Calendar for managing your meat goats.

Recently we read a note on a boer goat chat room related to the impact of the buck on the teat structure of his kids. The subject started by discussing if an ABGA judge does or should look at the teats of a buck in a show. The response that caught our attention was from a well-known breeder and an ABGA judge. The judge stated that they were not aware of any study that had been done showing bucks have a negative impact on the structure of their kids teats.

Now that is a shame to hear someone that is as knowledgeable at that breeder is make a statement like that. Because the breeder could have just as easily stated that there has been no study showing that bucks DON'T impact the structure of the teats on kids. As a matter of fact the association has shown no interest in studying it at all even though they are heavily involved in developing and adjusting the standards for the boer breeder. The breeders answer was directly related to justifying how ABGA's current standards and judging guidelines are at this time and not related to what many breeders already know. Bucks can have a significant impact on the teat structure of his kids and any serious breeder should be taking that into account.

Our personal observations have made us believe beyond a doubt that the genetics of a specific buck can help or hurt the structure of the teats of their kids. We have had several bucks in the past that we constantly got bad teats when breeding them with many different bloodlines. The problem with the teats was always consistent when one of these bucks was used in the breeding. However, when we would take the same does and breed them with another buck, the kids no longer had the teat problem. We have seen enough examples in our own breeding that we now consider it a fact that a buck's genetics are a critical decision in our using them with our does.

You do not have to see it in your own breeding program. There is one of the best known bucks in the show rings that has a reputation for his kids having split teats and fish teats as well as poor pigment. Although his kids sell for high prices, the buyers soon realize that they have paid a lot of money to add a potentially bad trait into their herd. Sometimes the breeder corrects the bad teat by clipping it. Here is a picture of the teats from a well known breeder at coming from a well known sale. The bulge you see behind the good teat is where another teat was clipped prior to selling. When the doe's udder filled up, the bulge started to appear. Now , this doe did not really have a bad teat. She had two good teats on each side but breeders were being told that there should only be one per side. So they cut one off. That really doesn't change the genetics of the animal. It just allows the breeder to sell the animal for a higher price.

We are big believers that two separated teats per side is better than single teats. We are also big believers that a breeder should not make a statement that bucks don't have an impact on the teat structure of his kids just so they can sell their bucks with bad structures for a higher price.