I looked at two bucks today. Before I went out, I was sure which one I wanted to breed my girls to. I have two to breed. However, when I went out there, the original one I went to see was very appealing but then I looked at her second buck and he is as well!
Now I am not sure which boy to use. They both have great lines. One, LeRoy, is from the same herd as I bred one of my does to so one of the girls I breed will be from the same herd. LeRoy's dad fathers does with huge orifices. The other, Merle, is from the same lines as my original doe (and all those since then).
LeRoy has blue eyes and I might get a blue-eyed kid since there are blue eyes in my does' background. Merle has gold eyes, like my Capri (mother to both of those I will breed), undoubtedly from a common "ancestor" since they are both Camanna goats. The only gold-eyed goat I have from Capri is my little buck who must leave (too closely related to my does and I cannot have bucks in town).
These are the boys. I would love your thoughts. Of course, like most of us, my goal is great milk and preferably easy to get.
http://www.puddlehaven.com/bucks.html
If it matters in your response, this my little buck's pedigree and, of course, representative of all my does. One of the does to be bred is his mom and the other is his mom's half sister (shared mother).
https://vanedengoats.wordpress.com/2016/04/16/moonlights-pedigree/
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I pretty much decided on Merle, at least for Dollie, after I saw them both even though I only went out to look at LeRoy who came from the same farm as Dollie's dad. Leroy's line has a lot of good milkers, at least on that farm. Sadly, she sold her goats when they were planning to move, so I cannot breed Summer to Chip (Dollie's dad) which would have been a good match.
Being able to have a buck, even if you rent one, is an advantage. It can be a challenge to first find a buck whose owner does outside breeding. Most who do will only do driveway breeding - with one buck it was five or six visits with two different does and only one pregnancy that ended in tragedy (no surviving babies). There was a lot of time and a lot of money wasted that season. So I need someone who will let the doe stay at least a few hours. Then you have the challenge of getting the doe there while she is in standing heat. Frankly, I was very spoiled while Joann (from whom I bought my goats) was alive and I first had two great bucks to choose from. Sadly, after one died after she did, her husband bought another who is a mean goat and responsible for the death of her second one. The mean one is the one who sired my cryptorchid.
Thank you ever so much for responding, Deborah. You validated the way I was leaning.
I'd be partial to Merle because he is almost entirely Pholia Farms, which is a dairy with great milkers. But I'm simply not as familiar with the other pedigree, so they could be good milkers too.
As for the blue eyes, they're dominant in goats, so half of Leroy's kids will have blue eyes if he's bred to a brown-eyed goat. It doesn't matter if blue eyes are farther back in a goat's pedigree. This post explains the genetics behind blue eyes, as well as polled goats:
https://thriftyhomesteader.com/genetics-polled-goats/
You're kind of lucky that you can't buy a buck. You can always use a different one next year.