Meanings of terms - Neeed Help! Updated List

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Sir Loin

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Feb 19, 2014
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72
Location
SE Tenn
Around here ( TN ) a heifer is a female calf and a young cow.
which includes a first time heifer and some time even a second time heifer.
Here you can buy a bred heifer with a calf by her side and still be buying a heifer.
They are know as 3 in 1s. in the action ring.

Heiferette is as I stated.

How about “ brood cow “, does anyone use that any more?
How about “ proven “ as in a proven heifer: a heifer who has produced a healthy calf and has bred back successfully.
Liz
 

Sir Loin

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Joined
Feb 19, 2014
Messages
72
Location
SE Tenn
DOODLER

Little doggie type 200-300# calf that's odd colored or dairy influenced or horned
Okie 2-3 type light calf
 

tamarack

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Dec 27, 2012
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Here in Alberta a heiferette  is a heifer that preg tested open or never got bred 1.5 to 2yrs of age
 

BLRanch

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Sep 25, 2009
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128
Location
Wisconsin
librarian said:
rising chine?

I always thought this term was more associated with hogs. When a hog starts to get stale they will start to rise a bit in there back behind their shoulders.
 

Danielle1018

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Feb 25, 2015
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I think that this is more associated in hogs, but I have heard it mentioned in cattle before.
 

Sparks Livestock

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Feb 9, 2017
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A 2017 edit to an older post.some of the items were changed, some were not, some were added due to having seen them used at shows in the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017.

Breaks in the Chine: Not a good term, chine refers to the point at the top of the shoulder where both shoulder blades or scapula's meet. terms for chine revolve around being high chinned, stale chines, open shouldered. broken topped, weak topped, sway backed refer to how cattle are not strong topped or don't blend well due to the scapula placement

Broken over in the knee: Forward at their knee, usually coexists with being straight fronted =The polite way of saying that they wont survive in a good breeding program more than a couple of years or that they would be culled quickly

Body Condition Score:  A score on a scale of 1 to 9, reflecting the amount of fat reserves in a cow's body, where 1 = very thin and 9 = extremely fat.

Calving Ease Score: A numerical score quantifying calving ease, ranging from 1 for an easy, unassisted calving through 5 for an abnormal presentation.

Capacious: refers to body type, depth and power Eg. "I started out with a extremely capacious Heifer that will show more of an economical advantage as she moves into her production stage..."

Carries through to Twist: Adequate amount of muscle down the back and inside of, lower quarter can refer to this also

Cute Headed: Bad term.  Can be used in replacement of  a negative term on steers or heifers, usually means that the animal is smaller framed or is not as far in their growth pattern as others in the class.

Embryo Transfer:  Removing fertilized ova (embryos) from one cow (the donor), generally in response to hormone-induced super ovulation, and placing these embryos into other cows (the recipients). More calves can be obtained from cows of superior breeding value by this technique

F1:  Offspring resulting from the mating of a purebred (straight-bred) bull to purebred (straight-bred) females of another breed.

Flat Ribbed: Shows a lack of maternal characteristics in cows as big ribbed cattle are more economical to feed and can carry a larger calf without sacrificing nutritional ability

Flat Boned: replacement of "fine boned", "smaller framed", "harder doing"

Freemartin:  Female born twin to a bull calf (approximately 9 out of 10 will be infertile).

Green: Generally means "not ready". It often refers to body condition...if a calf is lean or lacking condition, we'd say the calf is "green".

Goose Necked/Fronted: Rocket fronted, choke neck, clean necked and throat latch, without excessive leather or skin, clean fronted, stylish

Heavy Footed: not sound, but could be if the animal wasn't so fat or heavy bred. Eg. " The Heifer I used to conclude the class is one that could arguably be placed among the top end as shes cool fronted, maternally made throughout and doesn't sacrifice femininity for sheer power, but the main fault I find in her today is that she's just extremely Heavy footed and over conditioned and just doesn't bring the flexibility for a production setting that the heifers ahead of her brought"

High Pinned: Pin bones are set higher than the hook bones, giving the hip an upward appearance as opposed to being level from hooks to pins (desirable) or dropping in her pins. From a production standpoint, a sloped hip does make more sense because the calf comes out in a downward direction. Cattle that slope badly from hooks to pins tend to have more slope to other angles including shoulders and pasterns and might also tend to have more set to the hock. Everything is connected!

Hind Leg: They carry lower between their legs.

Maintenance Energy Requirement:  The amount of feed energy required per day by an animal to maintain its body weight and support necessary metabolic functions.

