Common animal husbandry terms

Parturition

act of giving birth

Gestation

pregnancy time from conception to birth

Conception

Act of fertilization

Dam

Female parent

Sire

Male parent

Fecundity/Prolificacy

ability to give birth to offspring frequently or to numerous young at frequent intervals

Sterility

inability to produce normal young

Impotency

failure to copulate

Meat

properly dressed flesh derived from mature animals in good condition at the time of slaughter

Slaughtering

from fasting through stunning, bleeding, skinning, and evisceration

Butchering

from splitting to quartering, to cutting the carcass into retail cuts

Game meat

game animals’ meat

Venison

deer meat