Who’s Your Daddy? Three Bulls and One Copper Calf

Our Highland heifer calf Rory has three possible fathers, a copper coat, and a registration on hold. Here is how the herd book, color genetics and a DNA test fit together.

Most of the time, the fence jumping on this farm (a recurring theme across pastures, time and species) is just annoying, but sometimes it causes real problems. The morning after the vet had come out to artificially inseminate Laoghaire (who we had kept meticulously isolated from the bulls since she hit puberty), we found her on the wrong side of the fence, flirting and prancing with the bulls. That’s how we ended up with a copper colored Highland calf, three possible fathers and a registration that is still on hold.

The herd book rules

Our Highlands are registered with the American Highland Cattle Association. They maintain the ‘herd book’ – it is all about parentage. In order to register a calf you have to input a handful of simple data points: birthdate, name, ear tattoo, Dam (mother), etc. Should be easy, right? Well, there are two other required pieces of information that are holding up some of the registrations. Color and Sire.

Meet the suspects

On most farms, that probably wouldn’t be confusing. But, of course, we did things the hard way. If you have seen the rest of our website, you may have seen that our Highland adventure began with me swiping right on a beautiful bull calf, Judah. I bid on him on an auction site before we had any other cows. We tried to find some registered girls to be companions for him but had no luck and the auction was closing fast. So at the last minute, I bid on another highland boy from the same farm, Jedidiah, and we ended up with two intact males and zero females.

Judah, a deep red Highland bull with long horns and a frosted forelock, lying on a dirt path — Suspect #1: Judah, red with frosting and boss of the pasture.

Jedidiah, a golden-tan Highland bull with long horns, lying among fallen leaves — Suspect #2: Jedidiah, yellow and Judah’s faithful sidekick.

Black silhouette of a horned Highland bull with a question mark on its chest, styled like a police lineup card labeled Suspect number 3 — Suspect #3: Big Ridge Voodoo Magic, jet black and camera-shy.

Judah and Jedidiah were just weaned when they came to us and bonded to each other quickly. In the 6 years we’ve owned them, we have never split them up. In some ways it’s really sweet. They have their post-dinner wrestling match every evening and they tend to mosey together behind all the females throughout the day. However, it throws a wrinkle in registering our calves because even though Judah is clearly the boss and the favorite with the ladies, our calves cannot definitively answer the question who’s your daddy.

Laoghaire was the first full highland born on the farm. She is gorgeous and looks like a female version of Judah. We believe that Judah is her dad – she is the same deep red with frosting. But because we have two bulls out there with our cows, we need a DNA test to confirm.

The harder puzzle, though, is our next generation of calves. Laoghaire, Lima Bean and Liberty (all born in 2022, hence the L names) have each now had calves of their own. Because Laoghaire is related to Judah, we kept her separated from the bulls and had a vet come out to artificially inseminate her.

The process is two steps – first, they give her a bunch of hormones to get things ready, then they come back a few days later to inseminate. (Remind me to tell you the story of the year I gave Ace bull semen for Christmas…) Laoghaire was so cooperative and we were excited for a Big Ridge Voodoo Magic baby! But it seems like those hormones got the better of her, and the fence jump left us with three suspects: Big Ridge Voodoo Magic (jet black, courtesy of the vet), Judah (red with frosting, boss of the pasture) and Jedidiah (yellow, Judah’s faithful sidekick). The water got officially muddy.

Why color is a clue

Rory is her sweet, adorable and pushy heifer calf, but her coat is a bright copper (this is where color comes into play). Not what we were expecting… The Highland color genetics are a bit confusing, but Big Ridge Voodoo Magic is jet black. We were hoping for a jet black calf, since that would have ruled out Judah being both Rory’s father and her grandfather (awkward).

Newborn copper Highland calf Rory standing in the dirt with two guinea fowl peering in from the bottom of the frame — Baby Rory, already attracting an audience (and two very concerned guinea fowl).

According to the AHCA’s color genetics chart, there are three gene combinations for black Highlands and two of them only produce black offspring. The third can produce black, red or brindle. A red Highland with frosting, like Judah, can produce red, black or brindle offspring, depending on the mate. And just to add to the mix, Jedidiah is yellow, and those guys can produce all the colors.

Here’s where color becomes evidence. Laoghaire is red, and a red cow bred to a black bull should give us a black calf, unless he’s the one type of black that can pass on red or brindle. A quick look at the herd book shows that Big Ridge Voodoo Magic has produced many red calves, so he’s still a suspect. Calves’ coats can also change a bit as they get older, and the copper color Rory has right now is right on the line between red and yellow, which keeps Judah and Jedidiah in the mix too. So: three baby daddies, no alibis.

Side-by-side portraits of Judah (deep red), Rory (copper) and Jedidiah (golden tan), the three Highland cattle in question — Judah, Rory and Jedidiah, photographed on different days in different light, so treat this as a rough guide and not a lab result.

Rory isn’t our only mystery, just the only one with three suspects. Lima Bean’s bull calf, Riordain, and Liberty’s heifer, Sassy, each have only two: Judah or Jedidiah. We believe Sassy is a classic red. Riordain is more complicated. He started out a dark reddish brown, went through a copper phase, and is now a pale gold up front with darker brown behind. We’re watching to see if he turns out brindle, but that doesn’t show at birth, so it may take a while (and a DNA test) to know. All three calves are headed for the lab.

Three photos of Riordain the Highland bull calf: as a dark brown newborn with his mother, as a copper calf, and now as a pale gold calf lying down — Riordain: newborn, copper phase, and now. We’re still watching to see how his coat settles.

We haven’t sent the samples to the lab yet, and Rory’s registration is on hold until we do. When the lab answers, I’ll update this post with the verdicts, and subscribers will hear first.