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I have read that in South Africa when
the farmers were developing the Boer goat that they only wanted
those with white bodies and red heads and all the other
non-traditional kids were culled from the herd. This trend was
continued until very recently, but has changed somewhat now. In this
process the genes for all other colors and patterns became dorment,
but as we know the genes for some of these colors or patterns are
still there in the background. When two animals with these genes get
bred, we have on occasion a paint, solid red, or some other pattern
that we like.
My first buck was from the line of Fred Homeyer’s great Texas
Twister and he was solid red. According to Don Smith there were no
non-traditional or reds in this blood line. I bred him to a red doe
and got a beautiful paint buck we named Ron 70 Twister. Well I
didn’t name him, the person (Larry Knoblett) that bought him did so.
I later bought him back and have used him in my program for some
time now. Larry had bred him to a solid red doe while he had him and
the result was a speckled doe like no other I had seen until then.
I started a campaign to buy this speckled doeling, and soon after
she was weaned I was successful in purchasing her for my herd. We
flushed her last year to Dr. Rad’s Valero II and this produced 10
kids. All these were solid red except one traditional. But, she was
bred back to this buck before we brought her home which I did not
know. While waiting to flush her again I kept telling her she was
getting fat and I was going to cut down on her feed, Then to my
surprise she had two doelings with the same speckled patterns as
their mother.
I now have three does with this color pattern and they are full
bloods. There are several farms that have what are called polka dots
but they are mostly percentages and not the full bloods.
We are flushing Speckles in May 2008 and the two doelings as soon as
possible. We are using Holly McShane’s Fern Hollow T4 Red Neck buck.
This buck has been producing some of the Pok-a-dot kids. We will
keep you posted on the outcome of this special program. But for now
enjoy the pictures and we will have bucks for sale before you know
it… |
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 She
came very unexpected! Her mother was a red 100% doe and her sire was
Red Rascal and we never imagined something like this would be the
result of this match. She knew she was special and showed it all the
time and in many ways. She spent two years in New York at Dr. Rad’s
farm and was flushed to Velero and only produced solid reds and one
standard. When she came home she got her own pen and settled in like
the queen she was. She started to get bigger and I told her she
could not be flushed again if she got fat, but she just kept on
enjoying life. Then one day as I went to do the feeding, she was
standing in the door of her house just chewing away and looking the
other way. When I came back out of the barn I heard a kid cry out
and went back in the barn to see what I had missed! Nothing! But
when I again walked past her pen I again heard the cry of a kid. I
looked her way and she slowly turned to me with that look on her
face. WHAT! Then I walked over to her and started to look around and
hidden in the corner was two of the nicest kids you can imagine! I
quickly look to see that I had two little doelings just like her.
What a great surprise!!!
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You
can just imaging how
much trouble these
two little angles got into!!
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Thank goodness we still have
the two little ones as their mother passed on after being
flushed this past fall ! She will never be forgotten on this
farm and all those who knew and saw her.
Thanks Speckles for the
memories and we will keep you forever in our hearts.
Ron and Colleen
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