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Fawn Calf Syndrome

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Karl

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I was just wondering if anyone has had any fawn calves. I AI'd 15 of my heifers to the angus bull Redirect and 3 of them have been fawn calves. Counting my lucky stars I didnt breed any more to him. Anybody else seeing any fawn calves?
 
He goes back to 1680. GAR 1680 is supposedly going to be a carrier of several genetic defects, besides AM.
 
I knew about curly calf. But I didnt really know about fawn calf syndrome.
 
DejaVu said:
He goes back to 1680. GAR 1680 is supposedly going to be a carrier of several genetic defects, besides AM.
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Yep--besides the Precision lines again being mentioned- I heard the Australian research cited 3 bulls, Bando 598, Rambo 465T of JRS and an australian grandson of Premier Independence (who is considered the common ancestor carrying the Fawn Calf defect).

I hope you took samples (an ear) and submitted to the AAA for DNA testing...

I haven't seen any or heard of anyone local having any...
 
The frustrating thing about this is I contacted Select Sires about this and they have just blown me off. I also contacted the American Angus Association, they wanted pictures and wanted DNA. So I sent it off and havent heard anything back.
 
On the Angus Assoc website is information about the three genetic defects they are looking for. Sorry about your three calves. I saw a "hydro" calf at the vet's several weeks ago. He'd just finished a c-section on a heifer because of it.
 
I havent seen a hydro calf personally, but the pictures I've seen look pretty nasty.
 
Karl said:
The frustrating thing about this is I contacted Select Sires about this and they have just blown me off. I also contacted the American Angus Association, they wanted pictures and want DNA.
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Yep-- besides the AAA sticking their heads in the sands for awhile (that seems to be changing now with the new leadership) , I blame a lot of this on the semen pimping companies....Australian Vets have been looking at this for sometime (3-4 years), but everyone over here blew it off as just an Aussie problem- and decided to SSS- instead of working with them to find what the problem was...
 
The hydro calf was really nasty. This genetic mess is like a cat in a litter box. It can only cover up so much. When more and more calves were born with AM, things just couldn't be covered up any longer. Producers were asking questions. Veterinarians became involved. The Association had to step up.
 
Thats the problem with fawn calves though. It seems nobody reports it. If you have one you might blame it on being premature. I know my friends out at Rawlins Wyo. wouldnt know if they had one, They calve on a 30,000 acre pasture. The first one I had I thought it was a premie. Then the second I thought I messed up nutritionally somewhere, then other heifers bred differently calved and there were no problems, then the third came, so I did some research and figured out what was going on.
 
brushpopper said:
OK I'm going to display my ignorance here and have to ask what the ----- is fawn and hydro calves?
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You can read about them on the Angus website....

http://www.angus.org/reporting_hydro.pdf

http://www.angus.org/reporting_FCS.pdf
 
Karl: I don't mean to be the doubter here but there are some red flags to your story. If you bred 5 heifers to LD Redirect 11 and all five of them became pregant from this mating there is only 15% percent chance that you would get three fawn calves. That is assuming that all the said heifers were fawn calf carriers which is long odds. That is also assuming that the said bull is a carrier which is doubtful knowing the pedigree. Something doesn't quite add up here.
 
Sorry WB. The number should have been 15, not five. Typing error on my part. You dont think Redirect could be a carrier of FCS, He goes back to Precision 1680, who is said to be a carrier of curly calf and who knows what other genetic problems.
 
I won't say it is impossible but I would be curious to know any pedigree information on the heifers that had the calves in question. I personally have never seen a fawn calf in person but have asked Angus breeders that I know and I havn't had one that could definetely say that they had seen one. This problem is not nearly as common as AM or Hydro.
 
I have been told by a very respected source that the fawn deal is not that big of a problem here in the US. Some Aussy have had some issues by stacking pedigrees and of course blaming it on US bloodline but at the same time they have Australian genetics mixed in their of stacking US lines. This man was at the World Form in Austraila (Sp) and claims he saw some donor cows that they were flushing to stack these gentics to GET the fawn defect. Ofcourse the AAA is asking for tissues from suspect calves is determine if this is a serious problem here in the US. Some breeders think they have fawn calves but at the same time some of these people have not owned cattle very long to understand how calves get going even in the winter.
MY point I do not think this will be a big issue but something to think about.
At the same time the internet makes a bigger deal that things actually are. Some of the new cattle owners are making more noise than people that have owned cattle for years.

If I was from Australia I would be hoping to use this to hopefully promote my non American cattle to Americans and get some of that Yank money down there.

There is a great demand for North American Cattle over the globe and we should expect some recourse.

Time will tell I could be wrong but I will set back and wait before I start pointing fingers
 
Hay Feeder said:
I have been told by a very respected source that the fawn deal is not that big of a problem here in the US. Some Aussy have had some issues by stacking pedigrees and of course blaming it on US bulls but at the same time they have Australian genetics mixed in their of stacking US lines. This man was at the World Form in Austraila (Sp) and claims he saw some donor cows that they were flushing to stack these gentics to GET the fawn defect. Ofcourse the AAA is asking for tissues from suspect calves is determine if this is a serious problem here in the US. Some breeders think they have fawn calves but at the same time some of these people have not owned cattle very long to understand how calves get going even in the winter.
MY point I do not think this will be a big issue but something to think about.
At the same time the internet makes a bigger deal that things actually are. Some of the new cattle owners are making more noise than people that have owned cattle for years.
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EXACTLY!!!!
 
I hadn't seen this fawn calf problem before either. We had the neighbor Dr. Gary Rupp, who is a vet up at the MARC come out and have a look, and as far as he could tell just by looking, he thought the were fawn calves. As far as the heifer pedigrees go, I cant tell you much there. I kept this group of heifers out of some old commercial cows we have, and of course dont have any records on. I can tell you the are Angus/Gelbvieh cross heifers. If I could figure out how to put pictures on here I would post some on here for you guys.
 

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