Glossary of agriculture

This glossary of agriculture is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in agriculture, its sub-disciplines, and related fields, including horticulture, animal husbandry, agribusiness, and agricultural policy. For other glossaries relevant to agricultural science, see Glossary of biology, Glossary of ecology, Glossary of environmental science, and Glossary of botanical terms.

A

abattoir: See slaughterhouse.
aboiteau: A sluice or conduit built beneath a coastal dike, with a hinged gate or a one-way valve that closes during high tide, preventing salt water from flowing into the sluice and flooding the land behind the dike, but remains open during low tide, allowing fresh water precipitation and irrigation runoff to drain from the land into the sea; or a method of land reclamation which relies on these gated sluices to convert tidal flats and coastal marshes into land suitable for agriculture. Aboiteau systems are usually installed several seasons prior to planting to allow time for natural flows of fresh water to drain through the soil and reduce its salinity. This method is practiced in areas with extremely high tidal amplitudes, particularly Atlantic Canada, where large tracts of coastal land would otherwise be rendered useless by regular tidal inundation.^[1]
acaricide: A pesticide intended to kill or incapacitate members of the arthropod subclass Acari, which includes ticks and mites, either by targeting adults or by preventing the growth and development of their eggs or larvae. Acaricides specifically helpful against ticks may also be known as ixodicides and those specific to mites may be known as miticides. Though ticks and mites are not technically insects, in common usage, acaricides are sometimes referred to as insecticides.
acre (ac): A unit of area traditionally defined as the area of one chain (66 feet) by one furlong (660 feet), equivalent to 43,560 square feet (0.001563 sq mi; 4,047 m²), or about 0.40 hectare.
acreage: A quantity of land; several acres considered collectively, united by their ownership, management, usage, geographical location, or some other unifying feature.^[2]
acre-foot: A customary unit of volume defined as the volume of one acre of surface area to a depth of one foot, commonly used in the United States about large-scale water or soil resources. One acre-foot is equal to 43,560 cubic feet (1,233 m³).
adjuvant: A chemical compound added to a pesticide formulation to increase its efficacy or safety.^[2]
aerial seeding: A type of broadcast seeding in which large quantities of seed are dropped from aircraft flying over crop fields. Aircraft can be useful for quickly seeding vast expanses of land or wherever the terrain makes conventional ground-based seeding methods difficult or impractical, e.g., in marshy or flooded areas, where they are commonly used for sowing rice paddies.
aeroponics: The cultivation of plants with the roots suspended in an air or mist environment rather than in soil or a solid aggregate medium, usually inside a closed or partially closed chamber where the properties of the air can be easily controlled. Plants are typically supported by the chamber itself or with foam supports or trellises. Sometimes, only the roots are inside the growth chamber; stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits may or may not be. The primary benefits of aeroponics are increased gas exchange in the root zone and reduced access by pests and pathogens borne by solid or liquid growth media. It is often practiced in research contexts. Aeroponics is sometimes considered a subclass of hydroponics since water is still delivered to the plant via atomized droplets from a mist sprayer. However, unlike conventional hydroponics, the roots are not continuously suspended in flowing water.
agrarian system: The dynamic set of economic and technological factors that affect agricultural practices in a particular region.
agrarianism: A social or political philosophy that values rural society as superior to urban society and the independent farmer as superior to the paid worker. Agrarianism argues in favor of farming as a way of life that can shape ideal social values.
agribusiness: The business of agricultural production, including the entire range of activities and disciplines encompassed by modern food and fiber production chains and those agents and institutions that influence them.
agricultural aircraft
agricultural cooperative: Any association of farmers or agricultural businesses who voluntarily pool their resources to meet their common agricultural needs and goals by cooperating in a jointly owned enterprise. Agricultural cooperatives may be distinguished between "service" cooperatives, which provide inputs for agricultural production (seeds, fertilizers, fuels, etc.) or transportation and marketing services to members who run their farms individually, and "production" cooperatives, in which members run their farms jointly using shared land, machinery, or other resources; an example of the latter is collective farming.
agricultural cycle: The annual or seasonal cycle of activities related to the production of a particular agricultural product, especially the growth and harvest of plant crops, inclusive of all steps normally involved in the complete process from initial preparations (e.g. tilling, sowing, fertilizing, and irrigating) through sale and distribution of the finished product (e.g. harvesting, storage, packing, and marketing).
agricultural economics: A branch of economics concerned with the application of economic theory in optimizing the production and distribution of food, fiber, and other products of agriculture.
agricultural engineering: A branch of engineering concerned with agricultural production and processing. It combines elements of mechanical engineering, civil engineering, chemical engineering, and food science, among other disciplines.
agricultural extension: The application of new knowledge and techniques obtained through scientific research to agricultural practices by educating farmers and agricultural communities, with the goals of improving the efficiency and productivity of agriculture, improving living standards in rural areas, and raising awareness of environmental issues. The term encompasses a variety of educational and outreach activities organized by professional educators from a wide range of disciplines, often with an emphasis on agricultural marketing, land management, sustainability, food safety, and public health.
agricultural fencing: Any fence or barrier used to keep domestic or wild animals (or humans) inside or outside of an agricultural area. Fencing materials and designs vary widely depending on terrain and the kinds of animals they are intended to deter, though wooden logs, barbed wire, and electrified fences are common. They must often be continuous for long distances to surround farms or pastures. In many places, ranchers are required by law to build fences to enclose their grazing livestock within designated rangeland; in others, livestock are allowed to roam freely, and responsibility for fencing belongs to those who wish to prevent animals from accessing their land.
agricultural land: Any land devoted solely to agriculture, i.e., the deliberate and systematic reproduction of living organisms to produce commodities that humans can use. In the broadest sense, agricultural land may also include certain types used only partially or seasonally for agricultural purposes, such as pastures and wild forests. Colloquially, the term is often used interchangeably with farmland, cropland, and arable land, though these terms may also be considered technically distinct.
agricultural machinery: The mechanical or electrical tools, devices, and structures used in farming or any other type of agriculture. The broadest definition includes handheld power tools, but in general usage, the term implies huge motorized machines, particularly tractors and the many types of farm implements which they tow and/or supply power to. The mechanization of agricultural tasks is a defining element of industrial agriculture.
agricultural productivity: A measure of the economic productivity of a given quantity of agricultural land (or any other agricultural input), typically expressed as the ratio of outputs to inputs. In modern agricultural industries, "output" is often quantified as the market value of the agricultural product at the end of the production chain (i.e., immediately before its purchase by a consumer).
agricultural science: The application of scientific methods to agriculture, or the study of agriculture as a scientific discipline. It is a multidisciplinary field encompassing all elements of the natural, economic, and social sciences which are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. A professional in this field may be called an agricultural scientist or agriculturist.
agriculture: The science and art of cultivating plants, animals, or other living organisms in order to produce any of a variety of products that can be used by humans, most commonly food, fibers, fuels, and raw materials.
agriculturist: A professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness.
agritourism: Any primarily agricultural operation or activity that brings visitors to a farm or ranch, either for direct-to-consumer sales (e.g. farm stands and "You-Pick" operations), education, hospitality, recreation, or entertainment.
agrivoltaics: The simultaneous use of land area for both solar energy production and agriculture, by installing solar panels in the same spaces where crops are grown or animals are raised.
agrobiology: The study of plant nutrition and growth, especially as a means of increasing crop yield.
agroecology: The study of ecology as it pertains to agriculture, particularly the application of knowledge about ecological processes to agricultural production systems.
agroecosystem: An ecosystem that supports an agricultural production system, such as in a farm or garden; the network of ecological interactions that influences and is influenced by the human practice of agriculture. Agroecosystems are the basic unit of study in agroecology.
agroforestry: The combination of knowledge and practices of agriculture and forestry, resulting in a system of land use in which forest trees or shrubs are grown around or among agricultural crops or pastureland, with the goal of enhancing the functionality and sustainability of a farming system. Agroforestry shares principles with intercropping but may involve complex ecological interactions between hundreds of species.
agrology: The branch of soil science concerning the agricultural production of crop plants. The term is often used interchangeably with agronomy, agricultural science, and agricultural soil science.
agronomy: The science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, fiber, and land restoration.
algaculture: A specialized branch of aquaculture involving the cultivation of algae, with the goal of producing any of a variety of products that can be used by humans, including food ingredients, fertilizers, colorants and dyes, pharmaceuticals, and chemical feedstock.
animal engine: Any machine powered by an animal. Domestic animals, especially horses, mules, donkeys, oxen, and dogs, have frequently been trained by humans to provide power for various agricultural machinery and operations such as ploughing and milling.
animal feed: See fodder.
animal unit: A standard measure, based on feed requirements, used to combine various classes of livestock according to size, weight, age, and intended use. On federal lands in the United States, one animal unit represents one mature cow, bull, steer, heifer, horse, or mule, or five sheep or goats, all over six months of age.^[3]
animal-free agriculture: Any agricultural practice or farming method that does not make use of animals or animal products, such as farmed animal manures. Animal-free agriculture may use organic or non-organic techniques.
apiculture: The maintenance of colonies of bees, commonly in human-made beehives, by humans for any of a variety of purposes, including collecting honey or other products created by bees, pollinating crops, and breeding bees for sale. A location where bees are kept is called an apiary and a person who practices apiculture is called an apiarist or beekeeper.
aquaculture: The cultivation of aquatic organisms in either freshwater or saltwater habitats, including fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic plants, and others, with the goal of producing any of a variety of products that can be used by humans. Branches of aquaculture include pisciculture, algaculture, and mariculture.
aquaponics: A variant of hydroponic agriculture that recycles nutrient-rich waters sourced from an aquaculture operation and uses them to feed hydroponically grown plants.
arable land: Any land which is capable of producing viable agricultural crops in its present state, and which does not require substantial clearing or other improvements apart from routine tillage operations.^[4] This may include both natural, unaltered landscapes that are fertile enough to immediately support agriculture, as well as land that has been made arable by previous modification and cultivation. Colloquially, the term is often used interchangeably with farmland, cropland, and agricultural land, though these terms may also be considered technically distinct.
arboricide: 1. A pesticide intended to kill trees, shrubs, or other woody plants. See also herbicide.; 2. The intentional or unintentional killing of trees.
artificial daylight supplementation
artificial selection: The process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively control the development of particular phenotypic traits in organisms by choosing which individual organisms will reproduce and create offspring. Artificial selection involves the deliberate exploitation of knowledge about genetics and reproductive biology in the hope of producing desirable characteristics in descendant organisms. It is widely practiced in agriculture, but it may also be unintentional and may produce unintended results.
assarting: The act of clearing forested land in order to prepare it for agriculture or other purposes.

