white heifer disease

[tj1993]

has anyone ever heard of white heifer disease?  what is it?

 

[xray88]

It is not a disease but a genetic defect found in Shorthorn cattle where white heifers do not bred it happends a lot

 

[CAB]

use the search function here on the planet for more info.

 

[beattieclubcalves]

heard of it every since we started rasing shorthorns and bought a white show heifer 2 years ago aid her once and seen the bull breed her 3 times never will buy another white heifer

 

[oakview]

I've heard of it, but we've had lots of white Shorthorn heifers since we started in 1963 and never had a breeding failure with one. 

 

[justintime]

In my experience, If the white heifer has red pigment ( ie: red hair on her ears, red speckles around her nose etc) she will be fine. The ones that seem to have white heifer syndrome, are the ones that do not have the red pigment.

 

[Dale]

My late father said that a white one with red hair around the ears might be genetically roan.  I wonder if that works the other way--is a red one with white hair around the ears truly red?  A leading breeder, who registered hundreds of Shorthorns, once had a white one sired by a red bull--I'd suspected that the "red" sire was one of those extremely dark roans with just the occasional white hair.  Or could the sire have been red with white around the ears?

White heifer disease--our champion white bull in the 60's carried it.  What a heartbreak to take two heifers from winning get (state show) and have neither of them ever breed.  With more recent whites from other genetics, there was no problem--by then we did not keep back a white unless she had red ear hair.

One of the famous movie people once had a herd of 100% white Shorthorns.  Probably not a good idea.  The old Scotch breeders liked to use a white bull now and then to keep their reds from getting too pale--deeper reds resulted from having some roan or white not far back in the pedigree, at least that was their theory.

 

[gw197510]

is this true with white Holsteins as well?

 

[olsun]

Very interesting topic. I thought about this subject when I looked at the White Angus cattle at the Iowa State Fair yesterday. They must not carry this defect, but I wonder how this breed has maintained itself over the years after decending from one white cow. Vert interesting genetics.

 

[simtal]

I read the title and immediately thought of heifers that are too fat

 

[shortdawg]

I've never had a problem with a white shorty heifer breeding.

 

[Cowfarmer65]

I tend to agree with JIT on this one.

 

[cowz]

I might be off on a tangent, but in our experience the all white shorties, with light pigment are a handful.  They seem more nervous and take longer to halter break.  Our last white show heifer was a true psycho.  I am sticking to the beautiful caped red roans.

 

[sjcattleco]

Condition is VERY rare.... JIT is correct... 99% of white heifers are actually roan.  Have never had any trouble with white heifers not breeding!

 

[garybob]

Condition is VERY rare.... JIT is correct... 99% of white heifers are actually roan.  Have never had any trouble with white heifers not breeding!

Best-looking, deepest-bodied, and MOST FERTILE Shorthorn cow I had was WHITE. She was also horned. To tell the truth, she was also the most protective mother and was very attentive at raising calves, yet, a little bit aggressive during the 3 weeks after calving.

GB

 

[garybob]

Very interesting topic. I thought about this subject when I looked at the White Angus cattle at the Iowa State Fair yesterday. They must not carry this defect, but I wonder how this breed has maintained itself over the years after decending from one white cow. Vert interesting genetics.

Are they Albino? Are they truly Angus? Tried to google them, to no avail.

GB

 

[lowann]

Very interesting topic. I thought about this subject when I looked at the White Angus cattle at the Iowa State Fair yesterday. They must not carry this defect, but I wonder how this breed has maintained itself over the years after decending from one white cow. Vert interesting genetics.

I saw the white Angus cow, and calf at the fair too. Fascinated by them! White with blue eyes. They also had what looked like black eyeliner around their eyes. I would love to have one.

 

[olsun]

As the story goes, they were started in the 50s or 60s by a man who had a white cow that always had white calves when mated to Angus bulls. Her daughters did likewise, as have her decendants to this day. As you all know, black should be dominate, but in this case it isn't. It is said that they are not albino because they have blue eyes as opposed to the pink eyes of an albino. The herd has been passed on to the third owner since it was first started. There has always been just enough interest to keep the breed ( if it can be called that ) alive. The man who has the herd now is named Knutson. I find it very interesting.

 

[Shady Lane]

For what it's worth, I have never had a white heifer that didn't breed.

I'm thinking this is a pretty rare condition.

 

[Okotoks]

I've never had a problem with a white shorty heifer breeding.
[/quote
We have had many white heifers over the years and this has never been a problem but I do know of a couple of lines years ago that had the problem. According to vets I have talked to it is related to the white gene pased along in some cattle. I assume a genetic defect on the same chromosome. The problem is hymenal defects in these animals. We have several white females in our herd today and have used three different white bulls in the last ten years and have had no problems so I suggest if a perso was concerned have a look at the cow herd the heifer is from to make sure the white heifers are making productive cows.