Maternal EPD:  An EPD representing the effect of the genes of an individuals daughters on the trait of interest. A calving ease maternal EPD, for example, represents the ease with which an individual daughters calve are born. See also Direct EPD.

Outbreeding (Outcrossing): Mating together of animals that are not closely related. Mild outbreeding is illustrated by mating cows to a sire of their own breed but who is not closely related to them. Such outcrossing may widen the genetic base in a herd and reduce inbreeding accumulation. A higher level of outcrossing is illustrated by crossing two BIOS taurus breeds. This generally would result in beneficial heterosis for economically important traits.
Ovulation:  Release of the female germ cell (egg or ovum) by the ovary. Cows usually ovulate several hours (up to 15 hours) after the end of estrus or standing heat.

Palatability:  Acceptable to the taste or sufficiently agreeable in flavor to be eaten.

Parturition: The act of giving birth; calving.

Pedigree:  A tabulation of names of an individual's ancestors, usually only those of the three to five closest generations. Pedigree information is used to establish genetic relationships among individuals to use in genetic evaluations.

Pone Fat: The fat deposited on either side of the tail. Tail pones are useful in predicting quality grade in all cattle, especially dairy and exotic breeds. Animals showing no fat deposits on either side of the tail head should be considered for the standard quality grade. Select quality grade will show only small amounts of pone fat (about the size of a tennis ball) and choice grade cattle will show moderate amounts of pone fat (about the size of a soft ball).

Phenotype:  The visible or measurable expression of a character; weaning weight, post wean gain, or reproduction for example. For most traits, phenotype is influenced by both genotype and environment. The relative degree to which phenotype variation among individuals is caused by transmissible genetic effects is the heritability of a trait

Polled: Naturally hornless cattle. Having no horns or scurs.

Postpartum Interval:  The number of days between parturition (Birth) and the first postpartum estrus (First Heat after Birth).

Post legged: Little or no set to the hock. The back legs appear very straight, and the animal tends to swing the hind leg from the hip instead of flexing the hock to move forward.

Progeny: The young, or offspring, of the parents.

Pounds Heavy:  They weigh more... simple scale to eye term also the same as "pounds per day of age advantage" in a heifer class

Roomy Middled: poor term. spring of rib, bold ribbed, volume, capacity, shape

Soggy: big bellied, deep bodied, proper to heavier conditioned, soft, easy feeding looking big ribbed, massive ribbed, powerful, deep. a really good term as far as bulls and steers go, as far as heifers I would say "she shows to be more maternal in her appearance though her rib and depth"

Stout animal: 2 ways to use this one as a positive, 1) I marked 1 over 2 as he is the stouter made steer throughout, showing more base, depth of body, and overall muscle expression
2) Even though he did not have the style or the adg (Average Daily Gain advantage, I still appreciated him for being the stoutest animal in the class, so I marked him second

Scrotal circumference: A measure of testes size obtained by measuring the distance around the testicles in the scrotum with a circular tape. Related to semen producing capacity and age at puberty of female sibs and progeny.

Scurs:  Horny tissue or rudimentary horns that are attached to the skin rather than the bony parts of the head

Super Ovulation: Process by which a cow is treated with reproductive hormones to induce her to produce more eggs than normal. (Used in Flushing Cows)

True Skeletal Width: how an animal is built from the ground up. true skeletal width is from their base width  up to their chest width, through their spring of rib and to the width over their top.

Wasty Middled: An indication of unfitness, loosely skinned, fatty look, usually used in an animal that was held for to long and lost all freshness

Weak Loined: Weak in the top over the loin area(middle of back). This animal appears to have a sway in their back, as opposed to a strong or straight top, which is straight from the top of the shoulder to the curve of the tail head. These animals are usually loose structured and still sounder made than cattle that "bow their top" which tend to be straighter off both ends and have less flex to the hock, knee and pastern.

Truest in their ties: An animal that has not put on an excessive amount of fat through their back.

Banana legged: HAHA  someone actually used this as a term in a class? I would assume they were trying to nicely say that the calf was sickle hocked BAD

Hot ration: a HIGH energy feed that will burn the rumen if not managed properly, used for fast growth, or high sperm production usually.
Bloom: usually used to say that they have a acceptable amount of fat cover that gives a smooth appearance, can be mistaken with high dollar hair (cooler, tons of products and a GREAT fitter)

rising chine: usually means that that should be their last show because they're "breaking behind the shoulder"



Note: all of the examples used were by judges at national shows, Ft. worth, Denver, Louisville, Tulsa State fair, and reasons that I used judging jackpots.
 
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