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Southern by choice
Herd Master
@Wehner Homestead the things you want to improve on is where the buck comes in.... do you have a buck already and do you know how he contributes?
Udders- Good/Bad/Ugly/Improved UPDATED! 3/12/18
- Thread starter Southern by choice
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Wehner Homestead
Herd Master
I do have a buck already and I'm getting another. I'll post them...
King: He is unproven. Nellie's spring kids will be his first. I'll post the required pics. First two are King. (He hasn't been shaved yet. I'll do that in the spring.) Next three pics are his dam and her udder.
King: He is unproven. Nellie's spring kids will be his first. I'll post the required pics. First two are King. (He hasn't been shaved yet. I'll do that in the spring.) Next three pics are his dam and her udder.
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Wehner Homestead
Herd Master
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Southern by choice
Herd Master
how old is he? Is he adga registered?
Wehner Homestead
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OneFineAcre
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Bayleaf Meadows
True BYH Addict
Basically, I would like to add width. My goal is to have udders like Zamia, OFA's doe. That's why I have a buck out of Zamia with some good width on him to sire some of next year's kids.
Fullhousefarm
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Off to find some udder pictures... I probably have a hundred. How many do you want?
Fullhousefarm
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This is Secret a grade LM, FF. She has a super easy to milk udder, nice size teats, and great attachments. Yes, she's larger in body, but she outmilked one 6 yr old 4F, and almost tied with my herd's highest producer, another 6 yr old. (We are on milk test- so it's cool to see.) We don't have her dam anymore, but we did have her as a FF and Secret is a huge improvement on her dam, though her dams udder was correct, just not as capacious. This is normal morning milking fill early in lactation. We separate at night and they dam raise babies and are with them all day. She milked over 10# a day for over 6 months, and is past 305 days now. I'd like to see her teats point more down and she has a pretty significant pocket in her foreudder when very full. I'll try to find a side photo. I'm sure I have one from a fair.
This a 5 yr old 4th F. She is always complemented on her rear udder. Her udder is well balanced with a nice foreudder as well. She really needs larger teats for all this milk. She is very hard to milk by hand when she's full every morning early in lactation. Thankfully I have a machine. Honestly, this doe just needs more body capacity. She's nice, but is "always the bridesmaid, never the bride" because she needs a body to match her udder.
This is Trixie. 5 yr old 3rd freshener in this pic. She's actually 6 and due in 10 days now. She's a super strong milker who is easy to milk by hand. She milked over 18 months her first lactation. Her udder isn't full in this photos because she does get much fuller in that top portion. She usually has to be milked before kidding because she gets super engorged a week prior to kidding and leaks everywhere. She has really nice oraphaces and would be a great "homesteading doe" and is a good herd queen. She could use a wider estuchen, IMO, and really needs more width between her front legs as well. Room for improvement, but a good foundation.
Here is part of our Nigerian herd last January. You can see the doe on the right, Wattles has a very tight well attached udder that hides her milk. Great for longevity, not as impressive in the show ring. (None of these goats were significantly uddered for show. They had only been in milk a month so I go 12-14 hours and that's it because I don't want to kill milk production this early on- especially for a 3 days show.) Orchid is second from the left. She could use better attachment but it's not bad for the huge volume her little baby cranks out effortlessly every freshening (1223lb in 304 days this year for my milk test nerds). Queeny is next. She needs her teats to point more directly down for sure, but she has a really nice udder too, more similar to Wattles, actually. On the far left is Spice who ended up lop sided last year. She just freshened again two days ago, though, and I have to say her udder is not huge or super impressive like Orchid's but it is most correct in teat placement of all the Nigerians we have. She wasn't milked at all before we got her (6 months before this freshening shown) so I'm excited to see her full potential this year. She did earn her milk star last year despite me going to once a day with her around 4 months into her lactation and her baby was sold before that.
None of these does were bred by us- so not a lot of consistency. My goal is to blend Orchid's udder with the style of Wattles/Queeny and hopefully get the best of both. Next year Wattles and Queen will both be bred to Orchid's son out of OFA Lord Drinian. We have retained two of Queen's daughters who will freshen in the spring.
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- #70
Southern by choice
Herd Master
These are great pics and examples @Fullhousefarm
Do you have any pics of how they milk out?
Love the capacity.
I like a higher udder, so far we have that but we definitely lack capacity.
We have made some recent changes so we are hoping it is going to help. Our does come from high production Lamanchas yet ours are not producing anything like their dams (dams are #14-#16). We have an issue with our goats NOT eating any mineral... I think this causes the feed and hay to do more with keeping them healthy but is preventing them from utilizing the feed to make milk. Basically the lack of minerals IMO is a key factor- not with the nigerians, they are fine it is the Standards. UGH- Any thoughts?
We have tried so many minerals- they will NOT touch them
We just started a new kind and they are actually eating them... so we will see.
Adding the cobalt block as well.
On the one you wish had bigger teats... how is her skin? very dairy? So so? Not?
We notice the goats that have the best dairy skin have teats that plump better...
