# Q: about Steep Rumps



## Sonrise Farm (Sep 18, 2008)

How do you think a steep rump affects a goat's conformation? And what are your personal pet peeves about a goat's conformation?


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

I personally hate steep rumps, they just look ugly. It does affect the way the udder is attached, read that somewhere. There was also the "myths" about it affecting ease of kidding but I don't think that's really true. 

I am very picky about rumps, rear legs sets, and shoulders. Actually picky with just about everything if it's not the way it should look.  Length of body is very important to me. . . . none of our does have short bodies.


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## sweetgoats (Oct 18, 2007)

capriola-nd said:


> I personally hate steep rumps, they just look ugly. It does affect the way the udder is attached, read that somewhere. There was also the "myths" about it affecting ease of kidding but I don't think that's really true. /quote]
> 
> It is not a myth. When the rump is steep, it does not give as much room for the baby to be delivered. It is like I can not explain it, like it pinches the area off. I am not saying that they can not deliver babies, they just tend to have more trouble.


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## Muddy Creek Farm (Oct 5, 2007)

Yeah steep rumps, hmm... are not my favorite. To put it nicely :greengrin:. My main "things" are the overall look and wedge-like ness (dairy character), GENETICS, General appearence and feet and legs. And OF COURSE the udder :coffee2:


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## Sonrise Farm (Sep 18, 2008)

From my goats, and from what i have figured out on my own, is that steep rumps make the udder tip waaay too far forward. My goat spirit has a steep rump, and so her teats are off center, and to top it all off, she has a poorly attached udder. 
That would be my pet peeve: poorly attached udders . . .HATE THEM!!!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

steep rumps, eww, do not like at all.

I believe in all around the best conformation if possible.


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

I'm just going off what I read somewhere. . . . I think it was in a published book about dairy goat conformation. It seems like a steep rump would affect kidding, but according to that book I read (and some websites I've read) it's a "myth". But, who really knows?


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## Sonrise Farm (Sep 18, 2008)

Well, the only thing I hope is that I won't have any problems with my steep rumped does .. . I know spiriti had problems last year, tho not sure if it was do to that . . .


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

Do u know what happened? Bad kiddings always freak me out. . . . guess that's from raising pygmies for a couple years. None of our Nigi's have had any problems. . . .yet. I sure hope they don't!!


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## Sonrise Farm (Sep 18, 2008)

Hooves turned back and big kids. She was running around the kidding pen and screaming, the kid had it's head out and was screaming, and I was trying to reach in their and pull the turned back hooves out and screaming . . . . :hair:


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## AlaskaBoers (May 7, 2008)

wow thats sounds scary.


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## Sonrise Farm (Sep 18, 2008)

I wasn't quite thinking right and I didn't cup the hooves so they wouldn't scrape her and so for a couple hours afterwards I was scared I had damaged something but she was fine. Two beautiful 75% nubian doelings. Wonder what she'll give me in 09. . .


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

A big pet peeve I have with conformation is a sway back....a doe could have everything right but not have the "backbone" to hold it up.

My goats are not perfect by a long shot...except Binky, IMO she is just as nicely put together as show does, and I can pick apart the things I'd like to see improvement on with each of them but I love them all dearly and they do just fine in the milk pail too.

Steep rumps are what I have going here with Tilly and Bootsie...they are pets though as well as their kids...the ONLY problem I ever had was with Tilly and a steep rump was not the culprit...she prolapsed 2 weeks before delivery in February, she was carrying one too many babies and her short barreled body wasn't made for more than twins. Tilly actually looks like she has air shocks under her rear...all jacked up :ROFL:


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

Whew, that sounds scary but not quite as scary as the one in Kidding Korral, that HeathersBoers posted. . . . I honestly don't think I could have done that.

We had a pygmy doe that had a TERRIBLE kidding last year. Her first kid was coming out back feet first, so I pulled, just to get him out faster. I don't know how it happened but her other kid (a doeling, of course) was coming out the right way but her uterus was torn and so the poor baby girls head was stuck in the torn area, in the abdominal cavity. I tried and tried to find the head but couldn't so we took Promise to the vet. The girl was dead, had been for a while, they had to cut the baby out and stitch Promise up. Promise lived (although they told us she likely wouldn't). She had incontinence problems though. She did have to be put down in May this year, she just wasn't feeling good at all. 

Anyways, never buy a 6-year-old "brood" doe who hasn't kidded in nearly three years. Lesson learned for us. . . . poor Promise. :tears:


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

That is really sad Olivia. I would just feel sick if I couldn't get that kid out in a situation like that. Very scary.


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

Yeah, it was very sad. . . . about a month after that happened we contacted Anna about Nigerians.

I'm glad that we were able to save Promise and we got one adorable, sweet, spoiled rotten wether, Templeton. I seriously think the only reason Promise lived was because of that boy. She was separated from him for 7 days (w/ only about an hour to bond with him at birth) and she took him back!! He was a total bottle baby but she took him back! Just thinking about this makes me miss her. . . . . we seriously did all we could and spent over $600 to save her but she was worth every penny.


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## sparks879 (Oct 17, 2007)

steep rumps tend to be afiliated with being narrow from thurl to thurl, which causes a narrow birth canal and in turn having a difficult time passing kids. The birth canal goes up from the uterus and then pretty much follows the back bone through the pelves paralel with the spine of the goat. If you have a doe who has a steep rump it is causing the kids to go up and then down again folding them in half and resulting in very un natural birthing positions. Being narrow from turl to thurl usually causes does to not have a lot of width between the hock as weel. having tha pinched look. in turn not having a lot of udder capacity or room in the escutchen. 
They usually seem to be a litt posty as well. If you see one thing wrong with confirmation that is extreme then there are usually other problems that go along with it. this isnt the case all the time, i have seen goats with a sttep rump that are fine everywhere else. but ones with extremes in one department normally have another somewhere else, thats where the blending a judge talks about comes into play.
beth


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

That makes a lot of sense, thanks for expaining it!  Promise had a steep rump. . . . she did have a lot of width/levelness in the thurls though, just steep from hips to pins.

We have one doe who has a fairly steep rump but is fine everywhere else, level, wide thurls. She's a super kidder.


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