🐄 Stuff Every Animal Science Scout Should Know: the Study Guide

The cheat sheet

The whole guide on one screen. Screenshot it, print it, stick it on the fridge.

• Dogs were tamed more than 17,500 years ago, before sheep, goats, cattle, or pigs were domesticated.
• Most livestock are herbivores, but pigs and chickens eat both plant and animal material.
• Pigs and poultry are non-ruminants and cannot break down the cellulose in grass, so they need other high-energy feeds.
• Ruminants like cattle, sheep, and goats swallow food, then bring it back up to chew again for better digestion.
• Cattle, sheep, goats, deer, and antelopes are ruminants that digest food in two steps.
• Hay is dried grass, while silage is fermented grass, both stored to feed livestock when grass stops growing.
• Silage is fermented grass preserved to fill gaps in livestock nutrition during lean seasons.
• Farmers breed for hardiness, fertility, fast growth, low feed use, and higher yields, while selecting against defects.
• Undesirable traits such as health defects and aggressiveness are selected against in breeding programs.
• Good husbandry, proper feeding, and hygiene are the main contributors to animal health on the farm.
• Routine antibiotics in feed are frowned on because of the risk of antimicrobial resistance in livestock and humans.
• Zoonoses are diseases that humans may acquire from animals, so biosecurity matters on farms.