Food Animal Science Vocabulary Review

Flashcards testing vocabulary, concepts, timelines, and quantitative metrics from the introductory Food Animal Science lecture.

Animal Science

The study of animals and how they function, are cared for, and are used in agriculture, encompassing nutrition, health, behavior, genetics, and production systems from cellular levels to whole animals.

Domestication

The process of humans adapting wild animals over generations for purposes such as food, work, companionship, or other resources.

Ruminant

An even-toed ungulate animal with a specialized stomach containing 4 compartments that allows it to convert non-human-digestible plant materials into nutrient-dense food like meat and milk.

Monogastric

An animal that possesses a single-chambered stomach, such as poultry, swine, and horses.

Ungulate

A hoofed animal, classified by whether it has an even or odd number of weight-bearing toes.

Even-Toed Ungulates

Hoofed animals that have 2 main weight-bearing toes, including cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs.

Odd-Toed Ungulates

Hoofed animals that have 1 main toe (such as horses) or 3 main toes (such as rhinos).

Protein Ladder

A conceptual progression of food ordered from lowest to highest price and protein quality: Beans -> Fish -> Chicken -> Pork -> Beef, Lamb.

Nutrient-Dense Animal Foods

Foods such as milk, meat, and eggs that provide a high proportion of nutrients (including high-quality protein, vitamins, minerals, and fats) relative to the total quantity consumed.

Livestock Domestication Timeline

Dogs (12,000 years ago) -> Sheep, goats, cattle (9000-7000 B.C.) -> Draft cattle/buffalo (4000 B.C.) -> Horses/donkeys (3000 B.C.) -> Poultry (2000 B.C.) -> Turkeys (14th century).

Drivers of Global Meat Consumption

Increased wealth (income changes account for ~89% of U.S. meat/poultry export growth) and increased population combined with increasing urbanization in lower-income countries.

Chicken Meat Consumption Factors

Global chicken consumption has reached ~310 billion lbs, driven in part by having fewer dietary or religious restrictions relative to other meats like pork.

U.S. Agricultural Value Breakdown

The total value of U.S. agriculture is divided into Crops (51.64%), Beef (18.81%), and Livestock excluding beef (29.5%).

Livestock Ranking by Monetary Value

The sequence of livestock sectors ordered from highest to lowest monetary value: Cattle -> Dairy -> Broilers -> Eggs -> Poultry -> Milk -> Other.

Annual U.S. Slaughter Totals

The approximate number of animals slaughtered annually in the U.S.: Chickens (9.7 billion), Turkeys (191 million), Hogs (128.3 million), Cattle (30.04 million), and Sheep & lambs (2.35 million).

U.S. Meat Production by Weight

Total weight produced per species: Chicken (~48.5 billion lbs, highest overall), Pork (~27.6 billion lbs), and Beef (~26.1 billion lbs).

Geographic Concentration of U.S. Livestock

Beef & Dairy feedlots are mainly located in the Central Plains/Midwest, Broilers in the Southeast, and Egg production mostly in the Midwest/Northeast.