polled jersey ??

[Teacupliz]

we have a jersey heifer calf born Oct. 9th-
so far she has not horns growing maybe the tinest buds.
her mother has horns because the farm I bought her at
did a bad job disbudding. Her sire is Genex Luetenant but
I see nothing about him being polled. What do you all think?
can she still get horns or by this age would they be there?


tHANKS Agian- Liz in NY
Teacup Farm

TOm-- I am a swinging
not a swinger--lol

[SHELBY]

I don't know Liz, our little guy started to get little buds about 3 weeks ago and he was born Aug 30.
That little heifer jersey we have doesn't have much of anything and she is almost 4 months old, they still haven't broke through to where you can see them, but you can feel that they are there.

[cindy04]

We have a cow bred to Honour/Genex (sp?) who is polled and she is due in June. I don't recall seeing anything on Luetenant being polled. I think at her age you would feel something by now if she was going to have horns. Maybe you'll get lucky and she will be polled.

[dosthouhavemilk]

Leiutenant is not naturally polled. Since the dam wasn't naturally polled, the likelihood the calf is polled is pretty slim to none.
She's just a little slow to sprout them. Our calves horns don't tend to start poking through for a couple of months.
Does the skin catch on the skull when you try and move it back and forth? With polled the skin is not attached tight to the buttons and so the skin moves more freely over where the horns would be.

[Teacupliz]

dosthouhavemilk-
Kids so early share your secret? what breeds do you have?
did you have bred heifers for sale? How
far are you from NY-
I will wiggle the skin tonight- and see.
I know with polled goats they still get little horns just do not grow past that.

[genebo]

Polled is a dominant trait. If a cow has horns, she doesn't carry the horned trait. Same for the bull. If both are horned, the only way for them to have a polled calf is by a genetic mutation. An occurence so rare you can almost certainly rule it out.

My guess is that she's just a little slow developing.

I've had Dexter calves that didn't show any horns until much later than that.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

[dosthouhavemilk]

Originally Posted by Teacupliz

dosthouhavemilk-
Kids so early share your secret? what breeds do you have?
did you have bred heifers for sale? How
far are you from NY-
I will wiggle the skin tonight- and see.
I know with polled goats they still get little horns just do not grow past that.

We have this that and everything in between...my bucks are Nubian (one naturally polled) and Boer or Boer X.
The does are this and that and somemore. The first two does due are a Boer and LaMancha/Alpine/Pygmy/whoknowswhat. The next couple due are both Nubians.
Our does start cycling in late July and we've started breeding them for that. Out of 60 bred, the first half will kid between December 21st and January 31st this go around....

We do not have any cows/heifers for sale currently, but will have calved out and be milking around 40 by the time July rolls around and may be looking at selling a few then (we normally milk no more than 22).
I'm not sure how far away we are. We spoken before about bull calves a few years back. It ended up being a far trek to little Barnesville (43713).

With *most* of the polled kids we have had they have not developed any scurs/nubs. A few have, but some are smooth. Polled can be rough or smooth. The rough develop small scurs/nubs and the smooth are simply that.
Same with our polled cows. Amistad has scurs and Juness was smooth.
Your girl ought to develop horns (unless you get those puppies burned) but they may just be smaller and slower to mature.

[dezeeuwgoats]

I have a jersey/hostein heifer that I thought might be polled. I am used to goats and their horns come in fast. My heifer is nine months old now - and her horns can't really be seen through her hair they are so teeny. Even those tiny tips weren't there a few months ago - just bumps on her head.

I saw both parents so I know she isn't polled. I think she has very slow growing, very teeny horns. I wanted them off anyway - just in case - but my husband doesn't see the need, since (for now) they are practically non-existent. I'm hoping the procrastination won't result in problems later on. I can't dehorn/disbud (still small enough to burn now) a 600+lb heifer by myself - or I would!

Niki

[Teacupliz]

If I think my calf has any sort of horns I will burn them soon. Once they get big it is so hard to hold them down. We had a calf we waiting to long for she was about 300lbs and 5 of use could not hold her down. she took us all for a few rides before we got the job done.. :O)
Liz