Black jersey steer?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

Hello,I have a jersey steer which is almost 6 months old.When I bought him(auction) he was basically the color of my older jersey steer,(orangish red) who is about a year old now.Over the last few months the little guy has really turned to a dark brown almost black color.Would it be safe to say that he has some beef crossing in him? thanks much. Dave(central WI)

-- Dave (duckthis1@maqs.net), April 17, 2002

Answers

The Experimental Farm in Ottawa has had Jerseys in its dairy barn with almost black coats. It could be just the line he was bred from. Does he have other Jersey / dairy type characteristics of conformation, skull shape etc or does he look beefier than other jersey calves ?

Horse coats change coulour with each coat change, perhaps cattle do too.

-- Deborah Hardy (virgil@igs.net), April 17, 2002.


Deborah,He basically looks like a jersey,other than he's almost all black. Dave

-- Dave (duckthis1@maqs.net), April 17, 2002.

My jersey bull is nearly a year old now. When I got him as a bottle baby, he was light tan. Now he's very dark, like you say almost black. He's full blood jersey, I've got his papers.

-- bruce (niobrara55@hotmail.com), April 17, 2002.

All Jerseys have black hair. How do you think they get those gorgeous long-lashed mascara'd eyes? Some of them have more of it than others, even a lot more - verging towards say 70% black, but it's just natural variation.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), April 17, 2002.

Dave, Last year my red and white Jersey cow gave birth to a black and white purebred Jersey bull. He looked like a Holstein, so yes they can be BLACK.

-- J (jjdenton@st-tel.net), April 17, 2002.


As everyone has said, they do have black hair. Our milk cow has gotten darker the more she ages. The bull we have is black with an almost silver hair on his back and around his horns.

-- Suzanne (weir@frontiernet.net), April 17, 2002.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