The name of the game in the show goat industry is and always has been bucks. \u00a0If you have a bonafide producer of a buck, then you’re going to have fun. \u00a0Plus, you need a lot of bucks to gather those quality of bucks.<\/p>\n
In 2010, we had built a herd founded on Turner, Harbour, Powell\/Holman and Kelly females. \u00a0I had used the Harley buck from Kelly and the X Factor buck from Powell\/Holman to sire the females that served us for years to come. \u00a0I knew that we needed bucks.<\/p>\n
I began working on it early in the year. \u00a0This included trying to make a clone. \u00a0We had DNA on ice with Viagen. \u00a0They were trying to make a clone of two different wethers for us. \u00a0They were unsuccessful after numerous attempts. \u00a0This was a “cheap” experiment. \u00a0Currently, I have this year’s bill to continue keeping that DNA stored with Viagen for future use.<\/p>\n
We were regularly talking to Mike Kelly. \u00a0About bucks, wethers, business, etc. \u00a0We were feeding several wethers from him at that time. \u00a0In fact, the grand at OYE 2010 was a Smokestack wether for Kelly’s that was shown by Chance Greenroyd. \u00a0The grand wether at Enid District 2009 had been a Showtime wether shown by Meaghan Rhodes. \u00a0That spring, he hinted that he might let me use a buck–no names mentioned.<\/p>\n
In March, I was in south Texas hunting older wethers. \u00a0I looked at some November born flush kids at Mike Halffman’s. \u00a0He had the nuts left in several of them. \u00a0He priced them. \u00a0There was one that I liked but I had lots of miles to go. \u00a0Plus, I felt safe that buck would not leave there anytime quick. \u00a0So, the hunt for bucks continued.<\/p>\n
On a Friday afternoon in May 2010, I purchased a freshly weaned Freaky kid from Gallagher’s. \u00a0He wasn’t cheap. \u00a0Looking back, the price doesn’t seem that high but values have changed since then. \u00a0I was pretty pumped about this purchase and looked forward to the future of the buck that would become Freak On A Leash.<\/p>\n
The next morning, I sorted through all of the first crop of 191 kids at Helms. \u00a0He had them priced. \u00a0Some of them were full ownership, some for 1\/2. \u00a0They were priced reasonable. \u00a0But, there was a greener goat that was a flush mate to all of the good bloomy ones. \u00a0I asked his price. \u00a0It kind of caught Kenneth off guard as that wasn’t one that he thought that I would be interested in but he had a price. \u00a0We agreed on the deal. \u00a0That flush included a 1315, 1325, Red Cape and the 2011 res. grand wether at OYE. \u00a0My purchase came to be known as Joe Dirt.<\/p>\n
Two weeks after purchasing Joe Dirt and Freak On A Leash, I was back in Texas. \u00a0Poe, Milligan, Thompson and I were studying skinny wethers and doe kids at Mike Halfmann’s. \u00a0Actually, Thompson was n’t studying them. \u00a0 He hates looking at skinny goats. \u00a0That buck was still there. \u00a0Poe and I discussed it. \u00a0I told him that we needed that buck but that I was about tapped out–the combination of cloning, buying FreakOnA Leash and Joe Dirt hadn’t taken it’s toll on my bank account. \u00a0He was getting ready to have a kid so he was a little bit strapped as well.<\/p>\n
So we made a call or two. \u00a0Found a partner with Allen Miller and we bought another buck. \u00a0This buck was not named at the time of purchase. \u00a0But later happenings that evening in Sonora, TX led to this buck being named Rainman the next morning.<\/p>\n
A week later in June 2010, we were at Kelly’s wether sale. \u00a0We were told that we would be taking a buck home to use. \u00a0I was hoping for Showtime. \u00a0We had to wait till after the sale to get him. \u00a0Not an issue. It wasn’t Showtime but I was pleased. \u00a0I had been the first Okie to go to Kelly’s. \u00a0We bought wethers, does and trusted him to buy Harley. \u00a0 More importantly, I had brought numerous customers with me that spent lots of cash for wethers over the years. \u00a0We had lots of success with Kelly wethers and this led to us getting to use this buck. \u00a0The only restriction was to not call the buck by name. \u00a0No problem. \u00a0It was pretty easy to figure out which buck it was.<\/p>\n
