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The Grazing Grass Podcast features insights and stories of regenerative farming, specifically emphasizing grass-based livestock management. Our mission is to foster a community where grass farmers can share knowledge and experiences with one another. We delve into their transition to these practices, explore the ins and outs of their operations, and then move into the "Over Grazing" segment, which addresses specific challenges and learning opportunities. The episode rounds off with the "Famous Four" questions, designed to extract valuable wisdom and advice. Join us to gain practical tips and inspiration from the pioneers of regenerative grass farming.
This is the podcast for you if you are trying to answer: What are regenerative farm practices? How to be grassfed? How do I graze other species of livestock? What's are ways to improve pasture and lower costs? What to sell direct to the consumer?
Welcome to Grazing Grass
podcast episode 120.
Cal: You're listening to the Grazing Grass
Podcast, sharing information and stories
of grass based livestock production
utilizing regenerative practices.
I'm your host, Cal Hardage.
You're growing more than grass.
You're growing a healthier
ecosystem to help your cattle
thrive in their environment.
You're growing your livelihood by
increasing your carrying capacity
and reducing your operating costs.
You're growing stronger communities
and a legacy to last generations.
The grazing management
decisions you make today.
impact everything from the soil beneath
your feet to the community all around you.
That's why the Noble Research
Institute created their Essentials
of Regenerative Grazing course to
teach ranchers like you easy to follow
techniques to quickly assess your forage
production and infrastructure capacity.
In order to begin
grazing more efficiently.
Together, they can help you grow
not only a healthier operation,
but a legacy that lasts.
Learn more on their website at noble.
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It's n o b l e dot org
forward slash grazing.
On today's episode we are covering
part two of livestock color genetics.
It's taken me a few weeks
to get this one out.
I wanted to make sure I was accurate
and didn't say something wrong.
With that being said, I probably
will say something wrong.
That's okay.
I will let you know.
Next week on the Friday episode we
have our renewable energy episode.
We had asked the grazing grass community
to propose some questions to a renewable
energy expert and he's coming on the
show next week to answer those questions.
So next Friday it's a can't miss episode.
Today we're going to talk about
livestock color genetics part two.
So, first off, the main
source I'm using is Dr.
Sponenberg's The Practical, let me
look at the book again, Practical
Color Genetics for Livestock Breeders.
Excellent resource if you're
fascinated by color genetics.
It goes into tons of details and talks
about multiple livestock species.
In addition to that, I have a couple other
sources I will bring up in the episode.
To get started, let's do a
little refresher on part one.
Part one we talked about, there's
two pigments that are produced in
livestock to give you your color.
You have eumelanin which gives the
black color, if it's undiluted.
And pheomelanin that gives the tan
color, which could be a light cream,
all the way to a almost dark brown.
So those are the two, two pigments
that we're working with, with
colors in our livestock species.
And a lot of times instead of saying
eumelanin and pheomelanin, we'll go
with black pigment or tan pigment.
And as I mentioned last week, if that, if
you're really interested in that, uh, Dr.
Sponenberg has A lot of information
on that and how it happens in
his book, uh, Practical Color
Genetics for Livestock Breeders.
Last week we talked about a couple
locations on genes that cover the
main colors we see in animals.
And that was the extension
locus and the agouti locus.
And those are two places on the
genes that determine coat color.
That's pretty predominant on our coat
colors and that's what we're doing.
The main one is extension locus, and
with that one for our, for cattle, we're
talking about our black, red, and our wild
type, which a lot of times we call brown.
So that's like black like in
Black Angus, red like in Red Angus
or Red Pole, and wild type like
you might see in Brown Swiss.
or a few other breeds and I
have a surprising breed coming
up on that in just a moment.
And then,
With the extension locus, we talked
about a couple other alleles that's
available, but not really of importance
to the beef industry, but they can play
a role in the dairy industry, because
these two genes appear in Holsteins.
