What causes scurs in cattle?
The way the gene for scurs is expressed depends on the sex of the animal. In males the scur gene is dominant, meaning that if only one of the two genes is for scurs the bull will be scurred. In females the scur gene is recessive, meaning that she must posses both genes for scurs in order for the cow to be scurred.
How do you get rid of cattle scurs?
A scur is usually soft and can be trimmed down with a side cutter or small hoof nippers. Should not draw any blood if not too big. Some are just scab scurs and some may look like a small horn. I have used some real good scissors too to trim them up.
What does heterozygous mean in cattle?
PP = homozygous polled means this animal has no horns, an all offspring from the animal will be born without horns. Pp + heterozygous polled means this animal does not have horns, but offspring may or may not have horns depending on their mate.
Do female cattle have scurs?
Genetic Inheritance In cattle, genetic expression of the scur gene is different from that of the dominant polled gene, in that the scur gene’s expression depends on the sex of the animal. The scur gene is dominant in males and recessive in females.
Are scurs horns?
Scurs are a kind of horn and they can have many different forms, but they grow slower than a normal horn. However, scurs do not normally grow on the cranium, so they are loose if you hold and move the “horns”.
What does double polled mean?
Double Polled – Refers to mating a polled bull to a polled cow, and producing a polled calf. It is incorrect to assume that this calf is homozygous polled; one or both parents could be carriers, and if only one horn allele gets passed to the calf it will be a carrier.
What can you do for scurs?
During breeding seasons, the bucks often knock these scurs off while fighting. Unless they grow exceptionally large, scurs aren’t usually a big problem. They may cause a lot of bleeding when they break off. In those cases, just spray the area with Blu-Kote to help prevent infection and keep an eye on it.
Can a homozygous polled bull have scurs?
Understanding scurs Some polled cattle have scurs, which are incompletely developed horns that are usually attached to the skin and can be scab-like or can resemble horns.
Are Scurs bad?
While not all scurs are a problem, some certainly do cause difficulties for both the animal and the owner: In sheep and goats, they can curl around and dig their way into the skull if left unchecked. Male animals tend to break them off while fighting, creating an ugly, bloody mess that is prone to infection.
What does homozygous bull mean?
Every animal has a pair of genes for each trait, each gene inherited from each parent. In the case of horned cattle, a calf carries one copy of the horn gene (h) from its sire and 1 copy of the horn gene from its dam. This means that Homozygous (PP) bulls are 100% genetic dehorners, even if used over horned cows.