B

backgrounding: The preparation of young cattle for living in a feedlot by getting them accustomed to confinement facilities and processed feed.^[5]
bale: 1. A large, cylindrical or rectangular bundle of compressed hay, straw, cotton, wool, or other plant or animal fibers which have been compacted and bound together by twine, wire, netting, or plastic wrap for easy movement and handling. Bales are usually made by machines known as balers.^[6]; 2. A unit of measurement of hay, equal to 10 flakes or approximately 70–90 pounds (32–41 kilograms).
bale wrapper: A tractor-drawn implement which automates the action of completely surrounding bales of hay with plastic, triggering the natural anoxic fermentation that turns hay into silage.
barbed wire: A type of agricultural fencing consisting of two to five metal rungs or strands, each made from paired steel wires twisted together, with sharp, pointed, nail-like barbs attached at regular intervals. The barbs are intended to poke or scratch livestock and wild animals, discouraging them from climbing or destroying the fence.^[2] Barbed wire is widely popular on rangeland and in many other contexts because it is much cheaper and easier to erect than alternative types of fencing.
barn: A large agricultural building serving any of a wide variety of purposes, especially as storage space for hay, grain, harvested crops, animal feed, or farm equipment or machinery, or as a shelter to house livestock.^[7]
barnyard: A fenced-in lot or pen adjacent to a barn, used especially to enclose livestock.^[2]
barrow: A young male domestic pig that has been castrated.^[5]^: 27
bearing acres: Agricultural land or acreage on which plants are being cultivated and are of sufficient maturity to produce a commercially viable crop (even if they are not yet producing at their full capacity).^[2]
beef cattle: Cattle bred or raised specifically for their meat, known as beef, in contrast to cattle raised for other purposes, such as for their milk or so that they can be employed as working animals.
beekeeping: See apiculture.
biennial bearing: Describing a perennial crop that alternates from year to year between extremely productive growing seasons with very high yields and extremely unproductive growing seasons where yields are relatively low and harvests are small. Many fruit trees, including apples, pears, mangoes, and apricots, as well as coffee, bear flowers and fruits that exhibit this irregular production.
billy goat: See buck.
bin burn: The discoloration and deterioration of harvested grain due to heat during long-term storage in bins.^[2]
biochar: A fine-grained, porous charcoal produced from organic matter via pyrolysis (i.e. in low-temperature, anoxic conditions) rather than standard combustion. It is often used as a soil amendment to increase soil fertility and sequester carbon.^[7]
biodynamic agriculture: A type of alternative agriculture which incorporates holistic ecological approaches and aspects of organic and integrated farming but also emphasizes various esoteric perspectives, including spiritual and mystical beliefs about nature. The efficacy of biodynamic agricultural techniques lacks scientific evidence, and the practice has been labeled a pseudoscience.
bioeffector
biofertilizer: A substance containing living microorganisms (particularly bacteria and algae) which, when applied to seeds, plant parts, or soil, colonize plant tissues or the rhizosphere surrounding the roots and promote the growth and health of the host plant by increasing the supply or bioavailability of useful nutrients.^[8] Biofertilizers thus serve the same purpose as conventional fertilizers, though instead of delivering nutrients directly to plant tissues they work indirectly by stimulating natural processes (e.g. fixing nitrogen and solubilizing phosphorus) which cause essential nutrients or other growth-promoting substances to accumulate in the local microenvironment; nearby plant cells can then uptake and use these nutrients for themselves. The presence of symbiotic microorganisms can replenish depleted nutrients in agricultural soils, increase soil organic matter, and improve soil fertility, making them a sustainable alternative to the application of synthetic fertilizers and other agrichemicals.
biofortification: The selective breeding or genetic engineering of edible plant crops with the goal of increasing their nutritional value. Though many foods are chemically fortified or enriched with specific micronutrient additives such as iron and vitamin D during post-harvest processing, biofortification instead attempts to cultivate plant varieties which naturally produce high concentrations of such nutrients while growing, such that the resulting crops already contain high concentrations at the time of harvest.
biofuel: Any fuel that is produced from recently living biomass, as opposed to fuels produced by slow geological processes such as fossil fuels. Biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel are commonly produced from agricultural energy crops.
bioinoculant: See soil inoculant.
biosaline agriculture
biosolarization: A variant of soil solarization in which compost or organic amendments are added to the soil before it is covered with transparent plastic, which can promote increased microbial activity and thereby contribute to small but significant increases in soil temperature, potentially speeding up and improving the efficiency of the solarization process.^[9]
bioturbation: The mixing and turning of soil caused by organisms moving through the soil.^[7]
blood meal: A byproduct made from the fresh blood of slaughtered animals,^[7] commonly used as an organic fertilizer for cultivated plants. It is rich in crude protein and amino acids.
boar: An adult male hog of breeding age.^[5]^: 27
board foot (FBM): A unit of volume of lumber, defined as the volume of a board or plank of wood that is one foot long, one foot wide, and one inch thick, i.e. 12 in × 12 in × 1 in (305 mm × 305 mm × 25.4 mm), which is equivalent to 1⁄12 of a cubic foot (ft³), 144 in³, or 2,360 cm³. The board foot is used to measure rough lumber (before drying and planing) as well as planed lumber.
bobby calf: A young bovine calf of either sex which is designated to be slaughtered for its meat.^[10] See also vealer.
bone meal: A byproduct made from animal bones which have been steamed under high pressure and ground into a powder. A rich source of nitrogen, phosphorus, and calcium,^[7] bone meal is commonly used as an organic fertilizer for cultivated plants.
border irrigation: A type of flood irrigation in which a gently sloping field is divided into narrow strips by a series of low, parallel ridges of soil which align with the direction of the slope. Water is supplied to the upper edge or border of each strip, between the ridges, which act as levees to guide the flow of water as it moves down the length of the field by gravity. This method is useful for efficiently irrigating large areas of closely growing crops as well as certain row crops and orchards where topography and soils are suitable.^[11]
bran: The hard outer layers surrounding the endosperm in a cereal grain, consisting of the combined aleurone and pericarp and, in maize, also the pedicel. Bran is typically removed along with the germ during milling and thus excluded from refined grains, but remains included in whole grains. After removal it is commonly repurposed as animal feed.
branding: A technique for marking and identifying livestock in which a permanent scar, known as a brand, is made in the animal's hide, traditionally by applying an extremely hot or cold branding iron which has been shaped or placed in such a way as to create a unique, specific symbol or series of numbers, usually for the purpose of indicating ownership.^[2] Branding may be used in conjunction with other forms of animal identification, including earmarking, ear tagging, and radio-frequency identification (RFID).
branding iron: A handheld metal tool with one end shaped into a letter, number, or other symbol, intended as a unique identifier, which is heated, chilled, or electrified and then pressed against the skin of an animal in a process known as branding.
breadbasket: A geographic region which, because it has a climate and soils well suited to grain farming, produces a large proportion of the total grain (or, by extension, other food products) consumed by a population or economy.
broadacre: An expansive parcel of land suitable for farms practicing large-scale crop production. The term is used primarily in Australia.
broadcast seeding: A method of seeding that involves scattering seed over a relatively large and imprecise area, either by hand or mechanically, as opposed to precision seeding and hydroseeding. Broadcast seeding is easier and faster than seeding in rows but usually requires more seed and may result in overcrowded and uneven distributions of plant cover. It is generally reserved for plants that do not have strict spacing or depth requirements or that are easily thinned after germination.
broadfork: A handheld farming tool consisting of a series of long metal tines attached to a horizontal crossbar, operated with two long handles extending from either end, which is used to manually break up densely packed soil such as hardpan without inverting or mixing the soil layers and thereby preserving its structure, often as part of no-till or reduced-till seedbed preparation.
broiler: A chicken of either sex that is bred and raised specifically for meat production.
brown manure: Withered or decaying plant material which is used as a mulch or an organic fertilizer simply by leaving it to decompose on the soil surface (rather than tilling it into the soil while still green, as with green manure). Brown manure may consist of uprooted or dehisced crop residues or even whole plants which are specifically grown for this purpose and then sprayed with a selective herbicide to cause them to wilt and die. This practice, known as brown manuring, is often employed as a no-till alternative to other fertilizing techniques.
browsing: A type of herbivory in which the herbivore feeds on leaves, soft shoots, or fruits of relatively tall, woody plants such as shrubs and trees, as opposed to grazing, which involves feeding on grasses and other low-lying vegetation. Browsing may also refer to feeding on any non-grasses, including both woody and herbaceous dicots.
Bt crop
buck: An intact adult male goat.
bucking: See hay bucking.
bull: An adult male bovine animal which has not been castrated (as opposed to a steer, which has been).
bullock: See ox.
bumper crop: Any crop that yields an unusually large or productive harvest.
bushel

