I never intended to keep Sakke.
For one thing, she is a Minty/Epic kid, a cross that I wasn't terribly keen on. There were just things in that line that I wanted to cull from my herd, pertaining both to conformation and to temperament. Minty herself always seemed to have small kids, which meant they were always just a little behind the bench marks of where healthy, thriving kids ought to be. She had also become a very dominant doe in the herd, something I do not like to see and try to avoid.
And as for Sakke, she is the most independent of the kids born this year. She's not shy or difficult. She just doesn't really give a rip.
Sometimes she's friendly and sociable, sometimes she hardly even looks at me when I go out to the mini barn. Again, that's not a deal breaker, but I do specifically try to breed for good temperaments in my goats.
So what with one thing and another, I had put Miss Sakke on the for-sale list this summer without much hesitation.
However, there's one thing about Sakke that I hadn't factored in. She is a very unique color.
Of course, I don't care overmuch about color. To me, if a goat is a good milker, with nice conformation and a sweet personality, she can be solid brown and it really doesn't matter. Not flashy or interesting, but who cares? Still, I do raise these goats to sell, and color, as ultimately meaningless as it may be, does sell. As she was described to me, I originally registered Sakke as "silver." A black base color with white hairs salted through it, giving a striking silvery impression.
And then I got to thinking. Because mom, Minty, was solid black, and dad, Epic, was black-and-white, my assumption had been that Sakke's coloring had come from that combination. But it was pointed out to me that Mogen, another kid who I do plan to keep, was similar. Her base color is brown but with the same silvery effect of white hairs scattered through the coat. Mogen is a Velvet/Petra kid, nothing whatever to do with Epic, the color king.
And it struck me that we had seen that color pattern before, years ago, in a couple of kids sired by my old buck, Rock.
It's a color called roan, and it's not seen very often. Rock was considered a red roan -- brown base with white hairs, like his granddaughter, Mogen. Sakke, with her black base color and also a granddaughter to Rock, would be classed as a blue roan. Even less common and more special.
And so the age-old question presented itself: Should I keep her after all?
Both her parents have been sold. I haven't had a blue roan on my hands for years, and it may be years before I have another. Besides that, Minty was an amazing milker, producing about a gallon and a half every day. If Sakke is anything like her mom, she will be well worth hanging onto.
And I had already registered her in my herd, under the official name of Rocky Sakke, as a shout out to her granddad. And that was before I even knew about the color connection. Maybe it was just meant to be.
Okay, so I'm keeping her. I'm such a sucker. Rocky Sakke is here to stay. I have my blue roan, plus Mogen, the red roan, and my good boy, Rock, lives on in this special legacy. I think Sakke knows she's a keeper, too. She's already acting sweeter.
