The cover of Shorthorn Country

[shortybreeder]

Beef Shorthorn bans polled cattle because they don't trace back to the Coates herdbook.. why don't we ban polled shorthorns right along with the black noses if we're going the purist route?
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I was under the impression that polling occured naturally in Shorthorns, and have witnessed it at first hand as my father had a polled calf from horned parents. So could happen in heritage shorthorns or modern shorthorns.
Polling is a mutation that happens at a higher rate in Shorthorns than other breeds.
I had heard that polled shorthorns were then used to introduce the polled gene to many other breeds as the incidence of polling in some breeds is very low.
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You could try convincing Mr. Spenser (majority owner of cattle in that registry) of that, but good luck lol their rules plainly state any animal that doesn't grow horns by 6 months of age (not including scurs) will have its registration revoked and a note made in the pedigrees behind it.
For the record, I do use polled cattle and I don't particularly agree with this stance, just pointing it out for discussion purposes.

 

[mark tenenbaum]

what are shorthorn purists, for lack of a better word, so worried about with black?


cataloging it on a phenotype?  slippery slope of color types? 


they are otherwise shorthorns?


i mean, seriously, they should genotype the whole herd, and get rid of anything with holstein, maine's, who knows what else.


all breeds are like this. all of them.

I don’t know of any other breed like this that has no phenotypical standards or defining breed characteristics.  Shorthorn is the only association of any red hided breed I know of that even allows black noses to be registered.  Disqualification in every Shorthorn registry in the word- not the ASA they’ll take your money.    I raised a hell of a black nose calf.  Even used him after Oakview saying he had a black nose bull that didn’t throw any dark nosed calves.  My experience hasnt been so fortunate." Hes probably the best one you have posted and if you have any commercial cattle-getting rid of him would be plain stupid" JMO-Id breed him to whatever-and let people see the  good ones-X bred or whatever-surely the commercial deal cant be that bad where you are O0 If it is-retain ownership and sell based on carcass quality O0

 

[woodyc]

On a slightly different note there was a canadain buyer in Scotland over to by a shorthorn bull for massey harris this was just after the war when it was the done thing to tour herds before the bull sale in February in perth and he was asked at a dinner just before the sale to give his thoughts on what he had seen he stood up and said 'You Scots keep banging on about heads but the only good heads I have seen is on a highland bull and a lassie in a hotel in Inverness'

 

[Gargan]

On a slightly different note there was a canadain buyer in Scotland over to by a shorthorn bull for massey harris this was just after the war when it was the done thing to tour herds before the bull sale in February in perth and he was asked at a dinner just before the sale to give his thoughts on what he had seen he stood up and said 'You Scots keep banging on about heads but the only good heads I have seen is on a highland bull and a lassie in a hotel in Inverness'
(lol)