Criteria for a yearling buck breeder?

Please list your personal criteria in no particular order, for choosing a yearling as backup/breeder. Antler dimensions, spread ,configuration, pedigree etc

.Im looking and have found one im looking at pretty hard. If I can decide I will post pictures soon.

Richie I understand where your coming from, I havent neccessarily ever used any semen from a yearling in the past. I have made purchases of yearling semen, and have yet to be disapointed.I have about twelve does that I plan to AI this fall. This yearling im considering for backup would have name brand stuffing his pedigree. He is a 6x6 mainframe with a few extras. He is 20" inside with twelve inch tines est. him @ 195" mostly frame. My question again would be if you were in my situation ,what would your criteria be? Thanks for your comments Sharkey, alot of people dont pay a lot of attention to physical attributes or temprament anymore.

I agree with you Russ to a point but, if you are concerned more about selling production than a" hot look " you should make more in the long run. The sons will be yearlings when your so called" beauty buck" is three. By then his offspring will be a hit making their sire look good or will fade away. The fact is usually the more experienced breeders will look past a mild gain between age one & two. By three his body should be just about caught up anyway, thereby showing pretty much what his concreted characteristics are. I cant blame anyone for making breeding decisions as they see fit. If you want to buy for hype, you might hit a homerun or you strike out. Im not a deer broker. Some invest in deer annually who dont plan on doing anything but turning semen over, im not like these kinds of people. The semen I have purchased in the past was for a specific breeding. Those breeding plans may have changed for a more suited sire who was not necessarily more popular but would fit the equation best. I have put semen up for sale in the past, but usually what doesnt sell ends up being used in breeding preserve does. I usually buy the semen I intend to use as far in advance as possible, usually the year before. Looking at your breeding two "plays" in advance is your best move. Sometimes we just have to fly by the seat of our pants and hope it was the best decision. My situation is like this. I split partnership this past February. I ended up with no bucks, by choice. That might sound crazy till you understand what I ended up with was the factories and the heart of twelve yrs of devotion. I was able to talk my ex-partner into leaving "ROLO" on my farm for the summer. Believe me its been hard not to look at a bunch of bucks. Rolo will leave in the fall. I will need a backup buck for AI. This yearling is a grandson of Maxbo Ranger . I like wide yearlings because they usually get wider with age. He already has twelve inch tines and huge mainframe. My initial question was what criteria do you look for in a yearlings dimensions. For example # of tines, length of tines ,main beam length, spread, do tines lay in or out, do beams curve in or square out, mass in any or all areas?

Wayne and Rodney, you guys are speaking the truth. Thanks for the posts!

Chris what are you calling a great yearling buck? I ask because I have seen top name brand stuff end up being duds as yearlings. Face it , the reason we pick out a certain deer in the first place is because it caught our eye. Then we analyze every tier in the pedigree to see if it has and should give you what your looking for. As far as advertising at an early age , absolutely nothing wrong. I have simmered on yearlings till they were two just to see if my hunch paid off. Most of the time my gut instinct is dead on. The area I feel should be most addressed like Russ said is in your end product (shooters) anyway. After saying all this, all I want to do is grow big bone because im a hoarder!!! I need to cover my bills, but I could care less if I ever sold the bucks or semen ,lol