C

calf: A young domestic bovine animal of either sex (i.e. a cow or bull), generally weighing less than 500 pounds.^[2] The term is usually applied from birth to weaning (which typically occurs around nine months of age), though it is also sometimes used until the animal is a yearling. Calves may be raised to become adult cattle, but are also commonly slaughtered for their meat, called veal, or their hides. The young of many other species, including bison, water buffalo, camels, and deer, are also called calves.
calving: The process of giving birth in cattle, by which a pregnant cow gives birth to a calf.^[2]
candling: In the poultry egg industry, the process of examining eggs for quality and defects by holding them in front of a bright light source, illuminating the internal contents of the egg through the translucent shell without having to break it open.^[5]^: 34
cane mill: A mill at which sugarcane is ground into raw sugar.^[2]
capon: A male chicken which has been castrated or neutered before reaching maturity, allowing it to grow faster and obtain a larger adult size.^[5]^: 34
care farming: The practice of farming (or of agricultural activities in general) for the purpose of providing or promoting mental or physical health or well-being, especially as a form of therapy or to aid convalescence or for social or educational services.
carryover: The supply of a farm commodity that is not yet used at the end of a marketing season and subsequently stored and made available for sale in the next marketing season. An excessively large carryover may be considered a surplus, and may cause prices to fall.^[3]
carton: 1. A container used for fruit or other produce leaving a packinghouse.^[2]; 2. A unit of mass or volume representing a standardized size of these containers, equal to 425 pounds (193 kilograms) or 4⁄5 US bushel (6.4 US dry gallons), respectively.^[2]
cash crop: Any crop that is grown so that it can be marketed and sold for profit, as opposed to a subsistence crop, which is grown for the grower's own use. While historically cash crops have often been only a small part of a farm's total yield, almost all modern crops in developed nations are grown primarily for revenue.
castration: The surgical removal or chemical impairment of the testes of a male animal, which prevents reproduction (irreversibly in the case of surgery, though potentially reversibly in drug-dependent chemical castration) and also greatly reduces the production of certain hormones, particularly androgens. It is commonly performed on livestock as a method of birth control, to mitigate aggressive or sexual behaviors, or to improve the commercial value of certain products harvested from the mature animal; e.g. steers are usually castrated at a young age in order to prevent age-related hormonal changes that would otherwise make them more difficult to fatten or alter the quality of their meat.^[5] The female equivalent is called spaying. See also gelding and neutering.
catch crop: Any fast-growing crop that is grown between successive plantings of a primary crop on the same land. Its practice, known as catch cropping, is a type of succession planting.
cattle: A group of large, domesticated, bovid mammals of the genus Bos and especially the species Bos taurus, which are commonly raised as livestock for their meat (known as beef), their milk, their hides, their dung (used as manure or as fuel), or as draft animals or riding animals. Mature female cattle are known as cows, mature male cattle as bulls, and young cattle of either sex as calves, though colloquially "cow" is often used to refer to all bovine animals, irrespective of age or sex.
cattle cycle: The cyclical fluctuation of supply and prices observed in cattle markets, analogous to the pork cycle. In the United States, the cattle cycle refers to the approximately 10-year period during which the industry-wide population of beef cattle is alternately expanded and reduced over several consecutive years in response to perceived changes in profitability by beef producers. Low prices occur when cattle numbers or beef supplies are high, precipitating several years of herd liquidation; as cattle numbers decline and supplies diminish, prices gradually begin to rise along with renewed demand, causing cattle producers to begin breeding cattle and expanding their herds again.^[3]
cattle drive: See droving.
cattle prod: See goad.
cattle station: See station.
cattleman: See rancher.
cellular agriculture: The cultivation and production of agricultural products from cell cultures grown in a laboratory, such as cultured meat, by using techniques of molecular biology and biochemistry to directly synthesize the complex mixture of proteins, fats, and other substances which are found naturally in living tissues. Most of the industry is focused on cultivating animal products such as meat, milk, and eggs by growing animal tissues from stem cells in vitro and then simulating the same series of biochemical processes that occurs naturally in actual animal bodies, as opposed to raising and slaughtering farmed livestock as in conventional animal husbandry, which has long been criticized for its negative impacts on the environment, human health, food security, and animal welfare. Cellular agriculture has therefore been championed as a sustainable and ethical alternative, though the necessary procedures and infrastructure are usually highly specific and technical.
cellulosic fiber: Any fiber of plant origin, composed of ethers or esters of cellulose, hemicellulose, and/or lignin obtained from the bark, wood, or leaves of plants or another plant-based material. This includes natural fibers such as cotton, linen, jute, and hemp, as well as semi-synthetic fibers such as rayon and cellulose acetate.^[2]
census of agriculture: The periodic collection, processing, and dissemination of statistical data regarding agricultural activities within a country, state, county, or other polity. Agricultural censuses attempt to accurately measure and classify metrics such as number and size of farms or other holdings, types of land tenure and land use, crop acreage, livestock numbers, agricultural inputs and expenses, productivity and profits, types and uses of facilities and machinery, demographics of owners and workers, product quality, and sustainability, among others. In the United States and many other places, censuses are conducted at the holding level every five years.^[2]
center-pivot irrigation: A method of crop irrigation in which a long line of sprinklers mounted upon or dangling from a metal frame with multiple sets of wheels rotates slowly around a pivot at the center of a field, watering a very large circular area centered on this point. Water is usually supplied by a well or an underground pipeline near the pivot, and the wheeled frame is propelled by hydraulic pressure or electric motors. A typical center-pivot line is 400 metres (1,300 feet) long and capable of irrigating a 125-acre (51 ha) circle within a 160-acre (65 ha) square, covering about 78% of the surface area; some systems can also irrigate the corners of the square by means of an end gun at the end of the line or a trailing segment of frame that swings out into the corner areas.^[12] Modern center-pivot systems are often fully automated and programmable for specific rates of rotation, variable water distribution patterns, and other precision controls.
cereal: Any member of the grass family cultivated for the edible components of its grain, composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. The term may also refer to the resulting grain itself (the "cereal grain"). Compare pseudocereal.
certified seed: Plant seeds that have been approved by a certifying agency or agricultural retailer as meeting established standards of quality and productivity, e.g. of germination, varietal purity, sustainable sourcing, and/or freedom from contamination with disease-causing pathogens, weed seeds, and synthetic chemicals.^[12] See also registered seed.
chaff: The dry, scaly, protective casing around the seeds of cereal grains, or any other similar plant material. Chaff is generally inedible by humans but is often used as fodder for livestock or is ploughed into the soil as a type of green manure.
chemical fallow: The use of chemical herbicides to prevent the growth of vegetation on fallow land.^[12]
chemigation: The practice of delivering any natural or synthetic chemical compound or mixture of compounds (such as fertilizers, pesticides, soil amendments, etc.) to crop plants via the water supply used for irrigation.^[13]
chevon: The meat of a young goat.^[12]
chisel plough: A type of plough consisting of a long row of multiple shanks which break and loosen soil to depths of 46 centimetres (18 in) without inverting or turning it,^[7] leaving accumulated crop residues on the soil surface instead of burying them. Chisel plows are used to plow very deeply (such as to break up hardpan) without disturbing the organic matter present on the surface, in a process sometimes called chiseling, often as part of low-till or no-till practices.
circle irrigation: See center-pivot irrigation.
citriculture: The cultivation of citrus fruit trees.
cloche: A bell-shaped glass or plastic covering placed over an individual plant to protect it from cold temperatures, used especially in gardening. Row cover serves the same function on a larger scale. See also cold frame.
cock: See rooster.
cockerel: A young male chicken, generally less than one year old.^[14]
cold frame: An enclosure with a transparent glass or plastic roof, built low to the ground, that is designed to protect juvenile plants and small gardens from cold or wet weather. Cold frames are used to extend the growing season by acting as miniature greenhouses.
collective farming: Any type of agricultural production in which multiple farmers or producers run their holdings as a joint enterprise using shared land, water resources, machinery, equipment, or other agricultural inputs in order to meet common needs and goals. Communal farms may be either voluntary agricultural cooperatives or mandatory state farms owned and operated directly by a central government.
colt: A young male horse or mule, typically under four years of age.^[2]
columbarium: See dovecote.
combine harvester: A large agricultural machine designed to efficiently harvest a variety of different grain crops by combining three traditionally separate harvesting operations – reaping, threshing, and winnowing – into a single mechanical process. The harvested grain is stored either in an on-board compartment or offloaded into a separate storage bin, while the remaining straw and other undesirable residue is typically discarded on to the field.
companion planting: The practice of planting different crops in proximity for any of a number of different reasons, including as a means of controlling pests, aiding pollination, providing habitat for beneficial insects, maximizing the use of space, or otherwise increasing agricultural productivity. It is a type of polyculture.
complete feed
compost: Any mixture of ingredients, commonly decomposing plant and food waste and/or other recycled organic materials, that is used to fertilize and improve soils. Such mixtures are rich in plant nutrients and beneficial organisms which can increase soil fertility and aid plant growth by acting as a natural soil conditioner, increasing the humic content of the soil, and suppressing pathogens. Often compost is made simply by allowing gathered green and brown waste to decompose naturally in open-air piles for many months, though it can also be made with more precise measurements and controls.
compound feed
conservation tillage: Any tillage practice which aims to reduce soil erosion and preserve natural soil conditions, generally by leaving significant amounts of crop residue to cover previously harvested agricultural land; such practices can also enhance biological pest control and reduce fuel consumption and soil compaction. Conservation tillage includes no-till, strip-till, and mulch-till systems.
container gardening: The practice of cultivating plants by growing them in containers or pots rather than planting them in the ground. The containers are generally small, portable, plastic or ceramic pots or trays which limit the soil space available to the plant's roots but have the advantage of allowing the gardener to easily move the plant to avoid inclement weather or other suboptimal conditions.
continuous harvest: A method of cultivation whereby crops are harvested more or less continuously throughout an extended or indefinite growing season, without any significant pause or interruption such as for replanting. For most conventionally grown plant and animal crops, production is limited to specific times of year by the need for suitable weather or for periods of inactivity during which soils can recover fertility and producers can resupply inputs and otherwise prepare for the start of the next production cycle, meaning the harvested products are only available to consumers for a few weeks or months at the end of each growing season. In some places, however, where the climate is largely consistent throughout the year, or wherever labor and inputs are consistently available, certain crops may be grown, harvested, and sold during unusually long seasons or even year-round. Some seasonal crops can also have their harvest windows extended by growing them in highly controlled environments or by deliberately staggering planting times so that different groups of plants are of different ages and thus one or more groups are ready for harvest at any given time of year.
contour farming: The practice of ploughing and/or planting a sloping field by following its natural contour lines, such that the resulting furrows and crop rows curve around the slope perpendicular to the direction of the force of gravity, with each remaining at approximately the same elevation for its entire length. This orientation helps prevent surface runoff and soil erosion by reducing the velocity with which water and soil moves down the slope, minimizing the formation of rills and gullies during heavy precipitation and allowing more time for the water to settle into the soil. Contour farming also reduces the runoff of agrichemicals, power consumption, and wear on machines, thereby increasing production efficiency.
contract farming: Farming or other agricultural production carried out on the basis of an agreement between the buyer or consumer and the farmer or producer. Contracts typically involve the producer agreeing to supply certain quantities of a crop or other product according to quality standards and delivery requirements specified by the buyer, and the buyer agreeing to buy the product, often at a price established in advance; the buyer often also agrees to support the producer in various ways, e.g. by supplying inputs, assisting with land preparation, providing production advice, and helping to transport the finished product.
controlled traffic farming (CTF): A farming practice which attempts to manage and reduce the damage done to cultivated soils by repeated passes of heavy agricultural machinery such as tractors over the same area of land, particularly soil compaction, which often has negative consequences for numerous aspects of crop production.
controlled-environment agriculture (CEA): Any agricultural production that occurs in a specialized, enclosed space, typically indoors, where all variables affecting production (e.g. temperature and light intensity) can be carefully managed throughout the production cycle so as to provide an optimal environment that maximizes yield or efficiency or some other production target. Indoor growing spaces such as greenhouses are common examples, and the practice is central to urban agriculture and agricultural research.
conventional tillage
coop: A building or shelter designed to house poultry birds such as chickens and to provide hens with a warm, dry place to nest and incubate their eggs.
co-op: See agricultural cooperative.
coppicing: A method of forest management by which the trunks and stems of young trees are regularly cut down to near ground level, exploiting the ability of many tree species to regenerate new growth from living stumps. After a number of years of growth, the intended products of the coppiced tree are harvested and the cycle begins anew. Pollarding is a similar process carried out at higher levels on the tree; both practices are important techniques in silviculture.
copse: A forest that has been coppiced.
corn crib: A granary used to dry and store harvested maize.
corporate farming: The practice of large-scale agriculture on farms owned or greatly influenced by corporations or large private businesses. The concept includes not only corporate ownership of farmland and the means of production, but also the roles such companies play in influencing agricultural education, research, and public policy through lobbying and funding initiatives.
cotton gin: A machine that automates the process of ginning cotton, separating cotton fibers from their seeds much more quickly and efficiently than traditional manual separation.
cover crop: Any plant that is planted as soil cover rather than for the purpose of being harvested. Cover crops may be used to manage soil erosion, soil fertility, water content, weeds, pests, agricultural diseases, and biodiversity on land that is repeatedly farmed. They are commonly off-season crops planted after harvesting a cash crop in order to help conserve the integrity of the land through a fallow period.
cow: An adult female bovine animal. Colloquially, the term is often used to refer to all kinds of cattle, irrespective of age or sex.
cowbell: A bell worn around the neck of free-roaming livestock, including but not limited to cattle, so that ranchers and herders can keep track of the animal's movements via the sound of the bell, which can be useful in hilly landscapes or vast plains when the animal is grazing out of view.
cow–calf operation: A ranch which specializes in producing young beef cattle, maintaining a permanent herd of cows in order to breed and rear their calves and then sell them to other operations while still young, either to other ranches where they are raised into adults or to slaughterhouses for their meat or hides.
creamery: A dairy operation or facility which processes raw milk and/or cream into finished dairy products, such as consumer-grade milk, butter, cheese, and ice cream, and prepares them for market.
creep feeding: The practice of supplementing the diet of young livestock which are still nursing, usually beef calves and swine, with prepared feed. This may be done in order to introduce the animals to feed before weaning or to facilitate quicker fattening, but is only cost-effective when the price of animal feed is very low.
crop: Any plant, animal, or other product of a living organism that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. The term may refer to the organism or species itself, the harvested parts, or the harvest in a more refined state. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture and its sub-disciplines, commonly (but not exclusively) as food for humans or fodder for livestock; other crops are gathered from the wild.
crop insurance: Insurance purchased by agricultural producers, often subsidized by a government agency, to protect against the loss of potential revenue from crop sales due to extraneous circumstances, such as reductions in crop yield caused by natural disasters (drought, floods, hail, etc.) or declines in the prices of agricultural commodities.
crop mark
crop residue: Any organic material left in an agricultural field or orchard after a crop has been harvested, such as stalks and stems, leaves, seed pods, etc., or after a crop is processed for consumer use, such as seeds, husks, roots, bagasse, or other byproducts of processing. Field residues may be maintained as soil cover, burned, or ploughed into the soil as green manure; process residues are often used as animal fodder or soil amendments.
crop rotation: The practice of cultivating a series of different crops in the same space over the course of multiple growing seasons, often in a specific sequence that repeats in a cycle every few seasons. The alternative to crop rotation, monocropping, may gradually deplete the soil of certain nutrients and select for highly competitive communities of pests and weeds, decreasing productivity in the absence of high volumes of external inputs such as fertilizers and herbicides. Crop rotation can reduce reliance upon these inputs by making better use of natural ecosystem services from a diverse set of crops, often improving soil quality and reducing the probability of pests and weeds developing resistances to control measures.
crop water productivity
crop weed: Any weed or undesirable plant that grows among crop plants. See also weed of cultivation.
crop wild relative (CWR): A wild plant taxon that is closely related to a domesticated plant taxon (e.g. a wild ancestor of the domesticated plant) and which therefore may be indirectly useful to plant breeders by presenting the possibility of introducing genetic material from the wild plant into the domestic relative by crossbreeding.
cropdusting: The use of an agricultural aircraft to apply protective chemicals or other amendments, especially pesticides and fertilizers, to crops from above. Such aircraft may include either fixed-wing airplanes or helicopters, but are typically highly specialized and purpose-built to distribute very large amounts of liquid product over very large land areas in a relatively efficient manner.
crop-lien system: A farm financing scheme whereby money is loaned at the beginning of a growing season to pay for farming operations, with the subsequent harvest used as collateral for the loan.^[15]
cropping
crutching: The removal of wool from around the anus, genitals, or udder of wool-bearing animals such as sheep,^[5] generally to prevent urine, feces, or dirt from becoming trapped in the wool near these areas and potentially contributing to the spread of disease.
cryophilous crop: A plant crop that requires a period of exposure to low temperatures in order to break dormancy and produce flowers and seeds.^[16]
cull
cultipacker
cultivar: A cultivated variety of a particular plant species, domesticated by humans and artificially selected for desirable traits which distinguish it from other varieties of the same species, and which breeds true and retains those traits when propagated. Plant species grown as agricultural crops may have dozens, hundreds, or thousands of distinct cultivars which have been deliberately bred by farmers and horticulturists by carefully managing their reproduction over many generations, e.g. by planting asexual vegetative propagules or by crossbreeding specific plants to create hybrid offspring. Not all cultivated plants are considered cultivars; by the strictest definition the term may be reserved for officially registered or patented commercial varieties, though in common usage it may be applied more broadly, even to wild plants with distinctive characteristics.
cultivation: 1. The act of improving an area of land for or by agriculture, especially through the deliberate growing of plants (but not necessarily excluding other types of agriculture). Land upon which plants are sown, nurtured, and harvested, or more broadly any land dedicated to agricultural purposes, is said to be cultivated.; 2. Another name for tillage, especially the shallow, selective secondary tillage of row crop fields.
cultural control: An approach to pest control which emphasizes the modification of the agricultural environment in order to reduce the prevalence and proliferation of unwanted pests, as an alternative to applying chemical pesticides. Examples of cultural control include altering physical properties of the growing environment (e.g. soil pH or fertility, amount of sunlight, temperature, humidity, irrigation, etc.) in order to make it difficult or impossible for pests to live there, adhering to a strict program of fallowing and weeding, and using pest-eating predators such as chickens or ladybugs as a form of biocontrol. Systematic implementation of these practices can reduce the need for curative interventions and thus avoid the detrimental effects of conventional top-down approaches to pest control such as those associated with chronic pesticide use.
cultured meat
custom harvesting: The contracting of independent operators of farm equipment to harvest crops, especially grains, on a particular farm. Custom harvesters provide their own combines and other machinery and often charge for their work by the acre, with additional charges for high yields.^[17]

