Who's the daddy

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stick

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We had a calf the other day that could be sired by one of two bulls. (long story, don't ask) How do we go about finding out which bull it it out of? Do we need to pull blood on the calf and two bulls, or can we find out by the tail hair DNA test?
 

DL

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Depends a little on the breed and where the samples need to go and if the 2 bulls are AI sires - if they are all you need is a sample from the calf and they can determine who is likely and who isn't the daddy

When I have had to determine daddy I submitted blood from the calf with the 2 potential AI sires. Maines however are now using tail hair.

Last I knew Shorties were using blood.

If the sires are not AI sires you need samples from calf and both sires -

If it is a registered calf your best bet is to do what the association wants re type of sample

(I didn't ask but you could tell!)
;D
 

stick

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Hey dl, knew I could count on you. We pen bred a heifer to a young bull and separated them again. Came out the next morning and found our older bull in with the heifer. Got through a hot wire, tore up a stockade panel, and somehow got over a Powder River panel. He didn't do a barn door any good either. I couldn't tell if he had a smile on his face or not but the heifer had the pump handle appearance to her tail, so.....
They are all Shorties. I know they used to do blood, but vaguely remember reading something about the tail hair sample. Can't remember if it was an article explaining the procedure or if thats how they are doing parental verification. I'll  have to do some digging and surfing.

ps I see MSU is playing football again.... but it's still early    Go Hawkeyes
 

afhm

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Don't waste the money to have both bulls and the calf tested unless you plan on selling semen from both of them then go ahead and do them both that way you will have the blood type on record.  Just test one bull and the calf if they don't match you know it is the other sire. 
 

DL

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afhm - that sure seems like a reasonable approach

yeah stick I see MSU won - we will see tomorrow AM if they burned the town down  :( or if they behave  ;D......I will also mention that the BFLO Bills beat the Lions (much to their chagrin  ;) ;)
 

CPL

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http://www.geneticsolutions.com.au/content/v4_standard.asp?name=New_Siretrace
 

DL

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stick - it came to me in the middle of the night (Now is that sad!)  that if the potential daddys are closely related you might want to send in samples from both - the way this works is they match genetic markers - for the Shorties there need to be 7 or 8 (I think) markers to call somebody the daddy (or dam for that matter). If the sires are related they may have similar markers so if you only pull one he may match but the untested one could be a better match - if they are not related it shouldn't be a big deal to just do one, happy labor day
 

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