HORNS ARE RECESSIVE

Everyone`s talking about recessive genes with haplotypes and BY being the newest of the bunch.
They are going to find more recessives, perhaps many more, and in reality there are probably no animals that exist without some sort of recessive.
Would the breed be better off without Oman, Bolton, Durham , or Snowman? If we don`t learn to live with them and breed around them then what?
It is understood that doubling up negative recessives is not a good idea but there is one recessive that farms are doubling up on every day without even so much as a thought.
HORNS – Yes horns are a recessive gene. The only recessive gene that actually requires labor, causes some sort of pain to remove, and is genuinely disliked by everyone.
Why isn`t anyone talking about this recessive?
If people want horns so bad, why take them off?
HORNS are a recessive you can breed out by using bulls that carry the DOMINANT polled gene.
With a growing community of consumers that perhaps know nothing about dairy farms but want absolute transparency in what is happening to the animals on them, its time to be proactive.
With all the concerns about animal welfare and the fact everyone is instantly connected to the power of social media if you believe there are more important things to breed for chances are you are not the person responsible for the dehorning of calves on your farm.
To talk about recessives is all well and good but maybe its time we started talking about breeding around the horned recessive to.

Roy

WRIST WATCH AND BULLS

Anyone can buy a watch at Wal-Mart. They have the economy of scale and efficiency of mass to provide a good variety of similar, or same watches at very competitive prices.

If you are not concerned that thousands of people may have the same watch as you, or if price is the most important factor in your purchase Wal-Mart probably has what you need.

However if you want something a little different or you want to buy a top quality watch and don’t mind paying a premium to get it you can buy a Rolex, or a Tag Heuer.

Holsteins are not much different. You can buy Bull A, B, or C or you could buy Snowman.

If you bought Snowman chances are you paid a huge premium to not use bull A, B, or C but hopefully because his semen was in short supply your offspring and embryos have added value.

Rarity or scarcity creates value, which is the exact opposite of mass.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a watch, a car, a painting, or semen.

Wal-Mart doesn’t sell “ART” because Wal-Mart is designed to sell prints.

Race horse or Bucking bull breeders wouldn’t dream of mass distribution and the male side of their pedigrees is seriously valuable, because every top horse or bucking bull is treated like a Snowman.

For breeders heavily invested in genetics and are looking for alternatives to the status quo of mass distribution, there are new opportunities coming. We are entering very exciting and interesting times.

There can be no negative in that.

Join the Hornless Revolution

Below is and Ad from May of 2010.

The caption says" As Holstein Breeders we have made tremendous strides over the last 100+ years. There are more high producing beautiful made cattle than ever before. It only makes sense that the next step in the evolution of our breed is to breed the horns out!

Observations

Kerndtway was forward thinking introducing the polled gene to the Hillary by using Hickorymea Ottawa P. That polled female then was bred to the top bulls Shottle and Planet. The polled gene carried through. The Planet was flushed as a heifer to one of the highest Genomic bulls at the time, Ralma AltaChariman. This planned approach increased the genetic merit and is a new option for Polled.

Fast Forward to today.  Semen is available from a High Gtpi Polled bull. 3 generations away from the introduction of Polled. The bull is an outcross to Lawnboy the major source of Polled!

Kerndtway Eliminator P available first come first serve. No Contract Commitments.

Congratulations to Kerndtway in breeding a Unique Bull.

Start your own Polled story. Introduce Polled today!

http://www.dairyagendatoday.com/AdSheet.aspx?Image=http://dairyagendatoday.s3.amazonaws.com/public/51017/adsheet_3/51017.jpg

Lawn Boy-Red A Polled Holstein Legacy

By: Fred Hendricks owner of SunShower Acres, Ltd., Bucyrus, Ohio – U.S.A.

