Join us on the Grazing Grass Podcast as we continue our journey into the fascinating world of livestock color genetics. In this episode, we explore the practical aspects and implications for breeders, focusing on the two primary pigments—eumelanin (black) and pheomelanin (tan)—that determine livestock coat color. We simplify the terminology for ease of understanding and revisit key genetic loci, such as the extension and agouti loci, which play significant roles in coat color variations in cattle. Additionally, we discuss unique alleles like black-red, where calves change color as they age, and dominant red, which overrides the extension locus. Drawing insights from Dr. Sponenberg's "Practical Color Genetics for Livestock Breeders," we offer a comprehensive guide for beef and dairy cattle breeding.
In our discussion on cattle color dilution genetics, we shed light on the Simmental and Charolais dilution alleles, which impact coat colors, resulting in lighter shades like orange, yellow, and various grays. We also touch on other breeds such as Galloway and Dexter, which have their unique dilution genes that can sometimes lead to unexpected coat colors. Furthermore, we explore the genetic complexity in breeds like Brown Swiss and Murray Greys, and mention the recently identified Larson Blue dilution gene, enriching our understanding of the intricate genetics behind cattle coat colors.
Our exploration doesn't stop there; we also delve into the intriguing patterns of white spotting genetics in cattle. From the "wading" allele, which creates white patterns on the lower legs and belly, to the "white sides" allele characterized by animals with white sides and pigmented legs, we cover a wide range of patterns. We discuss speckled patterns such as "colorsided," "fisheagle," and "spitting cobra," along with the roan category and its variations like "marocha" and "salineiro." Finally, we examine modifiers like "brockle," "ticking," and "smudge," which add complexity to these patterns. This episode promises a rich and informative discussion on the genetic factors shaping the diverse and beautiful coat colors of livestock.
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Welcome to Grazing Grass podcast episode 120.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:08 Cal: You're listening to the Grazing Grass Podcast, sharing information and stories
00:00:08 --> 00:00:12 of grass based livestock production utilizing regenerative practices.
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 I'm your host, Cal Hardage.
00:00:17 --> 00:00:19 You're growing more than grass.
00:00:19 --> 00:00:23 You're growing a healthier ecosystem to help your cattle
00:00:23 --> 00:00:24 thrive in their environment.
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00:00:32 --> 00:00:38 You're growing stronger communities and a legacy to last generations.
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 The grazing management decisions you make today.
00:00:42 --> 00:00:47 impact everything from the soil beneath your feet to the community all around you.
00:00:48 --> 00:00:53 That's why the Noble Research Institute created their Essentials
00:00:53 --> 00:00:58 of Regenerative Grazing course to teach ranchers like you easy to follow
00:00:58 --> 00:01:04 techniques to quickly assess your forage production and infrastructure capacity.
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00:01:14 --> 00:01:16 but a legacy that lasts.
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00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 org slash grazing.
00:01:22 --> 00:01:29 It's n o b l e dot org forward slash grazing.
00:01:30 --> 00:01:35 On today's episode we are covering part two of livestock color genetics.
00:01:35 --> 00:01:37 It's taken me a few weeks to get this one out.
00:01:37 --> 00:01:43 I wanted to make sure I was accurate and didn't say something wrong.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 With that being said, I probably will say something wrong.
00:01:47 --> 00:01:47 That's okay.
00:01:48 --> 00:01:49 I will let you know.
00:01:50 --> 00:01:56 Next week on the Friday episode we have our renewable energy episode.
00:01:56 --> 00:02:02 We had asked the grazing grass community to propose some questions to a renewable
00:02:02 --> 00:02:08 energy expert and he's coming on the show next week to answer those questions.
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 So next Friday it's a can't miss episode.
00:02:12 --> 00:02:15 Today we're going to talk about livestock color genetics part two.
00:02:16 --> 00:02:20 So, first off, the main source I'm using is Dr.
00:02:20 --> 00:02:26 Sponenberg's The Practical, let me look at the book again, Practical
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 Color Genetics for Livestock Breeders.
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 Excellent resource if you're fascinated by color genetics.
00:02:32 --> 00:02:36 It goes into tons of details and talks about multiple livestock species.
00:02:38 --> 00:02:43 In addition to that, I have a couple other sources I will bring up in the episode.
00:02:44 --> 00:02:47 To get started, let's do a little refresher on part one.
00:02:47 --> 00:02:51 Part one we talked about, there's two pigments that are produced in
00:02:51 --> 00:02:53 livestock to give you your color.
00:02:54 --> 00:02:58 You have eumelanin which gives the black color, if it's undiluted.
00:02:59 --> 00:03:03 And pheomelanin that gives the tan color, which could be a light cream,
00:03:04 --> 00:03:08 all the way to a almost dark brown.
00:03:09 --> 00:03:13 So those are the two, two pigments that we're working with, with
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 colors in our livestock species.
00:03:17 --> 00:03:22 And a lot of times instead of saying eumelanin and pheomelanin, we'll go
00:03:22 --> 00:03:24 with black pigment or tan pigment.
00:03:26 --> 00:03:31 And as I mentioned last week, if that, if you're really interested in that, uh, Dr.
00:03:31 --> 00:03:37 Sponenberg has A lot of information on that and how it happens in
00:03:37 --> 00:03:41 his book, uh, Practical Color Genetics for Livestock Breeders.
00:03:43 --> 00:03:50 Last week we talked about a couple locations on genes that cover the
00:03:50 --> 00:03:52 main colors we see in animals.
00:03:52 --> 00:03:56 And that was the extension locus and the agouti locus.
00:03:56 --> 00:04:03 And those are two places on the genes that determine coat color.
00:04:04 --> 00:04:07 That's pretty predominant on our coat colors and that's what we're doing.
00:04:07 --> 00:04:13 The main one is extension locus, and with that one for our, for cattle, we're
00:04:13 --> 00:04:19 talking about our black, red, and our wild type, which a lot of times we call brown.
00:04:20 --> 00:04:25 So that's like black like in Black Angus, red like in Red Angus
00:04:25 --> 00:04:30 or Red Pole, and wild type like you might see in Brown Swiss.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:36 or a few other breeds and I have a surprising breed coming
00:04:36 --> 00:04:37 up on that in just a moment.
00:04:41 --> 00:04:41 And then,
00:04:44 --> 00:04:50 With the extension locus, we talked about a couple other alleles that's
00:04:50 --> 00:04:58 available, but not really of importance to the beef industry, but they can play
00:04:58 --> 00:05:02 a role in the dairy industry, because these two genes appear in Holsteins.
