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Beef cattle glossary
The abbreviations and terms that show up on sale reports, EPD sheets, herd records and vet visits, in plain English.
- AI (artificial insemination)
- Breeding cows with semen collected from a bull, instead of turning a bull in. It gives access to proven genetics.
- AUM (animal unit month)
- A grazing measure: the forage one animal unit eats in a month. Used to compare pasture capacity and lease rates.
- Backgrounding
- Growing weaned calves on forage or a grower ration before they go to a feedlot.
- BCS (body condition score)
- A 1 to 9 score of how thin or fat a beef cow is. Tracked through the year to see whether cows are gaining or losing too much condition.
- Bloat
- A buildup of gas in the rumen that can kill quickly. Prevention and treatment plans come from your veterinarian.
- Bred heifer
- A heifer confirmed to be pregnant with her first calf.
- Brand inspection
- A check of brands and ownership papers when cattle are sold or moved, required in some states. Check your state agency for the rules.
- BQA (Beef Quality Assurance)
- A national program of training and practices for handling cattle and using animal health products responsibly.
- BRD (bovine respiratory disease)
- Pneumonia and related illness in cattle, especially after weaning, shipping and stress. Managed with your vet.
- Breakeven
- The price per hundredweight at which income covers costs. See the calculator on this site.
- Bull
- An intact adult male used for breeding.
- Calving ease
- How easily calves are born, influenced by calf birth weight, heifer pelvic size and genetics.
- Cow-calf operation
- A ranch that keeps a breeding herd and sells calves, usually at weaning.
- Creep feed
- Feed offered to nursing calves that cows cannot access.
- Cwt (hundredweight)
- A unit equal to 100 pounds. Cattle prices are commonly quoted per cwt.
- EPD (expected progeny difference)
- A genetic prediction of how an animal’s calves are expected to perform, compared with other animals in the same breed.
- Feeder cattle
- Young cattle that have been weaned and are ready to be fed to market weight.
- Finishing
- The last feeding stage before slaughter, when cattle put on fat and marbling.
- Forage
- Fibrous plant feed such as grass, hay and silage.
- Frame score
- A number describing skeletal size of an animal for its age.
- Freemartin
- A heifer born twin to a bull calf, usually infertile.
- Gestation
- Pregnancy. In cattle it is roughly 283 days.
- Grass-fed
- A claim about how cattle were fed. Labels and rules vary, so check the producer and USDA guidance.
- Heifer
- A young female that has not yet had a calf.
- Hundredweight
- See cwt.
- Implant
- A growth-promoting product placed under the skin of cattle. Use and labeling rules apply.
- Open
- Not pregnant.
- Pairs
- A cow and her calf sold or described together.
- Pasture rotation
- Moving cattle between paddocks so grass can rest and regrow.
- Pelvic area
- A measurement of heifer pelvic size, used to estimate calving difficulty risk.
- Replacement heifer
- A heifer kept to join the breeding herd.
- Seedstock
- Breeding cattle, usually purebred or performance-tested, sold to other producers to improve their herds.
- Shrink
- Weight lost by cattle between the pasture and the scale from gut fill and stress.
- Stocker
- A young animal grown on pasture after weaning and before the feedlot.
- Stocking rate
- The number of animals per acre of pasture for a given time.
- Weaning weight
- The weight of a calf at weaning, often adjusted to 205 days for comparison.
- Weaning
- Separating calves from their mothers so they stop nursing.
- Yearling weight
- A calf’s weight at about a year of age, often adjusted to 365 days for comparison.
- Withdrawal time
- The period after treatment during which cattle cannot be sold for slaughter. Follow the label or your vet exactly.