Piebald Deer Add Color To Whitetail Deer Herd

Piebald Deer Add Color To Whitetail Deer Herd LIVESTOCK Miscellaneous “When the fawns are born it’s like an Easter egg hunt You don’t know what color they will be ” says Gary Nelson of the piebald deer in his whitetail deer herd The brown and white deer — sometimes with blue eyes — stand out in the herd and have a “Wow” factor that attracts customers “A piebald steals the spotlight from other deer on a farm Visitors are drawn to them ” he adds Nelson and his brothers own and operate Wild Rivers Whitetails in Fence Wis and have 40 piebald bucks and does in their mostly brown whitetail herd In the business of raising deer and offering hunts for 19 years they share their knowledge about genetics breeding and deer behavior on TV through “Wild Rivers Whitetails” on the Pursuit Channel Piebald deer aren’t the result of inbreeding Nelson emphasizes to dispel a common misconception Genetic research indicates it’s a dominant gene and when a piebald is bred to a brown deer there is a 50/50 chance of getting a piebald In many cases with twins one is brown and one is piebald He also noticed that if there is white hair around an eye that eye is often blue If the other eye is surrounded by brown hair it can be brown Piebald deer are raised like other whitetail deer and there are no problems with mixing them with other deer The Nelsons breed their piebald deer with brown whitetails because brown deer have better antler development which is important to game farm owners and hunters “Most of the piebalds are purchased as fawns ” Nelson says “A lot of the value is on the marking of the deer Just a white star on the forehead is not worth as much as a deer with a mottled pattern all over its body Doe fawns sell for $1 500 to $5 000 Bucks are 50 percent higher ” There has been growth in the market with a relatively strong demand for piebald bucks on hunting ranches Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Gary Nelson Wild Rivers Whitetails N20549 Lafave Dr Fence Wis 54120 ph 715 336-2949; www wildriverswhitetails com

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