COVER BUCK:
We have created this magazine in order for 2024 advertisers to showcase their most recent photos of their bucks close to the last days of antler growth. We realize establishing a collective deadline for all states Fall magazines to pubish on the same date to obtain last minute photos would be impossible to achieve. With this magazine, advertisers have one more chance to showcase last minute pictures. ~ Thank you!
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A Day in the Life of a Deer Farmer’s Wife
By: Gail Veley • Sponsored by the Indiana Deer & Elk Farmers Association
There was a distinct spring in the step of Verlin Yoder and an urgency to his walk early one May morning several years ago, as he entered the kitchen of the home he’s shared with his wife Nadine since 2002. “There’s another fawn on the ground,” he announced with an expectant smile, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Nadine was right in the middle of bottle feeding their very own baby as well as tending to their 18-monthold daughter. As his smile was met with a stern gaze, raised eyebrows, heavy sigh and the unspoken question “are you kidding?” Verlin’s face turned perplexed. After all, Nadine had been gladly bottle feeding all their fawns at their deer farm, Clay Country Whitetails, in Millersburg, Indiana. What was one more? “I guess I wasn’t quite into it right then and there,” Nadine, 41, reflected. “We started off bottle feeding our fawns. We did it four to five times a day. I’ll never forget those nights. It was overwhelming. We eventually resolved it by not bottle feeding and instead imprinting them by walking through the pens to make our presence ‘second nature’ to them.”
Assisting with her husband’s dream to raise deer is something Nadine is still happy to do during breeding season and other times of the year, however, she also appreciates a schedule more conducive to other life responsibilities. Like Nadine, when Etta Stoltzfus’ husband John wanted to start his deer farm, Five Star Genetics in Shipshewana, Indiana in 2008, she supported his idea yet, honestly, wanted little if nothing to do with it personally. “That’s where I was at,” shared Etta, John’s devoted wife of 25 years and counting. “I had my three kids and school and my massage therapy job, and helping
with the deer was the furthest thing from my mind. But over time I slowly got sucked in.”
One spring afternoon, John brought home a fawn in a storage bin. “It had a broken leg and needed to be bottle fed,” Etta said, recalling what would be the beginning of her love-hate relationship with deer. “I had done my fair share of bottle-feeding calves and didn’t want to start something like that again. But now it was my first fawn, my baby, to take care of. We would let this fawn play outside and didn’t realize the leg might swell in the bandage. So, I had to take the fawn to the vet who was an hour away. I put it inside the bin and took his work pickup. I get there and I have to carry it inside and there’s this massive curious barking dog in there and everybody is looking at me strangely. The fawn starts panicking and kicking and I had to go wait outside for like 10 minutes. I thought ‘oh no Bambi is going to die!’ but they rewrapped the leg, and everything turned out fine. Now, I’m all in and love the fawns. There are many similarities with children and fawns. They are both so needy. But there’s something so different in the way
these little fawns think ‘here’s come Mama!!’ They are now my girls.”
Etta and Nadine both agree that behind every successful man is a woman who wants to help him out. “I get a little emotional talking about this,” Etta said. “John pours his heart into it and it’s what I love about him. And he never complains and to have deer at our house, it’s beautiful and has so much meaning for him and me along with joy.
Even the hard work.” Deer farming “has definitely made our marriage stronger,” Nadine added. “Verlin runs everything by me. We like to go out to the deer pens and just enjoy the serenity, just the two of us. That’s our time together.” Given the chance to do it all over again, perhaps neither Nadine nor Etta would change a thing. “If there are times when I feel I’m competing for his attention, John makes sure everyone is ok. There have been times he’s working hours and hours and days and days, and I go work alongside him. When you ask if it’s ‘taken him away from me’ I’d say no. It’s very fulfilling to realize a dream together and to know you’re a part of it.”
“Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to interview for state assotiation sponsored articles and share your knowledge and experiece with others. We appreciate your dedication and commitment to the industy!”
“See this and other articles in your associaion magazines!”
