08/24/2026
Welcome to Merit Badge Monday!
Cattle, horses, sheep, goats, hogs, poultry, and other domesticated animals are important to people for many reasons. They supply us with food and clothing, we use them for recreational purposes, they work with and for us.
The Animal Science merit badge is for every scout that dreams of being a rancher or farmer when they grow up. Livestock feeding, digestion, diseases, breeding, and even biosecurity are covered in exploring the vast range of knowledge required to manage an animal facility.
Name, List, Explain, Tell requirements make up the majority of this badge. The only active requirement is to visit an actual animal facility, but even that can be replaced with the Internet or a video. Optionally, the scout can raise an animal if they choose the sheep, hog, or bird area of specialization.
Approximately 3,800 scouts earn this badge each year, putting it around the 100th most popular. By doing online research, any scout can complete this badge on their own at home. There is a lot of animal jargon to learn and the requirements list is long, but a scout only does one of the six optional livestock types.