00:05:03 --> 00:05:07 So if you have an animal with Holstein background, it's possible.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:11 These genes are there, they're fairly rare, and you probably were
00:05:11 --> 00:05:15 selecting or looking for an animal with these genes if you have one.
00:05:15 --> 00:05:19 One is called black red, and that's where a calf is born red, and
00:05:19 --> 00:05:22 turns black at a few months of age.
00:05:23 --> 00:05:31 The second one is dominant red, it's a relatively recent find, and I'm including
00:05:31 --> 00:05:35 it with the extension locus, but it's really not a gene extension locus.
00:05:35 --> 00:05:39 What happens if that red dominant gene is present?
00:05:40 --> 00:05:44 It doesn't matter what's on the extension locus, the animal will be red.
00:05:47 --> 00:05:51 So very interesting, it overrides the extension locus.
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 And that's the only thing we have doing that right now.
00:05:54 --> 00:05:59 Um, we do have some other genes that are modifiers to it that will talk about it.
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 But it doesn't matter what's in the extension locus, that animal is
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 going to be red due to dominant red.
00:06:06 --> 00:06:09 So there's the additional allele of black red.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:14 So now we have dominant black, wild type, black red, and recessive red.
00:06:14 --> 00:06:15 Four alleles for the extension locus.
00:06:16 --> 00:06:20 And then we have dominant red that resides at a different locus, but is
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 very important for the expression.
00:06:22 --> 00:06:23 of the extension locus.
00:06:25 --> 00:06:29 Okay, so, so five, you know, one's not really there, so four, but
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 we got that fifth one over there.
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 There is actually one other one that Dr.
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 Sponenberg talks about in his book.
00:06:36 --> 00:06:40 And, I don't know, I skipped that paragraph, I fell asleep during that
00:06:40 --> 00:06:44 paragraph, I ate some cookies while I was reading it, I don't know.
00:06:44 --> 00:06:48 I really didn't recall that paragraph until I was looking at
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 DNA tests available for coat color.
00:06:51 --> 00:06:57 And UC Davis has a lot of tests out there that if you want to figure out
00:06:57 --> 00:07:01 if your animal is homozygous black or heterozygous black or wild type
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 or red, you can send it out there.
00:07:04 --> 00:07:09 Well, my understanding, I don't know if it was that lab or another one, but
00:07:09 --> 00:07:16 there was a DNA test done on a Simmental animal that was red, however, the DNA
00:07:16 --> 00:07:19 test came back that the animal was black.
00:07:21 --> 00:07:26 So, through more testing, they discovered another allele at the extension
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 locus, and it's called Red Charlie.
00:07:29 --> 00:07:36 And Red Charlie looks exactly like Recessive red, and for all practical
00:07:36 --> 00:07:43 purposes, it's the same as having recessive red, but technically
00:07:43 --> 00:07:44 it's a separate allele there.
00:07:44 --> 00:07:52 So now we have five alleles at the extension locus.
00:07:52 --> 00:07:59 We have dominant black, wild type, black red, recessive red, and red charlie.
00:07:59 --> 00:08:05 So five there, um, and that's without considering dominant red that resides
00:08:05 --> 00:08:06 somewhere else that can affect it.
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 So very interesting.
00:08:10 --> 00:08:14 It will be interesting as we continue with DNA testing of coat color and more animals
00:08:14 --> 00:08:20 are tested for whatever reason that we might discover some more alleles there.
00:08:20 --> 00:08:21 Very interesting.
00:08:22 --> 00:08:24 The second thing we talked about was agouti.
00:08:25 --> 00:08:32 And agouti affects the coloration of an animal when they are wild
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 type at the extension locus.
00:08:35 --> 00:08:40 Now when I say they affect the color, it also affects the pattern of the animal
00:08:40 --> 00:08:46 in that you have a darker front quarters And they'll get darker as they age.
00:08:47 --> 00:08:50 The right and left side will look pretty symmetrical.
00:08:51 --> 00:08:56 When I think of breeds that really show that wild type, I immediately
00:08:56 --> 00:09:00 think about some dairy breeds and that's Brown Swiss, and jerseys.
00:09:00 --> 00:09:04 Now one thing I didn't mention a little bit earlier, there is a telltale sign
00:09:04 --> 00:09:06 for recessive red on the extension locus.
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 That's a red animal with white in its tail switch.
00:09:11 --> 00:09:16 And if you see that, you can be pretty sure you're dealing with a recessive red.
00:09:17 --> 00:09:21 Well, wild type in the extension locus has a tell tale sign also.
00:09:21 --> 00:09:26 And that's a light colored ring around the muzzle of the animal in cattle.
00:09:26 --> 00:09:30 So, for example, um, it may be a tan colored ring, but
00:09:30 --> 00:09:31 it's there and it's visible.
00:09:32 --> 00:09:38 So, if you have wild type in the extension, you're dealing with agouti and
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 agouti has a few different alleles there.
00:09:42 --> 00:09:47 Uh, one that's probably the easiest to recognize out there is brindle
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 and that's where you get your tan and black horizontal stripes.
00:09:50 --> 00:09:53 So depending on the color of the animal, you have those horizontal stripes.
00:09:54 --> 00:09:56 In fact, I have one heifer that shows brindle
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 Outside of brindle, Dr.
00:09:58 --> 00:10:03 Sponenberg says, the alleles available in agouti for cattle.
00:10:06 --> 00:10:14 are not 100 percent sure because they can provide such a range of colorations.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:20 that it's hard to tell when one allele stops and another starts.
00:10:20 --> 00:10:24 So they understand a lot about the inheritance of it, but
00:10:24 --> 00:10:29 they're still trying to figure out the specific alleles to that.
00:10:31 --> 00:10:32 And Dr.
00:10:32 --> 00:10:36 Sponenberg's book was published in 2021, I believe.
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 If not, I'm off there by a year or two.
00:10:39 --> 00:10:46 However, if I go back to Tim Olson's book, or chapter on cattle
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 color of cattle genetics in 1999.
00:10:51 --> 00:10:54 He lists a few alleles for agate.
00:10:55 --> 00:10:55 Um, Dr.
00:10:55 --> 00:10:56 Spannenberg,
00:10:58 --> 00:10:59 Dr.
00:10:59 --> 00:11:05 Spannenberg doesn't go into those the same, so I think they're probably trying
00:11:06 --> 00:11:10 to figure out more research is needed on them, but a couple that, Tim Olson
00:11:11 --> 00:11:15 put out, was a white bellied agouti.
00:11:16 --> 00:11:19 And that's where you get removal of red and part of black
00:11:19 --> 00:11:24 pigment, causing a more uniform distribution of black pigmentation.
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 especially across the sides of the animal.
00:11:27 --> 00:11:34 And he says this is recessive and you see this in brown Swiss or gray Steppe cattle.
