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What is your ultimate goal?
Our goal is focused on raising the maximum total
weight of kids per dam. The more kids we can raise per doe and the heavier
they are at weaning time, the better opportunity for more potential
profits. Therefore the better a doe can raise multiple kids, the better
she fits into our breeding program.
Why would the original statement have been
made?
If you ask a breeder why two teats are best, the
only honest answer they can give you is "that is what buyers are looking
for". They do not have any justification other than it is neat. This may
have come from breeders that were in the dairy goat business prior to
raising boer goats. There is a difference between "clean structure" teats
and "deformed" teats. A deformed teat is considered anything that is has
multiple tips on a common teat. That could be a fishtail teat. Therefore
any clean two-teat doe is better than one with deformed teats. There is
little or no argument on this.
Is it the best answer today?
If current buyers are looking for the two-teated doe,
you can't ignore it. If you are about to buy animals, you can't ignore
this because you will be selling them or their kids at some time. The
question gets to be "why are four separated teats bad?" This is not a
freak of nature. This did not occur because of a side effect of some
medicine. It is nature doing it and it is fairly common in goats. Is
nature trying to tell you something. Four clean and separated teats are
appropriate and valid according to all of the standards. The South African
breeders were the original breeders to consider that four may be better
than two.
Benefits of four vs two teats
- Better
nutrition for 3+ kids on Doe -You need to watch a
doe with three kids trying to nurse. The doe generally wants
all of the kids to nurse at the same time. She will gather
them up and only allow them to start nursing when multiple
kids are there. All three heads will push into the udder
with only two of the kids getting any milk. The other one,
normally the smaller and weaker, will be left out. After a
few seconds of nursing, the doe will move away from the kids
and this will generally leave one that did not get any
nutrition. The weaker one will normally be the one left out
each time and may not grow as fast or as healthy as the
other two.
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- Newborn kids
may find the teat earlier - One of
our biggest concerns after a kid has been
born is how quickly will they find the mother's teat and
start nursing. It is always frustrating watching a newborn
kid looking for the teat because they are always looking too
high. Now look at the picture to the right. It is a picture
of a doe with four teats that have excellent separation and
the teats are at different levels. This is a very beneficial
characteristic because the newborn kids are more likely to
find the upper teat before they will find the lower one. The
sooner the kids can get the first milk, the better chance
they will be healthy because that first milk, colostrum, is
what gives the kids their first immunity protected that is
passed on from the mother until their own immunity system
develops around 3 months later.
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- Minimizes damage to Doe's teats
when 3+ kids - We have
recently noticed something that may be
very important if our thoughts turn out to be true. Recently
we had a Doe have her teats damaged from the kid nursing.
The damage is raw areas around where the teat meets the
udder. This comes from the teeth of the nursing kids.
The problem comes from the raw area possibly getting
infected and/or getting mastitis. Also, the teats become so
sore the mother doesn't want the kids nursing any more and
they start becoming very poor from lack of nutrition. We
have seen this before. The common thread between all of the
times we have seen this is the Doe had three or more kids
nursing her and the Does only had single teats. The possible
reason for the damage to the teats is from the kids fighting
to get a teat when there are not enough to go around for all
of the kids. We took the latest Doe with this problem and
isolated her from all of the kids. We took turns turning
only two of the kids in to nurse at a time. The teats
started to heal when this was done. We believe that a
Doe with single teats is more likely to have teat damage
when they have more than two kids at a time. More than 30%
of our Does have triples and they do very well if the dam
doesn't have teat problems.
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 The final
comment is your
requirement for two teated animals are being met many times by breeders clipping
the "excess" teats. Look at some of the does you have purchased to see if
there are some faint scars where some excess teats once were. This causes
two problems in the future. The first problem is only the current excess
teats were clipped and the genes are still the same. You did not really
solve anything. The problem was only hidden. The second problem is
clipping the excess teat weakens the wall and is more likely to have
bulges in the teat or bag when the heavy pressure of the first milk comes
in. (see picture to the right). This can dramatically reduce the productive life of your "perfect
two teated" doe. At consignment and production sales, don't just look
to see if there are two teats. Look for the tale-tale scares also.
It is the best answer tomorrow?
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When we attended the judges training taught by the
South African breeders, they indicated there was a lot more improvement
work to be done on the boer breed. I asked if that meant breeding them to
be bigger. (bigger may not be better) They said "No, if you want to raise larger animals, raise
cattle. The improvement work will be in improving the reproductive
efficiency". Dr. Clair E. Terrill of the USDA maintains that the
reproductive efficiency of goats have a higher ceiling that can be
achieved. He contends that the practical ceiling of each birth can be
raised from two to four. This means that for a doe that kids three times
in two years, they will have 6 additional kids. This may be the most
dramatic opportunity for helping reach your goals in the future. Some
people will say that having 4 kids is too tough on a doe. Others will say
they had a doe that raised 4 with no trouble. The difference is your focus
on breeding does that can handle the larger number better and moving the
breeding program to better selection on the breeding herd.
Now, if the future will be more kids per doe, why
would I want to be breeding for does with only two teats. That does not
make sense. Cows have four teats and normally only have one calf but no
one is trying to breed cows with only one teat. Look at pigs, dogs and cats. They all have a large number of
teats to take care of the large number of babies. There will be people
read that and say it is stupid because pigs, dogs and cats have a lot more
babies than goats do. It is more common for a goat to have triplets than a
single and goats are already having quads occasionally . Some goats are naturally having
four teats and breeders are trying to breed it out of them. Maybe
they don't really know what they are doing and maybe those judges checking
bucks teats don't understand what they are doing. I do not contend that we
know what we are doing but we are asking the major question....WHY
& WHY NOT? What has been harmed with a doe having four teats AS
THE STANDARDS ALLOW. The problem is the in-between of two and four and
that is a breeding program issue.
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Doe with
four separated teats well prepared to give the MAXIMUM nutrition to
EVERY kid EVERY meal |
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Left
Side |
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Right
Side |
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Right now, many breeders long range breeding
plan looks no longer than one breeding season for the next kids they can have and sell. The goal of serious breeders
should be longer term and target to improve the breed and the opportunity to make a profit. That goal
can't have a focus on "if the nose has a roman shape or if there may be too
much red in a patch in the wrong place". The standards of the boer
associations are giving you no help or guidance in understanding the
relative value of the boer characteristics. There is nothing to let you
know that the shape of the nose is more or less valuable than the shape of
the teats.
If you breed your animals to have a better roman nose or more feminine
look, how does that help you in achieving your goal. Eventually, the boer
goats will have to justify their prices according to the amount of meat
they produce.
Our objective to to focus on both two and four
teated animals. We have does with
two teats and we have does with four teats. We can respond to the people
that have to have two teats but we can breed for what we believe will be
the next wave of customer requirements once they stop to ask the real
question ---"why two teats rather than
four?" |