_______________________________________________________________

Bob Feldwich of New Knoxville, Ohio, the breeder of (7HO8223) Aggravation Lawn Boy P-Red PO, first brought the bull to my attention at nearly one year of age. Bob had struggled to get an A.I. firm to take the bull due to his unproven sire, Dudoc Bacculum-Red. Bob was comfortable in offering Lawn Boy to SunShower as we had an excellent working relationship through the syndication and development of other polled bulls from Lawn Boy’s family.

At first observation, Lawn Boy was a striking individual. He was a tall fancy calf with a great deal of class. His dam was a Very Good-86 polled and red carrier Manfred daughter with good milk credentials. His grandam was a Very Good-87 polled and red carrier Aerostar daughter with 187,000 pounds milk. She later surpassed 200,000 pounds milk lifetime. The source of polled in the cow family came through from Larry-Moore Crosby B Poll-Red, sire of his third dam. Crosby-Red was a son of Burket-Falls True Value-Red PO. Hanover-Hill Triple Threat-Red established a dependable source of appealing confirmation through his fourth dam.

As independents, we were able to sample outside the traditional box. In this case, the traditional box was the requirement to have a proven sire, before the days of genomics. Although Bacculum was not proven, he was an excellent compliment to Lawn Boy’s cow family. Consequently, the Lawn Boy Syndicate was willing to go outside the box to sample and develop this promising polled red Holstein.

Sampling – Development

Lawn Boy was housed at and semen collected by InterGlobe Genetics of Pontiac, Illinois. The bull was promoted via traditional avenues such as the Red Bloodlines magazine. Through the hundreds of bulls sampled by SunShower syndicates, there had never been a bull as popular as Lawn Boy. While he was a striking individual, no doubt polled was a major influence in Lawn Boy’s popularity.

As the sampling process was winding down, Jeff Ziegler with Select Sires contacted me to determine if Lawn Boy could be made available for their program. By this time Bacculum had a proof. The genetic potential for Lawn Boy was looking encouraging. SunShower had a long working relationship with Select Sires; consequently they had confidence in our sampling capabilities. Lawn Boy was subsequently leased to Select. At that juncture, the syndicate had distributed 2,460 units of semen in approximately 175 herds.

Upon clearing all health tests, Select Sires launched Lawn Boy as a Super Sampler. Lawn Boy became very popular for them. In fact, Select Sires distributed over 10,000 units of semen within eighteen months of his semen release. His eventual daughter production and type results support his enduring legacy. After several sessions by Holstein classifiers, Lawn Boy was rated Excellent-94, certainly an attractive individual.

Wild-Type Allele

Although a true red and white, Lawn Boy is not homozygous red. Lawn Boy has one red allele and one wild-type allele. Genetic research indicates that the wild-type allele has no influence on coat color. When the wild-type allele is present, other genes determine coat color. Subsequently, when Lawn Boy is mated to red females (females with two red alleles), 50% of the calves will have two red alleles and 50% will have a red allele and a wild-type allele. All of the calves will be red, as expected. When mated to red carriers (females with a black and a red allele) Lawn Boy will produce 50% red and 50% black calves, as expected. At last account,there were no reported concerns about his transmitting pattern of coat color.

It is not possible to predict the coat color resulting from a mating where two wild-type alleles are present. These calves could be red, but they might be black. We are not aware that any Lawn Boy offspring were ever reported with this genotype, so we simply do not know the outcome.

Polled Male Siblings

Lawn Boy has two polled maternal brothers with commendable A.I. proofs. (76HO0530) Aggravation Ducky-Red PO is a Talent son. Ducky has very commendable management traits with positive Type, UDC and FLC ratings. Ducky was first leased to Select Sires as a polled bull. He manifested what Select Sires interpreted as horns. They “dehorned” Ducky and returned the bull to Bob Feldwisch since the contract stipulated polled. Ducky was then leased to Taurus Service. As calves arrived, half were showing up as naturally hornless. Select Sires had interpreted Ducky’s scurrs to be horns. Ducky is officially recorded with the U.S. Holstein Association as being polled.