00:11:35 --> 00:11:41 Another one they said was fawn and it's the removal of red and black
00:11:41 --> 00:11:46 pigment particularly red along the underline and along the back or
00:11:46 --> 00:11:53 dorsal stripe resulting in a tan or fawn color and that's recessive.
00:11:54 --> 00:11:57 One thing that surprised me when I was looking at his deal, a
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 breed he listed, was limousin.
00:12:00 --> 00:12:05 You know, limousins have that light red color, and of course they bred
00:12:05 --> 00:12:06 them into black and that stuff.
00:12:07 --> 00:12:12 And as I mentioned on the podcast numerous times, my dad's herd started
00:12:12 --> 00:12:13 from a base of limousin cattle.
00:12:13 --> 00:12:18 Well, crossbred cattle, we bred to limousin for generations, so it's
00:12:18 --> 00:12:20 a very limousin predominant herd.
00:12:22 --> 00:12:23 Or it was at one time.
00:12:23 --> 00:12:27 We're moving away from that now, so I went out and looked at the cows after
00:12:27 --> 00:12:33 I read that and lo and behold on those fawn colored cows You get that light
00:12:33 --> 00:12:36 colored ring around their muzzle.
00:12:38 --> 00:12:44 I did not realize limousin coloration was due to the wild type and agouti.
00:12:46 --> 00:12:51 So in extension they have wild type and in Agouti they have this fawn coloration.
00:12:52 --> 00:12:56 That's pretty uniform, a little bit different shades, but very interesting.
00:12:58 --> 00:13:01 But like I said, I can look at them and tell that because of that
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 light ring around their muzzle.
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 So very interesting, something I didn't know.
00:13:07 --> 00:13:09 I think it's always great when I learn something.
00:13:10 --> 00:13:13 There's lots for me to learn, so don't take that as I know too much.
00:13:14 --> 00:13:20 The other thing about agouti, if you look at the colors in braimers, and I say
00:13:20 --> 00:13:25 braimers, that's always what we called them, uh, since I was a little kid.
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28 To be more correct I probably should say Brahman.
00:13:29 --> 00:13:35 So with, when we think about Brahman cattle, if you go to Brahman dot,
00:13:36 --> 00:13:41 I want to say com, it could be dot org, and look at their show charts.
00:13:43 --> 00:13:48 Excuse me, the A BBA show color chart.
00:13:48 --> 00:13:53 They show dark colored animals or red animals and white colored animals or
00:13:53 --> 00:13:59 light colored animals, and you can see on almost every color shape that light
00:13:59 --> 00:14:03 tan or light colored ring around the m.
00:14:04 --> 00:14:08 On the various darkest shades, it's harder to tell in both cases.
00:14:08 --> 00:14:14 But that's a good example of the range of coloration available through Agouti.
00:14:15 --> 00:14:19 So we think a lot of times we've got that brown cow for wild type, and we
00:14:19 --> 00:14:21 have dominant black and recessive red.
00:14:24 --> 00:14:28 And that's how we're going to get it, but Agouti could give us a red animal.
00:14:28 --> 00:14:31 Agouti can give us a black animal, basically.
00:14:31 --> 00:14:36 He can give us, uh, All levels in between, so it's very interesting what
00:14:36 --> 00:14:37 can happen through that mechanism.
00:14:38 --> 00:14:41 And as we talk about other livestock species, it becomes
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 really important in goats and sheep.
00:14:44 --> 00:14:45 More important than the extension.
00:14:48 --> 00:14:53 So, just to blow your mind, I know you, you heard this and later
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55 you're going to be like, wait, what?
00:14:55 --> 00:15:01 There are four different mechanisms for us to have a red animal, a red cow.
00:15:03 --> 00:15:09 We could have, just as we talked about, a red animal through the actions of agouti.
00:15:10 --> 00:15:10 So there's one.
00:15:12 --> 00:15:16 We could have the extension way we talked about, through recessive red.
00:15:17 --> 00:15:24 We could also have a red animal due to red charlie, which is a allele extension.
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 And the fourth way is through dominant red.
00:15:29 --> 00:15:34 So through dominant red, recessive red, red charlie, or red through
00:15:34 --> 00:15:37 agouti, we could have a red animal, which is very interesting.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:40 Three of those are really hard to tell apart.
00:15:42 --> 00:15:42 Three of them.
00:15:43 --> 00:15:44 Yeah, my fingers, how do they move?
00:15:45 --> 00:15:48 Three of them is really hard to tell apart.
00:15:48 --> 00:15:52 The fourth one through Agouti, you can tell because they'll have that light
00:15:52 --> 00:15:53 colored ring around their muzzle.
00:15:55 --> 00:15:56 Very interesting.
00:15:57 --> 00:15:58 Go look at that chart.
00:15:58 --> 00:16:03 In fact, I'll put a link in show notes so you can go look at that ABBA show chart.
00:16:03 --> 00:16:08 Something else that's going to be another allele that's not been studied greatly.
00:16:08 --> 00:16:11 There is a recessive black for
00:16:15 --> 00:16:21 So recessive black, now it's only been found in Icelandic cattle.
00:16:22 --> 00:16:27 So in Icelandic cattle, there is a rare allele for the agouti
00:16:27 --> 00:16:30 locus called recessive black.
00:16:30 --> 00:16:33 And that will give you that black coloration that you see
00:16:33 --> 00:16:34 from a dominant black animal.
00:16:37 --> 00:16:45 Just as a forewarning, or as a tease, Goats, black is caused a
00:16:45 --> 00:16:49 lot of times through that recessive black rather than dominant black.
00:16:49 --> 00:16:55 And that's one reason I say dominant black, because we do have this recessive
00:16:55 --> 00:16:57 black available through agouti.
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 So very interesting.
00:17:00 --> 00:17:04 And so, I just spent too long talking about the two loci that we had talked
00:17:04 --> 00:17:08 about in the last episode, but I wanted to give a little bit more information there.
00:17:09 --> 00:17:12 Now we get into the really fun stuff with cattle coloration.
00:17:13 --> 00:17:17 Um, first we get dilutes, or dilutions.
00:17:17 --> 00:17:23 And my My first exposure to the dilution gene, not that I had any clue what it was,
00:17:24 --> 00:17:30 was when my grandfather, he dairyed, had Holstein cows, and a lot of times he would
00:17:30 --> 00:17:36 breed them, AI, to beef bulls, and they were bringing in these exotic breeds or
00:17:36 --> 00:17:38 continental breeds, and he was using them.
00:17:38 --> 00:17:44 We had as a kid in my dad's herd, we had a, a half Charolais half Holstein cow.
