YouScience Animal Science and Livestock Production Practice Test

Average daily gain is the amount of body weight an animal gains on average each day over a defined period. It’s found by taking the difference between final and initial weight and dividing by the number of days in the period, usually expressed as pounds or kilograms per day. This rate helps compare growth performance across animals, diets, or management conditions because it standardizes gain by time. It isn’t a weekly measure, since it’s expressed per day; it isn’t the total weight gain over the growth period, which would be the cumulative gain without standardizing by time; and it isn’t about how much feed is consumed—that would refer to daily feed intake or feed efficiency.