Dexter color questions. . .

[Creamers]

Our bull calf born about 10 days ago - Is he going to be black or Red?
His sire was red, the dam is black
(he was disbudded yesterday, as he has a buyer who wanted a hornless bull)

just for cuteness sake:

Him and my husband




Then is this heifer dun or red? I really can't tell . . .lol! I assume dun. . .

[G. Seddon]

Cute calf! I am going to say calf will be black, but genebo knows genetics way better than I do and I'm sure he'll chime in soon. You'll have to genotype him anyway, so do a color test at the same time?

Just in case you haven't read this, here's some info on the ADCA's website about color:
Genetics Information

The heifer is probably dun, but if either parent is black or red, you'll have to color test her to register her as dun. Hint: Test her for RED as sometimes the DUN test comes back inconclusive and you have to pay the additional fee to test for red. I learned this the hard way (and both times the heifer came back as dun, carrying red).

[Creamers]

Thanks! So much I don't know on the Dexters, but the learning curve can't be as steep as it is in dairy goats, which we've got underwraps!

[G. Seddon]

You are welcome. I hope Genebo can enlighten us both on the color aspects of the black calf.

It's probably more important to test them for PHA if you haven't already done so and to know their status on chondrodysplasia so you can make good breeding decisions.

[Creamers]

I was under the impression long legged are all chrondo free. . . is this not the case?

[G. Seddon]

Usually yes, but the term long-legged can be misleading. One can usually tell by looking at the animal, but the only sure way to tell is to test. About a decade ago, someone coined the term "medium-legged" and that made things even more interesting.

Before a test was available, we had a heifer, tall compared to our traditional carriers, who was bred to a carrier bull. She delivered a bull-dog calf. Heart-breaking. She would breed back repeatedly but never carried a calf to term after that. That's not to say that all cows who have bull-dog calves are never destined to have normal calves, but it was our experience with that particular animal. Now that a test is available, it'd be foolhardy not to use it, in my opinion.

If I were to sell a bull calf as a breeding animal, I'd be sure to test him so that it's on record whether he's chondro pos. or chondro neg. I think most breeders either use a non-carrier bull on carrier cows or vice versa. Their calves will be a mix of carriers and non-carriers.

Sorry, such a long answer!

[Creamers]

Oh, thank you for the info! Something I did not know.

The woman buying this one would not be using him for Dexters but on her full size cows - she just preferred a smaller bull and had used a highland, which hasn't produced very desirable calves in her "black" beef herd.

Since she isn't using him on Dexters, would the PHA and Chrondo present a concern?

[G. Seddon]

PHA and Chondro are probably not a concern, but I am not positive (it would depend on whether the cows have those genetic issues -- doubtful that they would). Again, genebo has a friend who uses a Dexter on his Angus cows and he swears by the beef!

[oregon woodsmok]

The calf is black, or rather, he will be when he sheds out. The other one looks dun to me.

[Creamers]

Thanks!