Animal Reproduction Agricultural Sciences Grade 12 Notes and Common Questions and Answers

In Animal Production section of Grade 12 Agricultural Sciences, you will lean about the different ways to raise farm animals, which are called production systems. The two main production systems are intensive and extensive production systems. They are used in the two main types of farming systems: large-scale (commercial) farming and small- scale (or subsistence) farming.

Animal Reproduction Agricultural Sciences Grade 12 Notes Summary

Production Systems: Shelter, Protection, and Housing

• Shelter and Housing: Providing adequate shelter and housing for livestock is crucial for their overall well-being. Housing should be designed to protect animals from extreme weather conditions, predators, and external stress factors.
  • Types of Housing: barns, sheds, stables, free-stall systems, and loose housing
  • Factors to Consider: ventilation, temperature, space, and cleanliness

Animal Protection and Control

• Protection: Ensuring the safety and well-being of livestock is crucial for maintaining productivity and preventing unnecessary stress.
  • Predator Control: use of fencing, guard animals, and proper management techniques
  • Environmental Hazards: protection from extreme weather, toxic plants, and harmful chemicals
• Control: Implementing proper animal handling and management practices to minimize stress and promote healthy growth.
  • Training and Handling: using low-stress techniques and understanding animal behavior
  • Nutrition and Feeding: providing a balanced diet and ensuring clean water supply

Animal Diseases: Types and Control

• Types of Diseases:
  • Bacterial: diseases caused by bacteria, such as mastitis and brucellosis
  • Viral: diseases caused by viruses, such as foot-and-mouth disease and avian influenza
  • Fungal: diseases caused by fungi, such as ringworm and aspergillosis
  • Parasitic: diseases caused by parasites, such as coccidiosis and mange
• Control Measures:
  • Prevention: proper housing, sanitation, and biosecurity measures
  • Vaccination: routine vaccinations to prevent common diseases
  • Treatment: appropriate use of antibiotics, antiviral, antifungal, and antiparasitic drugs

Animal Parasites: External/Internal, Types, and Control

• External Parasites: organisms that live on the outside of an animal’s body, such as ticks, mites, and lice.
  • Control: regular inspections, insecticides, and proper grooming
• Internal Parasites: organisms that live inside an animal’s body, such as worms, flukes, and protozoa.
  • Control: deworming, proper pasture management, and clean water sources

Male and Female Reproduction Systems: Organs and Functions

• Male Reproductive System: consists of organs that produce and transport sperm, including the testes, epididymis, vas deferens, and penis.
  • Function: produce and deliver sperm to the female reproductive tract for fertilization
• Female Reproductive System: consists of organs that produce eggs and support pregnancy, including the ovaries, oviducts, uterus, cervix, and vagina.
  • Function: produce eggs, facilitate fertilization, and support pregnancy and birth

Oestrus and Hormones Involved

• Oestrus: the period when a female animal is sexually receptive and fertile
  • Hormones Involved: estrogen, progesterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)

Fertilization and Pregnancy

• Fertilization: the fusion of a sperm cell and an egg cell to create a zygote
• Pregnancy: the period during which the developing offspring is carried in the uterus

Artificial Insemination and Embryo Transfer

• Artificial Insemination: the process of collecting sperm from a male animal and manually depositing it into the female’s reproductive tract
• Embryo Transfer: the process of removing fertilized embryos from a donor animal and transferring them to recipient animals to establish a pregnancy.

Birth and Lactation

• Birth: the process by which offspring are born, also known as parturition
  • Stages of Birth: dilation of the cervix, expulsion of the fetus, and expulsion of the placenta
• Lactation: the production and secretion of milk by the mammary glands to nourish offspring
  • Hormones Involved: prolactin and oxytocin

In summary, understanding animal reproduction is essential in agricultural sciences. It involves providing proper shelter, protection, and housing, as well as managing animal diseases and parasites. Knowledge of the male and female reproductive systems, oestrus, fertilization, and pregnancy is important for successful breeding. Additionally, techniques like artificial insemination and embryo transfer can improve livestock productivity. Lastly, understanding the processes of birth and lactation ensures the health and well-being of both the mother and offspring.