00:17:45 --> 00:17:48 We had some half Simmentals, half Holstein cows.
00:17:49 --> 00:17:55 And the half Holstein, half Simmental is where I first noticed the dilute
00:17:55 --> 00:17:59 gene because that calf comes out of that Holstein cow from a Simmental
00:17:59 --> 00:18:05 bull that's going to be, you know, a lighter red and white color.
00:18:06 --> 00:18:09 And it is a charcoal gray.
00:18:10 --> 00:18:17 I thought it was wonderful, and in fact that gene, her calves would
00:18:17 --> 00:18:18 sometimes show that coloration.
00:18:18 --> 00:18:19 I love that coloration.
00:18:20 --> 00:18:22 So it's a nice dark charcoal.
00:18:22 --> 00:18:27 And what it tells us is she has one copy of a Simmental dilute allele.
00:18:28 --> 00:18:35 So that dark charcoal animal has one copy of the Simmental dilution allele.
00:18:36 --> 00:18:39 If she'd had two of it, she'd been even lighter.
00:18:40 --> 00:18:44 So I've always thought that was very fascinating how that color happened.
00:18:45 --> 00:18:52 Simmental dilution allele has incomplete dominance, it gives us
00:18:52 --> 00:18:56 in Simmentals, it gives us that light red, lighter red color, kind of an
00:18:57 --> 00:18:59 orange or yellow color at times.
00:19:00 --> 00:19:05 Now in red it's harder to tell and Simmentals had that, but when you
00:19:05 --> 00:19:11 cross it into a black animal and that animal is black, dominant black, and we
00:19:11 --> 00:19:18 have the Simmental dilution allele, it causes that animal to be a dark gray.
00:19:18 --> 00:19:23 And then if you get it It has two of those Simmental dilution alleles and
00:19:23 --> 00:19:29 becomes a lighter gray and those two or that dilution allele resides at
00:19:29 --> 00:19:39 the silver locus and silver locus is home to a couple of dilution genes
00:19:39 --> 00:19:43 So that is our first dilution gene that we're going to talk about Silver
00:19:43 --> 00:19:50 location we have the Simmental dilution allele, which we just talked about it
00:19:50 --> 00:19:54 takes that takes that black to gray, and even a light gray and a homozygous
00:19:54 --> 00:19:56 for Simmental dilution allele.
00:19:57 --> 00:20:03 And then for red, takes that red to a, I like to think of orange red, and
00:20:03 --> 00:20:05 then the next step is a yellow red.
00:20:05 --> 00:20:11 But sometimes in red, the coloration, or the, the dilution of red is not as great.
00:20:12 --> 00:20:13 So it's harder to identify in red.
00:20:14 --> 00:20:20 The other major dilution gene that we have in beef cattle is
00:20:20 --> 00:20:22 the Charolais dilution allele.
00:20:23 --> 00:20:27 And that takes them to a really light colored, almost white
00:20:27 --> 00:20:32 animal, and then in the homozygous state, it is a white animal.
00:20:33 --> 00:20:37 It's effect is much greater than what the Simmental dilution allele will be.
00:20:38 --> 00:20:43 Um, Charolais can really lighten the color of the animal in heterozygous,
00:20:44 --> 00:20:46 while homozygous gives you a white animal.
00:20:47 --> 00:20:51 On the Simmental dilution allele, even in homozygous, you're not
00:20:51 --> 00:20:52 going to get a white animal.
00:20:53 --> 00:20:58 Sometimes in my area, I've got a nephew that calls these yellow calves all
00:20:58 --> 00:21:06 the time, and that's when you cross a Charolais with a red cow, and you get
00:21:06 --> 00:21:10 that light, really light yellow calf.
00:21:10 --> 00:21:11 He really likes them.
00:21:11 --> 00:21:17 Um, if you do that on a, a black animal, sometimes you get that smoke color in it.
00:21:18 --> 00:21:22 But those are two dilution genes that are very important to the beef industry.
00:21:22 --> 00:21:28 Um, Simmental, they've really worked to breed that Simmental dilution allele out.
00:21:29 --> 00:21:30 which I think is very disappointing.
00:21:31 --> 00:21:35 Uh, there was in the early Simmentals, and I'm not sure if it's only
00:21:35 --> 00:21:39 SiSimmentals,ut some of that gray color was associated with rat tailed
00:21:39 --> 00:21:44 calves that didn't grow very well, that didn't finish out very well.
00:21:44 --> 00:21:49 That has been bred out of, for the most part, so you can use Simmental Dilution,
00:21:49 --> 00:21:52 and you don't run into that issue.
00:21:53 --> 00:21:58 Um, when we're talking about the Simmental Dilution, It's
00:21:58 --> 00:22:00 used in a few different breeds.
00:22:00 --> 00:22:06 Uh, Galloway gets its dun colored animals through the Simmental dilution
00:22:08 --> 00:22:09 part of the time.
00:22:09 --> 00:22:11 And you're right there, you're like, what?
00:22:12 --> 00:22:12 Part of the time?
00:22:13 --> 00:22:19 Well, in Galloway cattle, dun can also be through another way.
00:22:19 --> 00:22:22 So we we talked about the silver locus.
00:22:22 --> 00:22:24 There is also a brown locus.
00:22:24 --> 00:22:26 That's another dilution gene.
00:22:26 --> 00:22:30 And in it, it's what causes the dun color.
00:22:31 --> 00:22:32 in Dexter cattle.
00:22:33 --> 00:22:35 It can also cause it in Galloway cattle.
00:22:37 --> 00:22:42 However, Galloway cattle, it can be caused by the brown locus
00:22:43 --> 00:22:45 or the, or the silver locus.
00:22:45 --> 00:22:48 So, um, that could cause you some problems.
00:22:48 --> 00:22:52 If you have two dun colored Galloways and you breed them together and you
00:22:52 --> 00:22:56 get a calf that's not colored dun at all and you're like, what's going on?
00:22:57 --> 00:23:02 You just bred an animal with the Simmental dilution to an animal
00:23:02 --> 00:23:04 with the brown locus dilution.
00:23:05 --> 00:23:07 and those don't work together to do that.
00:23:08 --> 00:23:09 So that's very interesting.
00:23:10 --> 00:23:14 One other breed that we think about with a dilution, but they're
00:23:14 --> 00:23:16 doing dilution on wild type.
00:23:16 --> 00:23:19 So we're talking about dilution on dominant black or
00:23:19 --> 00:23:22 recessive red or red charlie.
00:23:23 --> 00:23:27 You can also have that dilution play out on wild type animals.
00:23:27 --> 00:23:32 So for a breed that, that most of you can picture in your mind, it's brown swiss.
