Hair Growth

showsteerdlux · Feb 6, 2008

While I was in my college biology class today I learned something very interesting. One of the reasons for hair growth in cattle is due to insulin rejection. Evidently all the high sugar feeds that we feed these calves naturally causes them to grow alot of haor because there body doesnt have enough insulin to break the sugars down. Its not a big problem in steers but can be in heifers because it can cause them to be unfertile.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?

knabe · Feb 6, 2008

diabetes + viagra = problem males

showsteerdlux · Feb 6, 2008

Good one. Dont know if I needed to know that but it did make me laugh. (lol)

shorthorns r us · Feb 7, 2008

was this in a text book or just in lecture. i would be interested to know the basis for these claims.

showsteerdlux said:
While I was in my college biology class today I learned something very interesting. One of the reasons for hair growth in cattle is due to insulin rejection. Evidently all the high sugar feeds that we feed these calves naturally causes them to grow alot of haor because there body doesnt have enough insulin to break the sugars down. Its not a big problem in steers but can be in heifers because it can cause them to be unfertile.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?

showsteerdlux · Feb 7, 2008

It was in lecture while we were talking about diabetes but Im pretty sure its in the textbook somewhere. Let me try to get more info.

knabe · Feb 7, 2008

sorry, i meant

diabetes + rogain = problem males

showsteerdlux · Feb 7, 2008

O good lordy talk about hairy!!! He'd look like a monkey. ;D ;D

cattlejunky · Feb 7, 2008

I know that in women if you are insulin resistant it is hard to get pregnant. So I would think that would be true of heifers/cows.

knabe · Feb 7, 2008

hm, and if you flush that insulin resistant heifer.....

insulin resistance in horses is extremely annoying. my neighor has one and they soak the feed to leach out the sugar from low sugar hay no less, dump out the water and feed them carborator pellets which are low sugar that taste like cardboard, yeah i tried them and the horses don't like them very well. they go lame easy, don't hold shoes well, hard to relax. basically a high maintenance nightmare.

showsteerdlux · Feb 7, 2008

cattlejunky said:
I know that in women if you are insulin resistant it is hard to get pregnant. So I would think that would be true of heifers/cows.

Yes thats true we discussed that in class to. Which lead me to beleive if you have a heifer with way to much hair she may be hard to breed.

knabe · Feb 7, 2008

hair, the performance trait.

Rocky Hill Simmental · Feb 7, 2008

When I did livestock judging for FFA when they'd tell us the actual results, they'd always place the longest haired heifer last because they said she won't breed as well. They never explained why but that's what they'd say. Now I know... interesting.

knabe · Feb 7, 2008

for some hair loci or alleles, there must be some decoupling (or coupling in a bad way with normally less hairy cattle), as a few breeds have long hair and don't seem to have a problem. is long hair a search by building blocks looking for a protein outlet? i always thought this about horns as well. i had a dream once in college that breeding out horns in herefords would make their toes grow long. they looked like they had high heels.

knabe · Feb 7, 2008

knabe said:
sorry, i meant

diabetes + rogain = problem males

and now this

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/7680562/Beating-Mexico-is-no-longer-enough-for-the-U.S.

diabetes + rogain + cell phone = problem males have big problem

i wonder if it's the talking, or the cell phone or a multitrait effect?

shortyjock89 · Feb 7, 2008

I don't know if I buy into this whole deal where hairier heifers are harder to breed. We've had some really hair females stick the first time AI every year since they were heifers, and we've had some slick haired ones never stick to AI in 5 years. There might be some truth to it, but we've never had any problems...

showsteerdlux · Feb 7, 2008

Some heifers have it bred in. The thing I was saying is the heifers that are fed hard and have hair as a result of this and not natural genetics. Heck they say those highlander cows are the most fertile things ever and they have more hair than I can even think about growing on a steer or heifer.

BCCC · Feb 7, 2008

Highlanders do have a lot of hair, but it crappy hair, it is very thick and course. Any bull promoter that says the bull has hair like a highlander, isn't doing himself any good to the people who have actually felt highlander hair. it is like homeless guy hair, but way thicker, and about as gross ;D ;D ;D

maybe I dont understand this but

)) so your saying if i gave a steer, sugar in his feed everyday, or gave him insulin, he would have a bunch of hair???

renegade · Feb 7, 2008

knabe said:
i always thought this about horns as well. i had a dream once in college that breeding out horns in herefords would make their toes grow long. they looked like they had high heels.

Didnt they technically breed horns into herefords. They started out polled didnt they (thats what i have always been told)

shortyjock89 · Feb 7, 2008

renegade said:
knabe said:

i always thought this about horns as well. i had a dream once in college that breeding out horns in herefords would make their toes grow long. they looked like they had high heels.

Click to expand...

Didnt they technically breed horns into herefords. They started out polled didnt they (thats what i have always been told)

I don't think so....the polled status is actually a "defect"...it happens to be a useful defect, so breeders started breeding for it...

Diamond · Feb 7, 2008

I think there is more to it then just the hair, for if that where the case woulden't highlander cattle have a exstreamly hard time breeding?

Hair Growth

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