[Megan197]

So, I've had goats for I don't know... 6, 7 years now, however I'm only just recently getting into them and learning more about what to look for in a good goat, as up until now I just had a few Nigerians and a Mini Nubian more for just pets then anything, and the thing I can't figure out is udders! What does a good udder look like? We bought a Mini Nubian buckling and my sister went on about how hideous the mom's udder is, too me though it looked okay? Though it was a bad picture to begin with which didn't help. So I want to know, what's a good udder? Not going to post the picture of the buckling's mom's udder since it's not my goat or anything... but I do have some pictures of my niece's goat that we gave her 2 years ago, they had to move to a new house where they can't have goats so their goats have been at my house since last fall, so I've been the one milking her and taking care of her. Since she's out of mainly my goats, I'd like to know if her udder is a good or bad one haha!

This is her first freshening, and she's a 1st gen Mini Nubian.

First picture was a few days after kidding, this was with her single doeling nursing off her as we don't bottle feed. (Unless we have too of course, like with the buckling mentioned above!)

The 3 pictures after that were about a month later and after we'd started milking her to feed the buckling, and were taken on a 10-12 hour fill (forget exactly how long it was that day, whoops!)

 

[nicolemackenzie]

The biggest thing I'd fault her for is lack of overall attachment.

Her fore udder should blend smoothly into her belly.

 

[groovyoldlady]

Not a bad udder, but not a great one either. She shouldn't have a pocket or shelf in the front when she's full. The fore udder should, as Nicole said, blend smoothly into her belly area. My LaMancha has the same problem, so we bred her to a buck whose dam has an amazing udder with great attachments and blending.

The balance of udder looks great - one third in front of the rear legs, one third hidden by the leg and one third behind the leg. Her teat placement is perfect.

Her rear attachment looks weak and her medial attachment is not well pronounced. You want the rear udder to look high and wide. Your doe's looks a little pendulous instead. My Nigerian Dwarf has a similar rear udder, so I bred her to a buck whose dam has better attachments.

 

[Megan197]

Alright, thank you both very much! I had a feeling on the attachments, but I wasn't sure so wanted some other opinions. The next buck we get we're going to make sure has some really good udder genetics behind him, right now the buck we have may not have bad genetics but who knows, like I said my sister didn't like his mom's udder but LOVED his sire's dam's udder, so maybe we'll be lucky and his babies will have udder more like his grandma's haha! Thanks again!

 

[ThreeHavens]

Not a bad udder. With a stronger medial, and a wider rear attachment, it'd be gorgeous. So I'd look for a buck that has a dam who excels in those areas. :thumb:

 

[ptgoats45]

I have a doe with a pocket and just had linear appraisal... the appraiser said if she gains more depth of body/body capacity that would help the fore udder to blend more smoothly into the body. Basically if her belly gets lower and larger it should help to stretch those attachments out and make her fore udder look better.

It really is amazing how their udders will change from the first freshening to the second. I would breed her again and re-evaluate her next year.

 

[Megan197]

I will make sure to remember to look for that in our next buck's mother ThreeHavens, thank you!

I honestly never paid attention to my goat's udders until now so I didn't know how much they really changed after their first freshening, I'll make sure to see what her udder looks like next year as well and see how different it looks! Would be great if it happens to look even better, haha!