Animal Breeding & Genetics — Animal Science Reviewer Questions

250 board-style Animal Breeding & Genetics items for the Agriculturist Licensure Examination, free and open to every examinee. Ration and carcass items are calculation-shaped but rarely arithmetic-heavy. Read for what is being asked before reaching for numbers.

250 questions in this topic · part of Animal Science · every answer explained

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Sample Animal Breeding & Genetics questions with answers and explanations

Board-style items taken from the Animal Science bank. Every answer is explained, which is the part that makes a review question worth doing twice.

A dairy cooperative in Bukidnon records the first day a cow stands to be mounted and then counts the days until the next standing heat. Which reproductive measure is the technician determining?
- A. Estrous cycle length correct
- B. Estrous period duration
- C. Service period
- D. Gestation length
Why: The estrous cycle is measured from one standing heat to the beginning of the next, which is exactly the count being made. The estrous period is only the hours of standing heat inside that cycle, and the service period runs from calving to the conception that follows.
A sow accepts the boar for only a limited number of hours, and the farm manager schedules insemination within that window. Which phase is being used for breeding?
- A. Postweaning interval
- B. Estrous period correct
- C. Lactation period
- D. Gestation period
Why: Standing heat itself is the estrous period, the limited window in which the female accepts the male, and insemination is timed to it. The postweaning interval only leads up to that heat; it is not the phase in which the sow is bred.
A goat breeder separates kids from their dams at 90 days so that the does can recover body condition before the next breeding season. What management practice is being applied?
- A. Castration
- B. Synchronization
- C. Culling
- D. Weaning correct
Why: Weaning is the separation of the young from the dam so it no longer depends on her milk, and it is timed here to let the does regain condition before rebreeding. Culling would remove the does from the herd, and synchronization would only align their heats.
A newly purchased bull produces normal semen but repeatedly refuses or fails to mate even when cows are in standing heat. Which condition best describes the problem?
- A. Sterility
- B. Low prolificacy
- C. Impotency correct
- D. Cryptorchidism
Why: Impotency is the inability to complete mating despite producing normal semen, which is what the bull's refusal to serve cows in standing heat shows. Sterility is different: a sterile male mates readily but cannot fertilize.
A boar readily mates, but repeated semen evaluations show no sperm capable of fertilization. Which term best describes the boar?
- A. Fecund
- B. Sterile correct
- C. Impotent
- D. Prolific
Why: Sterility is the inability to fertilize, and a boar that mates willingly but yields no fertile sperm is sterile rather than impotent. Impotency describes a male that cannot perform the mating act at all.
A rabbit enterprise removes the ovaries of young females that will be kept only as pets. Which procedure is being performed?
- A. Castration
- B. Weaning
- C. Spaying correct
- D. Kindling
Why: Spaying is the removal of the ovaries of the female, which is the procedure described. Castration is its counterpart in the male, and kindling is the act of giving birth in rabbits.
A native chicken breeder retains a rooster only after records from many daughters show consistently high egg production. The rooster is best described as a:
- A. Foundation dam
- B. Weanling male
- C. Proven sire correct
- D. Terminal cross
Why: A proven sire is one whose breeding value has been established from the records of his offspring, which is precisely what the daughters' egg production supplies. Without progeny information he would be an untested male, whatever his own appearance.
A carabao bull has one testis retained in the abdomen. Why should the farm avoid using him as a breeder?
- A. The condition guarantees female offspring
- B. The condition is caused only by temporary nutrition
- C. The condition is cryptorchidism and may be heritable correct
- D. The retained testis increases semen fertility
Why: A retained testis is cryptorchidism, and because the defect has a heritable basis, breeding the bull risks passing it to his sons. The condition also impairs sperm production in the retained testis rather than improving fertility.

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Animal Breeding & Genetics — Animal Science Reviewer Questions

Sample Animal Breeding & Genetics questions with answers and explanations

A dairy cooperative in Bukidnon records the first day a cow stands to be mounted and then counts the days until the next standing heat. Which reproductive measure is the technician determining?

A sow accepts the boar for only a limited number of hours, and the farm manager schedules insemination within that window. Which phase is being used for breeding?

A goat breeder separates kids from their dams at 90 days so that the does can recover body condition before the next breeding season. What management practice is being applied?

A newly purchased bull produces normal semen but repeatedly refuses or fails to mate even when cows are in standing heat. Which condition best describes the problem?

A boar readily mates, but repeated semen evaluations show no sperm capable of fertilization. Which term best describes the boar?

A rabbit enterprise removes the ovaries of young females that will be kept only as pets. Which procedure is being performed?

A native chicken breeder retains a rooster only after records from many daughters show consistently high egg production. The rooster is best described as a:

A carabao bull has one testis retained in the abdomen. Why should the farm avoid using him as a breeder?

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