I showed cattle as a kid, did the purbred thing for many years as an adult, and kids are now showing cattle in 4H. I have always enjoyed rinsing and tying cattle in the barn everyday so we get that done but we are not afraid to skip a day occasionally and have been know to turn out on a hot afternoon if we havce something going on in the evening. In other words we work on hair but aren't crazy about it.
I have a few observations over the years and wanted some others opinions. We have showed a lot of angus and simmentals, generally not breeds that seem to have a lot of hair. Last year we had a char x maine heifer that had beautiful hair, up to your elbow hair. It didn't matter what we did or didn't do she had a lot of hair. We also had an angus heifer treated the same way and she could have been shown in a slick sheared show with out us getting clippers out. Both cattle treated the same, one with tons of hair and one with none which sure seems to support the fact that genetics have a big influence.
The other thing that I think has as much influence as anything is light or lenght of day. As days get shorter the body produces more melatonin, the body's production of melatonin is inhibited by light and permited by darkness. More melatnonin means more hair as the body sees shorter days as a sign winter is comming. About 20 years ago I worked at the U of NE research farm during college. At the time there was an experiment that was taking place with some bulls and melatonin. I don't recall the purpose of the study, certainly not hair growth, but all of these bulls had long hair in the middle of August in Nebraska. No doubt that melatonin has an effect on hair growth. I have often wondered if the temperature in coolers gets more credit than it should when really the control of light has more of an influence than the actual temperature.
Thoughts?
I have a few observations over the years and wanted some others opinions. We have showed a lot of angus and simmentals, generally not breeds that seem to have a lot of hair. Last year we had a char x maine heifer that had beautiful hair, up to your elbow hair. It didn't matter what we did or didn't do she had a lot of hair. We also had an angus heifer treated the same way and she could have been shown in a slick sheared show with out us getting clippers out. Both cattle treated the same, one with tons of hair and one with none which sure seems to support the fact that genetics have a big influence.
The other thing that I think has as much influence as anything is light or lenght of day. As days get shorter the body produces more melatonin, the body's production of melatonin is inhibited by light and permited by darkness. More melatnonin means more hair as the body sees shorter days as a sign winter is comming. About 20 years ago I worked at the U of NE research farm during college. At the time there was an experiment that was taking place with some bulls and melatonin. I don't recall the purpose of the study, certainly not hair growth, but all of these bulls had long hair in the middle of August in Nebraska. No doubt that melatonin has an effect on hair growth. I have often wondered if the temperature in coolers gets more credit than it should when really the control of light has more of an influence than the actual temperature.
Thoughts?