We only had the buck for 3 weeks and he had to go home. \u00a0Luckily, on the 5th of July, there was a cool spell followed by a couple of days of light rain. \u00a0 Several does came into heat and that buck was busy. \u00a0We had a nice set of kids born in November\/December 2010.<\/p>\n
I left the nuts in 5 of those “Black Sabbath” sired kids. \u00a0I also sold a good set of wethers online in April 2011. \u00a0Four of those five wethers made the sale at Tulsa, including 2 res. div. champs.<\/p>\n
As for those 5 buck prospects, I decided to sell 1\/2 interest in them. \u00a0I did not advertise them. \u00a0Anybody that had hit me up about a buck that winter\/spring was allowed to look at them before OYE 2011. \u00a0Helms, Tolson\/Lenhart, Pullan and Nation, Seelkes, Poe, Pat Lyons and Allen Miller all looked. \u00a0I told them that we would sell them the Saturday afternoon at OYE. \u00a0I would contact them with place and time. \u00a0I got Milligan to auctioneer. \u00a0Helms couldn’t be there so he was on the phone. \u00a0We all met at one of the empty horse stalls and went over terms.<\/p>\n
The first buck was sold–1\/2 interest for $13,500. \u00a0The next was 1\/2 for $7,250. \u00a0Then another for $5,000. \u00a0I had a home for one of them in Texas at $2,500. \u00a0This left one as a PO.<\/p>\n
Milligan still says that this is the most effed-up sale that he has ever heard of. \u00a0He auctioned goats that weren’t there and he had never seen. \u00a0Several prominent breeders jumped me after the sale why they weren’t invited. \u00a0That was easy–they hadn’t asked me about bucks. \u00a0I didn’t leave anyone out. \u00a0I just included those that had inquired.<\/p>\n
I sent the PO buck to Poe and told him to lease him out and split the proceeds with me and Thompson. \u00a0This worked well. \u00a0This buck became known as Blackjack. \u00a0Blackjack sired a div. champion doe at Tulsa in his first crop. \u00a0Poe then sold Blackjack to Brillhart’s in KS. \u00a0I just recently found out that Blackjack is still going and he sired the 5th overall wether at the 2017 KS State Fair.<\/p>\n
The $2,500 buck worked in south TX for several years. \u00a0I still keep tabs on this dude’s off spring and whereabouts.<\/p>\n
The $5,000 buck became known as “Pocket”. \u00a0He sired a div. champ doe at OYE and made good kids for Miller, Lyons and then Kesters.<\/p>\n
The “$7,250 kid became known as Fade2Black. \u00a0He has sired numerous div. champs, class winners, bucks and premium sale goats at OYE, Tulsa, Enid & Woodward. \u00a0He is the sire of Black Rhino and Black Market’s maternal grand-dad.<\/p>\n
The best goat in that sale was the high dollar one that went to Tolson and an un-named partner. \u00a0His mother was one of the wicked good All Jacked Up daughters that I had–MB2. \u00a0I never got to see that goat again. \u00a0But, his legacy is still around. \u00a0He became known as “2nd Mortgage”. \u00a0He was the maternal grandsire of the 2015 res. grand wether at Tulsa.<\/p>\n
And those purchased bucks? \u00a0FreakOnALeash sired the 2013 grand wether at OYE for Schneberger. \u00a0That goat did not make the wethers that I hoped for but he did leave a bomb set of females that are still generating. \u00a0I sold him back to Gallagher’s. \u00a0Joe Dirt and Rainman—well, I would need more space to write what those dudes have done. \u00a0Especially, their daughters.<\/p>\n
I don’t know if I could ever replicate 2010 in terms of gathering buck power. \u00a0The market and the industry has changed. \u00a0Too many that aren’t allowed to sell bucks, too many that don’t want to sell to me and maybe there aren’t very many good ones to be had. \u00a0I would spend the money on the right one(s). \u00a0And as a result of all of those previous bucks mentioned, I have some pretty good bucks of my own. \u00a0So, maybe I will just sit here in my little corner of NW OK. \u00a0Maybe. \u00a0Maybe not.<\/p>\n
Have a good one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The name of the game in the show goat industry is and always has been bucks. \u00a0If you have a bonafide producer of a buck, then you’re going to have fun. \u00a0Plus, you need a lot of bucks to gather those quality of bucks. In 2010, we had built a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1813"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1816,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813\/revisions\/1816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}