So if you have an animal with
Holstein background, it's possible.
These genes are there, they're
fairly rare, and you probably were
selecting or looking for an animal
with these genes if you have one.
One is called black red, and that's
where a calf is born red, and
turns black at a few months of age.
The second one is dominant red, it's a
relatively recent find, and I'm including
it with the extension locus, but it's
really not a gene extension locus.
What happens if that red
dominant gene is present?
It doesn't matter what's on the
extension locus, the animal will be red.
So very interesting, it
overrides the extension locus.
And that's the only thing we
have doing that right now.
Um, we do have some other genes that are
modifiers to it that will talk about it.
But it doesn't matter what's in
the extension locus, that animal is
going to be red due to dominant red.
So there's the additional
allele of black red.
So now we have dominant black, wild
type, black red, and recessive red.
Four alleles for the extension locus.
And then we have dominant red that
resides at a different locus, but is
very important for the expression.
of the extension locus.
Okay, so, so five, you know, one's
not really there, so four, but
we got that fifth one over there.
There is actually one other one that Dr.
Sponenberg talks about in his book.
And, I don't know, I skipped that
paragraph, I fell asleep during that
paragraph, I ate some cookies while
I was reading it, I don't know.
I really didn't recall that
paragraph until I was looking at
DNA tests available for coat color.
And UC Davis has a lot of tests out
there that if you want to figure out
if your animal is homozygous black
or heterozygous black or wild type
or red, you can send it out there.
Well, my understanding, I don't know
if it was that lab or another one, but
there was a DNA test done on a Simmental
animal that was red, however, the DNA
test came back that the animal was black.
So, through more testing, they discovered
another allele at the extension
locus, and it's called Red Charlie.
And Red Charlie looks exactly like
Recessive red, and for all practical
purposes, it's the same as having
recessive red, but technically
it's a separate allele there.
So now we have five alleles
at the extension locus.
We have dominant black, wild type, black
red, recessive red, and red charlie.
So five there, um, and that's without
considering dominant red that resides
somewhere else that can affect it.
So very interesting.
It will be interesting as we continue with
DNA testing of coat color and more animals
are tested for whatever reason that we
might discover some more alleles there.
Very interesting.
The second thing we
talked about was agouti.
And agouti affects the coloration
of an animal when they are wild
type at the extension locus.
Now when I say they affect the color, it
also affects the pattern of the animal
in that you have a darker front quarters
And they'll get darker as they age.
The right and left side will
look pretty symmetrical.
When I think of breeds that really
show that wild type, I immediately
think about some dairy breeds and
that's Brown Swiss, and jerseys.
Now one thing I didn't mention a little
bit earlier, there is a telltale sign
for recessive red on the extension locus.
That's a red animal with
white in its tail switch.
And if you see that, you can be pretty
sure you're dealing with a recessive red.
Well, wild type in the extension
locus has a tell tale sign also.
And that's a light colored ring around
the muzzle of the animal in cattle.
So, for example, um, it may
be a tan colored ring, but
it's there and it's visible.
So, if you have wild type in the
extension, you're dealing with agouti and
agouti has a few different alleles there.
Uh, one that's probably the easiest
to recognize out there is brindle
and that's where you get your
tan and black horizontal stripes.
So depending on the color of the animal,
you have those horizontal stripes.
In fact, I have one
heifer that shows brindle
Outside of brindle, Dr.
Sponenberg says, the alleles
available in agouti for cattle.
are not 100 percent sure because they
can provide such a range of colorations.
that it's hard to tell when one
allele stops and another starts.
So they understand a lot about
the inheritance of it, but
they're still trying to figure
out the specific alleles to that.
And Dr.
Sponenberg's book was
published in 2021, I believe.
If not, I'm off there by a year or two.
However, if I go back to Tim
Olson's book, or chapter on cattle
color of cattle genetics in 1999.
He lists a few alleles for agate.
