Friday's Internet Edition, September 05, 2008.
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| Tad Nance walks among the many donkeys he is raising and selling from the Nance farm on Lasater Road. |
The Clemmons Courier - For over a week, the Nance family pastures, just outside Clemmons, have provided an eye-catching sight. The pastures appear covered with three sizes of donkeys, peacefully grazing in one of the last livestock farms in Forsyth County.
Owner Ted Nance is a third generation livestock dealer. His grandfather was a horse trader in Tennessee, and Ted and his own father moved to Clemmons in 1952 and opened Nance Stock Farm. Ted’s son Tad and grandson Tevis are interested in the never-a-dull-moment occupation. Tad works at Roadway, but the donkeys reside in his pastures.
Why so many donkeys? Ted Nance answered, “Donkeys are real popular now. My partner found these donkeys in Asheboro, and the man who owned them started with six and raised them to these 50.”
“Donkeys make wonderful pets,” said Nance. “When they’ve been broke, they are gentle as lambs, like these I bought are. Donkey sales are more lucrative today than horse sales. Horse sales are down. Right now, I only have one horse to sell in my pasture.”
Tad Nance said, “The bigger donkeys are often bought to take care of predators on farms. The donkeys stomp and kill coyotes, which are showing up more and more around here. Recently we lost our family pet rabbit and think a coyote got it.”
Since the donkeys arrived at the Nance farm, the word is out and people are arriving with trucks and trailers to buy the friendly little animals. Ted said he was coming home from church last week and saw a man waiting by his truck to buy a donkey. “I took off my coat and tie and helped him load up three. He said he would be back to buy a couple more after his wife got used to the idea of having donkeys in their pasture.”
Donkeys sell from $500 up to $1,250, Nance said. Tad said there are three sizes: miniature, standard and mammoth. Females are called jennys and males are jacks. On a visit to the Nance farm, the jacks were the noisiest, with loud, raucous braying, as they pranced around, attempting to impress and launch a courtship with the jenny of their choice.