Would A blue bull on black calves make a blue calf?

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MYT Farms

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Just wondering if bulls like these on black cattle would make a blue calf?
 

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shortyjock89

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I sure wouldn't use that top one. And yea, I've seen blue ones out of black cows.  If you're gonna use a blue one, I'd use Manchild.
 

MYT Farms

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Olson Family Shorthorns said:
I sure wouldn't use that top one. And yea, I've seen blue ones out of black cows.   If you're gonna use a blue one, I'd use Manchild.

OK, I just thought I'd check and see if that was viable. I think I'd rather go with a white SH, but I thought I'd check about the blue bulls first. Probably gonna go white in which case....
 

RSC

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MYT Farms said:
Olson Family Shorthorns said:
I sure wouldn't use that top one. And yea, I've seen blue ones out of black cows.   If you're gonna use a blue one, I'd use Manchild.

OK, I just thought I'd check and see if that was viable. I think I'd rather go with a white SH, but I thought I'd check about the blue bulls first. Probably gonna go white in which case....
Is definately possible.  I started a thread today about The calving Mystery: AI or Herd Bull-  This cow is Moody Blues on a solid black cow and she turned out to be a blue roan with alot of roan and her calves a high percent of the time turn out the same way.  Yes she is double dirty but still throws real good ones with the right bull.  I'm trying to find the calf picture that I took for my close friends that own her. Another close friend has had real good luck getting blue roans on solid black cows with Sin City!

LINK: http://www.steerplanet.com/bb/index.php?topic=8963.0
 

TwinMaple

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You're more apt to get blues using a white Shorthorn on black cows. If you use a blue, you're concentrating the black genetics since the blue bull carries the black color as well.
 

red

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Blue Tool was at Ohio's expo a couple of years ago. Never heard anything of him after that. His coloring in person looks a little different in real life. Maybe OH B can explain better.

Red
 

justintime

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Getting blues is not as easy as it sounds. I have used two white Shorthorn bulls on a set of Angus/Maine cows. Occasionally get a true blue, but most are almost black with white underlines. If you look real close most of these calves have a few white hairs through their coats but from distance they look almost black.I am using a red neck roan bull on these cows now, and have had more blue calves than we got from the white bulls.

In an attempt to get some more blue calves, I kept 7 of the daughters of one of the white bulls and bred them to another white bull. These females are all very dark colored with white on their underlines. I got 5 white calves and 2 red neck roans... never had 1 blue.I have a set of these females bred to our red neck roan and they are about to calve this year. We will see what happens.
 

MYT Farms

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Wow, thanks to all, this sounds kinda complicated!  :-\ Well, I guess I'll try a white bull and we'll see what we get. Sin City is looking like a good option right now.
 

Dusty

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It was always my understanding that a white shorthorn bull was homo roan.  Meaning he would always throw roan calves.  A roan bull with give half his calves the roan gene and the other half not.  Eg..Red and white or just black and white or solid red or solid black.  That being said if you bred a homo black cow say Angus to a bull such as Vegas you will get all blue roans.  Some might have white bellies with just a little white hairs on the body, but it's still a roan.  If you bred a hetero black cow to a white bull some would be blue roans and some red roans.  Someone correct me if I'm wrong...
 

justintime

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You are right Dusty. The calves I get the most of are definitely blue roans, I was just wanting them more roan . Some people suggest that a white Shorthorn with red hair in it's ears or red spots on it's muzzle is actually a light roan animal. Not sure about that one!
 

dori36

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Here's a blue roan half Lowline/half Shorthorn bull (Bruzer) and one of the blue roan heifers he produced last summer out of black crossbred cows.  None of them very loud, but this bull has produced about half (so far) of his calves turning out blue roan. 
 

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MYT Farms

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OK, This is making more sense all the time.  ;D So a white bull on my predominately Angus and homo black cows should throw all blue roans, but some may look mostly black with a white belly with only a few roan hairs mixed in. So, not to tax your guy's brains too much, but since I have an idea on the black cows, what about a white bull on this one? (Mama cow, not the calf.)
 

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kfacres

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The blue gene is an interesting one, particulary to me... I have one black cow 75% Ang 25% Herf and doesn't matter what I breed her to, she has black calf with red tinge..  Roan Shorthorn hred bull, or Char x bull.. This year I tried a redneck light roan on her, still hoping for a blue roan.

I have a passion for a blue roan.  Years ago, i tried Moody Blues on some of my purebred cows, hopeing for a blue roan, didn't get any stuck though..  I hated to do it, but really wanted to raise a blue roan.  
 

garybob

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kfacres said:
she already looks like a blue roan.. go with a blue, or a roan.  IMO
She already looks like a calf-raisin' "rip", too. That a blue-roan calf out of a Pharo bull?

GB
 

MYT Farms

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garybob said:
kfacres said:
she already looks like a blue roan.. go with a blue, or a roan.  IMO
She already looks like a calf-raisin' "rip", too. That a blue-roan calf out of a Pharo bull?

GB

Heh, no, neither the mom or the daughter. The mama is very moderate and easy doing though. Her grandma was in our herd for nearly 15 years. That calf, sadly, is out of a another purebred Angus bull. The calf turned out good, though. Out of a 2 year old Kiowa Creek Angus bull.
 

oakbar

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We bred a red neck roan(light roan) heifer to Who Made Who last year hoping for a blue roan but we got a solid black bull calf.  I think the roan gene must be one with "varied expressivity"  meaning you don't ever really know what you're going to get.   We've also had blue roan calves out of black cows and red/wt patterned Shorthorn bulls that didn't look very roan.   The roan cow pictured is bred back to Who Made Who this year so we'll see what happens next week.
 

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JCC

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For the last few years we have been breeding most of our shorthorn cows to angus bulls and getting just what JIT has said, calves that look black with a little white on their belly or chest and a few white hairs lightly mixed in the body. The one blue roan that we did get last year was actually out of a blue roan cow (angus x roan shorthorn) out of Ali. We actually used Ali because we were told he will take the white off of the calves. Still very happy with the roan calf that we got, beautiful blue roan color.
 
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