00:23:34 --> 00:23:40 The dilution is similar to the Simmental dilution allele
00:23:40 --> 00:23:40 according to Dr.
00:23:40 --> 00:23:49 Sponenberg, some of the alleles are identified in dilutions, but they're not,
00:23:49 --> 00:23:51 they don't know what locus they're at.
00:23:52 --> 00:23:57 Um, for example, The brown Swiss coloration
00:23:59 --> 00:24:02 could be a dominant dilu allele,
00:24:07 --> 00:24:11 which is similar to the ctol, uh, dilution allele.
00:24:11 --> 00:24:15 But ctol dilution is incomplete dominance, so there may be
00:24:15 --> 00:24:16 another allele at play there.
00:24:17 --> 00:24:19 But if you look at pictures of brown Swiss, you can see
00:24:19 --> 00:24:21 a variation in colors there,
00:24:27 --> 00:24:29 and it's where the Holsteins come back into play.
00:24:30 --> 00:24:33 There is another dilution gene that's fairly recent,
00:24:34 --> 00:24:35 and it's called Larson Blue.
00:24:36 --> 00:24:43 And it gives a real pale, grayish color animal that would've normally been black.
00:24:44 --> 00:24:47 As far as I know on there, they have not identified the gene
00:24:47 --> 00:24:50 locus for it, the allele for it.
00:24:50 --> 00:24:55 It's occurred in one herd, as far as I know, and I don't think they
00:24:55 --> 00:24:59 believe it's one of the dilution genes that we are aware of.
00:25:00 --> 00:25:03 And I say we as, as, as if I'm involved in that research.
00:25:03 --> 00:25:08 On the dilution genes, one, there's quite a few breeds of cattle
00:25:08 --> 00:25:12 that use those dilution genes to really mark their coloration.
00:25:12 --> 00:25:17 We mentioned, uh, Charolais Simmental, not so much anymore.
00:25:17 --> 00:25:19 People's really moved away from that Simmental dilute.
00:25:20 --> 00:25:22 They're, they are going for red.
00:25:23 --> 00:25:28 or black, but we do have some other breeds like murray grays.
00:25:28 --> 00:25:31 And murray gray cattle are very interesting.
00:25:31 --> 00:25:38 That was developed in Australia and from a shorthorn cow and an angus bull.
00:25:39 --> 00:25:43 And then she had a couple gray calves and they they continued to
00:25:43 --> 00:25:45 breed those and expand the breed.
00:25:46 --> 00:25:50 Now when you breed angus, To shorthorn you shouldn't have
00:25:50 --> 00:25:52 a, a dilution gene in there.
00:25:53 --> 00:25:58 But somewhere, probably the Simmental Dilution Gene was introduced.
00:25:58 --> 00:26:00 Probably from the cow.
00:26:00 --> 00:26:04 And you know, also the other thing, shorthorn she's gonna be red and white.
00:26:04 --> 00:26:05 Or red.
00:26:05 --> 00:26:11 And the, the Simmental Dilution Allele does not lighten red greatly.
00:26:12 --> 00:26:16 So it, it could have been there and someone not notice it.
00:26:16 --> 00:26:17 Anyway, they get a gray calf.
00:26:18 --> 00:26:19 It was repeatable.
00:26:20 --> 00:26:23 And, um, I think Murray grays have, have came onto the scene.
00:26:24 --> 00:26:27 And, uh, they are a fascinating breed to me.
00:26:27 --> 00:26:30 For the most part, they are homozygous for the dilution.
00:26:31 --> 00:26:32 So that's interesting.
00:26:33 --> 00:26:37 Another gene that would be kind of grouped with these modifiers of the
00:26:39 --> 00:26:45 Of the main color are albinos and albinos results in a light colored
00:26:45 --> 00:26:47 animal with light colored eyes.
00:26:48 --> 00:26:54 They are out there, but they're not very, very common.
00:26:54 --> 00:26:59 Um, there is some thought that there is a chinchilla type allele for
00:27:00 --> 00:27:05 albino, and it results in a lighter colored animal, and it is available
00:27:06 --> 00:27:09 in some zebu breeds in Africa.
00:27:11 --> 00:27:13 Not too much is known on that at this time.
00:27:14 --> 00:27:22 For the most part albino locus does not affect us in the beef cattle industry.
00:27:23 --> 00:27:26 However, the next one is huge.
00:27:27 --> 00:27:28 White spotting.
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00:28:38 --> 00:28:47 White spotting refers to a group of loci and alleles that add white to an animal.
00:28:47 --> 00:28:53 So it can be very minimal to almost a maximum expression resulting
00:28:53 --> 00:28:54 in almost a British white.
00:28:54 --> 00:28:57 Or a British white, that's how they get their coloration.
00:28:57 --> 00:29:00 Where it's mainly a white animal with black points.
00:29:00 --> 00:29:03 So it's got black ears or tips of ears, black muzzle.
00:29:03 --> 00:29:06 There may be a little black somewhere else, but not much.
00:29:08 --> 00:29:12 But when we look at the alleles for it, and the loci, because not all
00:29:12 --> 00:29:17 of these alleles we see for white spotting occur at the same locus.
00:29:18 --> 00:29:23 For example, there is the spotting locus, and there is a certain, number
00:29:23 --> 00:29:29 of alleles there, for example, spotting, or hereford or Simmental they are
00:29:29 --> 00:29:31 all they are all there at that locus.
00:29:32 --> 00:29:36 However, belted, like when it adds a white belt back to an
00:29:36 --> 00:29:39 animal, that is a different locus.
00:29:40 --> 00:29:45 So just remember, these are all different alleles, and they may
00:29:46 --> 00:29:48 or may not have different loci.
00:29:49 --> 00:29:54 Now, remember, if something is shared at a locus, there's only
00:29:54 --> 00:29:55 two versions that can be there.
00:29:55 --> 00:30:02 It can be homozygous for spotting, such as in Holsteins or it can be heterozygous.
00:30:02 --> 00:30:06 And in the example of Holsteins, again for spotting, that's recessive,
00:30:06 --> 00:30:10 so you wouldn't even see it in the heterozygous condition.
00:30:11 --> 00:30:17 If you have two white spotting alleles there, such as spotted and
00:30:17 --> 00:30:24 colorsided, then they're going to get an additive effect on your animal.
00:30:24 --> 00:30:28 So I've just mentioned a few alleles that's available for white spotting.
00:30:28 --> 00:30:29 Let's go over those.
00:30:29 --> 00:30:34 And there is a large number, and they can be divided into four groups.
00:30:34 --> 00:30:36 So we're going to go through them by group.
00:30:37 --> 00:30:41 and we're not going to take a deep dive into them because to be honest, white
00:30:41 --> 00:30:43 spotting, you really need those images.
