This weekend our resident senior goat buck, Fernando, left for his new home. One of the tricky things about breeding is that if I keep any kids, my bucks will quickly be "bred out," which was the case for Fernando. I have many of his beautiful daughters and even granddaughters; he quite literally slept his way out of a job.
Fortunately, I had a goat friend that needed a buck with good genetics, so she came and picked him up. Selling males is sometimes challenging because so few are needed compared to the number of does to keep a herd going.
A single mature buck can "cover" 30 to 40 females in staggered breeding and about 20 in a synchronized breeding program (which is precisely what it sounds like). So, most boy goats don't get to keep their baby-making dingle-dangles, and the demand for intact males isn't huge. For every call I get from dairy people interested in bucks, I get at least ten from prospective doe buyers.
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