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Eye pigment observations, June 5, 2010

Soapweed

Well-known member
Pigment1.jpg

A mother and her daughter
Thecowlookspredisposedtoeyeproblems.jpg

The mother looks predisposed to having eye problems.
Andsodoesherdaughter.jpg

And so does her daughter
Thecowiseightandhaspigment.jpg

This cow is eight years old. She has properly placed pigment around her eyes.
Thatcowsdaughterplentyofpigment.jpg

Her daughter also has pigment.
Afive-year-oldcowthatshouldwork.jpg

A five-year-old cow that should be around for quite a few more years.
Hercalfwhichhasplentyofpigment.jpg

Her heifer calf also has desirable coloring around her eyes.
Anotherfive-year-oldcowthatlookslik.jpg

This five-year-old cow probably won't be around for long, because her eyes will give her trouble.
Potentialproblemdowntheroad.jpg

Potential problem down the road
Twocowswithlackofcoloringontheireye.jpg

Two cows with lack of coloring on their eyes.
TwoblackeyesIlike.jpg

Two black eyes I like.
Ten-year-oldcow.jpg

Ten-year-old cow
Anotherten-year-oldcow.jpg

Another ten-year-old cow
Aheiferwithpotentialeyeproblemslate.jpg

Heifer calf with potential eye problems later on
Pigmentnotaproblem.jpg

Lack of pigment not a problem :wink:
Thecolorfulherd.jpg

The colorful herd where anything goes.
 

gcreekrch

Well-known member
Looks to me like you could fix up that baldy cow with charcoal like the football players use. :wink: :D

The cattle in the last photo resemble our bunch in variety of colour.

They're all fat!
 

Kato

Well-known member
I find all this interesting. We have had white Charolais cattle since 1981, and never once saw a case of cancer eye until we bought a tan white face Simmental cross cow.

Why is it that totally white cattle don't seem to have a problem with this, yet white faced coloured cattle do? :? It's a puzzle.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
I agree with Soap, tho. Those eyes he mention are gonna be trouble
one of thes days. Notice the watering, as well, which is another indication
of future problems.

We got into a bad deal in W. Montana. We had herefords, and every
fall 25% would have something wrong with their eyes. :shock:
That's why
we changed to black angus cattle. We got so we could see the cancer
coming in the eye when it was smaller than a match head. At least
then it could be cauterized and the cow didn't lose her eye. We've had
waaaaaaaay too many eyes taken out. We used to put an eye patch
on them, made out of denim, but we had trouble doing that too. Plus
the work of getting the cow in and putting the patch on. :x Sometimg
when we took the patch of the eye would be granulated. YUK!
No thanks, we don't need any more of that.

Dark eye pigment is a wonderful thing for white-faced cattle.

I wondered too, about Chaolais not having eye problems. But isn't the
pigment around their eyes black? I hope this doesn't sound stupid...
it's just that I haven't been around many Charolais. Don't the buyers like
the Charolais with the black noses best? Wouldn't a black nose indicate
dark pigment?
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
My only case of pinkeye this spring was in a black calf but I didn't take a picture lol. Cancer eye might have as much a genetic predisposition-certain lines within a breed-we've only had a couple cases over the years so don't know too much about it all. Pigment sure can't hurt the situation in most cases.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
Agreed, NR. I am sure that we had a genetic problem to see that
much cancer eye. I'd tell you what line of Herefords we used, but
I wouldn't want to upset anyone. Even though those people no longer
are raising bulls. This was in the 70's, so it was many moons ago.
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
I was always under the impression that pure bred Charlois had pink noses. If they have black noses it means they've been crossed with black. They get the black skin....but keep the white hair.
 

balestabber

Well-known member
theres a hereford ranch in this area that has had herefords for generations.he sells bulls now that throw a Racoon Face or will atleast
have patches around the eyes.and has no trouble finding a market for
them.part of his sales pitch is less or no eye problems.i found this interesting that SOME his bulls have these patches around there eyes.
 

andybob

Well-known member
Soapweed, Knersie posted an interesting thread on CT on eye set in Hereford cattle, did you see that article?
Having spent most of my cattle raising career in the tropics, I have always favoured using locally adapted breeds rather than trying to use temperate breeds that just don't give the same production/acre without higher cost.
 

Doug Thorson

Well-known member
I hope this doesn't sound stupid...
it's just that I haven't been around many Charolais. Don't the buyers like
the Charolais with the black noses best? Wouldn't a black nose indicate
dark pigment?

The black nose Char calves you hear talk about are out of black or baldie cows.
 

cowhunter

Well-known member
I bet I got 20 head of white or almost solid white mama cows. But they don't have the pink pigment. And I've never had pink eye in these scrub cattle. So, the problems in the pigment and not the white hair? Or does genitics play a part also? Everybody around here claim flys are worst on black cattle. I think pink eye is sure spred by flyes, whether white or colored. My grand daddys had a bad outbreak of pink eye when I was a youngin workin on corgans ranch in south. Corgans was a big herford outfit at the time and we had all the latest drugs. I took it to him but all he would use was pet milk injected under the hide. He was real old timey the yeller face spray never was opened.
 

Shortgrass

Well-known member
I've raised Charolais since 1980, and have had one cancer eye, and one pink eye. I also have wondered why the lack of eye problems, but sure enjoy the fact they are pretty free of eye problems. There must be enough pigment in the skin, even pink nosed Chars. Skin pigment is evidently more critical than hair color.
 

Kato

Well-known member
When the Simmental cow we had bought got it, that was the very first time my husband had ever seen it. He didn't recognize it for what it was. The only reason I'd seen it was because I worked at the vet clinic. We took this cow in to have it treated, so she would last long enough to wean her calf, and the vet saw that she had been treated once before.

Whoever had taken this cow to a bred cow sale should be ashamed.
 

andybob

Well-known member
Shortgrass said:
I've raised Charolais since 1980, and have had one cancer eye, and one pink eye. I also have wondered why the lack of eye problems, but sure enjoy the fact they are pretty free of eye problems. There must be enough pigment in the skin, even pink nosed Chars. Skin pigment is evidently more critical than hair color.
The fact that Sanga cattle breeds are all skin pigmented, even in the white haired types. British breeds are not pigmented, being adapted to temperate climates, so need to be used in a crossbreeding program or composite breed in the harsher southern environments.
 
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