Polled cattle are those that are born without any buds that grow into horns. Instead they have in the middle of the top of their heads a knobby area that is called a poll, thus the reason that hornless cattle are called "polled." Polled is a genetic trait that is used in a lot of cattle today, and is a trait to be taken advantage of when the offspring has a horned sire or dam.
Yes, the offspring has a 50% chance of being polled. The polled gene is dominant over the horned gene, so if the bull does not carry the horned gene, the offspring will not have horns.
Hornless = polled. Polled cows and bulls can be either homozygous polled or heterozygous polled. So, since we have no idea of what kind of calf they produce, the genotypical cross will look like this: (H = polled and h= horned) H_ x hh "H_" symbolizes the unknown allele that the polled bull has. Is he hetero polled or homozygous polled? The "hh" of the cow symbolizes she is homozygous horned, since the horned trait in cattle is a recessive trait: polled gene is dominant.
No. Horns are recessive-dominant, thus only appear if both parents are heterozygous polled (appear polled but have the horn gene), one is horned and the other hetero polled, or both are horned. Angus are homozygous polled, which means the first generation of offspring from a cross such as this will give you calves that are polled. They will, however, have the horn gene which means that if they are bred to a horned bull or cow, there's a much greater chance that their offspring will be horned.
This is not a matter of how many it's a matter of chance in terms of percentages. In this example, any bull that is horned is ONLY homozygous, both phenotypically AND genotypically, for horned because the horned gene in cattle is recessive. The polled (non-horned) characteristic in cattle is a dominant trait both phenotypically and genotypically. So that means that any horned parent that breeds a homozygous polled parent will have offspring that are ALL polled. The only way you will get horned offspring is one of two ways: a horned sire mates with a horned dam, or, a hetero polled sire mates with a hetero polled dam (resulting in a much smaller chance than the first way). The question above is answered as followed:Homozygous Horned (Hereford) bull x Homozygous Polled female = 100% Polled offspring.I cannot use the Punnett square on this site, but if you use it on a piece of paper you will see that 100% of all offspring are polled. But notice that genotypically they are HETEROZYGOUSLY polled. This means they are polled physically, but in their genes their offspring have a 50% chance, should this offspring be bred to a horned partner, of having either horned offspring or polled offspring. If the offspring of the above cross were bred to a polled partner, the results would be 50% hetero polled and 50% homozygously polled. AND, if the above offspring were bred also to a hetero polled partner, you would get, phenotypically, 75% polled and 25% horned. Genotypically, this is 25% homozygously polled, 50% hetero polled, and 25% homozygously horned.See, the most a cow can have in her lifetime is 20 calves. There is no way that she can have 100 or so calves in her lifetime to see this example work out. Producers have to go by chances of an event happening when selectively breeding cattle, not how many.
No a black sheep can be either male or female, there are no coat colours that determine the sex of sheep unlike cats.
Dorset sheep which do not grow horns
polled
polled
A polled goat is hornless.
Yes some breeds of sheep have horns other breeds of sheep have been bred to have no horns ie they are polled
Polly, after the breed polled dorsets, and Molly-because it rhymed with the other two.
He or she has no horns protruding out of their head.
Polled.
Polled.
Let's be a bit more precise: a "ram" is a male sheep, a female sheep is a "ewe" so technically there is no such thing as a "female ram". To answer the question that I think was meant to be asked is "Do female sheep (ewes) have horns?"The answer is: it depends on the breed and sometimes.Horned vs. Polled (hornless)While originally all rams had horns, sheep can have horns or not, depending upon their breed, sex, and genetics. In some sheep breeds, both sexes are horned. In some breeds, only the rams have horns. Rams usually have larger, more striking horns than ewes. When neither sex is horned, the breed is said to be polled or naturally hornless.Some sheep breeds have both a horned and polled (hornless) strain. Partial or undeveloped horns are call scurs. While horns are sometimes removed from cows or goats for safety and management ease, horns are seldom removed from sheep unless they pose a danger to the animal.
Angus, Red Angus, Polled Shorthorn, Polled Hereford, Brangus, Red Brangus, Red Poll, are the breeds that I can think of that are born naturally polled.
The past tense of "poll" is "polled."