Animal Science Terminology Chapter 2: The Animal Agriculture Industry
Veterinarian
A doctor who works with animals. The veterinary industry offers a variety of careers, ranging from these to kennel staff, receptionists, and office managers.
Basic Breeding
A facility housing the parent stock produces the fertilized eggs that are then incubated.
Therapy
A growing area of animal use is for this for people with physical, emotional, or cognitive disabilities. A number of programs are using animals to reach youth at risk and to help them resolve their problems. Research in youth development is demonstrating that involvement with animals assists youth in developing lifelong skills.
Aquaculture
A growing segment of the animal agriculture industry focuses on production of fish and other living water animals for consumption as food. It is predicted that as more issues arise related to use of wild-caught fish in the diet, this field will continue to grow. In 2005, more than $1 billion of these products were sold in the United States, with the majority being food fish. This industry has the largest impact in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama, but most states have some of this industry.
Free Stalls
A housing arrangement for dairy cattle where stalls are provided, but the cattle may enter and exit the stalls at will. Stall space is usually separated from feeding space.
Drylot
A method of managing dairy cattle in which they live in large pens, and are provided all of their grains and forages. Do not contain grass for grazing.
Extension Agent
A person employed by a Cooperative Extension Service to provide an educational link between a land grant university and a community. Work with the 4-H youth program, which is the educational youth development arm of the USDA.
Animal Behaviorist
A person specializing in studying and understanding animal behavior, and assisting in solving animal behavior problems.
Farm Manager
A person who oversees the day-to-day running of an animal agriculture facility.
Farm Broadcaster
A person who reports farm-related news
Agriculture science and business teacher
A person who teaches courses in agricultural science and agricultural business to high school and/or junior high students. Also frequently advise Future Farmers of America chapters, an intracurricular youth organization designed to develop leadership skills and content knowledge in the field of agriculture.
Field Sales Representative
A person who works for a company, usually a feed company or a pharmaceutical company that markets products to wholesale or retail carriers.
Agricultural Economist
A person who works within the agricultural industry to assess and impact the economic factors affecting agriculture.
Laboratory Technician
A person working in a laboratory that has a relationship with the animal agriculture field. This could range from a person working with a veterinarian, to a researcher, to a person working in food science and safety.
Recreation
A primary outcome for companion animals and horses, a major economic generator across the country, and many animals are a part of these activities. Includes pleasure riding, as well as activities such as exhibition, rodeos, racing, and so on.
Researcher
A scientist who discovers new information in an area related to animal agriculture. Can focus in any area that is related to animal agriculture.
Agri-tourism
A segment of the animal agriculture industry that provides a recreational outlet for people. Operations range from dude ranches, where people can stay on a ranch, ride horses, and work with cattle, to petting farms and living history museums. At living history museums, people can immerse themselves in a historical time period and learn about life at that time.
Stallion Station
A type of breeding operation that stands several stallions to the public. These operations also frequently accept mares to be bred to any of their stallions, or mares to be bred to stallions from other places.
Mare Station
A type of breeding operation where mares are bred and to deliver their foals. People who do not have the time or special skills needed to successfully breed their own mares use these operations.
Integrated Production
A vertically integrated operation that runs operations at each level of production. May or may not raise their own seedstock, but they will raise the pigs from birth to market.
Agriculture Science and Business
ASB
Value-added Processing
Additional processing that increases the value of the product. For example, boneless, skinless, chicken breasts are a value-added product of whole chickens.
Finishing Operation
An operation similar to a feedlot in the beef industry. Acquire feeder pigs, either by purchasing them or as part of a contract with another operation, and raise them to market weight.
Farrow-to-Finish
An operation that breeds and raises pigs through market weight at the same location.
Hatchery
An operation that hatches fertilized eggs from breeding stock and then provides them to the nursery for raising
Seedstock Operation
An operation that produces cattle for breeding purposes. Most often is purebred stock. Animals that are not of sufficient quality to be used for breeding animals are culled, or removed from the herd, and move into the market sector of the beef industry
Feeder Pig Operation
An operation that raises pigs from weaning (separation from mother) until they are large enough to be finished for market.
Nursery
An operation that raises young fish to a size that is then moved into a finishing unit.
Fiber
Animal hair or wool used to make cloth and other products.
Secondary Enterprise
Any enterprise where the income generated by the animals is not the primary source of income. Sheep and goats are often raised as this, or as part of a diversified farming plan. Can also be an enterprise that provides income secondary to an off-farm enterprise, or job.
Stocker Calves
Calves that are purchased to be fed until they reach feedlot weight
Beef
Cattle produced for their meat. The highest quality cuts of meat in grocery stores and restaurants come from these cattle.
Dairy
Cattle produced with a focus on milk production. Cows must have a calf every year to continue milk production. Some female calves are kept to become cows in the herd, and others are sold to different farms or to feedlots, where they are raised to market weight and sent to market for processing.
Specialized Dairies
Dairy farms that concentrate on production of milk, and do not raise other livestock. Most purchase feed instead of raising the crops themselves.
Inspector
Examine food products for safety and facilities to ensure that they are meeting federal and local standards for care and upkeep. A variety of aspects of animal agriculture involve them.
Future Farmers of America
FFA
Packing/processing Plants
Facilities that slaughter animals when they reach their finished weight. Following slaughter, a United States Department of Agriculture inspector examines the animals to ensure that they conform to all federal regulations
Private Operation
Most horse operations are privately owned operations where horse owners provide care for horses they use for recreational purposes.
Pens
Net or cage enclosures that exist in large bodies of water, such as lakes, reservoirs, or the ocean.
