Who's Your Daddy?

Yesterday afternoon Cocoa's 2009 doeling (sired by BullyBob), Evelyn, presented us with a fine black-and-white, blue-eyed buckling. He's a bit skittish around me, as is Evelyn--a behavior she learned from her own mother, as Cocoa has never been a cuddly goat. A fine-looking little buckling, this guy is a good example of line breeding. "Line breeding" is a polite way to express incestuous breeding and is used when the outcome is good. When the outcome is undesirable, the same breeding would be called "cross breeding." By either name, the result is the same, which is to say that when asked "Who's your daddy, Little Guy?" the answer will be: "Why, my daddy is my granddaddy, of course!"

With BullyBob as both his sire and his maternal grandsire, the new buckling has been named BullyJoe.

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For readers interested in keeping one or more goats, printed resources abound. I like Sue Weaver's guide books. Written for the person without any prior caprine experience, they provide a wonderful introduction for aspiring hobby farmers.