Polled Genetics
By Gabriella Nanci

A polled animal is one that was born without horns. The polled trait is determined by a genetic variation on cattle chromosome 1.

Buyers looking for polled cattle must be careful. Since polledness is a dominant trait, there are no "hidden" recessive polled genes lurking in horned animals. A horned animal out of one or even two polled parents does not carry the polled gene. Breeders who are not aware of this fact will market horned animals as carriers of the polled trait.

This is not to say that horned animals from the Platinum line are not desirable. As you can see from the picture, the Platinum line has more to offer than just the lack of horns. As well as a nice stocky build, the line also has nice udder characteristics.

The following represents the inheritance of polledness in cattle and the ratios of horned and polled animals you would get with various breedings. Letters are used in clinical genetics to represent alleles or different forms of a particular gene. This is a single gene trait, so each animal has two alleles - one from each parent. Since polled is dominant it gets the big P and since having horns is recessive, it gets the little p. (See the page on genetics terms for more clarification.)

• pp: This animal has horns.  An animal must have two alleles for horns to have horns.
• Pp: This animal would be polled, and carry a recessive alleles for horns.
• PP: This animal is polled, and does not carry the alleles for horns.

Polled(Pp) X Horned(pp) =

1/2 polled(Pp), 1/2 horned(pp) offspring.

Polled(Pp) X Polled(Pp) =

1/4 polled(PP), 1/2 polled(Pp), 1/4 horned(pp) offspring You will not be able to tell the PP and Pp animals apart, as they are both polled.(so 3/4 of your calves are polled and 1/4 are horned)

 

Homozygous polled(PP) X Horned(pp) =

All polled(Pp) offspring.
 

Homozygous polled(PP) X Homozygous Polled(PP) =

All homozygous polled(PP) offspring.