D

dairy cattle: Cattle bred or raised specifically for milk production, from which any of a variety of dairy products can be made. This is in contrast to cattle raised for other purposes, such as for their meat or so that they can be employed as working animals.
dam: The female parent of an animal. The term is used alongside sire, especially for domestic mammals such as cattle and horses.
damping off: A disease of newly germinated seedlings caused by any of a variety of fungi (e.g. Rhizoctonia or Aphanomyces) which spread in warm, damp conditions and parasitize roots and lower stems. Damping off is a common cause of seedling loss in greenhouses.^[18]
dead hedge
dead stock: All implements, tools, appliances, and machinery used on a particular farm; sometimes inclusive of seed, fertilizer, and feedingstuffs.^[18]
deadheading: The practice of removing dead or spent flowers from a live plant in order to encourage further flowering, to prevent seed development, or to improve the plant's appearance.^[7] See also deblossoming.
deblossoming: The practice of removing flowers, spent or unspent, from live plants for any reason, especially to encourage or improve the subsequent growth, reproduction, health, or appearance of the plant's non-flower parts. Deblossoming is often done in order to divert the plant's limited resources away from sexual reproduction and towards vegetative propagation, e.g. by roots and runners; early in a perennial plant's life in order to allow it to establish and grow to maturity before dedicating resources to reproduction; or near the end of the growing season in order to maximize the size and quality of existing fruits, seeds, or other useful crop parts by diverting energy and nutrients away from new buds that will likely not have time to develop into useful crops anyway.
defoliant: Any herbicidal chemical which causes leaves or other foliage to detach and drop from a plant. Defoliants are sometimes used on very leafy trees and shrubs to make finding and harvesting the non-leaf crop parts easier, or more commonly to control weeds.^[7]
deintensified farming: Any agricultural operation which was formerly intensive but has since become deliberately extensive.^[18]
dessert crop: Any crop that is (or historically was) grown or used only for special occasions, as an elite or luxury item, or for pleasure rather than sustenance. Crops historically considered dessert crops include coffee, tea, sugar, cocoa, and tobacco.
detasseling: In maize farming, the process of removing the pollen-producing flowers, known as tassels, from the tops of maize plants in order to prevent self-pollination. It is used as a crossbreeding strategy to ensure that the detasseled plants are receptive to pollen from non-self sources, e.g. from different cultivars when creating hybrid varieties.
dewatering: The removal of water from a harvested crop by pressing and compacting layers of plant material for long periods of time. Dewatering can be significantly cheaper than other artificial drying techniques.^[18]
dewattling: See dubbing.
diatomaceous earth: A naturally occurring siliceous sedimentary rock consisting of the fossilized shells of microscopic single-celled algae known as diatoms, generally in the form of a crumbly, abrasive powder composed of silica, alumina, and iron oxides. It has many applications in agriculture, including as an anti-caking additive in animal feed and stored grain, as an organic insecticide, and as a soil conditioner or growing medium, where its low density and high porosity allow it to retain water and nutrients, circulate oxygen, and drain quickly.
dibber: A handheld pointed wooden or plastic stick used to make small holes in soil so that seeds, seedlings, or small bulbs can be planted in them.
digeponics
digital agriculture: The use of electronic sensors, computers, and information technology to digitally collect, store, analyze, and share agricultural data.
dipping: The process of immersing a live animal into a bath containing a liquid formulation of insecticide (and sometimes also fungicide), usually a dilute solution of organophosphorus compounds, as a means of removing lice, ticks, or other ectoparasites which may otherwise cause disease. Sheep are commonly treated in a sheep dip, and cattle in a plunge dip.^[18]
dockage: Waste material which is removed from grain as it is being processed, prior to milling.^[18]
docking: The intentional removal of all or part of an animal's tail by any of a variety of methods, usually by cutting with a knife or scalpel, applying a hot iron, or constricting blood circulation with a rubber ring to cause the tail to fall off. Docking of swine is performed in order to reduce potentially harmful tail biting behaviors between cohabitating pigs; in sheep and cattle, it is often practiced with the rationale that shorter tails are less likely to trap dirt and feces and transfer them to other body parts (e.g. the udder in dairy cattle), thereby reducing pathogen infestation and improving the animal's cleanliness and well-being and consequently the quality of any products harvested from the animal, though the efficacy of docking for these purposes has not been conclusively demonstrated.^[19]
doddie: A hornless cow or bull, especially one that has been polled.^[20]
doe: An adult female goat.
dogie: A stray or motherless calf.^[21]^[22] See also poddy.
domestication
dovecote: A man-made structure intended to house domestic pigeons or doves, usually consisting of a sheltered space with one or more holes allowing the birds to nest inside, either free-standing or built into the side or roof of a building.
draff: Refuse obtained as a byproduct of the distillation of grain and used as an animal feed, especially malt left over from the brewing process.^[12]
draft animal: An animal used to pull heavy loads such as wagons or ploughs, usually a horse, mule, donkey, ox, or camel.^[12]
dressed weight
drip irrigation: A type of micro-irrigation system that supplies water and/or liquid fertilizer solution to crops by allowing it to leak slowly from perforated plastic or rubber tubes into the soil surrounding the plants' roots, with the primary goal of delivering water directly to the root zone and thereby minimizing wasting due to evaporation and runoff (which are often significant problems in surface irrigation and sprinkler irrigation). Drip systems distribute water through a network of valves, pipes, emitters, and flexible, lightweight tubing called drip line or drip tape, which can be positioned above or buried below the soil surface. Drip irrigation is most commonly used in small-scale outdoor operations, high tunnels, and greenhouses, where it is often much more efficient than alternative irrigation methods and has the advantage of allowing water and fertilizers to be applied gradually, uniformly, and in precise quantities to each individual plant.
drop shed: A shelter where lambing ewes are housed.^[5]
droving: The process of moving livestock on foot over long distances, generally by herding them together and encouraging or compelling them to walk in a particular direction. Very large herds of cattle, sheep, and horses are commonly moved in this way between different pastures, or from rangeland to a market where they can be sold; such a journey may be called a drive. Herds are traditionally moved by cowboys on horses, though drovers may also employ dogs, vehicles, and goads to keep the animals clustered together and moving in the right direction.
dry cow: A milk cow which has ceased to produce milk from a particular lactation, especially because it is within 60 days of calving and beginning a new lactation.^[2]
dry milling
dryland farming: The cultivation of plant crops in arid or semiarid climates, or wherever there is, for any reason, a relative scarcity of fresh water resources available for agricultural uses either year-round or during the growing season. Dry farming thus encompasses a set of agricultural techniques and management practices adapted specifically for growing crops without the aid of irrigation,^[2] which generally emphasize the strict conservation of existing soil moisture and the selection of cultivars which are drought-tolerant or otherwise well-suited for the specific challenges of arid environments. Other common dryland practices include wider than normal spacing between individual plants, minimal tillage and use of heavy machinery, aggressive weed control, and frequent fallowing.^[23]
dubbing: The removal of any of the fleshy caruncles from the heads of poultry, i.e. the comb, wattles, and/or earlobes. Dubbing is often done with the rationale that it reduces the chances that these parts will be injured, become infected, and thereby potentially compromise the bird's overall health, though the practice has been criticized for being unnecessarily stressful to birds, and because combs and wattles are thought to have important functions in the regulation of body temperature and in certain social and mating behaviors.
dynamic compaction: A method of increasing the density of soil deposits by repeatedly dropping a very heavy weight onto the ground at regularly spaced locations, which can compress underground voids, improve soil structure and stability, and prevent settling and undesirable soil movement beneath buildings. It has many applications, including in agriculture, where it can be used to increase water and amendment retention in seedbeds, especially when subsurface constraints make alternative methods of compaction inappropriate.

E

earlage: A high-energy feed for cattle composed of ears of maize (both kernels and cobs) chopped into small pieces and fermented into silage.^[2]
earmark: A cut or notch made in, or a tag attached to, one or both ears of a livestock animal (most commonly cattle, pigs, goats, and sheep) as an easily visible mark of identification, usually to indicate age, sex, medical status, or ownership. Compare brand.
earthing up: See hilling.
ecology: The scientific study of interactions between biological organisms and their biotic and abiotic environments. It is an interdisciplinary field that includes biology, geography, and Earth science.
economic maturity: The optimum time at which to harvest a tree or stand of trees (or any other perennial plants), as determined by the age at which the growth rate slows enough to cause the average annual profit over the life of the stand to begin to decrease.^[24]
edaphology: The scientific study of the influence of soils on living organisms, particularly plants, and of how soils are used and modified by humans for agriculture.
edge effects: Changes in ecological characteristics (e.g. population or community structure) associated with the boundary between two dissimilar habitat types, ecosystems, or agricultural land uses, potentially affecting the biological and ecological traits of the resident plant or animal communities.^[7]
effective precipitation: The portion of the cumulative or mean total precipitation received within a specified area, on a particular farm or field, or by an individual plant during a given time period that is or becomes available for plant growth because it is stored in the soil within the rooting depth of the plants or persists on the surface long enough to eventually drain into and occupy that rooting depth before it is lost by evaporating or running off.^[25]
emblements
energy crop: Any crop grown exclusively as a source of fuel for the purpose of energy production. Such crops are processed into solid, liquid, or gaseous biofuels (as with bioethanol and biogas) which are then burned to generate power or heat for human purposes.
ensilaging: See silage.
entire: (of a domestic animal) Not neutered or castrated; capable of giving rise to offspring via copulation.
ewe: A female sheep, especially one that is sexually mature.
exclosure: An area of land from which grazing or browsing animals, often domestic livestock but sometimes wild animals such as deer, are excluded by fencing or other means. Fenced exclosures are common in open range areas, where it is the landowner's responsibility to keep unwanted animals off their land.
extensive agriculture: Any system of agricultural production that uses small inputs of labor, fertilizer, and/or capital relative to the land area used for production, in contrast to intensive agriculture.

