4 Teats are Better than ABGA's Preferred 2 Teats

I have created a video showing some information and examples of the benefits of 4 teats. You can see it at

4 Teats are Better

Here are the sections this article will cover

• Why change the standards to say 2 functional teats are PREFERRED?
• What was the justification for making the change to the standards?
• What Research has been done by ABGA or other groups?
• What are the results of Members Polled on 2 teats vs 4 teats?
• Does the ABGA board really want the standards to guide breeders toward producing better teat structures?
• Be careful what you wish for.

I believe this is being done for certain breeders to be able to market their animals for premium prices. This is very similar to the major hoax that some breeders pulled on the industry several years ago related to if certain Boer goats were South African or not.  Certain major breeders started advertising their animals as the South African genetics and the other Boer goats in the US were not South African Boer goats. In reality, all Boer goat genetics originated from South Africa. However, it was decided Boers being imported from Australia or New Zealand were not considered South African while the major breeders were bringing in the same type of genetics through Canada and claiming they were South African. IBGA made it worse by listing a SA at the end of the ID to signify that the animal had no bloodlines that came from Australia or New Zealand. That was sad, but new breeders demanded animals they purchased were full South African and they paid a premium for that.

Now, certain breeders are breeding for 2 teated does and they want to get a premium for that characteristic. Because it will now be in the standard in 2012, judges will rate does with 2 teats better than the same quality doe with 4 teats. More wins in the ring, the higher the premium buyers will pay for the animal and yet those animals may not be able to do as good of a job raising new born kids. The focus on 2 teats is a marketing effort by a select number of breeders.

In any sort of REAL business, standards or products are not changed just to make a change. A real business will state before hand some specific problem with a standard or product that needs correcting to resolve the problem. Or a business may decide that a standard or product is OK but it could be improved to make a better product by changing the standard. An example would be "it is harder for a doe with single teats to raise triplets and get the same rate of growth as a doe with 4 functional teats." Nothing like this was done. A few board members have specific plans as to what they are breeding for and they want the world to follow their lead without any justification.  The board never does that and that is why members can't tell if the board did a good job or not because they have nothing to measure to see if the changes to the standard were successful. The justification for this change in the standard is based upon what certain breeders want to breed for and get premium prices because they meet the new standards and what judges will be looking for in the future.

I have sat through several seminars where one of the main ABGA directors presented Boer Goats 101 to explain what the standards are and why. Each time I have asked what the importance of 2 teats vs 4 teats are. I have gotten the same answer each time and I fully understand that it is not a valid answer and is also misleading. The two reasons I have been given for 2 teats better than 4 teats are the following:

1. Sometimes a newborn kid can starve to death trying to nurse on a dummy teat.
2. When there are two teats per side they are not side by side on the same level like a cow's udder.

Now the first reason for 2 teats being better than 4 teats is intentionally misleading the members. The standards talk about 2 functional teats or 4 functional teats. When the director said that a newborn can starve to death on a dummy teat, that means the doe had a dummy teat and a functional teat and that is not 4 functional teats. That sounds logical but it is not and they try to slip in dummy teats instead of functional teats in their justification for 2 teats. However, even with a dummy teat, a newborn kid will not continue to try nursing on a dummy teat until they die. We are with 95% of our newborn kids and watch each kid to make sure they successfully nurse within 2 hours. We have never seen a newborn just stay on a dummy teat and not continue to look for milk in other places. Kids look on fences, the mothers front legs and everywhere else to find milk. If there is a dummy teat, that means there is also a functional teat also. That is equivalent to a single teat and a dummy. Why did the newborn not find the single teat if the single teat is the best. Most of the time it is because the single functional teat is at the very bottom of the udder and very difficult to find or may never find. That is the very justification for our wanting to have 4 functional teats.

