anotherday

Today I was sitting playing poker on facebook when my husbands said there'd been a change to the farm. I looked at him thinking to myself "what have you done now". He told me to go to the back door and see for myself. So I got up from my computer (which takes an act of congress lol) and headed to the back of the house to see what he was talking about.
I pulled back the drapes on the sliding glass door and looked several different directions till something caught my eye.Way out by the stock tank stood one of the heifer's we had been watching. It was time for her to calf...being her first one we were keeping an eye on her in leu of what we had recently been through. Now mind you we raise black angus. Mama's are black and our bull is black. Once in a great while we get a baldie (black calf with white on its forehead) but I had never in all our years on this farm had seen a calf like this. Nor are there any genes to support it to my knowledge. Standing next to her was a solid white calf with a few black marks on face!! Oh my God I caught myself saying aloud. How in the world did that happen?? It looked more charolais than angus.

Quite popular in Australia and used for cross breeding. The generally have more meat less fat. They are not very common a breed "anywhere" in the U.S. They were originally imported to Mexico by a guy named Jean Pugibet In 1930. The first one's in Texas went to the Kings Ranch in 1936.
Charolais are white or creamy white in color, but the skin carries appreciable pigmentation. The hair coat is usually short in summer but thickens and lengthens in cold weather. Charolais is a naturally horned beef animal. But through the breeding-up program, where naturally polled breeds were sometimes used as foundation animals, polled Charolais have emerged as an important part of the breed. Charolais cattle are large with mature bulls weighing from 2,000 to well over 2,500 pounds and cows weigh from 1,250 to over 2,000 pounds. And I have never seen a charolais bull out this way anywhere that could have even snuck over lol. So to say I am still standing here scratching my head is the understatement!
A mix of Charolais and angus is popular in some places because of the growth rate and the quality of beef. So all I can figure is that it must be a recessed gene of some sort that gave us this calf. Needless to say this one will be kept for future breeding on this farm if nothing else to see what it produces. The down side is they pretty much always have horns...and we don't keep anything with horns. Have seen too many people injured and one with horns tends to dominate the rest of the herd.
Here's another pic I found of a cow calf combination of Charolais

I am still in amazement .......will keep ya posted ;)

Will get a pic of it when she lets us close enough and 

you can judge for yourself :)