Boarding Kennels
Operations that provide facilities for temporary housing of companion animals while their owners are away. May be associated with or operated independently of veterinary clinics. Some also offer "day care" services, where the animals are left at the kennel during the day while their owners are at work.
Pet Stores
Operations that purchase pets and pet-related products for resale.
Suppliers
People providing materials needed for farm production, such as machinery, chemicals, seed, and so on.
Breeders
People who raise companion animals for personal use or for sale. There are different types of these in the industry.
Farm Production
People working directly on the farm and with the animals. Workers include farmers, managers, veterinarians, and so on.
Hatchery
Produces chicks or other baby birds. May produce birds for breeding, exhibition, egg production, or meat production.
Offspring
Several species produce this as a product. For most companion animals, this is a potential income-generating product. In other species, these are produced either to enter the food-producing market, or as potential breeding stock. Dairy animals must produce these to produce milk. Many species have well-established exhibition traditions, and some animals are produced for the exhibition market.
Dairies
Sheep and goats are raised around the world for milk production. The majority of sheep and goat milk produced in the United States is used for cheese production. These segments of the American animal agriculture are still very small.
Range Production
Sheep and lambs are raised on pastures over large tracts of land. Lambs may go directly to packing/processing plants, or they may go to feedlots.
Ponds
Solid enclosures created for raising animals.
Edible by-products
Some items, such as certain organs like heart, kidney, and intestinal tissue, are edible and known as specialty foods. They are largely determined by culture and tradition.
Milk
The fluid produced by all mammals for nourishing their young. In the United States, cow's milk is the primary milk product, although sheep and goat's milk is used in the production of milk products such as cheese, butter, and yogurt. In other countries, mare's milk is also used for human consumption.
Processing and marketing
The preparation and promotion of agricultural food and nonfood products for consumption.
Cow-Calf Operation
The primary focus fro this operation is breeding cattle fro market. The majority of animals bred for market are crossbred animals. Calves will be raised until they are heavy enough to go to market. Calves that are underweight for the feedlot may be kept at the operation and raised until they are large enough, or may be sold as stocker calves, which are calves that are purchased to be fed until they reach feedlot weight, and are then sold to a feedlot.
Feedlot Operation
The primary focus of this operation is raising animals to market weight, or finishing the animals. Animals are between 650 and 800 pounds when they enter this. There, they are raised to market weight, and then sent to market for processing. The animals are fed diets high in grain, resulting in the grain-fed beef seen in the grocery store.
Food
The primary product from most of our traditional livestock species, hence many of them, especially cattle and swine, being known as "food animals".
By-products
The products that are left after the primary product has been removed. Leather from hides is one, as is fat, which is used to make a variety of other products. Used to make common items, ranging from cosmetics to house insulation or human medicines. Can also be termed secondary products.
Sales
The sale of agricultural products to grocery stores, restaurants, and other retail markets, as well as wholesale markets. This also includes positions in the pharmaceutical industry providing products for farm production.
Meat
The tissue consisting of muscle and fat of animals that is processed for consumption.
Research
The use of animals for this has contributed to tremendous progress in human health, and is partially credited for extending the human lifespan. In addition, animals are used for this to assist people in animal agriculture in more efficiently raising their animals and providing for better animal well-being in production animals. Through Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees, the federal government oversees this in the united states to ensure that animals are managed in compliance with the animal welfare act.
Hobbyist Breeders
These breeders usually work with one or two breeds of animals. Often involved in exhibition of the offspring they produce in their breeding programs, and in selling their offspring to other breeders. Many define some of their offspring as "pet quality", selling them to individuals for pets and requesting or requiring that they not be used for breeding. Most breeders of companion animals qualify as these.
Grow-out farms
These facilities receive birds from hatcheries and either raise them to finished market weight in the case of meat-type birds, or raise them until they are ready to start laying eggs in the case of egg-type birds.
Seedstock Operations
These operations produce purebred or crossbred offspring, either for use in breeding programs or for exhibition.
Processing Plants
These plants process birds or eggs to prepare them for retail market.
Breeding Operation
This operation can vary from one or two animals to hundreds of animals. The primary purpose of this type of operation is to produce offspring for sale. Most produce purebred animals, but some operations produce animals for a specific purpose and are less concerned about the purity of lines.
Boarding Operation
This service operation provides a facility where horses live and are cared for in exchange for a set fee. The services and prices range tremendously. Some have staff that provides riding instruction for people with horses at the stable.
Training Operation
This service operation provides racing, riding, or competition training for horses. These trainers often show horses and provide riding lessons for their clients or the general public.
Vertical Integration
This term describes a business with more than one type of operation, in which animals move from one operation to another with no change of ownership. For example, an owner of a cow-calf operation also owns a feedlot where the cattle go, or a packing/processing plant also owns a feedlot where the animals to be slaughtered came from.
Puppy Mills
This term is used to describe some breeding operations that produce large numbers of puppies under poor conditions. They sell their puppies to brokers, who then sell them to retail sellers. The same principles can apply to breeders of other species who focus on producing maximum numbers of animals for resale, with minimal concern for the health and well-being of the animals, or for selection of quality animals as breeding stock.
Diversified Farms
Traditional dairy farms that produce not only milk, but also raise crops and other livestock. These dairy farms have fewer cattle (Less than 200) than specialized farms where milk production is the only income generator.
United States Department of Agriculture
USDA
Indirect Employment
Work in any variety of secondary industries that support animal agriculture, such as manufacturing of goods used in animal agriculture or produced by animal agriculture.
Future Farmers of America
an intracurricular youth organization designed to develop leadership skills and content knowledge in the field of agriculture.
culled
removed from the herd
