Animal Husbandry:
- Animal Husbandry may be defined as a science as well as an art of management including scientific feeding, breeding, housing, health care of common domestic animals aiming for maximum returns.
- The word ‘Animal’ means only those domesticated animals which are reared mostly for economic or for recreation purposes in any particular region. Such as cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, yak, camel, dog, horse, etc. The word ‘Husbandry’ comes from the management of domestic affairs but now presently it is also used in the management of farming, such as crop husbandry and animal husbandry.
- Balanced ration: Ration that contains all the nutrients in the right proportions and quantities is called balanced ration.
- Calf: A young animal of bovine species under one year of age.
- Bull Calf: A male calf under one year of age.
- Calf starter: Concentrate feed offered to the young calves after 2 weeks of age.
- Buller / Nymphomaniac: A cow apparently always in heat.
- Cow: It is a female of bovine species that has calved at least once.
- Castration: it is the removal of testicles.
- Concentrates: Feeds that contain less than 18% crude fiber are called concentrates such as grains, oilcakes, grain by products etc.
- Cross breeding: A system of breeding between two established breeds.
- Crisscrossing or Rotational crossing: Mating of a hybrid to three established breeds in a rotational manner.
- Cryptorchid: A male animal in which one or both the testicles fail to descend into the scrotal sac.
- Culling: Removal of undesirable or unproductive animals form herd.
- Dry period: The time interval between date of drying off the cow to the date of next calving.
- Grading Up: Systems of breeding in which pure bulls are used for improvement in non-descript females for several generation.
- Free martin: When twin calves of different sexes are born, the bull calf is normal whereas the heifer calf is sterile. the sterile heifer calf is called freemartin.
- Energy Feeds: Feeds containing less than 20% crude protein are called energy feeds.
- Disbudding: Removal of the horn buds of the calf by mechanical or chemical methods to arrest growth of horns.
- Deworming: Removal of the internal gastro intestinal parasites from the body.
- Deticking: Removal of the external parasites like ticks, lice, mites, present on the body surface of animal.
- Challenge feeding: The practice of feeding higher levels of concentrate to challenge the cow to reach her maximum milk production.
- Bullock: Castrated male ox.
- Weaning: Separation of the calf from the cow and feeding them artificially.
- Variation: It is a tool to measure differences of character or trait between animals.
- Test cross: Mating of a crossbred back to its recessive parent.
- Stud Bull: Bull that is used for breeding purposes.
- Silage: Freshly cut green forages cut and offered to the animals.
- Service period: The period between Parturition to successful conception expressed in days.
- Selection: The process of including certain animals in a population for becoming parents of next generation.
- Scrub Bull: It is non-descript type of stray village cattle.
- Roughage: Feeds that contain more than 18% crude fiber are called roughage such as hay, silage, fodder etc.
- Ration: The total amount of feed that an animal is offered during a 24 hour period of time is called ration.
- Protein supplements: Feeds that contain 20% or more protein are called protein supplements.
- Production ration: A portion of the ration given daily in excess of maintenance requirement for purpose of growth, production and work.
- Phenotype: The visible character of an individual animal.
- Heifer calf: A female calf under one year of age.
- Heifer: A female individual that has not yet calved.
- Inbreeding: A system of breeding between very closely related animals.
- Inheritance: Transmission of genes from parents to the offspring in the next generation.
- Inter calving period: No of days between two successive calvings.
- Lactation Curve: The graphical representation of the rate of milk secretion during lactation is called Lactation Curve.
- Lactation length: The time interval between the dates of calving to the date of drying the animal expressed in days.
- Maintenance ration: A ration given daily to the animal to maintain in resting nonproduction condition With good health. Open animal: Female animals that have not been bred.
- Parturition: Act of delivery in animals
- Pasture: Fodder crops are grown on the land for grazing animals.
- Pedigree Bull: The bull Whose ancestral record is known.
- Persistency: The ability of the animal to sustain good daily milk is for a longer peri d i.e, the slope o descending phase of lactation curve is known as Persist-ency.