Um, Dr.
Spannenberg,
Dr.
Spannenberg doesn't go into those the
same, so I think they're probably trying
to figure out more research is needed
on them, but a couple that, Tim Olson
put out, was a white bellied agouti.
And that's where you get
removal of red and part of black
pigment, causing a more uniform
distribution of black pigmentation.
especially across the sides of the animal.
And he says this is recessive and you see
this in brown Swiss or gray Steppe cattle.
Another one they said was fawn and
it's the removal of red and black
pigment particularly red along the
underline and along the back or
dorsal stripe resulting in a tan
or fawn color and that's recessive.
One thing that surprised me when
I was looking at his deal, a
breed he listed, was limousin.
You know, limousins have that light
red color, and of course they bred
them into black and that stuff.
And as I mentioned on the podcast
numerous times, my dad's herd started
from a base of limousin cattle.
Well, crossbred cattle, we bred to
limousin for generations, so it's
a very limousin predominant herd.
Or it was at one time.
We're moving away from that now, so I
went out and looked at the cows after
I read that and lo and behold on those
fawn colored cows You get that light
colored ring around their muzzle.
I did not realize limousin coloration
was due to the wild type and agouti.
So in extension they have wild type and
in Agouti they have this fawn coloration.
That's pretty uniform, a little bit
different shades, but very interesting.
But like I said, I can look at
them and tell that because of that
light ring around their muzzle.
So very interesting,
something I didn't know.
I think it's always great
when I learn something.
There's lots for me to learn, so
don't take that as I know too much.
The other thing about agouti, if you
look at the colors in braimers, and I say
braimers, that's always what we called
them, uh, since I was a little kid.
To be more correct I
probably should say Brahman.
So with, when we think about Brahman
cattle, if you go to Brahman dot,
I want to say com, it could be dot
org, and look at their show charts.
Excuse me, the A BBA show color chart.
They show dark colored animals or red
animals and white colored animals or
light colored animals, and you can see
on almost every color shape that light
tan or light colored ring around the m.
On the various darkest shades,
it's harder to tell in both cases.
But that's a good example of the range
of coloration available through Agouti.
So we think a lot of times we've got
that brown cow for wild type, and we
have dominant black and recessive red.
And that's how we're going to get it,
but Agouti could give us a red animal.
Agouti can give us a
black animal, basically.
He can give us, uh, All levels in
between, so it's very interesting what
can happen through that mechanism.
And as we talk about other
livestock species, it becomes
really important in goats and sheep.
More important than the extension.
So, just to blow your mind, I
know you, you heard this and later
you're going to be like, wait, what?
There are four different mechanisms
for us to have a red animal, a red cow.
We could have, just as we talked about, a
red animal through the actions of agouti.
So there's one.
We could have the extension way we
talked about, through recessive red.
We could also have a red animal due to
red charlie, which is a allele extension.
And the fourth way is
through dominant red.
So through dominant red, recessive
red, red charlie, or red through
agouti, we could have a red
animal, which is very interesting.
Three of those are really
hard to tell apart.
Three of them.
Yeah, my fingers, how do they move?
Three of them is really
hard to tell apart.
The fourth one through Agouti, you can
tell because they'll have that light
colored ring around their muzzle.
Very interesting.
Go look at that chart.
In fact, I'll put a link in show notes so
you can go look at that ABBA show chart.
Something else that's going to be another
allele that's not been studied greatly.
There is a recessive black for
So recessive black, now it's only
been found in Icelandic cattle.
So in Icelandic cattle, there
is a rare allele for the agouti
locus called recessive black.
And that will give you that
black coloration that you see
from a dominant black animal.
Just as a forewarning, or as a
tease, Goats, black is caused a
lot of times through that recessive
black rather than dominant black.
And that's one reason I say dominant
black, because we do have this recessive
black available through agouti.
So very interesting.
