All the Colours!

The albion colouring pattern is similar to the shorthorn, having a dominant 'white' gene which has the ability to produce the blue roan colouring when mixed with the 'black' gene. In the early days, producers were only trying to produce 'Blue' Albions and they cast out any white or black ones, not understanding genetics. Nowadays, we have dropped 'blue' from the breed name and welcome them all. However, there is a tendency to still prefer 'blue' albions and the table below clarifies what breeders can expect according to the colouring of the prospective parents.

The table below shows the probabilities of colouring when crossing the different albion colours.

Parent colour X Parent colour = Calf colour (Proportion expected)

BLUE X BLUE = 50% BLUE, 25% BLACK, 25% WHITE

BLUE X BLACK = 50% BLUE, 50% BLACK

BLUE X WHITE = 50% BLUE, 50% WHITE

BLACK X BLACK = 100% BLACK

WHITE X WHITE = 100% WHITE

BLACK X WHITE = 100% BLUE

Above is Speckles Blue Joanna 5 who has had 3 calves, who are all the different colours!

The black calf is by Speckles Jake (black) so Joanna had a 50 : 50 chance of having a blue or a black calf and a black one was born.

The white calf is by Speckles Jonas (blue) so Joanna had a 50% chance of having a blue, a 25% chance of having a black & a 25% chance of having a white and a white calf was born.

The blue calf is by Speckles Ferdinand (white) so Joanna had a 50 : 50 chance of having a blue or a white calf and a blue one was born.