Given the diversity of colors seen in Texas Longhorns, many people are surprised that there are just two different pigments that produce all the hair colors in cattle (and for that matter, all mammals). These two pigments are eumelanin (black) and phaeomelanin (red). Eumelanin is a black pigment, but also looks brown in lower concentrations. Phaeomelanin is a red pigment, but can look orange or yellow in lower concentrations.
If neither pigment is produced, then hair is white. Therefore, all the roans, brindles, speckled patterns, linebacks, grullas, reds, yellows, oranges, browns, and blacks seen in Texas Longhorns come from varying amounts and patterns of expression of these two pigments on different parts of the body. However, the distribution of these two pigments is controlled by a large number of different genes, which makes the inheritance of the two pigments somewhat complex.