And so, I just spent too long talking
about the two loci that we had talked
about in the last episode, but I wanted to
give a little bit more information there.
Now we get into the really fun
stuff with cattle coloration.
Um, first we get dilutes, or dilutions.
And my My first exposure to the dilution
gene, not that I had any clue what it was,
was when my grandfather, he dairyed, had
Holstein cows, and a lot of times he would
breed them, AI, to beef bulls, and they
were bringing in these exotic breeds or
continental breeds, and he was using them.
We had as a kid in my dad's herd, we had
a, a half Charolais half Holstein cow.
We had some half Simmentals,
half Holstein cows.
And the half Holstein, half Simmental
is where I first noticed the dilute
gene because that calf comes out of
that Holstein cow from a Simmental
bull that's going to be, you know,
a lighter red and white color.
And it is a charcoal gray.
I thought it was wonderful, and in
fact that gene, her calves would
sometimes show that coloration.
I love that coloration.
So it's a nice dark charcoal.
And what it tells us is she has one
copy of a Simmental dilute allele.
So that dark charcoal animal has one
copy of the Simmental dilution allele.
If she'd had two of it,
she'd been even lighter.
So I've always thought that was very
fascinating how that color happened.
Simmental dilution allele has
incomplete dominance, it gives us
in Simmentals, it gives us that light
red, lighter red color, kind of an
orange or yellow color at times.
Now in red it's harder to tell and
Simmentals had that, but when you
cross it into a black animal and that
animal is black, dominant black, and we
have the Simmental dilution allele, it
causes that animal to be a dark gray.
And then if you get it It has two of
those Simmental dilution alleles and
becomes a lighter gray and those two
or that dilution allele resides at
the silver locus and silver locus is
home to a couple of dilution genes
So that is our first dilution gene
that we're going to talk about Silver
location we have the Simmental dilution
allele, which we just talked about it
takes that takes that black to gray,
and even a light gray and a homozygous
for Simmental dilution allele.
And then for red, takes that red to
a, I like to think of orange red, and
then the next step is a yellow red.
But sometimes in red, the coloration, or
the, the dilution of red is not as great.
So it's harder to identify in red.
The other major dilution gene
that we have in beef cattle is
the Charolais dilution allele.
And that takes them to a really
light colored, almost white
animal, and then in the homozygous
state, it is a white animal.
It's effect is much greater than what
the Simmental dilution allele will be.
Um, Charolais can really lighten the
color of the animal in heterozygous,
while homozygous gives you a white animal.
On the Simmental dilution allele,
even in homozygous, you're not
going to get a white animal.
Sometimes in my area, I've got a nephew
that calls these yellow calves all
the time, and that's when you cross a
Charolais with a red cow, and you get
that light, really light yellow calf.
He really likes them.
Um, if you do that on a, a black animal,
sometimes you get that smoke color in it.
But those are two dilution genes that
are very important to the beef industry.
Um, Simmental, they've really worked to
breed that Simmental dilution allele out.
which I think is very disappointing.
Uh, there was in the early Simmentals,
and I'm not sure if it's only
SiSimmentals,ut some of that gray
color was associated with rat tailed
calves that didn't grow very well,
that didn't finish out very well.
That has been bred out of, for the most
part, so you can use Simmental Dilution,
and you don't run into that issue.
Um, when we're talking about
the Simmental Dilution, It's
used in a few different breeds.
Uh, Galloway gets its dun colored
animals through the Simmental dilution
part of the time.
And you're right there, you're like, what?
Part of the time?
Well, in Galloway cattle, dun
can also be through another way.
So we we talked about the silver locus.
There is also a brown locus.
That's another dilution gene.
And in it, it's what causes the dun color.
in Dexter cattle.
It can also cause it in Galloway cattle.
However, Galloway cattle, it
can be caused by the brown locus
or the, or the silver locus.
So, um, that could
cause you some problems.
