Well - we've been struck again. Several of you probably remember me posting that we had a herd bull that threw one spastic paresis calf for us for each of the two years we kept him. He didn't get to stay for the 3rd even though the rest of his calves were generally very good.
Well, my son's first show heifer out of him had her first calf this fall. SP started showing up in that calf about a month ago (at about 4 months of age). The calf is sired by Hard Core. It is a much less severe case than we've had before - he really only shows it when he first gets up.
The cow can't be sold, but I'm wondering how likely this is to happen again. I know its not a true dominant/recessive gene. Only about 1 calf out of 50 from her daddy had it each year (still too many).
Does anyone have any idea if both parents have to be carriers to even have a chance to have it like TH and PHA?
Well, my son's first show heifer out of him had her first calf this fall. SP started showing up in that calf about a month ago (at about 4 months of age). The calf is sired by Hard Core. It is a much less severe case than we've had before - he really only shows it when he first gets up.
The cow can't be sold, but I'm wondering how likely this is to happen again. I know its not a true dominant/recessive gene. Only about 1 calf out of 50 from her daddy had it each year (still too many).
Does anyone have any idea if both parents have to be carriers to even have a chance to have it like TH and PHA?