Glossary
Animal Scientist Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential animal scientist terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key animal scientist vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in animal scientist training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Animal welfare
- Animal well-being.
- Average daily gain
- Weight gain per day.
- Body condition score
- Fat level rating.
- Crop rotation
- Changing crops each season.
- EPD
- Expected progeny difference.
- Extension service
- University outreach to farmers.
- Feed efficiency
- Feed per pound of gain.
- Feedlot
- Finishing operation.
- Forage
- Plants eaten by livestock.
- Heritability
- How much a trait is genetic.
- Ration
- Daily feed mix.
- Rumen
- Cattle stomach compartment.
- Sustainability
- Long-term resource care.
- USDA
- U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- Yield
- Amount harvested.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Animal Scientist practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Animal Scientist training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.