If you have two dun colored Galloways
and you breed them together and you
get a calf that's not colored dun at
all and you're like, what's going on?
You just bred an animal with the
Simmental dilution to an animal
with the brown locus dilution.
and those don't work together to do that.
So that's very interesting.
One other breed that we think
about with a dilution, but they're
doing dilution on wild type.
So we're talking about
dilution on dominant black or
recessive red or red charlie.
You can also have that dilution
play out on wild type animals.
So for a breed that, that most of you can
picture in your mind, it's brown swiss.
The dilution is similar to
the Simmental dilution allele
according to Dr.
Sponenberg, some of the alleles are
identified in dilutions, but they're not,
they don't know what locus they're at.
Um, for example, The
brown Swiss coloration
could be a dominant dilu allele,
which is similar to the
ctol, uh, dilution allele.
But ctol dilution is incomplete
dominance, so there may be
another allele at play there.
But if you look at pictures
of brown Swiss, you can see
a variation in colors there,
and it's where the Holsteins
come back into play.
There is another dilution
gene that's fairly recent,
and it's called Larson Blue.
And it gives a real pale, grayish color
animal that would've normally been black.
As far as I know on there, they
have not identified the gene
locus for it, the allele for it.
It's occurred in one herd, as far
as I know, and I don't think they
believe it's one of the dilution
genes that we are aware of.
And I say we as, as, as if
I'm involved in that research.
On the dilution genes, one, there's
quite a few breeds of cattle
that use those dilution genes
to really mark their coloration.
We mentioned, uh, Charolais
Simmental, not so much anymore.
People's really moved away
from that Simmental dilute.
They're, they are going for red.
or black, but we do have some
other breeds like murray grays.
And murray gray cattle
are very interesting.
That was developed in Australia and
from a shorthorn cow and an angus bull.
And then she had a couple gray
calves and they they continued to
breed those and expand the breed.
Now when you breed angus, To
shorthorn you shouldn't have
a, a dilution gene in there.
But somewhere, probably the Simmental
Dilution Gene was introduced.
Probably from the cow.
And you know, also the other thing,
shorthorn she's gonna be red and white.
Or red.
And the, the Simmental Dilution
Allele does not lighten red greatly.
So it, it could have been there
and someone not notice it.
Anyway, they get a gray calf.
It was repeatable.
And, um, I think Murray grays
have, have came onto the scene.
And, uh, they are a
fascinating breed to me.
For the most part, they are
homozygous for the dilution.
So that's interesting.
Another gene that would be kind of
grouped with these modifiers of the
Of the main color are albinos and
albinos results in a light colored
animal with light colored eyes.
They are out there, but
they're not very, very common.
Um, there is some thought that there
is a chinchilla type allele for
albino, and it results in a lighter
colored animal, and it is available
in some zebu breeds in Africa.
Not too much is known
on that at this time.
For the most part albino locus does not
affect us in the beef cattle industry.
However, the next one is huge.
White spotting.
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White spotting refers to a group of loci
and alleles that add white to an animal.
So it can be very minimal to almost
a maximum expression resulting
in almost a British white.
Or a British white, that's
how they get their coloration.
Where it's mainly a white
animal with black points.
So it's got black ears or
tips of ears, black muzzle.
There may be a little black
somewhere else, but not much.
But when we look at the alleles for
it, and the loci, because not all
of these alleles we see for white
spotting occur at the same locus.
For example, there is the spotting
locus, and there is a certain, number
of alleles there, for example, spotting,
or hereford or Simmental they are
all they are all there at that locus.
However, belted, like when it
adds a white belt back to an
animal, that is a different locus.
So just remember, these are all
different alleles, and they may
or may not have different loci.
Now, remember, if something is
shared at a locus, there's only
two versions that can be there.
It can be homozygous for spotting, such
as in Holsteins or it can be heterozygous.
And in the example of Holsteins,
again for spotting, that's recessive,
so you wouldn't even see it in
the heterozygous condition.
