I've wondered for some time now about whether the trait for foreudder attachment was dominant or recessive (its probably a combination of several genes). Why is there such a strong predisposition towards pocketed and shelved foreudders? After all, the rationale for breeding for this trait is that udders which are tightly attached to the doe's belly are less likely to suffer damage as the doe browses, and will hold the udder up high and tight under heavy production. If that were true, it would seem that does with strong foreudders would be more common, and the poorly attached ones would've died out to some extent, over the centuries.

Back to Sprite: her orphaned doeling, Song, has taken to nursing the other does. I'm glad, because I'd like her to keep growing well. She prefers nursing on black does, maybe because her dam was black. The three black milkers I have all have very tightly attached udders, and as I watched Song nurse, the answer to my questions above came to me. The reason that a loosely attached udder could be an asset is this: when a kid nurse its dam, it butts the udder, sometimes forcefully. If a kid has horns, as they would in a natural setting, the assault upon the udder is even more forceful. A loosely attached udder that just hangs there- the kind dairy goat breeders cull and select against- swings out of the way when a kid butts it, and doesn't sustain a whole lot of damage of even pain.If the kid butts too hard, the udder moves so that the kid looses its grip and has to find the teat again. With an udder that is 'glued on', it is an entirely different story. The perfect show udder takes a direct hit when the kid butts. It can't swing out of the way. Such an udder would mean more bruising, mastitis, and early weaning of the kids. Look at pictures of feral and European goats that spend a good deal of time browsing and rasing their own kids. The udder is like a bag ,it doesn't have a high wide rear attachement, and it 'just hangs there'. I used to look at those pictures and think that the European goat keepers either had very poor genetic material, or otherwise had different standards, ie: just didn't care about a really nice udder. But now, it all makes perfect sense.

This presents a problem for me, because not only do I want the perfect show udder but I also *hate* bottle feeding with a passion. How to dam raise kids on this sort of an udder without risking mastitis and udder damage? And is it truly defensible to breed for such an udder or is it simply my personal vanity and desire for a walking piece of art?