L

Glossary

Lactation (for beef cattle) The period of calf nursing between birth and weaning.

Lean Meat Meat  with the connective tissue limits, but free of visible fat.

Libido Sex drive. In males, the propensity to detect and mate estrous females.

Life history Life history refers to the full cycle of an animal’s reproductive and productive herd life.

Linear scoring The visual assessment of an animal for one or more morphological characteristics using a linear scale which represents the biological extremes in the population of animals under consideration.

Link Sire A sire with descendents in two or more contemporary groups.

Live finish weights Live weight collected at time of harvest or slaughter.

Live weight gain The weight gained between two weight measurements during an animals life divided by time between the measurements in units (e.g. days).

Locus The specific location of a gene on a chromosome.

Longevity Duration of life.