If you have two white spotting
alleles there, such as spotted and
colorsided, then they're going to get
an additive effect on your animal.
So I've just mentioned a few alleles
that's available for white spotting.
Let's go over those.
And there is a large number, and
they can be divided into four groups.
So we're going to go
through them by group.
and we're not going to take a deep dive
into them because to be honest, white
spotting, you really need those images.
And with audio podcasts or our videos,
even the way we do them, it's not a
great resource, but I do want to make
you aware of the number of alleles
available in different patterns available.
If you want to see some of these, uh,
as we go through some of them, will
mention some breeds that display those.
Another resource is . Dr.
Sponenberg's book.
He's got photos of a lot of different
colors and it causes me, when I'm
driving down the road and I see
cattle with white spotting, I'm always
looking to see if there's some of
these more rare alleles showing up.
Also, I mentioned some breeds.
If you go and search some breeder pages
for those breeds, you can see a lot
of really good examples there as well.
So let's get started.
The four major groups
you can divide them into.
The first group has nice,
clean, crisp, white areas.
And when I say that,
think about a Holstein
the You know how, uh, the break
between the pigment area and the non
pigment area is very clean and crisp.
And then the next group is speckled,
and that's where you don't have
those really defined edges.
Uh, you'll see this a lot of times
in, uh, Corrientes, but we'll talk
about some of those colors even more.
The third category is roan.
Like you see in Shorthorn.
So that's where you've got the pigment
hairs and the white hairs mixed together.
And then lastly, there is a
category for modifications.
And they modify these
white areas in some way.
So first for the clean, crisp white.
Like I mentioned earlier, Holsteins
are a great example of it, and
they carry the spotting gene.
And the spotted gene is recessive, so to
show it they have to be homozygous for it.
And spotted is one of seven alleles
available for clear crisp white.
Now when I say that, remember the
loci may be different for them.
So we have spotted, like holstein.
We have the Hereford coloration,
or the Hereford allele, and that
results in that white face, maybe some
pigment around the eye, maybe not,
some white around the top line, um,
gets that traditional Hereford look.
Then we have a Simmental allele,
and we already talked about the
Simmental dilution allele back in
um, the silver locus, now we've
got a scimital spotting allele.
And this one gives you that white
face with pigment around the eyes or
more of a blazed face on an animal.
And remember, if these are present in
heterozygous, it's going to have less
white than one that's homozygous will.
The next allele, uh, Pinzgauer
it is very popular if you look
at longhorns, uh, Corrientes or
some that just jumped to mind.
They have that white top line, white,
some white on the head possibly,
maybe a colored head, but white
along the belly with stocking feet.
Next one's really common in certain
breeds, and it's very recognizable.
It's the belted allele and that
puts a white belt around the animal.
The, the quality and width of that
belt can vary a lot of other genes
involved in determining that.
But for, belted animals, they're
usually pretty consistent
with that belt coming through.
A number of years ago, I bred some
Holstein cows to Dutch belted bulls.
So, interestingly enough, in those Dutch
belted Holstein cross heifers I got, I
had some nice belts, I had some narrow
belts, and I even had one without a belt.
So, and they were all solid black with
that belt, and you're like, wait, But I
put belted and I get the spotting gene.
Well the spotting gene comes
from Holstein but spotting is
not available in Dutch belted.
So you result in a solid
animal, solid black animal.
And then the belted gene is dominant,
so it came over and gave a belt.
Now because I got one without a belt
and she didn't exhibit any white.
Even if they don't exhibit a full
belt, if they've got some white
in that area where the belt would
be, they're carrying the gene.
They're just having a
reduced expression of it.
She had no white at all, so that means
her sire had to have been heterozygous
for the belt and Dutch belted, which
is interesting 'cause you don't really
run into that a lot with Dutch belted.
Mainly they're homozygous for the belt.