F

factory farming: See intensive animal farming.
fallow: 1. (adj.) The condition of any arable land which is deliberately not planted or which is left unsown for one or more production cycles or growing seasons, usually with the intent of allowing the soil to restore depleted nutrients and other organic matter that is critical for ecological function, while retaining moisture and disrupting the life cycles of agricultural pests by temporarily removing their hosts. Fallowing is an important technique in crop rotation.; 2. (n.) Any period of time during which arable land is not used for cultivation.
fallow crop: A crop that is grown in widely spaced rows so that it is possible to hoe and cultivate between the rows.
family farm: A farm which on average produces a harvest sufficient to support one family, or a farm which is owned and/or operated by a single family, as opposed to farms operated as collectives, non-family corporations, or in other institutionalized forms.
farm: An area of land devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food or other crops. In common usage the term may include ranches, feedlots, orchards, plantations, smallholdings and hobby farms, fish farms, and even industrial operations such as wind farms.
farm assurance: A type of agricultural product certification that emphasizes the principles of quality assurance and signals to consumers that the certified producer has adhered to a particular set of standards and principles during production, such as in good agricultural practice.
farm crisis: A period of economic recession for an agricultural industry, characterized chiefly by low crop prices and/or low incomes for farming operations.
farm gate value: The market value of an agricultural product minus the subsequent costs of transporting, storing, marketing, and selling the product to a consumer; the net value of the product as it is at the "farm gate", i.e. upon leaving the agricultural operation, before such costs are added to the market price. The market or retail price paid by the consumer is often far higher than the amount the farmer actually receives for the product, particularly if the farmer sells wholesale to a retailer rather than directly to the end consumer as in farm gate marketing.^[26]
farm stand: A type of retail outlet which sells fresh produce directly from a particular farm or group of farms. Direct sales to consumers allow farmers to retain a larger portion of the resulting profit than they can usually obtain by selling to a wholesaler. See also farmers' market.
farm water: Water that is committed for use in agriculture of any type. Farm water may include water used in the irrigation of crops as well as in the watering of livestock.
farmer: A person who owns or works on a farm; more broadly, anyone who participates in agricultural production, especially the raising of field crops, poultry, or livestock.
farmers' co-op: See agricultural cooperative.
farmers' market: A retail marketplace, often outdoors, where farmers are able to sell fresh produce, live plants and animals, and sometimes prepared foods and other agricultural products directly to consumers (rather than to a wholesaler). These markets are often community-organized businesses consisting of multiple farm stands operated independently by individual farmers, who are free to set up a booth or table and sell their own goods at prices they set themselves.
farming: The practice of intentionally performing an agricultural activity, such as growing crops or raising livestock, on land dedicated to the purpose, known as a farm. The term is often used very loosely to refer to many different agricultural processes of different scales and with different goals, or, in the broadest sense, as a synonym for agriculture in general.
farmland: See agricultural land.
farmstead: The set of buildings and service areas associated with a farm or other agricultural holding, traditionally including residential accommodations such as a farmhouse for the operator's family as well as any of various buildings dedicated to the particularities of agricultural production, including pens, yards, stables, and corrals for housing draft animals or livestock; barns, silos, and mangers for storing crops, grains, or animal fodder; garages and sheds for storing farm vehicles and equipment; and other structures involved in the processing of raw materials into commercial products. The farmstead as a whole typically consists of a core complex of such buildings as well as clusters of outlying buildings.
farm-to-table: A social movement which promotes the consumption of locally produced foods, and particularly the serving of such foods at public establishments such as restaurants and school cafeterias. This is usually accomplished by purchasing food directly from the farmers or producers (rather than an intermediate retailer), or by the restaurant or school cultivating its own food. Farm-to-table often emphasizes food traceability, sustainability, freshness, and environmental awareness. The idea is central to the practice of locavorism.
farrow: A young domestic pig, or a litter of newborn pigs.^[24] See also piglet.
farrowing: The process of giving birth in swine, by which a pregnant sow gives birth to a farrow.^[5]^: 27
fatling: A young animal, e.g. a calf or lamb, that has been fattened in preparation for slaughter.^[24]
fattening: See finishing.
feather meal: A protein supplement included in some formulated animal feed and organic fertilizers as a nitrogen source, made by grinding and drying poultry feathers under elevated heat and pressure.^[7]
fed cattle: Cattle at the time they leave a feedlot, i.e. after fattening and finishing, when they are ready to be sold for slaughter.^[27]
feed: See fodder.
feed grain: Any cereal grain grown specifically so that it can be used as fodder to feed livestock. Corn, barley, and sorghum are commonly grown for this purpose.^[13]
feedlot: An animal feeding operation consisting of a densely concentrated area of enclosures or pens containing individual animals, which is used for the efficient raising, fattening, and finishing of numerous livestock prior to slaughter, especially beef cattle, but also swine, horses, sheep, and poultry.
fencerow: The area of ground immediately adjacent to a fence that is left unmowed or untilled because it is difficult or inconvenient to maneuver large agricultural machinery in this space without removing or damaging the fence. Grasses and weeds are therefore able to grow unrestricted in this area, often providing shelter for birds and wild animals, unless more precise tools are employed.^[24]
fertigation: The application of fertilizers, soil amendments, or other water-soluble compounds to agricultural land by mixing them with the water distributed by an irrigation system.
fertilizer: Any natural or synthetic material that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply one or more nutrients essential to the growth of plants.
fiber crop: Any crop plant cultivated for the fiber that can be produced from it, e.g. cotton, flax, sisal, and jute.^[2]
field: Any area of land, enclosed or otherwise, used for agricultural purposes, such as for the cultivation of crops or as a paddock for livestock.
field crop: Any crop grown on a larger scale than in gardens, such as grain, hay, or cotton.^[13]
field day: A large public trade show for the agricultural industry at which agricultural equipment, techniques, and business ideas are exhibited and demonstrated.
filly: An immature female horse, too young to be called a mare (generally less than four or five years old).
filter strip: A strip of grass or other dense, permanent vegetation lining the edge of an agricultural field and acting as a buffer zone between the field and its surrounding environment, usually designed with the primary goal of controlling non-point source pollution by filtering agricultural surface runoff before it drains into an adjacent body of water, e.g. a pond, lake, stream, diversion terrace, or irrigation canal. The roots of the vegetation trap and remove agrichemicals including fertilizers and pesticides from the runoff and may also help reduce sediment erosion, thereby preventing the contamination and eutrophication of natural ecosystems.
finishing: The bringing of livestock such as cattle up to market weight, or the weight at which they are ready to be slaughtered, by feeding them.^[7] Some ranching operations specialize in finishing, buying young weanlings from a breeder, fattening them on fodder or forage, and then selling them to a slaughterhouse.
fire farming: The use of fire to clear patches of land for cultivation.^[24] See also slash-and-burn and shifting cultivation.
fired: (of a plant's lower stems or stalks) Extremely dry or desiccated due to drought or nutrient deficiency.^[2]
fish emulsion: A nutrient-rich emulsion used as a fertilizer for plant crops, produced from the liquid remains of fish which have been industrially processed for fish oil or fish meal.
fish farming: See pisciculture.
fixing: See neutering.
flat planting: The sowing of seed upon flat, unfurrowed land using a planter that minimizes disturbance to the smooth soil surface.^[25]
flood irrigation: Any method of surface irrigation that covers the entire cultivated soil surface with water, usually to a specific depth and for a specific duration. Flood irrigation may be carefully controlled, as with basin irrigation and border irrigation, or may simply rely on natural flooding in adjacent rivers and streams.^[24]
fleece: The shorn wool of an individual sheep, especially when in the form of grease wool (i.e. newly shorn and not yet scoured or processed).^[28]
floriculture: A branch of horticulture involving the cultivation of flowering plants and ornamental plants for gardens and landscaping as well as for commercial floristry.
flushing: In animal husbandry, the practice of changing the diet fed to female livestock prior to breeding, with the intention of stimulating the estrous cycle and increasing ovulation rate.^[5]^: 4
foal: A young equine animal (a horse or donkey) of either sex, usually less than one year old. A male foal may be called a colt and a female foal may be called a filly, though these terms may also be used for juvenile animals that are older than one year of age.
foaling: The process of giving birth in horses or donkeys, by which a pregnant mare gives birth to a foal.^[2]
fodder: Any agricultural foodstuff used to feed domesticated livestock, and more specifically food given to the animals directly (such as hay, straw, silage, and compound feeds), as opposed to that which they forage for themselves.
food security: The availability of edible food within a country or other geographic area and the ability of humans within that area to access, afford, and attain sufficient, safe, and nutritious foodstuffs, either by gathering, producing, or importing them, in order to meet their dietary needs for active and healthy lifestyles.
food systems: The totality of interconnected principles, processes, and infrastructures that influence food, nutrition, health, and agriculture in human communities; i.e. the complete set of components involved in feeding a human population, including the growth, management, harvesting, processing, packaging, storage, distribution, marketing, consumption, and disposal of agricultural food products and food-related items. Food systems encompass the entire range of actors and their value-adding activities in the lifespan of a food product from production to consumption, and thus operate within and are influenced by numerous social, political, economic, technological, and environmental contexts at various steps in the process.
foodscaping: The practice of integrating edible plants into ornamental landscapes, cultivating them not only for the food they produce but also for their aesthetic qualities.
foodshed: The geographic region which produces most or all of the food consumed in a particular place or by a particular population, by analogy with a watershed.
food-feed system: An integrated livestock-crop production system in which crops are harvested for human consumption and then the crop residues or byproducts are used as feed for livestock, often on the same or nearby agricultural land.
foliar feeding: The practice of providing supplemental nutrition to plants by applying liquid fertilizer directly to their leaves, stems, or bark, as opposed to their roots, which are the usual target for conventional fertilizing methods. Most plants are perfectly capable of absorbing nutrients through these aboveground parts, and there may be good reasons to prefer that the nutrients travel by these routes rather than through the soil surrounding the roots.
forage: Any plant material, especially leaves and stems, eaten by grazing livestock, especially that which is grazed by animals in pastures. In a looser sense it may also include fodder (plant material deliberately cut and given to animals as food).
forcing: The practice of intentionally breaking the dormancy of a cultivated plant and encouraging germination, active growth, and/or flowering and fruiting outside of its natural growing season (e.g. in the winter). This involves exposing a seed or other propagule, or a mature perennial plant, to a specific sequence of carefully controlled environmental conditions (e.g. cold stratification) intended to simulate the environmental cues the plant normally receives at the beginning of its seasonal growth cycle, which trigger the internal chemical reactions that cause it to grow and develop. The term is used particularly in the indoor horticulture of plants that grow from bulbs, corms, or rhizomes, but can also refer more broadly to the off-season cultivation of any plant or propagule.
forest farming: A practice in agroforestry involving the cultivation of high-value specialty crops under a forest canopy that is deliberately modified or maintained to provide habitat and shade levels which enhance crop yields. Most crops produced by such methods are non-timber forest products or niche crops such as ginseng and certain varieties of mushroom.
free range: A method of animal farming and animal husbandry in which the animals are permitted to roam freely outdoors, rather than being confined in enclosures, for at least part of each day. Though in practice the outdoor ranging area is usually fenced-in and therefore technically also an enclosure, free-range systems offer the opportunity for extensive locomotion, fresh air, and sunlight that is otherwise reduced or entirely prevented by indoor housing systems. The term may apply to farming for meat, eggs, or dairy products; in ranching, it is sometimes used interchangeably with open range.
freemartin: An infertile female bovine animal (a cow) that shows masculinized behavior, in particular one that is born as a twin to a male animal and, despite being phenotypically female, is actually a genetic chimera, having acquired some XY cells by exchange of cellular material with the male twin in utero, causing various hormonal alterations to normal female reproductive development.
frost control: Any of a variety of measures taken to reduce or prevent damage to agricultural crops caused by extremely cold temperatures, especially plants on farms, in gardens, and in orchards. Common frost control methods include covering crop plants with cold frames, keeping soils wet with continuous irrigation, and providing supplementary heat sources such as smudge pots.^[12]
fruticulture: See pomology.
fryer: A chicken of either sex between 8 and 12 weeks of age and weighing 3 to 4 pounds (1.4 to 1.8 kg), especially one raised specifically for meat production. The term is often used interchangeably with broiler.^[5]
fuelwood: Any wood used or intended for use in cooking, heating, or power generation, valuable for its combustibility (i.e. its ability to produce large amounts of energy when burned). It may come from trees cultivated specifically for this purpose, or from wild trees and shrubs, either as trimmings from the woody trunks and branches of live plants or from dead logs, brush, or other woody debris.^[12]
fungiculture: The cultivation of fungi with the goal of producing any of a variety of products that can be used by humans, such as foods, medicines, or scientific research materials.
fur farming: The practice of breeding or raising certain animal species in order to harvest their fur.
furrow irrigation: A type of irrigation which relies on long, shallow, parallel channels, known as furrows, dug into the soil along the length of an agricultural field to deliver water to crops planted on the ridges between the furrows. Water is applied to one end of the furrows, which are often aligned in the direction of the field's predominant natural slope, and flows down the furrows by gravity. Furrow irrigation is particularly suited to broadacre row crops such as cotton, maize, and sugarcane.

