Udderly Educational

This is an udder.

A very nice udder, in fact. To qualify as a good udder, it must have a high, wide rear attatchment, and no "pocket" in the front attatchment. The teats should not be too small, or too long.

Both of those sizes cause problems when it comes time to milk. Too small, and you need a 3-year old to do your milking - or resign yourself to milking with two fingers, which takes a LONG time, if you are trying to empty a 2-qt udder. Too long, and the teats are at risk for damage. I cringe thinking about that one...

As you may be able to tell, this is a very milk-able udder, for a normal size person's hand.

This is Jolene's Toggenburg, "Little Girl" - she is about 2/3 the size of usual Togs. Don't know why, she just is. However, she is a very good producer, and has very nice conformation.

What's that? Oh, you want to know about caprine conformation. OK. A good milking doe is rather wedge-shaped, from head to the back of her tummy area. A nice round barrel (the part that holds the lungs and other innards) means she has good "spring of rib", which indicates she has adequate room to carry a couple of babies - a desirable trait.

Her hip bones should stick up - have you ever noticed the size of a Holstein cow's hip bones??? That's a dairy trait, for your information. And so is having the backbone knobs visable, as well as some rib outline. But all those bones should still have a layer of meat over them, we're not talking emaciated here.

There's more, but that should get you started. There are nice goat books at the library if you want to carry on.

As you can see, Little Girl is a nicely conformed goat. OK, take my word for it. She is.

She is on the milking stand. Only it's not really a conventional goat milk stand. It's a sheep grooming stand. But it's dadgummed handy for milking, let me tell you. See that winch in front? The goat (sheep) walks onto the platform when it is flat on the ground. You fasten the collar to encourage them not leaping off, and start cranking the handle. Up it comes, slick as a whistle! By the way...did you know that old saying came from whittling willow whistles? You knock the bark loose to make it slip off the whistle, after you carve the holes in it..."slick as a whistle". See, you can learn all kinds of things here.
The goats get to eat some yummy grain while they get milked - it encourages them to stand still, for one thing. And they need extra nutrition when they are pumping out that milk.

This is "Sassy". She is a Toggenburg and LaMancha cross.

Yes, those are normal ears. For a LaMancha, anyway. Here's another bit of goat lore. At the county fair in Olympia one year, I overhead a goat project 4-Her explaining to a puzzled visitor just why the LaMancha has short ears. When baby goats (kids) are born, they have short ears. The babies are also very wet, and must be hung to dry. By the ears, of course. Owners of Nubian goats, which is a breed that has very long pendulous ears, really love their goats, and leave them hanging a long time to make sure they are well-dried. Owners of Swiss breeds, like Alpines and Toggenburgs, aren't quite so diligent, and take the kids down before they are fully dry - hence the medium length, upright ears. But LaMancha owners just don't give a rip, they toss those wet babes right out to pasture with the mamas, and so the ears never get properly stretched.

Guess what breed of goat that 4-Her was showing...

There are actually two types of LaMancha (a Spanish breed) ears. One is almost non-existant, just little tiny round ears, called "gopher ears". Sassy has "elf ears" (for obvious reasons), they frequently occur with a LaMancha cross breeding.

But as those of us who are wise in the way of caprine lore always say...you don't milk the ears, so it doesn't make any difference what length they are. We are usually the LaMancha owners...
(NOTE: I have NO IDEA why this changes color - I did a cut and paste process to move some text, and now I can't seem to fix it, so just consider it an amusing addition to your reading experience. Ideas? Anyone????)

One more bit of information. Goats have thick coats. In the summer it is a good idea to clip them down to a shorter length, for comfort. A comfortable goat is a more productive goat.

Sassy had never been clipped before (she is only two, this is her first milking season). She was a very good girl, stood very still - or was that paralyzed with fear? Anyway, it didn't take long for her hair appointment.

Note the stand again. It's really a nifty tool. When you are trying to groom a 245 pound ram for a show, this comes in quite handy. Jolene claims it takes three people to get said ram on a grooming stand, if you don't have one of these portable winch stands. I believe her.

Than was a good assistant. He kept the girls occupied by feeding them dandelion leaves.

See? Even goats, who are erroneously purported to eat cans, know how good dandelions are for your health.

I'll take the girls some Apple Dandelion cookies when I go milk this evening. THEY know a good thing when they eat it!

No, you will not start lactating if you eat dandelions.