The next allele is wading.
So w a d i n g.
I know it sounds like waiting
room, but it's wading with a d.
And this is a fascinating pattern.
That when I saw it in the book, I'm like,
oh, I want some cattle with this pattern.
And the way it looks,
they have white up here.
On their legs, bottom of their
belly, and then across there,
it changes to a pigment.
So they can be black and white
or red and white, but the
whites all on the bottom and
in extreme cases when they're
homozygous for wading alelle, they
may have even a white head with that.
And I think it's, it's, I hate to say
interesting because I say that very
often, but I find it very fascinating.
If you go look up some Watusi
Breeders, they will have
cattle with the wading pattern.
And it's really, really nice
because you can see some nice clean
patterns, and you can also see some
patterns that's wading with one of
the modifiers we talk about later.
The last allele in this category
is the white sides allele.
And in it you're seeing an animal
that has some pigment along the top or
along, um, the bottom of their legs.
But their sides are white
and they may be speckled.
While the pattern is a clean crisp
white, they will have some smaller spots.
It's not as, it's more jagged than a clean
edge, but it's not the speckled edge.
And there's several
breeds that display that.
And that's the, the clean crisp white.
So moving to the second
category, that's speckled.
And with speckled, we have a few, And
when you're looking for these, you
might see them in some land race breeds.
Corrientes.
I would check Piney Woods or Florida
Cracker Cattle, or African breeds for
some of this speckled pattern to see it.
Now, first one's color sided.
Now, color sided is common
in Corrientes and Longhorns.
It looks very similar to the
Pinzgauer but it's, it's not as clean.
It's more jagged or speckled coloration.
Then you have fisheagle, and fisheagle
is just cool because of the name of it.
In a fisheagle the animal shows more
spotting and more white on either end.
So the, the head and rear are more
white than the the torso or body
of the animal and there's minimal
flecking of white in that area.
So interesting.
Why is it called a fisheagle?
I don't know.
Good question.
Spitting cobra.
Spitting cobra.
Again, another great name.
Uh, the allele for that, it's kind of
like you got spit on and that white's
right there, uh, in mass in one area
and then it speckles out from that
So it's, it's kinda interesting.
Then you have agricola and agricola
shows a lot of speckling on the
animal throughout most of the body.
And um, piney woods cattle,
you can see that pattern
there, as well as other breeds.
Now the bororo, and I'm gonna keep
pronouncing this word, that's the
way I'm looking at it, b o r o r o.
If you look at the African breed
by a similar name, you can see
they have white specks or dots of
white throughout their whole body.
I mean from their face all the way,
legs, body, and it's just really
consistent throughout the whole body.
It results in a very
interesting looking animal.
And then lastly on the speckled
group, we have speckled sides, and
when we talk about speckled sides,
There's white on the body and
it kind of integrates into the
other spots with speckling.
Um, I'm not doing a great
description of that one.
That one, uh, you can see in Florida
cracker cattle, but also in some
African breeds, uh, do a search
you can find that coloration.
So we have the clear crisp white, we
have the speckled, and now we have roan.
And roan's real easy in that our
first impulse is shorthorn cattle.
And that roan allele there
works very interesting.
You have a red cow, and if they carry
the roan gene, they have patches of
roan on them, the in varying amounts.
And that animal is heterozygous for roan.
However, if that animal is
homozygous for roan, you get a
white animal with colored points.
And that's going to be
the ears and muzzle.
And like I said, some of these other
alleles in the homozygous state, it
can result in that British White
look, or that Speckled Park look.
So outside the Roan allele, we have
three more alleles, and they have
different effects in the extended form.
the extent of the roan on the animal.
Um, they all result in, I
think, a very pretty animal.
I think roan is always pretty.
I know, and this may be blamed on my dad,
as a kid we had a blue roan quarter horse
and, um, obviously we named her Blue.
I've always been partial
to the roan coloration.
