polled calf?

[Anderson farms]

I have just bought a 4 year old cow that is due to calve in 2 months. She is a dexter, that was dehorned. Her sire was a polled bull and she was bred to a polled bull. So what do you guys think the odds are for a polled calf? She is the only calf I will have this year and didn't want to buy a dehorner for one calf. Thanks for any input

[tyusclan]

Polled genes are dominant, and horned are recessive. The fact that your cow was horned means that her sire was carrying horned genes and passed them to her. She can only carry horned genes, so she has a 100% chance of passing horned genes to the calf.

If the polled bull that she was bred to is homozygous polled (don't know if this possible with Dexters), the calf will be polled because the bull could only pass polled genes. If he is heterozygous (which is more likely), he will be carrying horned genes, and has a 50% chance of passing on horned genes. It really boils down to whether the calf gets a polled gene or a horned gene from the bull.

[~Tomboy~]

What tyusclan said is correct regarding polled genetics.

What I would like to add is that there are homozygous polled Dexters out there, I have one, but they are very few and far between.

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