00:30:43 --> 00:30:48 And with audio podcasts or our videos, even the way we do them, it's not a
00:30:48 --> 00:30:53 great resource, but I do want to make you aware of the number of alleles
00:30:53 --> 00:30:55 available in different patterns available.
00:30:56 --> 00:31:00 If you want to see some of these, uh, as we go through some of them, will
00:31:00 --> 00:31:03 mention some breeds that display those.
00:31:04 --> 00:31:07 Another resource is . Dr.
00:31:07 --> 00:31:08 Sponenberg's book.
00:31:08 --> 00:31:14 He's got photos of a lot of different colors and it causes me, when I'm
00:31:14 --> 00:31:18 driving down the road and I see cattle with white spotting, I'm always
00:31:18 --> 00:31:22 looking to see if there's some of these more rare alleles showing up.
00:31:24 --> 00:31:25 Also, I mentioned some breeds.
00:31:25 --> 00:31:29 If you go and search some breeder pages for those breeds, you can see a lot
00:31:29 --> 00:31:32 of really good examples there as well.
00:31:34 --> 00:31:35 So let's get started.
00:31:35 --> 00:31:37 The four major groups you can divide them into.
00:31:39 --> 00:31:44 The first group has nice, clean, crisp, white areas.
00:31:44 --> 00:31:46 And when I say that, think about a Holstein
00:31:46 --> 00:31:51 the You know how, uh, the break between the pigment area and the non
00:31:51 --> 00:31:54 pigment area is very clean and crisp.
00:31:55 --> 00:32:00 And then the next group is speckled, and that's where you don't have
00:32:00 --> 00:32:01 those really defined edges.
00:32:02 --> 00:32:05 Uh, you'll see this a lot of times in, uh, Corrientes, but we'll talk
00:32:05 --> 00:32:07 about some of those colors even more.
00:32:09 --> 00:32:11 The third category is roan.
00:32:11 --> 00:32:13 Like you see in Shorthorn.
00:32:13 --> 00:32:19 So that's where you've got the pigment hairs and the white hairs mixed together.
00:32:20 --> 00:32:24 And then lastly, there is a category for modifications.
00:32:25 --> 00:32:28 And they modify these white areas in some way.
00:32:29 --> 00:32:33 So first for the clean, crisp white.
00:32:34 --> 00:32:38 Like I mentioned earlier, Holsteins are a great example of it, and
00:32:38 --> 00:32:39 they carry the spotting gene.
00:32:39 --> 00:32:45 And the spotted gene is recessive, so to show it they have to be homozygous for it.
00:32:46 --> 00:32:53 And spotted is one of seven alleles available for clear crisp white.
00:32:53 --> 00:32:59 Now when I say that, remember the loci may be different for them.
00:33:00 --> 00:33:02 So we have spotted, like holstein.
00:33:03 --> 00:33:08 We have the Hereford coloration, or the Hereford allele, and that
00:33:08 --> 00:33:12 results in that white face, maybe some pigment around the eye, maybe not,
00:33:12 --> 00:33:18 some white around the top line, um, gets that traditional Hereford look.
00:33:20 --> 00:33:24 Then we have a Simmental allele, and we already talked about the
00:33:24 --> 00:33:30 Simmental dilution allele back in um, the silver locus, now we've
00:33:30 --> 00:33:34 got a scimital spotting allele.
00:33:34 --> 00:33:39 And this one gives you that white face with pigment around the eyes or
00:33:39 --> 00:33:41 more of a blazed face on an animal.
00:33:43 --> 00:33:47 And remember, if these are present in heterozygous, it's going to have less
00:33:47 --> 00:33:50 white than one that's homozygous will.
00:33:51 --> 00:33:57 The next allele, uh, Pinzgauer it is very popular if you look
00:33:57 --> 00:34:01 at longhorns, uh, Corrientes or some that just jumped to mind.
00:34:02 --> 00:34:09 They have that white top line, white, some white on the head possibly,
00:34:09 --> 00:34:13 maybe a colored head, but white along the belly with stocking feet.
00:34:14 --> 00:34:20 Next one's really common in certain breeds, and it's very recognizable.
00:34:20 --> 00:34:24 It's the belted allele and that puts a white belt around the animal.
00:34:25 --> 00:34:30 The, the quality and width of that belt can vary a lot of other genes
00:34:30 --> 00:34:32 involved in determining that.
00:34:33 --> 00:34:37 But for, belted animals, they're usually pretty consistent
00:34:37 --> 00:34:38 with that belt coming through.
00:34:38 --> 00:34:42 A number of years ago, I bred some Holstein cows to Dutch belted bulls.
00:34:42 --> 00:34:50 So, interestingly enough, in those Dutch belted Holstein cross heifers I got, I
00:34:50 --> 00:34:55 had some nice belts, I had some narrow belts, and I even had one without a belt.
00:34:58 --> 00:35:02 So, and they were all solid black with that belt, and you're like, wait, But I
00:35:02 --> 00:35:04 put belted and I get the spotting gene.
00:35:04 --> 00:35:08 Well the spotting gene comes from Holstein but spotting is
00:35:08 --> 00:35:10 not available in Dutch belted.
00:35:10 --> 00:35:13 So you result in a solid animal, solid black animal.
00:35:15 --> 00:35:20 And then the belted gene is dominant, so it came over and gave a belt.
00:35:21 --> 00:35:25 Now because I got one without a belt and she didn't exhibit any white.
00:35:26 --> 00:35:32 Even if they don't exhibit a full belt, if they've got some white
00:35:32 --> 00:35:35 in that area where the belt would be, they're carrying the gene.
00:35:35 --> 00:35:37 They're just having a reduced expression of it.
00:35:39 --> 00:35:44 She had no white at all, so that means her sire had to have been heterozygous
00:35:44 --> 00:35:48 for the belt and Dutch belted, which is interesting 'cause you don't really
00:35:48 --> 00:35:50 run into that a lot with Dutch belted.
00:35:51 --> 00:35:53 Mainly they're homozygous for the belt.
00:35:56 --> 00:35:59 The next allele is wading.
00:36:00 --> 00:36:02 So w a d i n g.
00:36:03 --> 00:36:07 I know it sounds like waiting room, but it's wading with a d.
00:36:08 --> 00:36:10 And this is a fascinating pattern.
00:36:11 --> 00:36:15 That when I saw it in the book, I'm like, oh, I want some cattle with this pattern.
00:36:15 --> 00:36:18 And the way it looks, they have white up here.
00:36:19 --> 00:36:23 On their legs, bottom of their belly, and then across there,
00:36:24 --> 00:36:26 it changes to a pigment.
