Peacock Boer Goats is a family farm comprised of Chris, Carla, Emily (15), Morgan (13), and Lauren (10) Peacock. They are located at Winchester, Indiana and have had boer goats since 1999. You can find out more about Peacock Boer Goats at http://www.peacockboergoats.net or 1221 E. 100 S., Winchester, IN 47394, phone (765) 584-1783. The following article was written by Emily and Morgan and tells their story of buying a tremendous buck that they later learned was labeled a "beast" and taming him into a champion. It is to be published in the IBGA Magazine January 2003 edition.

The Story of Hank By Emily and Morgan Peacock

Like many boer goat farms, our farm began as a 4-H project. Our first year, both goats died from unbelievable circumstances. Emily's wether died of a twisted intestine and her doe dropped over dead while she was leading her in the barnyard. Our second year involved two does and a wether. They lived through the county fair, but one of the does broke her leg soon after (she just had twins). The third year was just as difficult as Emily's wether died on the second day of the county fair of acute enterotoxemia prior to showing. We have learned a lot in the past three years and are using this to move forward with our boer goat herd.

Our boer goat herd had grown to the point where we needed to purchase a buck. We had been watching web pages and other advertisements, when one sale caught our attention. It was the "Sale of Allstars 2" sale in Franklin, Indiana. We called one of the breeders involved in the sale, Kerry Davidson of 7 D Boer Goats who told us there were some very good quality bucks in the sale and that it would be a good sale to attend. He sent us a sale catalog.

When we went to the auction, we had several bucks in mind. However, once looking at the bucks, one in particular stood out to us due to his length and muscling. He was B & P Hank of B & P Boer Goats, that was sired by Bodacious Olu and out of Permanent Champion 7D's Margo. He had great bloodlines and Hank's brother, B & P Kuu, was already a two time Junior Champion, having won the Illinois and Indiana State Fair Shows. We had a family meeting over lunch to decide which bucks we would bid on, what order we would rank the bucks, and how much we were willing to spend on each one. It was hard for us to talk about any buck other than Hank because we liked him so much. When we went back to look all of the bucks over to make sure of our top choices, Hank growled and tried to bite Morgan. Dad said it was just because he was excited with all the people around him.

When Hank finally came up for bidding, we were sure that we wouldn't get him. It seemed like nearly everyone was bidding on him and the price got higher than we discussed. Then dad decided he would bid a little higher and on his absolute highest bid we got Hank. Dad says that you have to have a good buck and he felt this was too good of a buck to pass up. After we had bought Hank, people told us that they thought he might be better than his brother and that we should show him. We were also told about the Midwest Meat Goat Producers Association Show coming up in three weeks and decided to go if we could break Hank to lead.

Our hopes of showing Hank went down once we unloaded him at home. He seemed upset to be in a different place and excited after the long day. We could not get him to calm down. Finally, we put some other goats in with him and he settled down. The next three weeks we worked with Hank a lot. Sometimes, we would just catch him and pet or brush him. Other times, dad would try to lead him around. He seemed to like us, but did not like to be led. He was too strong for us to handle. Finally, about a day before the show, Emily could lead Hank around the barn, but did not think she should try to show him. So, dad said he would try to show Hank this time. We decided to take one doe for each of us girls to show.

The day of the show, we left real early. All the goats were cleaned up and ready to show. By the time we got to the Johnson County fairgrounds, Hank was dirty, so we had to wash him. Emily and Morgan both washed him while dad tried to find a dryer to use. We saw Brian and Patty McGill, whom we had bought Hank from and asked to use their dryer. They seemed really pleased to see Hank again and were great to help us. After drying Hank, Emily led him back to the pen, which seemed to surprise Brian and Patty. It was then that McGills told us that they had wanted to show Hank, but couldn't get him to lead good enough. Brian said he had tried nearly everything to break Hank, but nothing worked. They were surprised that Emily was able to lead him back to the pen without any problems but said that Hank's attitude had begun to improve the week before the auction.

As it got nearer show time, several people had offered advice and some had even offered equipment. This was our first big show. McGills offered a collar they use to show their larger boer goats and Dick Davidson of 7 D Boer Goats loaned us some lead straps so that all of us would have a leather strap for the show. Hank was acting great, but Emily still didn't want to show him. He won his 9 month class and was crowned Junior Grand Champion for the show. The does placed well too and we had a lot of fun. Afterwards, the judge told us that we should keep showing Hank to make him a Permanent Champion as he feels he is an awesome buck.

Since the Midwest Meat Goat Producers Association Show, we have added a couple of high quality does to compliment Hank. We have also developed a web page at http://www.globalsite.net/cpeacock where people can see what is going on with our boer goat herd. We also plan to participate in several open shows next year and show at the Indiana State Fair.

Peacock Boer Goats has become a great family project for us. All three of us girls love to work with and show boer goats. Our goal is to produce top-quality show and breeding stock and to keep having fun. We would also like to help other people get started with boer goats and sell our animals at reasonable prices. Whatever happens down the road, we have learned a lot along the way and plan to learn more in the future. We've got a great start to our herd with B & P Hank.