CeeCee ROCKS!

[Goat Freak]

I just checked DeeDee, CeeCee's baby, and sister to Gabby, our doe that has milk in all four of her teats, and I found out that it looks like DeeDee is going to be the same as her sister, I checked Gabby at about the same age, and said that she would likely be a four way milker, and I was right. All four of her teats are the same size, so it looks like we have another good doeling. By the way, CeeCee herself only milks out of two of hers, and the other two are much smaller than her milking ones. Just figured that I would tell you all about what WONDERFUL babies that CeeCee throws off, I hope she gives us some more AWESOME doelings in the future. Bye.

[cowgirlracer]

My doe Rosie also has 4 teats, all milking. On her right side she has two individual teats, on her left side she has a teat with a "branch" or a "Y" teat. When she freshened last year, her buckling, Brutus, ate off both sides. However, this year Poppy only eats off of the right side. So of course I started milking her. That is when I discovered that all 4 gave milk. I have only grade goats, with the exception of one registered Saanen, and Rosie the poor girl has the best looking bag of all my does. It is attached nicely, fills beautifuly it is such a shame that she is SO messy when milking. I usually have it dripping off my hands, and wet spots all over my clothes.
Of all my goats she is the sweetest and most mild mannered and loves affection, her personality is that of a friendly cat. I hate the thought of culling her, but also hate the thought of her getting mastitis, or passing this on. Any thoughts? Advice?

Anne
Cowgirlracer

[TexCountryWoman]

My Fullblood Boer Buck is 4 teated. So far he has not passed that on. Actually, i am kinda glad as i don't know if it is good or bad. My other Boers have 2 teats. i keep turning over baby goats and they just have 2. My dairy goats, of course, just have 2. I am gonna be using another Boer buck in the fall from the same breeder, line, in the fall and may look for a 2 teated buck. Any thoughts?

[cowgirlracer]

TCW - freinds of ours had Boers and they also had a 4 teated line, which passed thru several generations. But if you are using them for meat it shouldn't be a problem, unless your girls get a serious case of mastitis -IMO.
Now for an OT question, what do you do w/ your goat meat? Do you sell, eat, home process? The reason I ask is that I have 2 bucklings that I am going to put in the freezer, and possibly this cull doe. I am not set up at this point to process my own meat, so how do I tell the processor to cut it? I have eaten goat before and like it, but I don't know how my family will do with it. My thoughts on the cull doe are leaning towards burger.

CGR

[Goat Freak]

Originally Posted by cowgirlracer

My doe Rosie also has 4 teats, all milking. On her right side she has two individual teats, on her left side she has a teat with a "branch" or a "Y" teat. When she freshened last year, her buckling, Brutus, ate off both sides. However, this year Poppy only eats off of the right side. So of course I started milking her. That is when I discovered that all 4 gave milk. I have only grade goats, with the exception of one registered Saanen, and Rosie the poor girl has the best looking bag of all my does. It is attached nicely, fills beautifuly it is such a shame that she is SO messy when milking. I usually have it dripping off my hands, and wet spots all over my clothes.
Of all my goats she is the sweetest and most mild mannered and loves affection, her personality is that of a friendly cat. I hate the thought of culling her, but also hate the thought of her getting mastitis, or passing this on. Any thoughts? Advice?

Anne
Cowgirlracer

Ours have the Y shaped teats too! She also produced a LOT of milk, BIG BIG udder for a boer. My advice is that the next time she freshens, find a place that you can buy some, preferably young, little goats, and get as many as is neccesary to get each teat a baby, and then let them do the job for you. People do it all the time with cows, but make sure that when she has HER babies, that you take the afterbirth and smear it on the other babies so that she will think that they are hers too, it helps if you already have the babies on your place. Good Luck, my last words are that if she is a good doe, I'm sure you will find a way to talk yourself out of culling her, just about everyone has before, including me when our little girl went half blind for a while. Good Luck. Bye.

[Goat Freak]

Originally Posted by TexCountryWoman

My Fullblood Boer Buck is 4 teated. So far he has not passed that on. Actually, i am kinda glad as i don't know if it is good or bad. My other Boers have 2 teats. i keep turning over baby goats and they just have 2. My dairy goats, of course, just have 2. I am gonna be using another Boer buck in the fall from the same breeder, line, in the fall and may look for a 2 teated buck. Any thoughts?

Sounds like a good idea, but boers are not milk goats, so the four teats doesn't matter anyway, it just helps the babies know what NOT to suck on, or at least they have less choices. I think that if you like two teated boers, go ahead and get a two teated buck, then you know that it will less likely pop up in a baby later. Good Luck. Bye.

