I didn’t really understand the slick hair gene until I got a couple of calves out of Teddy. The first one had short hair. The second one had normal hair. Click. Light Bulb On.
Teddy has a short hair coat compared to my Red Angus and Angus, but I thought it was a matter of degree, similar to the way the Angus breed measures and selects for hair shedding. But when I saw Teddy’s offspring side by side, I realized there must be a gene involved.
Fortuitous picture taking happened to place Teddy’s #3 and #7 steers together for these two photos. They happen to be the same calves pictured at birth in the previous post. Can you see the difference? Click on the photo and make it larger.
There is a gene involved. Its a naturally occurring genetic mutation observed in Senepol cattle. Makes sense, as Senepol is one of the four breeds used to make South Poll cattle.
The slick hair gene is a dominant genetic mutation on the prolactin receptor gene on chromosome 20. And its also simply inherited. What does that mean?
On any trait with simple inheritance, you have two genes, one from each parent. Most traits involve multiple genes and the effects are impossible to visually discern, but lucky for us, slick and normal hair is simply inherited.
All my cows have normal hair, which is recessive, so we know they have two copies of normal. Teddy has slick hair, so we know he has at least one copy of Slick. Without DNA testing, we didn’t know what the other copy of the gene was until he started siring calves.
Teddy’s first calf was slick haired. The second calf was normal haired. Mystery solved. Teddy carries the normal hair gene.
Because slick hair is dominant, any calf who receives one of Teddy’s slick genes is slick haired, even though the calf has inherited regular hair from my cow. Any calf who receives Teddy’s normal hair gene is normal haired because the calf is also receiving a normal hair gene from my cow. As you would expect, roughly half of Teddy’s calves are slick haired and half are normal haired.
I think I’m really going to like the heat tolerance of the slick haired cattle. What I’m not sure about is how they will handle our winters. But I will be keeping daughters out of Teddy to become cows and I can start evaluating slick haired vs normal haired throughout their lifetime.
God willing, look for updates in years to come. Cattle breeding requires patience and foresight. Decisions we make today can influence our herd for decades.
Curiousfarmer 