dark brown calves

[lasergrl]

Theres alot of dark chocolate colored calves at the sale lately. They have a black dorsal stripe. The guys there speculate they are jersey angus cross. They are a little bit stockier then a nice holstein but not near angus muscling but they are day olds. Some have a white spot on the head but mostly solid. Any ideas what cross produces that colored calf?

[Ronney]

The guys are probably right. Most of my cows have Jersey in them, some full Jersey, some as little as 1/4, one Jersey/Friesian and one Hereford/Friesian. They all go to an Angus bull. The Jersey/Friesian always throws a chocolate calf with the Friesian white mark on it's forehead, two white feet and a white tail switch. The Hereford/Friesian throws either a completely jet black calf or a black calf with a white face. The rest of them throw calves such as your describing - small and stockier than a Jersey but not as solid as an Angus, chocolatey brown (and sometimes very dark chocolate) and black down the back. They usually go black as they mature.

It doesn't always follow and might be a bit hard to tell in day old calves (what are day old calves doing at a sale) but they often have the bulbous eyes and dished face of the Jersey too. A dead giveaway if somebody is trying to fob off older cattle as straight Angus!

Cheers,
Ronnie

[bigmudder77]

when i got mine he looked like a jersey but he was as big as the holsteins so i got him any ways

and now he is all BLACK with a little white spot on his head even his tongue is black

but he is still taller than my holstein i got but the holstein legs are alot thicker than the jerseys cross ones

but there pretty much growing at the same rate and there about a year old i think 8 months but they look about 500-700lbs but they eat alot of grass and corn and hay

[Cotton Picker]

Hi Lasergrl,

The dead giveaway as to weather or not they are some type of Angus cross would be If you could get to where you could feel the poll. Angus will knock the horns off of anything that they are bred with. If they have no palpable horn buttons and the poll of their head is markedly rounded I would say that they are Angus cross.

You mention a size comparison to Holstein. If they are the same size and frame of a Holstein, albeit heavier muscled you can pretty much rule out the Jersey blood. In that case I would lean more toward an Angus, Brown Swiss cross.

Happy Trails