn't the 'poll' the space on top of the cows head between the ears?
thanks
Virginian
I had to google "polled" and this is all I could come up with.
WHAT IS POLLED?
In cattle "polled" refers to the absence of horns. Usually the term is used to refer to "naturally polled" animals. . The word "horned" is used to refer both to animals that have horns and those whose horns have been removed.
Don't know about the space between the ears.
well, on a horse, mule, or donkey, the "poll" is the space between the ears, that is, on the OUTSIDE. on the inside, what is in the space between the ears differs LOL
The pole on cattle is the same as horses, space on top of head between the ears. "polled"
is the term for absense of horns.
These breeds were horned at one time, but were selected for no horns until almost all animals born had no horns. Some are born with horns from time to time. Most dairy cattle are horned. Some Holsteins have been selected to be "polled". I believe they are both enetered in the same herdbook as far as registration goes.
The horned Herefords & The Polled Herefords are separate breeds.
Now that we are all confused--
Bernie
thaks, Bernie, i like be confused in a very educated way LOL
no, seriously, appreciate the info, i will need to know this one day, soon i hope!
about a week ago, a week old calf was found wandering the streets of Borger. no one has claimed it, and a friend of mine says if someone hasn't taken it, she would like to bottle feed it, and we could pasture it here and share it. hope it is a she! we have access to Angus Bulls. so this could be fun!
tf
KathyJo - love your pictures. Do I remember correctly - did you get a Simmental bull for your herd? Is he black? He may throw some black baldies with your herefords. I love black baldies. We have a black baldy heifer that has a heart shape bald spot - we call her Sweetheart.
awww! that sounds so sweet!
we have lots of black baldies around here, but i just thought they were black herefords, the cross didn't occure to me...
we want more picutres, esp of babies!
tf
In cattle the presence and lack of horns is controlled by a single pair of genes. Polled (hornless) is produced by a dominant gene (P), and horned is produced by the recessive gene(pp). Thus a bull with a single P will produce 1/2 horned calves and 1/2 polled calves. A double PP will produce all polled calves. Purebred Angus are double polled, and purebred Hereford are recessive pp. The Polled Hereford was developed primarily in the US by cattlemen who wanted hornless cattle. There are spontaneous mutations which occur occasionaly and produce polled cattle in all the horned breeds, and careful selection can produce a herd of the preferred type.
Robert
Our second calf was born this evening. My cow Lacy is the mother. I raised her from a bottle calf. I bought her from the sale barn as a little calf and I think she looks to be almost the best quality cow I have. But anyway,, Lacy looks to be mostly Charlais.. The Bull is hereford and she had a black white faced bull calf..
Robert,, That is really really interesting genetics. Do you have any horned cattle?
congrats, AGAIN!
tf
Yes, I have several horned cows, and one horned bull. He will be gone this winter, and the calves will be mostly polled next year as the new bull and the older polled bull are both double polled geneticly. Third younger bull is polled, but do not know yet if he is double polled. New bull is purebred Simmental double polled. I went to a Sim breeders sale looking for a black, but thid bull was a better bull in conformation, and the red color dropped the price about $500. He is solid medium red with no white at all.
Robert
I have three half holstein, half simmental heifers . Two of these heifers are horned.
I wish that the buyers were just as interested in comformation of the calves as color.
Those half holstein half sim heifers will surely be milk producers! Their calves should produce enough extra pounds to offset any color price loss.
Robert
My 1/2 sim, 1/2 holstein is starting to bag up.. and she looks like she will be a good milker. Too bad she wasn't gentler.
I bought the three from a friend that bred them for just that trait.
What a beautiful pair, KathyJo. It brings back many fond memories of when we had a small herd.
We are seeing quite a few new calves in pastures around here. I love to watch them run and play in the fields.