[Freeholder]

Goats are easy to butcher (much easier than a 1000 pound steer!). If you can manage some place to hang the carcass to bleed out, the rest can be done on the ground (initial kill), and on a table (set a piece of plywood on some sawhorses, cover with a sheet of plastic). You'll need some sharp knives, and a saw for cutting through bone (a hacksaw will work). Someplace to bury the entrails, unless you plan to cook them and feed to chickens or something later.

It's getting pretty warm most places, though -- can you wait for cool weather before butchering? Otherwise, you'll have to take precautions to keep flies off the carcasses.

And you ought to look into tanning the hides, rather than wasting them. Goat skin is a useful commodity.

Kathleen

[Goat Freak]

Go to the search option, and type in butchering, go to Ozark Jewels thread called Reposting Home Butchering Article + new Photos. It has pictures on how to do it, and a nice talk throw. Good Luck. Bye.

[cowgirlracer]

I saw the Ozark Jewels piece on home slaughter, and it is very informative. However I have some zoning restrictions, we live in town, and our rented animal pens are also in town, so we can't shoot/kill anything. I was thinking that I would fatten these little guys thru the summer, and have them butchered in the fall. I am pretty certain that I could do "the deed" regarding the bucklings, but not Rosie. I am just too attached, she would have to go to the butcher or be sold. Last resort . . . I keep her and milk her wearing a rain suit.

CGR

[dosthouhavemilk]

Twyla is a Boer doe with five functioning teats. She has two on the right side (one normal sized, the other smaller) and the "normal" teat on the left is a double teat (fused together until an inch before the bottom with two separate canals). She also has the smaller teat on the left side as well.
We bred her to our polled purebred Nubian buck in the hopes of having a polled Nubian/Boer buck kid to keep for breeding. Until I saw her teats before kidding. I was soooo disappointed! She had a buck and a doe. The doeling is two teated (but will carry the possibility of throwing multiple teats, including fish teats). The buck kid has four evenly spaced teats but has a spur on one of them. So he will be castrated...*sigh* He was 11 pounds at birth and at a month old was 22.5 pounds already. He's got the longest ears as well;

He and his sister (5.5 pounds at birth) are to the right there.

Our Boer/Saanen buck carries the trait for multiple teats but it isn't a huge issue.
The only problem comes when they have fish teats. Especially if you are just raising for meat.
I would keep the doe if it were me. She sounds like she is very productive. Maybe feed before breeding to encourage multiples? Twyla was originally carrying triplets (she and six others are not ours but they are/were carrying our kids). She could have fed three easily.
The twins have kept her udder in fine shape and I've seen both nursing off of all five teats.

[Goat Freak]

Originally Posted by cowgirlracer

I saw the Ozark Jewels piece on home slaughter, and it is very informative. However I have some zoning restrictions, we live in town, and our rented animal pens are also in town, so we can't shoot/kill anything. I was thinking that I would fatten these little guys thru the summer, and have them butchered in the fall. I am pretty certain that I could do "the deed" regarding the bucklings, but not Rosie. I am just too attached, she would have to go to the butcher or be sold. Last resort . . . I keep her and milk her wearing a rain suit.

CGR

When Gabby had a dead soeling, I had to milk her to get the coloustum, we get it in case we ever need it. I would hold both teats towards the bucket, kinda squished together, and then milk, it still got on my hands, but not on my clothes or the floor. I hope that that helps with you, it would really bite to lose such a nice doe. Good Luck. BYe.

[Goat Freak]

Originally Posted by dosthouhavemilk

Twyla is a Boer doe with five functioning teats. She has two on the right side (one normal sized, the other smaller) and the "normal" teat on the left is a double teat (fused together until an inch before the bottom with two separate canals). She also has the smaller teat on the left side as well.
We bred her to our polled purebred Nubian buck in the hopes of having a polled Nubian/Boer buck kid to keep for breeding. Until I saw her teats before kidding. I was soooo disappointed! She had a buck and a doe. The doeling is two teated (but will carry the possibility of throwing multiple teats, including fish teats). The buck kid has four evenly spaced teats but has a spur on one of them. So he will be castrated...*sigh* He was 11 pounds at birth and at a month old was 22.5 pounds already. He's got the longest ears as well;

He and his sister (5.5 pounds at birth) are to the right there.

Our Boer/Saanen buck carries the trait for multiple teats but it isn't a huge issue.
The only problem comes when they have fish teats. Especially if you are just raising for meat.
I would keep the doe if it were me. She sounds like she is very productive. Maybe feed before breeding to encourage multiples? Twyla was originally carrying triplets (she and six others are not ours but they are/were carrying our kids). She could have fed three easily.
The twins have kept her udder in fine shape and I've seen both nursing off of all five teats.

We feed them everyday, but I think that I'm going to cut them down to hay and grass now that the grass is growing again, it would be easier on me anyway, and then I could flush them before breeding them, without overfeeding them. THanks for the advice. You have BEAUTIFUL babies. See ya, bye.