This is from my 11 month old FF who had the emergency C section. She recovered like a champ and is now giving me a quart a day.
I suspect she has a yucky udder (I don't know much about udder conformation). It appears to be very wide at the bottom, very narrow at the top, I have seen the description upside down heart applied to others and this fits her, I think.
So, is this really a crummy udder? It looks SO narrow at the top to me, like it's dangling by practically nothing. So, educate me :)
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Well...for showing purposes I don't care at all. She is not registered, I'll never show them. I am only interested in them for dairy for my family.
At any rate-- I don't know what a badly attached udder means for the milking career of a doe. Her career may be over anyway, of course, because we are not sure we can ever breed her again after her ordeal. And yes, I am very proud of her for giving such a good amount of milk under the circumstances.
She is an incredibly sweet, cooperative and hardy little girl so if the badly attached udder can be forgiven and she ever gets big enough I'd like to try and breed her again. Otherwise I suppose she'll be my mascot because I would be afraid to sell her as a do-not-breed pet because she's pretty and somebody would decide to breed her anyway.
I don't know how important things like udder attachments are for the working life of a backyard dairy doe- and I don't want to be an irresponsible breeder and breed an animal that shouldn't be bred. (like these idiots who breed displastic dogs or german shepherds with unstable temperaments ect)
Plus, I would just like to be educated about how to look at an udder and judge it. Otherwise--I think her body comformation is pretty good, there is a pic of her on my website but she is heavily pregnant so she looks kinda pot bellied.
I'll take a nice body shot of her when I think of it, I wanted to replace the preggo pic on the website anyway.
Hi Juliana-
Really, I know next to nothing, but this is how I would think about it...
I think it really depends on why you're concerned with it. She's giving you a decent amount of milk for a doe who's a FF and never nursed her kid, and had a c-section.
I'm betting she'd give even more next freshening.
She doesn't have great attachment, but has nice looking teats (other than they are too far apart and not pointing down, which matters as far as scoring) and appears capacious. She has some fore udder as well as being able to see rear udder in the side shot. That looks good to me.
Perhaps breeding her to a buck that passes good udders on to his daughters will produce some great does for you? :)
Also, as far as showing, whether you'd care a lot about a perfect udder would depend on what else you've got to work with on this doe. Udders aren't worth a lot on a scorecard, so how's the rest of her?
If you're just interested in having milk for your family, she may produce beautifully for you, great udder or not.
But like I said, I'm not so knowledgeable as many others on this forum. I'm sure you'll get some great answers! :)
Dawne, yes she is full. This was on the milk stand prior to milking, so she had been 12 hours. There are no babies on her, her singleton died before the C section