Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Winner of the "Ugliest Udder" Contest!

Well, not really. There isn't really any contest called the "Ugliest Udder" Contest.

But this gal would win if there was!

Her name is Gidget. She is a sweet goat. This is the fourth year she is here being bred to our buck. Surprisingly, she throws beautiful kids when bred to our buck! None of them have udders that look like this. They all have very good or excellent udders with good attachments. All of Gidget's grandkids that her owner has kept track of have had twins on the first birth. Gidget usually has triplet doelings, but last year she had 2 doelings and one buckling.

This sweet doe has a really bad side udder attachment. Her front and back attachment aren't great, either. Her udder looks like a bag that is just barely holding on! 
After milking. Looks worse, poor thing!
To be fair to the gentle girl, this is a photo of her standing differently so her empty udder looks a little better.
This is the other reason her owners keep her! She milks out 7lbs - 8 lbs every night! When she is milking during the summer, she gives 7lbs - 8lbs every milking for a total of 14+ lbs per day.
Gidget will never win any prizes at a goat show. But if her owners had the money to put her on milk test, she would probably get a good * rating with ADGA (she is a registered American Saanen). She is also a good girl on the milk stand. You can imagine that giving all this milk, she is also a grain vacuum.

Just a little history. Last year at this time she was only milking about 1 lb, sometimes 1.5 lbs. She was really copper deficient! This spring her owners gave her a liquid copper supplement that Hubby mixed up for our Saanens and she had more milk all summer.

We are lucky to have her most of the winter and enjoy all the milk. More milk means more cheese!

2 comments:

Melanie said...

Kind of reminds me of my poor udders after breastfeeding two kids. Utilitarian doesn't always win a beauty contest :D

TJ said...

lol!!! You're right!