00:36:26 --> 00:36:29 So they can be black and white or red and white, but the
00:36:29 --> 00:36:31 whites all on the bottom and
00:36:31 --> 00:36:35 in extreme cases when they're homozygous for wading alelle, they
00:36:35 --> 00:36:37 may have even a white head with that.
00:36:40 --> 00:36:45 And I think it's, it's, I hate to say interesting because I say that very
00:36:45 --> 00:36:47 often, but I find it very fascinating.
00:36:48 --> 00:36:52 If you go look up some Watusi Breeders, they will have
00:36:52 --> 00:36:55 cattle with the wading pattern.
00:36:55 --> 00:36:59 And it's really, really nice because you can see some nice clean
00:36:59 --> 00:37:03 patterns, and you can also see some patterns that's wading with one of
00:37:03 --> 00:37:05 the modifiers we talk about later.
00:37:06 --> 00:37:12 The last allele in this category is the white sides allele.
00:37:13 --> 00:37:18 And in it you're seeing an animal that has some pigment along the top or
00:37:18 --> 00:37:22 along, um, the bottom of their legs.
00:37:22 --> 00:37:25 But their sides are white and they may be speckled.
00:37:25 --> 00:37:31 While the pattern is a clean crisp white, they will have some smaller spots.
00:37:31 --> 00:37:35 It's not as, it's more jagged than a clean edge, but it's not the speckled edge.
00:37:36 --> 00:37:39 And there's several breeds that display that.
00:37:40 --> 00:37:43 And that's the, the clean crisp white.
00:37:43 --> 00:37:46 So moving to the second category, that's speckled.
00:37:46 --> 00:37:51 And with speckled, we have a few, And when you're looking for these, you
00:37:51 --> 00:37:54 might see them in some land race breeds.
00:37:54 --> 00:37:55 Corrientes.
00:37:56 --> 00:38:02 I would check Piney Woods or Florida Cracker Cattle, or African breeds for
00:38:02 --> 00:38:05 some of this speckled pattern to see it.
00:38:06 --> 00:38:07 Now, first one's color sided.
00:38:07 --> 00:38:10 Now, color sided is common in Corrientes and Longhorns.
00:38:11 --> 00:38:18 It looks very similar to the Pinzgauer but it's, it's not as clean.
00:38:19 --> 00:38:22 It's more jagged or speckled coloration.
00:38:23 --> 00:38:30 Then you have fisheagle, and fisheagle is just cool because of the name of it.
00:38:33 --> 00:38:39 In a fisheagle the animal shows more spotting and more white on either end.
00:38:39 --> 00:38:48 So the, the head and rear are more white than the the torso or body
00:38:48 --> 00:38:52 of the animal and there's minimal flecking of white in that area.
00:38:52 --> 00:38:53 So interesting.
00:38:54 --> 00:38:55 Why is it called a fisheagle?
00:38:56 --> 00:38:57 I don't know.
00:38:57 --> 00:38:58 Good question.
00:38:59 --> 00:39:00 Spitting cobra.
00:39:00 --> 00:39:02 Spitting cobra.
00:39:02 --> 00:39:04 Again, another great name.
00:39:04 --> 00:39:09 Uh, the allele for that, it's kind of like you got spit on and that white's
00:39:09 --> 00:39:15 right there, uh, in mass in one area and then it speckles out from that
00:39:16 --> 00:39:18 So it's, it's kinda interesting.
00:39:18 --> 00:39:26 Then you have agricola and agricola shows a lot of speckling on the
00:39:26 --> 00:39:28 animal throughout most of the body.
00:39:28 --> 00:39:32 And um, piney woods cattle, you can see that pattern
00:39:32 --> 00:39:34 there, as well as other breeds.
00:39:34 --> 00:39:39 Now the bororo, and I'm gonna keep pronouncing this word, that's the
00:39:39 --> 00:39:41 way I'm looking at it, b o r o r o.
00:39:42 --> 00:39:45 If you look at the African breed by a similar name, you can see
00:39:45 --> 00:39:54 they have white specks or dots of white throughout their whole body.
00:39:54 --> 00:40:00 I mean from their face all the way, legs, body, and it's just really
00:40:00 --> 00:40:01 consistent throughout the whole body.
00:40:01 --> 00:40:05 It results in a very interesting looking animal.
00:40:06 --> 00:40:10 And then lastly on the speckled group, we have speckled sides, and
00:40:10 --> 00:40:12 when we talk about speckled sides,
00:40:12 --> 00:40:15 There's white on the body and it kind of integrates into the
00:40:15 --> 00:40:17 other spots with speckling.
00:40:17 --> 00:40:20 Um, I'm not doing a great description of that one.
00:40:20 --> 00:40:24 That one, uh, you can see in Florida cracker cattle, but also in some
00:40:24 --> 00:40:28 African breeds, uh, do a search you can find that coloration.
00:40:30 --> 00:40:34 So we have the clear crisp white, we have the speckled, and now we have roan.
00:40:35 --> 00:40:39 And roan's real easy in that our first impulse is shorthorn cattle.
00:40:40 --> 00:40:43 And that roan allele there works very interesting.
00:40:44 --> 00:40:48 You have a red cow, and if they carry the roan gene, they have patches of
00:40:48 --> 00:40:51 roan on them, the in varying amounts.
00:40:52 --> 00:40:55 And that animal is heterozygous for roan.
00:40:55 --> 00:40:59 However, if that animal is homozygous for roan, you get a
00:40:59 --> 00:41:02 white animal with colored points.
00:41:02 --> 00:41:04 And that's going to be the ears and muzzle.
00:41:05 --> 00:41:09 And like I said, some of these other alleles in the homozygous state, it
00:41:09 --> 00:41:12 can result in that British White look, or that Speckled Park look.
00:41:13 --> 00:41:18 So outside the Roan allele, we have three more alleles, and they have
00:41:18 --> 00:41:20 different effects in the extended form.
00:41:20 --> 00:41:22 the extent of the roan on the animal.
00:41:24 --> 00:41:28 Um, they all result in, I think, a very pretty animal.
00:41:28 --> 00:41:30 I think roan is always pretty.
00:41:30 --> 00:41:36 I know, and this may be blamed on my dad, as a kid we had a blue roan quarter horse
00:41:36 --> 00:41:39 and, um, obviously we named her Blue.
00:41:40 --> 00:41:43 I've always been partial to the roan coloration.
00:41:43 --> 00:41:47 So in addition to roan you have morocha.
00:41:48 --> 00:41:53 Morocha is a uniform roan all over the body.
00:41:53 --> 00:41:54 We also have salineiro.
00:41:56 --> 00:41:59 And in that you have parts of the body that are roan.
