Important animal terms glossary

The amount of food needed by an animal to keep it healthy and maintain a constant liveweight.

Substrates which encourage natural behaviours such as chewing, rooting and exploration, which pigs have an inherent motivation to carry out.

Movable belts, e. g. made of “non-stick” polypropylene, below the cages on which droppings from laying hens are collected and are periodically transported outside the house to a closed storage or direct application.

Devices designed to cool the surface, and hence reduce ammonia emission, from manure pits beneath slatted floor in pig houses. Arrays of plastic or metal fins are filled with cold water to act as a heat exchanger and floated on the manure surface.

Painful inflammation of the breast or udder tissue in mammals, commonly affecting dairy animals.

A feedstuff consisting of a single or a mixture of finely ground ingredients such as cereals, oil seeds, fish etc. and commonly fed to pigs and poultry.

The dietary energy remaining after losses in feces, urine and combustible gases (methane), which is available for maintenance, milk production and body gain.

A microclimate refers to the specific, localized atmospheric conditions experienced by livestock in their immediate surroundings.

A purpose-built facility where dairy cows are assembled in a defined configuration (e.g., herringbone, rotary, or parallel) to be milked using mechanical vacuum-based cluster units, optimized for labor efficiency, cow flow, and milk hygiene.

·        Drive trough/Tandem milking parlour

·        Side by side parlour

·        Herringbone parlour

·        Rotary parlour

Minerals, i. e. inorganic substances including trace elements, fed to livestock and that are required for the normal functioning, growth and health of the animal. Often added to concentrates or cake.