A Chance to say Goodbye

This morning I said goodbye to our Boer buck Chance as we waited for his new owner to pick him up. Chance has been our main herdsire for more than three years now, he was the start of our colored Boer program and he has been a great buck for us. I have had him so long and saw so many great kids of his born; it felt a little bit like an end of an era. Chance was a little too good at his job here, because he produced so many nice, colorful does for us that we have kept for our own herd that the ol’boy just worked him self out of a job. Now we have too many of his daughters in our herd and only a handful of does not too closely related to him to breed him too. I also knew this was the best thing for him, bucks are not pets and he would not be happy stuck in his pasture watching all the other bucks “get the girls” so to speak.

Always the considerate fellow, the usually very cooperative Chance did do his best to make saying goodbye a little bit easier for me by pulling on his lead rope like a super sized sled dog at the Iditarod start line and being on his very worst behavior this morning. Actually I think he was just worried about the does he has been pining over from the other side of the fence the last month or so while he has been in rut. He is on his way to a new home and some new girlfriends today, and I am sure once he sees those pretty new does he will forget all about his old girlfriends here, he is still a male after all. I don’t know about our does, but I know I won’t ever forget him and his colorful influence will live on through his daughters here on our farm for a very long time to come as the chief herdsire torch has now been passed to the other bucks here on our farm. So long old friend, I am so glad I had the “Chance” to know you.