Field of Dreams
Christmas time comes early at Rocco Sloboda's deer farm in Boyers.
As of June 9, he had 17 gifts — eight male, or bucks, and 9 female, or does, newborn whitetail deer.
Six or seven more gifts from his herd at Fantasy Whitetails are expected by the end of June.
“Christmas for me comes in May and June,” Sloboda said.
That is a metaphor he often uses, but it belies the work and planning that go into breeding and raising deer.
The fruits of his labor aren't realized until his does give birth.
For the last few years he has been adding piebald deer to his herd by breeding them with normal brown-colored deer. He doesn't know what the fawns from the crossbreeding will look like until they are born.
His piebald fawns are the offspring of the mating or artificial insemination of piebald deer and piebald-brown crossbreed deer. The results are deer that are three-quarters piebald and one quarter brown.Crossing piebalds with browns is done to produce piebalds with larger antlers than they usually grow, Sloboda said.A piebald buck with antlers measuring 140 to 160 inches and a brown whitetail sporting antlers in the 200-inch class are considered trophies.“If you can put a piebald on the ground that's 200 inches, you can sell them quickly. Browns enhance antler growth,” Sloboda said.Two piebalds are among the seven 3-year-old bucks he currently has for sale.Most of his sales are to privately-owned hunting operations. He sells 200-inch brown bucks for about $3,500 and piebalds for more.People who hunt on private hunting reserves prefer bucks with large, typical antlers, Sloboda said. After they harvest a trophy typical deer, some try for a deer with nontypical antlers.Typical antlers are ones that are the same on both sides of a deer's head. Nontypical antlers can have a different number of tines on each antler or drop tines that point down.After that, they look for something different like piebald deer, he said.“There is definitely a market for piebald, especially a big one,” said Cory Thomas, owner of Valley View Velvet Whitetails in Hanoverton, Ohio. “It's always a challenge to get a big piebald.”
Thomas, who also sells deer to private hunting operations, said he has bought several deer from Sloboda, and Sloboda has bought several deer from him.He said deer with large typical antlers are what hunting operations want most, but they also look for different types of trophy deer.Producing a trophy piebald is a challenge because most of the genetic qualities in deer are passed to offspring from their mothers and it takes years to find the right buck-doe mating combination to produce trophy offspring.“There's a lot of science and a lot of thought to it. The doe is 70 percent of the puzzle to grow big deer,” Thomas said.Piebald is an inherited genetic trait that occurs in less than 1 percent of the wild deer population, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.Piebalds should not be confused for the even rarer albino deer, even though both can have completely white coats.Albinism is the complete lack of pigment caused by a malfunction of the pituitary gland that leaves deer sensitive to sunlight and exposure. Many die at a young age, the commission said.Sloboda said he doesn't breed albinos into his herd.
He and his wife, Darlene, take a hands-on approach to help all of their newborn piebald fawns and some brown newborns reach adulthood by bottle-feeding them with milk.“You're the mother. You have to bottle-feed that fawn for 81 days,” Sloboda said.The fawns get bottles four times a day at first and the number is gradually reduced as the young ones grow.He said all piebald fawns are bottle-fed to make sure they are healthy. Brown deer fawns are bottle-fed if the mother doesn't feed them. Most older does tend to their offspring, but some first-time mothers don't, he said.Sloboda, 71, and his wife, 70, experimented with powdered milk, but mixing and bottling added too much to the workload at their farm. They now feed the babies vitamin D whole milk.“You really get attached to them,” Sloboda said.However, deer are individuals and some form bonds with the Slobodas and some don't, he said.Their grandson, Cole, also helps out at the farm.Despite the assistance, the Slobodas are considering selling the 400-acre farm. Rocco said he has had health issues recently.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