So in addition to roan you have morocha.
Morocha is a uniform
roan all over the body.
We also have salineiro.
And in that you have parts
of the body that are roan.
Mainly the head and
the rump on the animal.
And then you have the pedi.
And in that, the roan areas will have
some dark spots introduced back into them.
Um, I will be the first to admit, I'm not
giving you a great description of those.
I do encourage you, if you
find this interesting, look
online to find some pictures.
And then, so those are the three main
grouping of white spotting we have.
The clean, clear, crisp, white, not
clear, but the speckled, the roan and
then lastly, we have modifications.
Modifications.
And we have three of them.
Brockle ticking, and smudge.
So, these three alleles introduce
pigment hair back into the white areas.
So for brockle, they introduce
small flecks of colored hair or
pigment hair into the white areas.
And a while ago we talked about the
wading allele and pattern that you see
in some watusis if you go look, you
will see some watusis that are in the
white area, nice clean white, and then
you'll see some that has coloration.
That's going to be one of these
modifications, this brockle or
ticking that's put in there,
that adds the color back to it.
With those three alleles, uh,
brockle, introducing flecks of
pigment hair back into the white
areas, and they're small areas.
And as we continue to, the ticking allele,
ticking allele is flecks back into the
white areas, but it's much smaller.
and also it doesn't appear at birth.
It's something that will display later
on after the calf started growing and
in an animal that has real extensive
ticking it will look very similar to roan.
And then lastly we have smudge and
smudge is introducing individual
pigment hairs into white areas.
I know for the white spotting colors, I
went through that really quickly, and to
be honest, a podcast doesn't do the white
spotting genetics justice, because you
really need to look at photos of that.
And you'll be amazed at the
extent of it and the different
variations that can occur.
But I wanted to expose you to it,
and if you find that interesting,
the book is an excellent resource.
For most people, they're not interested
in the white spotting of their cows,
they just don't want it on their cows.
But I think the white spotting
is really interesting.
If I could play with white spotting
genetics, uh, on cattle and still
sell a solid calf, I'd be really
ecstatic because solid calves can
bring a little bit more money.
Uh, I think that's one area that
the landrace breeds excel in.
You get all these alleles out there for
white spotting that you can try and figure
out what the genetics are behind it.
We're going to wrap up
with that for today.
Um, like I said, if the white spotting
interests you, I suggest you check out Dr.
Sponenberg's book.
There is also, um, Tim Olson's
Color Genetics that if you do a
search for you can find online.
And also Double Helix Ranch.
They have longhorns.
And
David Hollis.
has wrote a few, um, articles
there that you can find.
I'll put the link in there.
He wrote them for the Texas
Longhorn Trails in 2004.
But, um, very good explanation about
color genetics in longhorn cattle
and it's a great resource as well.
So let's just review them
real quick, not very long.
We have the extension locus which gives
us dominant black, wild type which is
brown, recessive red, recessive red, We
have agouti, which gives us some of those
patterns that go with that brown, whether
it's a light colored or dark color.
If you want to see more examples of that,
hit up the ABBA show cattle color chart.
And I'll have a link to
that in the show notes.
Then we get into dilutions, that
causes the black color or red
color or even a brown color to
be diluted to another color.
One of them is brown, which
gives us dun in dexter cattle.
Then we get into the silver locus,
which gives us the charolais dilution
allele, the Simmental dilution allele.
Both of those dilute the colors.
Charolais does it to
a much greater extent.
And then we have what's happening in
brown swiss, that they're not real
sure what allele that is, but they
think it resides at the silver locus.
Then we have some albinos,
and then we get into the wild,
wacky world of white spotting.
And um, I say that very
enduringly because I do like that.
Um, it gets really deep there.
For next week on this, on the Friday
episode, we will be talking about
renewable energy, but we will have
more parts of livestock color genetics
as we talk about goats and sheep.
Until next time, keep on grazing, grass.