G

garden: Any indoor or outdoor space reserved for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of wild or domesticated plants and other organisms; i.e. a plot of land dedicated to horticulture, being managed and maintained by humans in a practice known as gardening, generally on a scale smaller than most farming operations.
gardening: The horticultural practice of growing and cultivating plants in a garden, indoors or outdoors, whether for consumption of the produce or for aesthetic reasons, and often as a hobby or to make use of available space on residential, commercial, or civic land. Gardening involves active participation in the entire process of cultivation and tends to be labor-intensive, which distinguishes it from the much larger-scale mechanized or automated operations often encountered in farming and forestry.
gelding: 1. A castrated male horse, or more generally any animal deliberately made sterile,^[2] especially one that was castrated before reaching reproductive maturity.^[5]; 2. The process of castrating or neutering an animal for any reason, commonly for mitigating aggressive behavior and/or preventing unwanted intercourse in very large domestic livestock such as cattle and horses.
genetically modified organism (GMO)
germination: The sprouting of a seedling from a plant seed, the development of a sporeling from a spore, or the growth of a pollen tube from the pollen grain of a seed plant.
gestation crate: An enclosure in which a domestic sow used for breeding is confined during pregnancy. Often these cages are not much larger than the sow herself, being designed to maximize breeding efficiency for industrial-scale production, and hence are banned in some jurisdictions for being detrimental to animal welfare. See also maternity pen.
gilt: A young female hog, usually less than one year old.^[5]^: 27
ginning: The process of separating cotton fibers from the seeds they naturally enclose, particularly when performed by a machine which does so automatically, known as a cotton gin. Both the fibers and seeds may then be processed further.
glasshouse: See greenhouse.
gleaning: The practice of collecting unharvested crops from fields or obtaining unused agricultural products from farmers, processors, or retailers, often for distribution to food banks or charitable organizations.^[27]
glyphosate: An organophosphorus compound widely used as a post-emergent broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant, especially to kill annual broadleaf weeds and grasses that compete with crop plants. It is the primary ingredient in the herbicide Roundup.
goad: A pointed stick, sometimes electrified, used to drive or guide livestock, especially cattle, both draft animals and grazing herds.^[12]
gobbler: A mature male turkey.
good agricultural practice (GAP): Any collection of specific principles or methods applied by agricultural producers in order to create food or non-food products that are safe, healthy, and wholesome for consumers while also taking into account economic, social, and environmental sustainability. GAPs may be applied to a wide range of production systems and at different scales, and often vary with geographical context.
grain: Any small, hard, dry seed (with or without the outer shell or other parts of the fruit) that is harvested for human or animal consumption, or the plant from which these seeds are harvested. Crops considered grains include all cereals (such as maize, wheat, and rice) as well as pseudocereals (amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa), certain legumes (soybeans and lentils), and certain oilseed plants (rapeseed and flax).
grain drying: The process of removing or reducing the moisture content of harvested grain to prevent spoilage during storage. Drying may occur by natural means, e.g. exposing the grain to air and sunshine, or by artificial fuel- or electric-powered processes, or both.
grain elevator: A tower containing a bucket elevator or pneumatic conveyor designed to carry harvested grain upwards from a lower level (often from some type of transport) and deposit it into a silo or grain bin for long-term storage. The term may also refer more specifically to the elevator mechanism itself, known as a grain leg; or more generally to a complex of agricultural buildings containing an elevator, as well as offices, weighbridges, and storage facilities, or to a business or organization that operates or controls multiple elevators in different locations. Grain elevators facilitate the large-scale mechanical movement of bulk quantities of grain into vertical storage bins with valves at the bottom, which function as enormous hoppers from which the grain can later be dispensed into trucks or barges by gravity alone, obviating the difficult and time-consuming labor of manually lifting and moving individual containers of grain from place to place.^[29] The introduction of this system in the 19th century popularized the modern collective storage model whereby a grain elevator essentially rents storage space in its grain bins to farmers and millers, who can pay to store huge amounts of grain at the elevator rather than in their own barns or warehouses before selling their product to buyers.
grain leg: A mechanism for hauling flowable bulk materials vertically, commonly grain as the central operation of a grain elevator. Modern grain legs typically consist of a pneumatic conveyor belt with attached bins or buckets which lift grain from an in-ground pit and carry it to the top of the leg, where the buckets tip as they rotate over the head drive wheel, spilling the grain into a system of pipes which distribute it by gravity or additional conveyors to grain bins for storage.^[30]
granary: A storage facility for threshed or husked grain.^[2]
grass-fed
grazier: A person engaged in pastoral farming and the raising of grazing livestock. The term is used primarily in Australia and other former British Commonwealth territories, and has the same meaning as the North American term rancher.
grazing: 1. A type of herbivory in which the herbivore feeds on grasses and other non-woody vegetation, as opposed to browsing, which involves feeding on taller trees and shrubs.; 2. A method of animal husbandry which relies on this type of herbivory, whereby domestic livestock such as cattle are allowed to roam freely, often on wild pasture that is unsuitable for farming, in order to graze wild grasses and other forage.
grease wool: Wool recently shorn from a sheep, before any processing.^[28]
green chop: Forage that is cut or harvested in the field while still green and succulent and then fed directly to livestock as fresh fodder (in contrast to hay and other types of feed which have been dried and stored). If wrapped and allowed to ferment, it can be made into silage.^[2]
green manure: Fresh or recently living plant material sourced from crop residues or even whole plants which is ploughed or tilled into the soil while still green (and usually when the plant tissues have reached peak maturity, often shortly after flowering and before developing seeds) so that it can serve as a mulch or an organic fertilizer. This is in contrast to brown manure, which consists of wilted or decayed plants that are simply left on the soil surface. Plants used for green manure are often cover crops grown specifically for this purpose and tilled into the same field in which a cash crop is subsequently cultivated.
Green Revolution: The dramatic increase in agricultural production that occurred worldwide during the second half of the 20th century, primarily due to the adoption of modern scientific methods of farming and large-scale management techniques; the development of high-yielding varieties of many crop plants (especially cereal grains); the expansion of irrigation infrastructures; the mechanization of many agricultural tasks with modern agricultural machinery; and the increase in the availability and use of chemical inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides, all of which led to a marked increase in production rates, farm yields, food quality and consistency, and crop prices in most parts of the world. The Green Revolution also accordingly led to an increase in land conversion and consolidation and the emergence of mass-market industrial agriculture, as well as to concerns about sustainability and the impact of agricultural practices on public health and the environment.
greenhouse: A building or structure designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside, generally by having roofs and walls made of transparent panes or sheets of glass or plastic which permit sunlight to enter the interior but prevent heat from leaving it, effectively trapping solar energy inside and thereby heating the interior space to temperatures well above those of the outdoor environment. Thus greenhouses provide warm, sheltered environments where plants can grow even when the outdoor weather is cold and unsuitable, while still permitting enough sunlight for plants to perform photosynthesis. The concept underlying this greenhouse effect is widely employed in agriculture and horticulture at many different scales (e.g. in cold frames and polytunnels), usually as a method of season extension or of controlled-environment agriculture. Greenhouses are usually designed to be easily ventilated (to prevent temperatures from increasing too much) and to supply or trap moisture as well as heat; in modern contexts these systems are often fully automated.
grelinette: See broadfork.
grist: Grain that has been separated from its chaff in preparation for grinding in a mill; less commonly, the term is also used to describe grain after the process of grinding, i.e. grain that has already been ground.
gristmill: A mill that grinds grist (grain that has been separated from its chaff) into flour and middlings. The term may refer to either the grinding mechanism itself or the building that contains it.
groundcover: Wild or cultivated plants covering an area of land, thereby protecting the soil beneath from erosion and drought. See also cover crop.
growing degree-days (GDD)
growing season: The part of the year during which local weather conditions (i.e. temperature and precipitation) permit the normal growth of plants in a given location. Though the timing of plant growth and reproduction can vary widely by species, many local plant species show considerable phenological overlap, and so the term is commonly used to refer to a single generic season that encompasses a majority of the plants or crops growing in a given location. In many places, the local "growing season" is defined as the period of time between the average date of the last frost (typically in the spring or early summer) and the average date of the first frost (typically in the autumn).

H

hake bar: A coupling device which links a trailed plough to a tractor.^[18]
hardpan: Any dense, resistant layer of soil, usually found below the uppermost topsoil, that is difficult to dig or till and largely impervious to water and root growth. Hardpans can vary in thickness and depth below the surface; some form naturally from deposits such as silica that fuse and bind the soil particles, while others are human-made such as those caused by chronic soil compaction as a result of repeated ploughing, heavy traffic, or pollution.
harrow: A farm implement used to break up and smooth out the surface of a plot of soil. Harrowing often follows coarser ploughing, generally with the purpose of breaking up large lumps of soil so as to provide a better tilth that is suitable for use as a seedbed, and sometimes also to remove weeds or to cover seed after sowing.
harvest: 1. To collect an agricultural product from a mature crop, a process known as harvesting.; 2. The collected crop itself, considered as a whole; or the season in which harvesting occurs, generally marking the final phase of the agricultural cycle or growing season for the particular crop. The harvest is often the busiest time of year on a commercial farm.
harvest index: The weight of the harvested grain portion of a grain crop as a percentage of the total above-ground dry weight of the crop plants at maturity.^[7]
harvested acres: For a particular crop, the number of acres of cropland that are actually harvested, as opposed to planted but not harvested. At the national level, this statistic is usually lower than the total number of planted acres due to abandonment caused by weather damage or low market prices at some point during the growing season, or because the crop is repurposed for livestock grazing.^[27]
harvesting: The process of gathering a ripe crop from an agricultural area such as a field or greenhouse. Harvesting is often the most labor-intensive activity of the growing season or utilizes the most expensive and sophisticated implements or machinery. In general usage, the term may also include immediate postharvest practices such as cleaning, sorting, packing, cooling, and storing the gathered crops.
hay: Grasses, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored as fodder for animals, especially livestock.
hay bucking: The manual labor of lifting and moving small but heavy bales of hay, each weighing 50–150 pounds (23–68 kg), by hand, often to stack them in a storage area or on the bed of a vehicle for transportation. The act of throwing bales up above one's head to stack them is called "bucking hay". Such labor is notoriously strenuous and physically demanding. Teams of laborers often work together, wearing chaps and using hay hooks to handle the bales. The same activity may also be accomplished mechanically with forklifts, balers, or powered elevators.
hay fever: Another name for allergic rhinitis, a type of inflammation predominantly in the nose and eyes resulting from an immune reaction to any of a wide variety of airborne allergens, including but not limited to pollen grains from grasses and other plants. The term is often used to describe the sudden onset of symptoms following inhalation of the dry particulate dust associated with manufacturing and handling hay, though it is now also used colloquially to refer to allergic reactions of any cause.
hay knife: A handheld agricultural tool consisting of a long-bladed knife, sometimes with a serrated edge, that is used for cutting or sawing through compact bundles, sheaves, or bales of hay or silage.
hay rake: A type of rake used to collect cut hay or straw into windrows for later collection (e.g. by a baler) and/or to "fluff up" the hay so that it dries more quickly.
hay steaming: A method of treating harvested hay by placing it in an airtight vessel and exposing it to high-temperature moisture, which dampens the respirable dust that occurs naturally in dried hay, preventing it from becoming airborne and thereby reducing its inhalation by humans and livestock, and also potentially killing bacterial or fungal spores which may be present.
haycock: A small pile of hay, uncompressed and left to dry in a field.^[24]
haylage: Silage with a high dry-matter content, made from the same grasses or legumes from which hay is made (such as alfalfa, timothy, and others) but not dried as much as hay nor as little as direct-chop/green-chop silage (before being ensiled).
hayloft: A storage area in the upper part of a barn or stable, used for storing hay or other fodder.
hayrack
hayseed: The seed of grasses and legumes that are used for producing hay, especially when shaken from mown hay, and therefore sometimes inclusive of weed seed.^[24]
haystack: 1. Another name for a stook or haycock, or more broadly for any pile of mown hay left in a field to dry, whether loosely stacked or bound and compacted.; 2. A large number of sheaves or bales of dried hay stacked vertically one upon another, either manually or mechanically, for long-term storage. Methods of storing hay vary widely between different parts of the world, though in general they all have the same goals of keeping the hay dry and preventing spoilage. To this end haystacks are often constructed inside a barn or beneath a tarp, shelter, or moveable roof so as to protect them from the elements, and sometimes also on top of a wood or metal foundation rather than the bare ground. Small rectangular bales are stacked in a manner akin to bricklaying, overlapping or in a crisscrossed fashion, for structural stability.
headland: A wide strip of land at each end of a planted field used for turning or maneuvering large farm machinery such as ploughs. The headland runs perpendicular to the lay of the field and may itself be planted at the beginning of the season; in such cases it is usually the first area to be harvested in order to minimize crop damage.^[31]
headrace: The part of a millrace that is upstream of the water wheel or turbine that drives the mill; the channel or sluice that conducts water from a water source to the mill. Compare tailrace.
hectare (ha): A metric unit of area defined as the area of a square with sides of 100 by 100 metres (330 by 330 feet), equivalent to 10,000 square metres (0.003861 sq mi), or about 2.47 acres.
heifer: An adult cow that has not yet given birth to her first calf.
heirloom
heliciculture: The cultivation of land snails with the goal of producing any of a variety of products that can be used by humans, usually food or cosmetics, or as a form of biological pest control.
hemerochory: The distribution by humans, intentionally or unintentionally, of cultivated plants or their seeds, cuttings, or propagules into habitats they have been unable to colonize through their natural mechanisms of spread, but in which they are nonetheless able to survive and propagate without additional support from human activities.
hen: 1. A mature female chicken or other fowl.; 2. A female lobster.^[24]
herbicide: A pesticide intended to kill or prevent the proliferation of unwanted plants such as weeds, by any of a wide variety of mechanisms. The most common herbicides are chemical substances which are applied directly to the foliage, stems, or roots of the target plant or to the soil or water around it. Selective herbicides are designed to be effective only against particular plant species or taxa, while leaving other plants such as agricultural crops relatively unharmed; in contrast, non-selective or broad-spectrum herbicides are capable of harming many or all types of plants, including crops, such that care must be taken when applying them so as to avoid harming valuable or desirable species. The use of chemical herbicides is a major aspect of agricultural weed control.
herbicide resistance
herding: The act of gathering individual animals together into a group (known as a herd), maintaining the group as a unit, and/or moving the group from place to place. Many social animals, including cattle, sheep, and horses, naturally live in herds. Raising these animals as livestock involves a significant amount of time and energy managing and arranging herds, e.g. to separate animals into particular groups by sex, breed, ownership, or medical status, or to move them between different grazing lands or to a marketplace.
hide: The skin of an animal, especially when removed from the animal and tanned or treated for human use, after which it is also known as leather. Domestic animals, particularly cattle, horses, sheep, and goats,^[2] are sometimes raised specifically for their hides.
high tunnel: See polytunnel.
high-yielding variety (HYV)
hill farming: A type of extensive agriculture practiced in hilly, upland areas unsuitable for intensive management, typically involving the grazing of livestock and especially sheep.
hilling: The piling of soil around the base of a plant, creating a small mound or ridge of earth, so as to aid plant growth in any of a variety of ways, often to improve retention of water or soil amendments.
hinny: A domestic hybrid equine that is the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey; i.e. the reciprocal cross to the mule.
hobby farm: A small farm or smallholding that is operated without the expectation of it being a primary source of food or income. Hobby farms may provide a secondary income or may be maintained for other reasons, e.g. in order to provide recreational land for people or animals, or simply for the pleasure of doing so, i.e. as a hobby or passion project.
hoe: A handheld tool or farm implement generally consisting of a flat, moderately sharpened metal blade, often square or pointed, that is attached at an acute angle to a long handle intended to be held with two hands. Hoes come in many shapes and sizes and are widely used in agriculture and horticulture for a huge variety of purposes, including digging, shaping, and tilling soil, removing weeds, harvesting crops by cutting stems or roots, and clearing the soil after harvest by burying or raking crop residues.
hog: Another name for a pig or domesticated swine, especially one weighing at least 120 pounds (54 kg) and being prepared for market.^[24]
hog off: To harvest a grain crop by allowing domestic pigs to eat it when the grain is nearly ripe, often because it is a poor crop that is not worth harvesting for market.^[24]
hogget: A domestic sheep between one and two years old that has not yet been sheared, or the meat or wool of such an animal.^[24]
homegrown: Cultivated or produced locally, as with crops or livestock raised on one's own property (especially on land that also serves as the grower's place of residence, e.g. in a household garden), on a nearby farm, or in the same state or nation where they are offered for sale and consumption.^[24]
honey plant: Any plant used by bees as a source of nectar for making honey, especially one that imparts a distinctive flavor to the honey made from it; examples include alfalfa, buckwheat, clover, goldenrod, mesquite, and sumac.
honey wagon: See manure spreader.
hoophouse: See polytunnel.
hop kiln: See oast.
horticulture: The cultivation of plants for any purpose, including for food, materials, and decoration. Horticulturists apply a variety of knowledge, skills, and technologies relevant to plant growth and propagation, typically in intensively managed gardens, in order to grow plants for subsistence purposes, for profit, for scientific research, or for personal or social needs.
hotbed: An area of decaying organic matter (e.g. manure) that is warmer than its surroundings as a result of the decomposition of organic substances by microorganisms. Hotbeds enclosed by a small glass cover are often used as a kind of natural hothouse.
hothouse: A heated greenhouse.^[18]
humus
hundredweight (cwt)
husbandry
hybrid: An offspring resulting from sexual reproduction between parent organisms belonging to different breeds, strains, varieties, species, or genera, thereby combining different biological characteristics in a single organism. The traits of hybrids are often mixtures of their parents' traits or are intermediate between them, though they may also differ substantially from either parent, as with hybrid vigor.
hybrid vigor: Improved or increased size, strength, durability, yield, or any other biological function or quality in a hybrid offspring, relative to the same characteristics as observed in its parents.
hydroponics

