Neon Leon

Here is a picture of a calf born here a couple days ago. He is 100% Shorthorn with a non appendix pedigree. His sire is Birdtail G Gus 1W and his dam is a double bred grand daughter of Deerpark Dividend. The dam is in the background of the picture.
Neon Leon has dark red googles, ears and legs from the hock down, as well as a few small red spots. The other side of his body only has a couple small red spots about the size of a silver dollar behind his shoulder. To my knowledge, there is nothing even close to this coloring in his background. His dam, grand dam and great grand dam are red neck roans similar to his dam in the picture. The Gus bull is also a roan, who is a bit on the wild side for color, but I never expected to have a calf like this. Neon Leon was 88 lbs and unassisted at birth. This picture was taken at 1 day of age and it does not show his thickness very well. He is getting thicker by the day and I think he is going to be an excellent calf.

Does he have any 3W Payoff in him?  I used to get similar calves from Payoff years ago.  I'm going to use him again on some heifers this year.  Payoff is a grandson of Dividend and I know the Irish cattle can throw some strange color patterns.  Leggs is a good example.  Some of the dual purpose cattle were different colored, too.  Looks like a good calf.

No Payoff Lonny. His dam is the result of a full Irish bull being mated to his flushmate sister. Both sire and dam were sired by Dividend and were out of a full Irish Kildysart female. The dam of Neon Leon came here in dam from some females I got in Minnesota. ... and no, there are no Longhorn genetics in his pedigree and none within several miles of here!

BUTTERFIELD ABLE SEAMAN seemed to leave some loud colors. He is the Maternal grand sire of Gus.

Whatever my tadpole opinion is worth, that calf is one of the most interesting I've seen posted on SP. He seems to define "deep flank" and look at the long hip on him, the shape of his head and the depth of chest floor....
Also, he could be an example of how some genetics can be dormant for many generations. This is what I find so fascinating with breed evolution.
He seems to show atavistic Normande characteristics. Irish pedigrees being what JIT himself has told us, I think it believable that somewhere someone put some Normande in to clean up udders, to improve milk and carcass or to add substance.
Normande is a great breed and even if he merely resembles the ancestor of an ancestor, I think it's a good omen. Ancient color patterns may be associated with qualities we have let drift away by selecting for fashionable colors.
http://www.normande-cattle.com/milking.html

I've heard the story that Improver's mother was led to the neighbor's Galloway herd.  Perhaps Dividend's mother swam the English Channel to someone's Normande herd.  It could happen!

He looks like he's gonna get cold out west.