Sorry, but I've got to say this....
 

Goats, cattle, sheep, horses, whatever, all have one udder! That's udder, not utter, and it's not plural - udders as there is only one! Goats, sheep, horses all have 2 teats, thus have udder halves, cattle, deer, have 4 teats, so quarters.

Sorry, just a major pet peeve.

Do you feel better?

I can't imagine what this post was meant to do besides help you get something like that off your chest, so I hope it helped you.

I'm just as (probably more so) annoyed by misspellings and grammar errors as you are, but it hardly seems worth it to pull it out and put it in its own ranting thread and risk alienating those who come to the forum for help and community. I hope they don't start withdrawing because you needed to get your pet peeve out in the open. My husband's a very smart man but put him in front of a computer and there are misspellings and grammatical errors all over the place.

Maybe next time rant to your spouse or friends?

Except when the goat has three teats... or four teats. lol

I saw it as being educational for those who dont seem to know the difference.
And having it in a thread of its own is better than to bring it up in a thread where someone is using the wrong terms.
When you communicate in a WRITTEN forum, it pays to spell correctly AND use the PROPER TERMS.
No one should be "offended" by FACTS

It jus dont mater. We all noe what there talkin about anyhoo.......:D

We're not here to grade english or grammer papers. We're here to discuss and learn/help.

This thread has taught me something, "deer have 4 teats and not 2" I always thought they had two teats.

Wow! you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Patty.

I appreciate this thread. I'm a former English teacher, and I cringe at "utters" and other mangled words.:soap:

Also, the lack of punctuation on posts makes the meaning unclear.

Many people think that spelling and grammar don't matter on the boards, but I'm not one of them. Your education, intelligence, and desire to be understood are reflected in your writing. If they don't matter, then why did I spend fifteen years in the classroom, trying to teach proper use of the English language? If they don't matter, then why do so many people bad-mouth the public schools?

I am not trying to fan up the flames, but those of us who think it matters are O.K. folks, too. :) Just a difference of opinion.

No, deer also have two halves/teats.

Glad to hear it. I was trying to picture a goat with four teats and it was kind of wigging me out. lol

For the sake of not being a complete ass, I'll refrain from getting out my red pen and having at all the improper commas and lack of semi-colons in your post. Thanks for the info, though. ;)

ARRRRGH!
She said "wigging me out"!

ARRRGH!
I HATE that!:rolleyes:

Not poking at you, Rose, but my wife's SIL is a former English Teacher, also.
Everyone got fed up with her "corrections" a LONG time ago. Now we do it on purpose just to make her mad......We even use our best "Thurston Howell III" voice to make fun of her.

There are a lot of things on this - or any - board that irritate every one of us. As long as the point is made and the topic discussed, is it really worth fighting over?

Udder nonsense i say!!!

I agree. It's not worth fighting over, and I don't think anyone is fighting. It must be acceptable, however, for those of us who care about language to whine on occasion.:rolleyes:

I have several goats with 4 teats. :shrug:
I also see nothing wrong with learning correct terminology on a subject of common interest. I hope someone will correct me if I use the wrong word or spell something wrong, outside of an obvious typo.

I forgot to mention that our main milking doe has ONE teat.:dance:

I, for one, am very glad to see this thread, as I've winced over incorrect usage of the word 'utters' on many occasions! There's also 'withers' or 'weathers' used instead of 'wethers' (a castrated male goat or sheep). I'm sure we could think of a few more things to add to the list! (Nannies and billies, perhaps, instead of the correct does and bucks?)

Kathleen

i often type without capitals because i am nursing and/or holding my 11 month old. please excuse my grammer lol

Yes, I do feel better saying this! Glad a few people agree with me! Kathleen I agree with you, guess we're just evil!

And I did not comment on anyone's poor typing or grammer errors, simply one word. They word they are saying means plural, more than one. Utters/utter is a completely word altogether.

I type for a living, so as long as I can type with two hands, I'm good to go. Typing one handed is done terribly as well as text messaging, I HATE texting!

Saying goats have two teats, is the "expected" general assumption. I know some people have those special girls out there.

