How to Use This Glossary
Agricultural terms can change meaning by species, registry, region, marketing program, and scientific discipline. These definitions explain how terms are generally used on this website and link readers to deeper guides where nuance matters.
Livestock and Breeding Terms
Breeding stock: animals retained or sold for reproduction based on more than registration alone.
Pedigree: a record of ancestry.
COI: coefficient of inbreeding, an estimate of relatedness within a pedigree or genomic calculation.
Phenotype: observable physical traits influenced by genetics and environment.
Genotype: the gene pairings and interactions that express themselves in the animal, only detectible at the cellular level through lab tests.
Alleles: the base pairs that each animal inherits from their parents.
Genes: the combined pair of alleles that create a gene.
Homozygous: when two alleles are exactly the same, making the gene homozygous.
Heterozygous: when two alleles are different, making the gene heterozygous.
Carrier: when an animal carries a certain set of single alleles, a gene pair, or even a disease.
Dam: the mother of an animal.
Sire: the father of an animal.
Heat: when the female is in estrus, or ovulating, ready to breed.
Bred: when the female is observed being successfully bred by an intact male or is confirmed via blood pregnancy test, ultrasound, or veterinary exam.
Bred Back: when a female has successfully conceived while currently raising a baby.
Open: when a female is not carrying a baby, confirmed either by blood pregnancy test, ultrasound, or veterinary exam.
CVI: certificate of veterinary inspection, required by states when livestock are transported from another state.
Kunekune Animal and Structure Terms
Boar: an intact male pig
Barrow: a castrated male pig
Boarling: a young male piglet
Gilt: a young female piglet, specifically before she has had her first litter of piglets
Sow: a female pig who has had her first litter
Hog: a pig destined for market as a meat animal
Piglet: a baby pig
Topline: the profile along the back and loin.
Pastern: the area between the fetlock and hoof.
Piri piri: the paired wattles associated with Kunekunes when present.
Capacity: useful body depth, width, and volume interpreted with balance.
Sow Line: the name of the originating animal import that contributed to a line of female Kunekunes.
Boar Line: the name of the originating animal import that contributed to a line of male Kunekunes.
Meat and Feed Terms
Grass-fed: a forage-based feeding claim whose exact standard should be verified.
Grass-finished: cattle finished for harvest on forage rather than grain.
Pasture-raised: meaningful outdoor pasture access, not a complete feed or welfare standard by itself.
Finishing: the method by which an animal is fed during the last weeks or months of its life before butcher.
Free Feed: an animal is allowed to eat as much food unrestricted as it wants.
Supplemental Feed: when an animal needs an additional nutrition regiment in its feed when forage alone is not enough.
Forage: available pasture, grass, browse, hay, haylage, or silvopasture that animals can eat.
Regenerative Terms
Stocking rate: animals relative to land over time.
Stock density: animal concentration at a moment.
Recovery period: time allowed for plants and soil conditions to recover before return.
Cow or Animal Unit: the general term for estimating the number of animal pounds an acre can carry in terms of 1,000 pounds, or one animal unit or cow unit.
Rotational Grazing: the management method by which animals are rotated from pasture to pasture to feed the herd and allow a grazed area to rest and recover.
Multi-species Grazing: the use of different species of animals with one following another in order to build soil, manage disturbance, and add bacterial biodiversity to the soil.
Carbon: the 12th element on the periodic table, referred to as a needed element for adding stable carbon back to the soil, increasing soil health.
Water Infiltration: the amount of water a given area of soil can absorb and that plants can utilize without substantial run-off, erosion, or top soil loss.
Root Exudates: the shedding of cells, roots, bacteria, and other detritus that contribute to carbon addition in the soil by a plant.
Soil Amendment: a nutrient that may specifically be lacking in the soil that can be added back by human means in order to repair soil quicker.
Biomass: the amount of total contributing biological factors that build soil including manure, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, earth worms, dung beetles, and other living things that create living soil.
Soil Food Web: the interaction between microscopic and visible creatures in a soil food chain that contribute together to create soil health.
Explore the full regenerative guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these official registry definitions?
Not unless a definition specifically cites a registry. Registry terminology should be verified against the current organization standard.
Why can agricultural definitions differ?
Species, programs, regions, research fields, and marketing rules may use the same term with different thresholds or context.
Is pasture-raised the same as grass-fed?
No. Pasture access and diet are different questions, and pigs or poultry should not be described using cattle-finishing terminology.
Where can I suggest a missing term?
Contact Dos Lobos Ranch with the term and the page where clarification would help.