I

idle land: Land that is arable, tillable, or generally in a condition suitable for the cultivation of agricultural crops without first requiring major modifications such as clearing of vegetation or rocks or drainage of water, but which nonetheless is not being cultivated, fallowed, or used as pasture.^[2]
incubator: In the poultry industry, a heated space in which newly laid eggs are placed in order to keep them warm and sheltered prior to hatching, simulating natural avian incubation in a controlled environment at optimal temperature and humidity and sometimes featuring an automated mechanism capable of periodically turning the eggs as well.
indicator species: Any species whose natural (i.e. uncultivated) presence or status can reveal the qualitative health or condition of its local environment, often by suggesting the existence of one or more specific environmental characteristics, e.g. wetness, salinity, acidity, etc.^[24]
industrial agriculture
industrial crop: Any crop that is specifically grown in order to yield a useful product for human industrial processes, such as fuels, fibers, oils, rubber, chemicals, resins, waxes, or dyes; the term generally also includes energy crops.^[7]
input
insecticide: A pesticide intended to kill or incapacitate insects, either by targeting adult insects or by preventing the growth and development of insect eggs or larvae. Insecticides may be effective against a broad spectrum of different types of insects or may target particular species or taxa. In common usage, the term may also include pesticides intended for other kinds of arthropods which are not technically insects, such as mites and ticks. See also miticide.
intact: See entire.
integrated farming
intensive agriculture: Any system of agricultural production that uses relatively large inputs of labor, fertilizer, and/or capital per unit land area and is, accordingly, characterized by high production outputs, in contrast to extensive agriculture. In the developed world, most commercial agriculture is intensive in one or more ways.
intensive animal farming
intercropping: A type of multiple cropping involving the cultivation of two or more crops in proximity, usually with the goal of producing a greater yield within a given area of land by making use of resources or ecological processes that would otherwise not be utilized by a single crop.
irrigation: The application of controlled amounts of water to plants at needed intervals, especially for the purposes of growing agricultural crops, maintaining landscapes, or revegetating disturbed or drought-affected soils. Irrigation systems may also be used as a means of protecting crops from frost, suppressing the growth of weeds, preventing soil consolidation, providing water to livestock and keeping them cool in hot weather, and controlling airborne dust.

J

jack: A male donkey.
jenny: A female donkey.

K

kernel: The edible seed and the hard outer husk or shell of a cereal grain, especially wheat or maize; i.e. the whole grain of a cereal crop.
kid: A juvenile goat of either sex.
kidding: The process of giving birth in goats, by which a pregnant doe gives birth to a kid.^[2]

L

lamb: 1. A young sheep, usually less than one year old.^[5]; 2. The meat from a young sheep less than one year old; or, in common usage, from a sheep of any age.^[5]
lambing: The process of giving birth in sheep, by which a pregnant ewe gives birth to a lamb.^[2]
land improvement: The process by which an area of land is altered from a natural or semi-natural state in order to make it usable for human purposes, e.g. to convert it into arable land for agriculture. Improvement for agricultural purposes typically involves extensive clearing of trees and other vegetation, removal of large rocks, tilling of soils, and/or flattening or terracing of the natural topography.
landrace: A traditional domesticated variety of a crop species that has become locally adapted over time to its specific natural and agricultural environment and has remained isolated from other wild and domesticated populations of the species. Landraces are often distinguished from cultivars and breeds in the standardized sense, although the term landrace breed is sometimes used when referring to cattle. Compare heirloom variety.
lard: A white, semi-solid fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of swine, comparable to the tallow derived from cattle or sheep.
layer: A mature female chicken that lays eggs regularly. A good layer typically produces 200–250 eggs per year.^[5]^: 35
leaching
liming: The application of calcium- and magnesium-rich minerals (collectively known as lime) to soil, in any of a variety of forms, including marl, chalk, limestone, burnt lime, or hydrated lime, usually as a means of increasing soil pH. By acting as bases, these materials can help to neutralize very acidic soils, improving plant growth and increasing the activity of soil microbes. Structure liming can also improve aggregate stability in clay soils.
linear aeration
lint: Ginned cotton, i.e. the fibers themselves after the seeds have been removed.^[5]
liquid manure: A mixture of animal faeces and various other organic matter such as crop residues, commonly aged in a slurry pit and then diluted with water, which is used as an agricultural fertilizer.
livestock: Any domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting in order to produce labor and/or agricultural commodities such as meat, milk, eggs, fur, leather, and wool. In certain contexts the term may be used more narrowly to refer exclusively to animals that are bred for consumption, or only to farmed ruminants such as cattle and goats; sheep, pigs, and horses are also often considered livestock, while poultry and fish are usually excluded.
living mulch: A cover crop that is interplanted or undersown with a main crop in an agricultural field with the intention of filling the same role as ordinary mulch, namely weed suppression and regulation of soil temperature and moisture content. Whereas most cover crops are grown while the soil lies fallow and then buried or removed prior to planting a cash crop, living mulch is not removed and instead grown simultaneously with the cash crop.
lodging: The tendency of the normally erect stems of certain crop plants, especially cereal grains such as wheat, rye, and barley, to bend over and break near ground level and become flattened against the ground, which makes them very difficult to harvest and can dramatically reduce yield. Lodging is most commonly caused by adverse weather conditions such as heavy rainfall, hail, and strong winds, but may also occur due to trampling by animals.
lumber: Wood that has been processed into uniform sizes suitable for construction, carpentry, or other uses, particularly by sawing cut logs into dimensional boards, planks, beams, etc. which are either rough-sawn or smoothly surfaced on one or more faces. Lumber is referred to as "timber" in many parts of the world, though in the United States and Canada "timber" refers specifically to unprocessed wood in the form of cut logs or standing trees intended for logging.
lynchet: A type of agricultural terrace made from earth, or a strip of green, unploughed land left between two areas of ploughed land, often used to mark a temporary boundary between fields.^[18]

M

magnanery: A building or property dedicated to sericulture, in which silk is cultivated and/or manufactured.
malt: The sprouted grain of a cereal which has been malted, or any product of the process of malting. The term may also refer more specifically to a viscous mixture of fermentable sugars extracted from the malted grain, rich in maltose, maltotriose, and maltodextrins, or to any of the various products which can be made with this extract, such as malt whisky and malted milk.
malt house: A building where cereal grain is converted into malt through the process of malting.
manger: A trough or bin used to hold animal fodder which permits animals to eat from it; or a structure or building containing such troughs, where numerous livestock are able to feed simultaneously.
manure: Any organic matter that is used as an organic fertilizer in agriculture, typically consisting of animal excreta, compost, and/or plant material. Manures contribute to soil fertility by adding organic compounds and nutrients such as nitrogen which are essential for plant growth and for the development of ecological networks with soil microorganisms.
manure spreader: A machine used to distribute manure over an agricultural field as fertilizer. Modern manure spreaders typically consist of a trailer towed behind a tractor with a conveyor and/or rotating mechanism driven by the tractor's power take-off.
marc: The solid residue that results from processing fruits, sugarcane, or sugar beets, and in particular from trampling and squeezing grapes or olives to extract juice. Marc residues have found many uses, including as livestock feed.^[24]
mare: A mature female horse, donkey, or other equine animal.^[24]
mariculture: A specialized branch of aquaculture involving the cultivation of marine organisms in the open ocean, enclosed sections of the ocean, or saltwater tanks or raceways, with the goal of producing any of a variety of products that can be used by humans, most commonly foods but also non-food products such as jewellery and cosmetics. Mariculture includes the farming of marine fish, shellfish, molluscs such as clams and oysters, and seaweed, among many other organisms.
mash: A poultry feed consisting of a complete ration of ground grain, soybean meal, alfalfa meal, byproducts from meat processing, skimmed milk, limestone, salt, and/or fish oil, often fortified with vitamins and minerals.^[2]
mast: The fruit of forest trees and shrubs, e.g. acorns and nuts, especially when accumulated on the ground.
maternity pen: A warm, well-bedded enclosure in which pregnant animals about to give birth are kept isolated, preventing other animals from disturbing the mother or otherwise interfering with the birthing process.^[2]
matron: An adult female horse (a mare) that has given birth to a foal.^[2]
maverick: An unbranded calf, cow, or steer on open range, especially one separated from its mother.^[24]
meadow: An open field covered primarily by native grasses, herbs, and other vegetation, with few or no trees and shrubs. Meadows may occur naturally but may also be maintained or artificially created by humans for the production of hay or fodder or to serve as pasture for livestock.
mechanized agriculture: The use of agricultural machinery to mechanize the work of agriculture, thereby substantially increasing the productivity of an agricultural operation. Modern mechanized agriculture may make use of tractors, combine harvesters, aircraft, computers, and satellite imagery, among other technologies.
merchantable volume: In silviculture, the amount of wood in a tree or stand of trees (typically expressed in units of volume, e.g. board-feet) that is of a quality suitable for harvesting and marketing as lumber. The term is most commonly used to describe an estimated yield with respect to a particular economic context, which may vary as market conditions and consumer preferences change.^[14]
microbial inoculant: See soil inoculant.
micro-irrigation: Any method of irrigation that uses lower water pressures and volumes than traditional irrigation systems. Micro-irrigation champions the approach of distributing small volumes of water very slowly via small-gauge tubing or drip tape to precise points, often within or immediately above the plant's root zone, which allows time for water to penetrate slow-percolation soils rather than simply running off and minimizes the risk of overwatering.
middlings: See wheat middlings.
milk: A white liquid secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals, which serves as the primary source of nutrition for nursing infants before they are able to digest solid food. Milk is naturally rich in protein, fats, sugars, and many other nutrients. The collection of milk from various mammal species, including cattle, goats, sheep, water buffalo, yaks, camels, horses, and donkeys, among others, is the basis of the dairy industry.
milk cow: A cow kept primarily for the purpose of producing milk for home use or limited commercial sale,^[2] especially when belonging to a herd of cattle being raised for other purposes.
milking: The process of extracting milk, traditionally by hand but also by automated machine, from the mammary glands of lactating mammals, especially cattle, goats, sheep, and water buffalo, or more rarely camels, horses, or donkeys. Lactation occurs naturally in all sexually mature female mammals, though in usable quantities only during or immediately after pregnancy.
milking parlor: An enclosed, dedicated space where dairy animals are milked.^[14]
milkshed: A large rural area which produces most or all of the milk consumed in a particular place or by a particular population,^[2] by analogy with a watershed. See also foodshed.
mill: 1. Any structure or device used to break solid materials into smaller pieces by grinding, crushing, or cutting, a process known as milling.; 2. A business or factory which manufactures textiles by spinning, weaving, or knitting.
milling: The process of grinding, crushing, cutting, or pulverizing solid matter into smaller pieces, reducing the average particle size and often changing the shape and other physical properties as well; or the process of breaking down, separating, sorting, grading, or classifying aggregate material into particles of uniform size. Milling is an important primary operation in the postharvest processing of many agricultural crops, mainly cereal grains and pseudocereals. Historically mills were powered manually or with draft animals such as oxen, horses, or donkeys, or by the force of the wind or the flow of water, though in modern contexts they are usually electrically powered.
millrace: The current of flowing water that turns a water wheel, or the channel or sluice that carries this water. A millrace is usually a man-made conduit or ditch that delivers a narrow, rapid, and powerful stream from a reservoir such as a mill pond or diverts it from a natural watercourse such as a river, with the force generated by the flow used to power a turbine or mill. The part of the millrace that is upstream of the water wheel is called the headrace, while the part downstream of the wheel is the tailrace.
minimum tillage: A type of conservation tillage designed to conserve soil quality by minimizing the amount of soil manipulation necessary for successful crop production, typically by completely avoiding primary tillage and practicing only minimal secondary tillage.
minor crop: A crop plant that is high in value but is not widely grown. Many fruits, vegetables, and tree nuts may be considered minor crops.^[3]
miticide: See acaricide.
mixed farming: The simultaneous cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for meat, eggs, or milk on the same farm,^[32] especially on the same or adjacent lands, and often reusing or recycling the products of one operation to supply the other, e.g. by using some part of the crop harvest for animal fodder, or by using animal manure as a crop fertilizer.
monocropping: The practice of cultivating a single crop species repeatedly on the same land for many consecutive growing seasons. Monocropping allows farmers to optimize their time and labor by applying the same inputs, growing methods, machinery, pest controls, etc. to the same crop in the same spaces year after year, but also forgoes the potential benefits of natural diversity and may eventually prove unsustainable by exhausting soil nutrients and requiring increasingly large inputs to compensate.
monoculture: The practice of growing or raising a single crop or livestock species, variety, or breed on a particular area of land at a time. Contrast polyculture.
mote: Waste material from the cotton ginning process, primarily from lint cleaning.^[2]
mouldboard
mouthing: The process of inspecting an animal's teeth to determine its age, as is commonly done with sheep and horses.^[5]
mulch: Any layer of material applied to the surface of soil for the purpose of conserving soil moisture, improving soil health and fertility, reducing weed growth, and/or enhancing the soil's aesthetic appeal. Mulches are usually organic in nature (e.g. bark chips, manure, and compost) though plastic sheeting and other types of artificial mulch are also common.
mule: A domestic hybrid equine that is the offspring of a female horse and a male donkey; i.e. the reciprocal cross to the hinny.
muley: A polled cow.^[14]
multigerm seed: Any type of seed product sold as a cluster of seeds fused together and which produces more than one plant when it germinates, after which the multiple plants are typically reduced to individual plants by a process called singling.^[18]
multiple cropping: The practice of growing two or more crops on the same area of land in the same growing season (as opposed to growing only one crop); the crops may be harvested at the same time or at different times. It is a form of polyculture. See also companion planting.
mustering: See herding.
mutton: 1. The meat from an adult sheep more than one year old. See also lamb.; 2. A castrated male goat.^[2]