The second polled maternal brother to Lawn Boy is (138HO3401) Aggravation Afterglow P, a BW Marshall son. Afterglow’s early production information was very encouraging. Subsequently, the bull was leased to IPS (International Protein Sires). Soon after arrival at the semen production center, Afterglow slipped and fell. The bull never recovered and died within a few weeks. No semen was ever collected as a proven sire. Afterglow’s December 2011 USDA milk proof showed 57 daughters in 31 herds at +1,899G and 90% reliability.

Polled Phenomenon Spreads Worldwide

While polled Holsteins have been around for over a hundred years with many bulls sampled through A.I. in modern times, Lawn Boy created a renewed interest for this trait. Red and white dairy cattle aficionados have claimed the principle interest and development of the polled gene. Lawn Boy’s credibility as a proven polled sire created strong interest among black and white Holstein breeders where he was used extensively.

Bob Feldwisch of Aggravation Acres is applauded for his pioneering foresight in developing influential polled genetics. We anxiously await proofs on the countless Lawn Boy sons sampled around the world. No doubt Lawn Boy’s influence will gain additional impact through his female descendants. The Lawn Boy Syndicate, managed by SunShower Acres, is pleased to have played a role in his development.

###

Fred W. Hendricks

SunShower Acres, Ltd.

4505 Holmes Center Rd.

Bucyrus, OH 44820 – USA

Email: fwhendricks@gmail.com

Aggravation Lawn Boy P-Red PO (EX-94)

The Big Flip

Up until the advent of genomics all young bulls with few exceptions had one thing in common.
A limited supply of semen was dispersed with the intent to receive enough classified, and milk recorded daughters to help them receive an unbiased progeny proof.
Young sire semen in many cases would be free or have incentives attached to get people to use it.
As ridiculous as it may sound even a really good daughter of a young sire would be considered a hole in the pedigree and her value would be questioned if her sire didn`t “turn out”
Contracts on young sires were unheard of.
Recently though the change in demand and use on young bulls is quite different.
A limited supply of early release semen is dispersed only for special or contract matings.
Early release semen is now in high demand and no incentives are needed to get people to use it.
Proven sires now compete with their own sons, and soon also grand sons.
Good young bulls have gone from” free” to contract required. Proven bulls have gone from contract requested to no contract required.
What an amazing turnaround. When you hear genomics are going to be the biggest change in breeding since frozen semen it has become todays fact not tomorrows promise.
It does make for some good questions.
How is the use of special or unique young bulls only for contract matings going to produce an unbiased progeny proof?
If young bulls do not typically make much semen how can bolting this new technology onto the old model possibly work?
Is the million dose sire going to be a thing of the past?
For those heavily invested in genetics it may be a good time to start asking questions.
Roy

Hoard's Letter to the Editor "We Need Polled Bulls"

We need polled bulls

We dehorned calves today, a necessary evil to protect our animals

in the future. However, if an animal rights activist showed up with

a video camera at our farm today, we would have been condemned as

monsters. May I kindly ask that the registered breeders collectively get a clue and work on producing some superior polled genetics?

With genomics, it can’t be that hard. I see no reason why we can’t

have a good selection of polled bulls in A.I. in a few years.

Holstein USA needs to make an active effort to compile a list of the

top TPI polled cows and polled bulls available for breeders to reference.

Breed associations will also need to demonstrate leadership in building

demand for polled genetics once these animals are identified. We

must make a point of breeding top indexing bulls to the best polled cows to generate homozygous polled calves that can be genomically tested. Once A.I. studs identify polled bulls of at least similar genetic

merit as their horned counterparts, farmers will buy in. Ask yourself:

If there were two bulls of identical genetic merit and identical price,

one was polled and one was horned, which would you choose?

MINNESOTA GLEN GROTH

Original letter can be found

https://www.dairybullsonline.com/marketing/HoardsLetter.pdf 

Reprinted by permission from the January 10, 2012 issue of Hoard’s Dairyman.

Copyright 2011 by W. D. Hoard & Sons Company, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.

World's Largest Horns

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