Highland Coat Colour Odities

While there are six registerable Highland colours in the Australian Herd Book, there are a few genetic colour patterns that do not fit into these categories. These are probably just testimony to the broad genetic diversity that the breed began from many centuries ago. This adds to the interest in breeding these wonderful animals, but also adds to the genetic complexity when trying to understand how it all works.

 

Mahogany (“Frosting”)

We have bred quite a number of these animals and have chosen to name this colour mahogany. It is a dark red colour but has always appeared with white tips, especially on the dossan, tip of tail and variable amounts along the topline and mane. These are very interesting calves to watch over their first 12 months of life (Mahogany Coat Colour Changes) but the colouring becomes less dramatic with age.

 

Bus Dubh

Highlands also have a gene for a ring of short, black hairs around the nose called Bus Dubh (a Gaelic term literally meaning ‘black muzzle ring’). It is seen more often in females (maybe because we all have more cows in our paddocks than bulls) and only ever in red animals. Some feel it is in some way  associated with the brindle gene. It can vary in intensity from year to year, season to season in animals that show this trait. It appears to be generally favoured amongst Highland breeders because it is thought to be a link to the breed’s heritage, as few if any other breeds have this characteristic.

 

Parti Colour

This is a rare colour pattern that comes up now and then in Highlands. It is defined as any solid colour with white patches. To date, I have only heard of it in red or yellow animals. It is quite rare and not a registerable colour in Australia, but a motion was passed in 1990 in the UK to allow these animals to enter their herd book.

In Una Cochrane’s book, ‘A Keen Eye’, she researched the pedigrees of a number of parti coloured animals born in the 1990’s. She found that these animals all had two common ancestors – a bull, Sgaithanach, and a cow, Rosie, who lived c1870. In every pedigree except for one, both the sire’s and dam’s side had one of these animals in them. This tends to suggest a simple recessive mode of inheritance – it can appear out of the blue in any ones herd.

(Photos from ‘ A Keen Eye’, by Una Flora Cochrane.)

 

White Udders

This is a common gene amongst Highland cattle (up to 50% in most folds I have seen). It is difficult to visualise in some animals because it can be strictly confined to the udder in some, yet in others will extend well forward, up to the navel or further along the underside of the chest. It is accepted in the breed providing the white skin/hair does not reach further forward than the navel. Also, the larger the udder, the more prominent it will appear (see above photos). The mode of inheritance is unproven at the moment, but the gene has quite a high frequency in Highlands. It is possibly at the same gene locus as the parti colour allele.

 

Silver Dun Vs White

These two colours are sometimes confused, both being double dilutions of their base colours – red (white animal) and black (silver dun animal). (See section on the dilution gene for more details.) In the dun animal above, notice the grey pigment still on the muzzle in the photo on the right above (as well as the beautifully functional pink tongue!). These animals also have black hooves.

This is different from a truly white animal (or cream in some instances) which has a pink nose (see below). These cattle have no pigment in their feet (they are pale white/pink).

 

Brindle

The brindle colour only appears in red animals, and can sometimes be picked out in yellow Highlands. We have postulated that a single brindle gene gives rise to a sparse brindling pattern, compared with two brindle genes causing much heavier brindling pattern. Some of the more lightly brindled animals will only have the black stripes obvious around the eyes (see photo below) in their first year of life, and usually are indistinguishable from red animals until after weaning when their calf coat drops out. It will always be more obvious when their coats are short, like in mid summer.

Whether you like the colour or not, it is quite interesting. It appears to be masked by certain other colours such as the dilutions (eg whites where it is not seen at all, and yellows where you may be able to just make it out).

 

Shades of Red

What we register in the herd book as red can have numerous shades as adult animals. The differences here may be associated with differences in those with the ‘wide type’ red gene (1. below) and those that are plain red (2. below).

1.	2.
3.	4.

There is a colour known in some other herd books as ‘light red’ (3. & 4. above). There are known to be genes that slightly lighten or darken other coat colours in cattle.