Video Lesson

List of Common Exam Questions for Animal Reproduction Agricultural Science Grade 12

Below are the most common exam questions for the animal reproduction section of Agricultural Sciences Grade 12. Make sure you go through all of them and know all the answers:

1. The primary sex organs of a bull…Answers: Testis
2. The membrane that grows out of the urinary system of the embryo and collects urine from the unborn calf…Answers: Allantoic membrane
3. The secretory glandular tissue that produces milk in the udder…Answers: Alveoli
4.  The inner amniotic membrane that contains a fluid called amniotic fluid, which protects the embryo from shocks…Answers: Amnion
5. A technique in which semen collected from a male animal is placed in the uterus of a female animal…Answers: Artificial insemination
6. The removal of the testicles in young animals…Answers: Castration
7. Empty follicle from which the egg was released to form a yellow body that secretes progesterone…Answers: Corpus luteum
8. The condition by which the testis stays attached to the body cavity and do not move down into the scrotum…Answers: Cryptochordism
9. A developing animal formed from fertilized egg…Answers: Embryo
10. The process by which embryos from the uterus of a genetically superior female animal are removed and placed in the uterus of genetically inferior female animals…Answers: Embryo transfer
11. Coiled tube lying outside each testis for sperm maturity, storage, concentration and transport …Answers: Epididimis
12. Muscular tubes, lined with tiny hairs called cilia, leading from the uterus to the ovary…Answers: Fallopian tube
13. Mammalian embryo from seven weeks after fertilisation…Answers: Foetus
14. The period from fertilisation to birth…Answers: Gestation
15. The under development of the reproductive organs such as the ovaries or testis…Answers: Hypoplasia
16.  The condition where the male has an interest in a female but lacks the ability to serve the female…Answers: Impotence
17. Failure of farm animals to produce gametes to mate or for fertilisation to occur…Answers: Infertility
18. The period during which the female animal produces milk…Answers: Lactation
19. Hormonal controlled cycle of activity of the reproductive organs in many female mammals…Answers: Oestrus cycle
20. Period when the female is reproductively receptive to males and able to conceive…Answers: Oestrus
21. Primary sex organs of female animals…Answers: Ovaries
22. The release of a ripe ovum from the ovary…Answers: Ovulation
23. The female hormone that stimulates the release of milk from the udder…Answers: Oxytocin
24. Long, thin steel tool used to inject semen from the straw into the uterus of the female animal…Answers: Pistolette
25. The membrane that develops around the embryo and attach it to the uterus…Answers: Placenta
26. The start of sexual readiness in animals…Answers: Puberty
27. A mixture of sperms and fluids from the seminal vesicles, the prostate gland and Cowper’s gland…Answers: Semen
28. A condition when animals mate but fertilisation does not occur…Answers: Sterility
29. The process whereby semen is expelled from the penis through powerful contractions…Answers: Ejaculation
30. The inner lining of the uterus…Answers: Endometrium
31. Giving birth to piglets…Answers: Farrowing
32. When the female bird e.g. a hen, sits on eggs to keep it warm…Answers: Incubation
33. Non-identical twins of the opposite sex of which the female is sterile…Answers: Freemartin
34. The release of a large number of mature ova fro fertilisation is called…Answers: Supeovulation
35. The yellowish milk secreted for the first three days after calving…Answers: Colostrums
36. Sexual interest or desire in male animals…Answers: Libido
37. A protrusion of an organ through the structure that usually contains it…Answers: Hernias
38. Female calves that have been weaned at about 12 weeks of age… Answers: Heifers
39. The male hormone responsible for male characteristics..Answers: Testosterone
40. The mammary gland or the breast of a cow…Answers: udder