And yes, I really do believe deer have 4 teats as I saw a dead doe spread eagled on the road last week and was surprised she had four teats. I also just called my father-in-law who has processed a lot of deer and he said 4 teats as well.

Good thread. Thanks. I too have taught language for years. (Spell checker is a wonderful invention.)

It is surprising how many posters don’t know the differences among “their, there and they’re.” Also noted are the uses of “then and than.” Incorrectly used, these words cause the reader to stop in mid thought to understand what the poster wanted to express, rather than what was written. Some readers might be too lazy to try to figure it out, or deduce that a poster who doesn’t know English perhaps also doesn’t know goats. Thankfully, I don’t fall into either category. I LOVE reading these posts and seeing the goat pictures.

So all of this doesn’t pull my chain, however I hope that my students know better. I’ve often said to students, “It’s ok with me if you speak incorrectly with friends, so long as you know that you are doing it.”

Always learning, Paul

OK.. on to the deer teat issue. I’m an avid deer hunter and I’ve undressed many deer over the years. For the life of me I CAN’T TELL you for certain how many teats a deer has. However a relative rescued a white tail deer that freshened. The family reports that the mother has four teats. Smile. Paul

I thought we where here to learn about how to care for our livestock. Not spelling and punctuation. I can't spell but I can pull a calf. I may not have the best of grammar but I know the signs and can treat hypoglycemia. I may type by hen picking but I know how to use oxytocin. Sometimes my mind runs ahead of my fingers but I can tell when livestock isn't feeling up to par
I wonder which is more important to the livestock?

By the way have you ever herd of learning disabilities? Like Aspergers and such? Some are just not good in some areas of study but are the genies in others.

Pointing out others' faults is bad karma and karma has a way of :croc:

Yes, deer have four teats.
I have butchered many does over the years and never looked closely at their teats. I just assumed they had two teats. But I hit and killed a doe this past spring and lo and behold, four perfect teats. Interesting, huh?

When I first looked at Boers, their udder attachments and number of teats grossed me out.
Then I found out that the S Africans prefer them that way and God created them with four teats!
Some of my does have four seperate working teats and some have three. They sure come in handy when they have trips!!! Its the two teated dam I have to work with cause she tries to reject the smallest when she has trips.

I must really irritate the heck out of those here, I know I'm bad about misspelling and not putting in proper punctuation. I'm sorry, no one to blame but myself, and I do work on it, and though hard to take I have learned many things through critisim.

And anyone who didnt know, LEARNED

No ones "faults" were "pointed out". Thats why it is in it's own thread.
Like I said before, no one should be offended by FACTS.

The fact is that some have trouble with spelling, grammar terms and such
As long as it was understood what was meant that should have been enough.
If someone wanted to kindly PM the person to say it is an udder not an utter then that is different but come on here and start a thread about their "pet peeve" is so petty. Even the one who started the thread felt the need to start with an apology. Wonder why?

Perhaps because the OP knew that some people would be hostile when he/she expressed an honest opinion. :)

Then why post it?

I think it was honest attempt at educating some people who might not know. :)

I suspect that the OP regrets that some people chose to take it personally.

Those are just my opinions.

Yours may vary.
**********************************
Can we get back to goat talk now?

I miss my goats. I had to return to Texas for a week to attend a family reunion and take care of business. My goats are in Missouri. When it gets close to milking time, I feel like I should be doing something!

I guess it's true about karma:

Should be That's why it is in its own thread. (note apostrophe switch)

Just pickin on ya! I also wish people would learn the difference between there, they're, and their. Unless someone has a disability, I don't get how people reach adulthood without learning the basics that other kids understand before they reach an age in the double digits. Same with basic math.

In the whole big picture, it really doesn't matter if something is spelled wrong, or there are errors in grammer.

Just relax, take a deep breath, and keep telling yourself......

It's only a forum -
It's only a forum -
It's only a forum....

Questions get answered depsite errors, and that's all that matters. A vent is a good thing every now-and-then but, in the long run, you ain't got no power to change nuthin'.......

Those that receive satisfaction Nit-picking gentle friends are doomed to expire from an agressive infestation of nits with none willing to pick them. Ignaz Moon, Grand Master

See, sometimes I think it does matter.