The director described the two teats per side not being at the bottom of the udder as if that is a serious problem when it really is a major reason for wanting it. Following up on the last sentence, the best placements for the 2 teats per side are one being higher than the other with good separation like is shown in the video. The newborn kids are always looking higher than the teats normally are but the first one they will find is the higher one. The sooner they find that teat and start nursing, the sooner they start getting colostrum that gives them their first immunity to future problems. That higher teat also is farther away from the back leg so it is easier to find. Single teats are almost always at the bottom of the udder and are the hardest to find. That alone makes 4 teats better than single teats.

What research has ABGA board done related to 2 teat vs 4 teat. None that I know of. However, there has been published research that ABGA has ignored. Here is a link to the research (teat research).  Thanks to Nan Walker for bringing this research to our attention. Here is a major statement from the research.

 "As a result, and in contrast to other breeds (Angora, dairy breeds and others), multiple teats are more prevalent in the Boer breed."

That means it is natural for Boers to have multiple teats. This only makes sense when you remember one of the major benefits of the Boer breed is their ability to have more kids than other breeds of goats. If you are going to have more kids, why would nature not provide the ability for the mothers to take care of more kids? ABGA's focus is on show animals and nice, neat single teats. The meat goat industry is focused on each doe weaning more total weight of kids with a minimum of  breeder management required. ABGA has totally missed the boat on this and continually ignores the fact that Boers are a "meat goat"

Here are some other good thoughts from the observant breeder that brought the report to our attention.

• "Out of 125 goats at Bandera, only 29 animals came from parents with 1&1 teat structure - or 23%.    It also appears that when a 1&1 teated animal is bred to a multi-teated animal (more than 1 per side functional) - the multiple teats is the dominant result!
• Out of 120 goats at Kinney, only 25 animals came from parents with 1&1 teat structure - or 21%.  It also appears that when a 1&1 teated animal is bred to a multi-teated animal (more than 1 per side functional) - the multiple teats were again the dominant result.  "
  
   

  After seeing this research, we have decided to start documenting the impact on the kids teat structure when we consider the teat structure of the dam and sire crossing. This will be added to our web site as we get more info collected.

There is a poll taking place on one of the major boer goat chat groups asking members whether they prefer 2 teats vs. 4 teats. 4 teats are the preferred teat structure of members by a wide majority. As of the writing of this article, 87% of breeders prefer 4 teats to 2 teats. Why wouldn't ABGA ask the members for input about the teat structure before they made changes to state 2 teats were the preferred type? Because they don't care what the members think.

The simple answer to that is NO. Here are the facts to prove that. The standards committee recommended changing the standards to recommend the teats of the bucks have the same requirements as the does related to number and cleanness. The ABGA board rejected that. We learned many years ago how important the buck's teat structure was in determining the teat structure of the kids. We have sold several very nice bucks with outstanding pedigrees because their kids constantly had bad teat structure. One of the best known Boer bucks in the US has a strong reputation for throwing kids with bad teats. We will not have any animals with that buck's bloodlines in the pedigree. Has ABGA done any research in this area. NO! Is it logical that the buck may have an impact on the kids teat structure? Absolutely!! Several potential buyers contacting us about buying a buck will want to know what the buck's teat structure is. This is not a secret and yet the ABGA board ignored the request of the standards committee to include it in the new standards. That tells me they are not serious about helping members breed better boer goats by following the standards.

We have long ago, stopped paying attention to the Boer standards because there is no financial justification tests behind what is written in them.  We do talk about some of the things in the standard because we want to have potential buyers of our animals know that we focus on breed characteristics that will allow us to raise better "meat goats" that are hardy and require less management than the pampered show goats that are coming out of many production sales. We believe the Boer is first and foremost a meat goat but they can be pretty show animals as long as there are judges that know what they are doing and not just being a parrot repeating what a few breeders in the industry are trying to persuade breeders to buy. Thanks but no thanks. We will try to actually use our brain when we are considering the standards we will follow that are important to allowing each characteristic of our animals to be financially justified and that is a FACT!!!