Addressing scur phenotyping challenges with the Southern Multi-Breed Project

The genetic basis of polled or horned phenotypes in beef cattle is now well documented, however horned animals will continue to be born in the national herd for some time. Animal welfare will continue to be compromised due to the need to dehorn animals with horn buds. While scurs don’t necessarily require removal, the inability to distinguish between horned or scurred animals at the age of dehorning mean they are dehorned nonetheless. Targeted breeding of polled herds in industry is increasing with genetic poll tests available, but without understanding the genetic basis of scurs, horn buds and thus dehorning practices will remain. The difficulty in identifying the genetic basis of scurs remains the lack of a reference population with accurate phenotypes, driven largely by the difficulty in phenotypinghorns and scurs at usual dehorning age. This paper describes the challenges and preliminary results of a phenotyping project using the Southern Multibreed project herd, which will form a reference population with poll/horn/scur phenotypes, accompanied by full pedigree recording and genomics data.