I've had several instances on this very board, where I was reading a post from a very knowledgeable goat person. And I really struggled to make out what the poster was trying to say. It was a combination of spelling errors, typos, and careless punctuation combined with my ignorance of certain goat issues/terms/meds/etc.

It was very frustrating to try to make out the information in the post, knowing it was great info, but struggling to decipher it. So while an error here and there is no big deal, sometimes it does matter when clarity and communication suffer.

When I took Animal Science in college a long time ago, the first thing we learned was all the parts of all the common livestock species. We learned the correct nomenclature so we could communicate with everyone else without sounding like fools. It has helped over the years.

The OP wasn't complaining about grammar and punctuation, others added that. I can live with it after years of reading there their they're and buy by and to too two used in any form at any time.

And the two things that I shake my head at the most? Front shoulder and hot water heater. Show me a rear shoulder and tell me why you heat hot water.

George Carlin made a living pointing out these quirks in our use of language. I miss George.

:dance:

Personally, I think this post absolutely belongs here. I agree with Ed that the OP never mentioned punctuation or grammar. If you own a goat and you are looking for advice/help with your goat, it behooves you to know that the question you have concerns an "udder" and/or an "udder half" not an "utter" and "utters" or even "udders".

Also, if your question concerns the "weather" - you're asking about the climate outdoors and if your asking about "withers" you're asking about the area above your goat's shoulders. Someone may very well get offended at being expected to learn the proper terminology as it applies to goats; but then, they can't very well complain that they are being discouraged from learning on this forum, can they? Whether it's talking to the folks online about your goat or calling your vet in an emergency, knowing the correct terms as they apply to your goat really is important.

JMO

I think, for one thing, the tone of the OP was rather snotty. Do we really need exclamation marks? I think for informational purposes, periods would have been fine. I felt like the OP was screaming at us. And the mention of it being a pet peeve tells me the post was more about venting than being informative.

Secondly, this is one of the problems with typing as a form of communication. If you were to speak with a person, they're probably saying "udders", or at least you'd be able to recognize what they're saying. There are all types of people in the world with all levels of education and upbringing. I've known some very very intelligent engineering professors that couldn't spell worth a ----. Did that make them stupid? Of course not. Would it have made ME look like a moron to correct them? You betcha! Perhaps these people typing "utters" have a PhD. Wouldn't you feel like a silly then?

Have you ever seen one of those mind trick things where there's a paragraph and letters are missing from all the words? Your brain will automatically fill those in so you can read the paragraph, even though it's not all there. I look at spelling mistakes on a message board the same way. If I am able to decipher what's being said, who cares?

Unless you're MY english teacher, don't correct MY communication, written or verbal. People correcting others unsolicited-ly (giggle), is a major pet peeve of mine!

Well - the problem here is, even though the word posted was "utters", everyone KNEW they meant "udders". Just like if someone were to type "Should I "weather" my goat". You know there not (did you catch that?) talking about rain.......

It's not ALWAYS a comunication problem.......

If you know what is meant by a post, does it really matter if it is correct English?
It's one thing for someone to be talking (or typing) jibberish, or the "who dat, I be ax you", crowd, but if you know what they are saying, just post a reply in your own best English and go on.....

Looks like we can all agree to disagree. :clap:

It amuses me how some people add their own info to my post. I wasn't YELLING at anyone. I didn't point out anyone in particular, and it was over one word, not everyone's grammer and punctuation. If you want to raise animals, learn the correct terms, DH knows I can be nasty about some stuff and he looked at my post and he totally agrees and saw nothing wrong with it. He censors me sometimes.

And as other people mentioned there are other words that are misused, but I just pointed out the one most bothersome. It's like saying a being (human/animal) has heads. Example.... The goat stuck its heads thru the fence. Now, if that's repeated over and over, wouldn't it sound like someone truly believes the animal has 2 heads? Well, same goes for "udders". For udders to be plural, it needs to have more than one animal unless it is a freak of nature and truly has more than one udder. I dunno, maybe some of you own ones like that! lol

It's nice to see at least half of the posters on here at least agree with my topic or at least aren't making things up and being nasty.

Ya'll have a nice day now....