00:41:59 --> 00:42:02 Mainly the head and the rump on the animal.
00:42:02 --> 00:42:04 And then you have the pedi.
00:42:05 --> 00:42:10 And in that, the roan areas will have some dark spots introduced back into them.
00:42:12 --> 00:42:17 Um, I will be the first to admit, I'm not giving you a great description of those.
00:42:17 --> 00:42:19 I do encourage you, if you find this interesting, look
00:42:19 --> 00:42:21 online to find some pictures.
00:42:22 --> 00:42:27 And then, so those are the three main grouping of white spotting we have.
00:42:27 --> 00:42:34 The clean, clear, crisp, white, not clear, but the speckled, the roan and
00:42:34 --> 00:42:36 then lastly, we have modifications.
00:42:36 --> 00:42:36 Modifications.
00:42:37 --> 00:42:38 And we have three of them.
00:42:39 --> 00:42:42 Brockle ticking, and smudge.
00:42:43 --> 00:42:50 So, these three alleles introduce pigment hair back into the white areas.
00:42:51 --> 00:42:57 So for brockle, they introduce small flecks of colored hair or
00:42:57 --> 00:43:00 pigment hair into the white areas.
00:43:00 --> 00:43:05 And a while ago we talked about the wading allele and pattern that you see
00:43:05 --> 00:43:10 in some watusis if you go look, you will see some watusis that are in the
00:43:10 --> 00:43:15 white area, nice clean white, and then you'll see some that has coloration.
00:43:15 --> 00:43:18 That's going to be one of these modifications, this brockle or
00:43:18 --> 00:43:22 ticking that's put in there, that adds the color back to it.
00:43:23 --> 00:43:27 With those three alleles, uh, brockle, introducing flecks of
00:43:27 --> 00:43:31 pigment hair back into the white areas, and they're small areas.
00:43:33 --> 00:43:40 And as we continue to, the ticking allele, ticking allele is flecks back into the
00:43:40 --> 00:43:42 white areas, but it's much smaller.
00:43:42 --> 00:43:45 and also it doesn't appear at birth.
00:43:46 --> 00:43:53 It's something that will display later on after the calf started growing and
00:43:54 --> 00:44:00 in an animal that has real extensive ticking it will look very similar to roan.
00:44:01 --> 00:44:06 And then lastly we have smudge and smudge is introducing individual
00:44:07 --> 00:44:09 pigment hairs into white areas.
00:44:10 --> 00:44:17 I know for the white spotting colors, I went through that really quickly, and to
00:44:17 --> 00:44:23 be honest, a podcast doesn't do the white spotting genetics justice, because you
00:44:23 --> 00:44:25 really need to look at photos of that.
00:44:26 --> 00:44:32 And you'll be amazed at the extent of it and the different
00:44:32 --> 00:44:34 variations that can occur.
00:44:37 --> 00:44:41 But I wanted to expose you to it, and if you find that interesting,
00:44:41 --> 00:44:43 the book is an excellent resource.
00:44:43 --> 00:44:48 For most people, they're not interested in the white spotting of their cows,
00:44:48 --> 00:44:49 they just don't want it on their cows.
00:44:49 --> 00:44:51 But I think the white spotting is really interesting.
00:44:51 --> 00:44:57 If I could play with white spotting genetics, uh, on cattle and still
00:44:57 --> 00:45:01 sell a solid calf, I'd be really ecstatic because solid calves can
00:45:01 --> 00:45:02 bring a little bit more money.
00:45:02 --> 00:45:06 Uh, I think that's one area that the landrace breeds excel in.
00:45:06 --> 00:45:10 You get all these alleles out there for white spotting that you can try and figure
00:45:10 --> 00:45:12 out what the genetics are behind it.
00:45:13 --> 00:45:15 We're going to wrap up with that for today.
00:45:15 --> 00:45:20 Um, like I said, if the white spotting interests you, I suggest you check out Dr.
00:45:20 --> 00:45:22 Sponenberg's book.
00:45:22 --> 00:45:27 There is also, um, Tim Olson's Color Genetics that if you do a
00:45:27 --> 00:45:29 search for you can find online.
00:45:29 --> 00:45:32 And also Double Helix Ranch.
00:45:32 --> 00:45:33 They have longhorns.
00:45:34 --> 00:45:34 And
00:45:34 --> 00:45:35 David Hollis.
00:45:37 --> 00:45:41 has wrote a few, um, articles there that you can find.
00:45:42 --> 00:45:43 I'll put the link in there.
00:45:43 --> 00:45:48 He wrote them for the Texas Longhorn Trails in 2004.
00:45:49 --> 00:45:53 But, um, very good explanation about color genetics in longhorn cattle
00:45:53 --> 00:45:54 and it's a great resource as well.
00:45:54 --> 00:45:57 So let's just review them real quick, not very long.
00:45:57 --> 00:46:01 We have the extension locus which gives us dominant black, wild type which is
00:46:01 --> 00:46:06 brown, recessive red, recessive red, We have agouti, which gives us some of those
00:46:06 --> 00:46:10 patterns that go with that brown, whether it's a light colored or dark color.
00:46:10 --> 00:46:18 If you want to see more examples of that, hit up the ABBA show cattle color chart.
00:46:19 --> 00:46:20 And I'll have a link to that in the show notes.
00:46:21 --> 00:46:27 Then we get into dilutions, that causes the black color or red
00:46:27 --> 00:46:30 color or even a brown color to be diluted to another color.
00:46:31 --> 00:46:34 One of them is brown, which gives us dun in dexter cattle.
00:46:34 --> 00:46:39 Then we get into the silver locus, which gives us the charolais dilution
00:46:39 --> 00:46:41 allele, the Simmental dilution allele.
00:46:42 --> 00:46:43 Both of those dilute the colors.
00:46:44 --> 00:46:46 Charolais does it to a much greater extent.
00:46:46 --> 00:46:49 And then we have what's happening in brown swiss, that they're not real
00:46:49 --> 00:46:54 sure what allele that is, but they think it resides at the silver locus.
00:46:54 --> 00:46:57 Then we have some albinos, and then we get into the wild,
00:46:58 --> 00:47:01 wacky world of white spotting.
00:47:02 --> 00:47:05 And um, I say that very enduringly because I do like that.
00:47:05 --> 00:47:07 Um, it gets really deep there.
00:47:08 --> 00:47:11 For next week on this, on the Friday episode, we will be talking about
00:47:11 --> 00:47:17 renewable energy, but we will have more parts of livestock color genetics
00:47:17 --> 00:47:19 as we talk about goats and sheep.
00:47:21 --> 00:47:24 Until next time, keep on grazing, grass.
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