N

nanny goat: See doe.
naps: Large, tangled masses of cotton fibers present in ginned cotton, often a consequence of ginning cotton which has not dried sufficiently.^[2] Compare neps.
natural growth promoter (NGP)
neps: Very small, snarled or knotted clusters of cotton fibers present in ginned cotton which are difficult to detect, looking like dots or specks in the lint, and equally difficult to remove. Neps are generally a more serious concern than naps because if not detected they will appear as defects in the finished yarn or fabric.^[2]
net farm income: The return, both monetary and non-monetary, to farm operators for their labor, management, and capital, after all production expenses have been paid; i.e. gross farm income minus production expenses. It includes net income from sales of the farm's agricultural products as well as net income attributed to the rental value of farm dwellings, the value of any commodities consumed on the farm, depreciation, and inventory changes. The term is used primarily in United States agricultural policy.^[3]
neutering: The surgical removal of all or most of the reproductive organ(s) of an animal, male or female, usually with the goal of irreversibly sterilizing the animal by eliminating sex organs which are essential to its ability to reproduce. In the broadest sense the term may also encompass non-surgical methods of sterilization such as those that employ pharmaceutical drugs, which may or may not be reversible. The male-specific term for neutering is castration and the female-specific term is spaying, though colloquially "neutering" may be used interchangeably with both. An animal that has not been neutered is said to be intact or entire.
non-program crop: Any agricultural crop or commodity not covered by a federally funded commodity program.^[3] Contrast program crop.
northern vigor: The phenomenon by which certain varieties of plants adapted to high-latitude climates produce hardier, better-tasting, or higher-yield crops when grown in lower-latitude climates. The effect has been observed in many types of produce grown in the northern United States and Canada, including potatoes, strawberries, and garlic.
no-till farming: Any method of growing crops or maintaining pasture without disturbing the soil through tillage, and typically involving minimal or no seedbed preparation. Proponents assert that in certain contexts no-till or low-till techniques can increase the soil's retention of water and organic matter and reduce soil erosion.
noxious weed: A weed or other undesirable plant that is not merely a nuisance but actually harmful to cultivated crops or other useful plants (by acting as a parasitic plant, strongly outcompeting other plants, or releasing allelopathic chemicals into the soil) or to humans or domestic animals such as livestock (by poisoning or causing other injury). Many places specify which weeds are noxious and require land users to take steps to control these species.^[2]
NPK
nurse cow: A cow which is milked in order to supply milk to nursing calves other than her own.^[2]
nurse crop: Any annual crop plant used to assist in the establishment of a perennial crop. Nurse crops may help to reduce the incidence of weeds, prevent soil erosion, and shade the perennial crop's seedlings from excessive sunlight; often the nurse crop itself is harvested for a particular product.
nursery: 1. Any place, often sheltered and irrigated, where plants are cultivated from seed, cuttings, grafts, or some other propagule and young plants are raised until they are mature enough to be transplanted, or to serve as a source of vegetative clones, rootstock, or grafting stock, either for the grower's own use or for commercial sale.^[2]; 2. A building designed and maintained specifically for raising young animals, especially calves or piglets.^[2]
nutrient pollution: The contamination, particularly of surface water sources, by excessive inputs of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Sources of nutrient pollution include surface runoff from agricultural fields and pastures (where large quantities of nutrient-rich fertilizers are commonly applied), discharges from septic tanks and feedlots, and emissions from combustion.^[3]

O

oast: A building designed for kilning or drying harvested hops for use in the brewing of beer.
off-farm stocks: Harvested whole grains or oilseeds produced by a particular farm or agricultural operation which have been removed from the farm where they were produced and stored off-site in temporary or permanent storage, e.g. at grain elevators, mills, or other processing facilities, regardless of their ownership or intended use.^[2] This includes supplies of grain which have been sold or distributed to consumers or retailers as well as supplies which have not yet been sold but for which there is no available storage space on the farmer's property. Compare on-farm stocks.
oilseed crop: Any plant crop cultivated specifically for the edible and/or inedible oils that can be extracted from its seeds, which may be used in cooking or in certain non-food products; the non-oil byproducts are also commonly used to produce high-protein animal feed.^[33] Examples of oilseed crops include soybeans, peanuts, cottonseed, flaxseed, canola, sunflower seeds, and safflower seeds.^[7]
olericulture: The cultivation of vegetables (i.e. non-woody herbaceous plants) for food, or the science that studies the growing of these plants as edible produce.
once grown seed: Seed obtained from plants that have been grown from a certified seed intended for use only by the farmer on his own farm, and not for resale.^[18]
once-over tillage: An operation in which a field is tilled and planted simultaneously or in quick succession.^[25]
on-farm stocks: Harvested whole grains or oilseeds which are stored on-site in temporary or permanent storage at or near the same farm where they were grown, regardless of their ownership or intended use.^[2] This includes supplies of grain which have already been sold but not yet distributed to consumers or retailers as well as supplies kept for the farmer's own use, and in the broadest sense may also include grain which is still growing in the field and has not yet been harvested. Compare off-farm stocks.
on-the-hoof: (of livestock) Sold live for slaughter.^[18]
open: (of livestock) Fertile but not yet pregnant; able to be impregnated.^[14]
open range: A type of rangeland on which livestock, particularly cattle, roam freely regardless of land ownership and without being enclosed by fences. Where open range is prescribed by law, the land owner (and not the animal owner) is responsible for erecting exclosure fences to keep animals off of private or public property.
orchard: Any intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Most orchards are planted with a single variety of fruit- or nut-producing tree, and are often laid out in a regular grid with wide spacing and grazed or mown grass or bare soil between individual trees to make maintenance and harvesting easy.
orchardry: The cultivation of trees or shrubs in an orchard, with the goal of producing any a variety of products that can be used by humans, especially foods.
organic farming
organic fertilizer
orthodox seed
outbuilding: Any building that is part of an agricultural or residential complex but is detached or distant from other structures, especially one dedicated to some practical purpose and isolated by necessity or convenience on a remote part of a large property. Common agricultural outbuildings include barns, stables, cellars, silos, granaries, sheds, and housing for farm laborers.
outfarm: A cluster of outbuildings located near outlying fields or pastures which are distant or isolated from a primary farmstead, providing facilities for agricultural operations in remote areas of a very large farm or ranch.
out-wintering: The practice of keeping livestock (especially cattle) outdoors on pastureland during the winter, leaving them to fend for themselves for protection from the elements, rather than housing them in an indoor shelter.^[11]
overcropping: The practice of growing too many crops on the same land in the same growing season, which may reduce yield for any of a variety of reasons, usually because soil fertility is insufficient to support multiple cropping or repeated growing cycles without periodic fallowing.^[34]
ox: A bovine animal of either sex which is trained and used as a draft animal, especially for plowing, threshing, milling, pulling carts or wagons, or hauling loads. Oxen are most commonly castrated adult male cattle, though cows and intact males may also be employed as oxen.

P

packinghouse: A building in which harvested agricultural produce (e.g. fruits and vegetables) is packaged for sale prior to distribution to market. Other forms of postharvest processing such as cleaning may also take place in the same facility.
paddy field
pannage: The practice of releasing livestock, especially pigs, into a wild forest so that they can feed on fallen mast such as acorns, beechnuts, and chestnuts.
pasteurization: The practice of applying moderate heat to milk and other heat-sensitive liquids in order to reduce the native microbial load. Pasteurization uses temperatures which are much lower than in conventional sterilization techniques but still high enough to deactivate or denature the proteins and other molecules used by bacteria and other microorganisms, usually not killing them outright but significantly slowing their growth and reproduction, thereby delaying the inevitable onset of spoilage and extending the product's shelf-life.^[35]
pastoral farming: A sedentary form of pastoralism in which livestock are raised on the same pastureland for most or all of their lives, rather than continuously being moved as in traditional nomadic pastoralism. Pastoral farmers typically have some form of ownership of the land they use, giving them an economic incentive to improve the land to meet the needs of their animals (e.g. by irrigation).
pastoralism: A type of animal husbandry in which herds of domestic animals are released onto large areas of vegetated outdoor land, known as pastures, for grazing, traditionally by fully or partially nomadic peoples who move around with their herds, and generally in places where environmental conditions such as aridity, poor soils, and extreme temperatures make growing crops difficult or impossible.
pasture: Any land used for grazing, especially enclosed tracts of farmland grazed by domesticated livestock such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine. Pasture vegetation mainly consists of grasses and forbs and is typically grazed throughout the summer. Pasture is often distinguished from, but may in the broadest sense include, other agricultural land types such as meadows, rangelands, or other unenclosed pastoral areas.
pastureland: A type of agricultural land used as pasture for grazing animals.
pegging: A developmental stage of the peanut plant in which a fertilized flower produces an elongated ovary which enters the soil and develops underground into a pod and eventually a peanut.
pellet mill: A type of mill or machine press used to compress and mold bulk quantities of powdered or fine-grained material into compact, high-density, homogeneous units called pellets, which are often much easier to store, transport, and distribute than in their original form. Many agricultural materials are commonly pelletized, including fertilizers and pesticides. Compound animal feed is usually milled from a feed mixture into small pellets the size of a kernel of corn so as to ensure a uniform ration for each fed animal.^[24]
perishable: (of an agricultural product, particularly a food) Vulnerable to natural processes of decomposition and decay within a relatively short time period after being harvested or sold to a consumer, usually a few days or weeks, gradually causing the product to spoil or rot and thereby irreversibly lose the structure, consistency, flavor, nutritional value, or other positive qualities characteristic of its fresh form which originally made it useful or valuable. In the absence of specific treatments or conditions, virtually all raw foods, whether of plant, animal, or fungal origin, eventually succumb to these processes via chemical reactions with their environment, both biotic (e.g. decomposition by microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi) and abiotic (e.g. dehydration by atmospheric evaporation), though some foods tend to decay much more quickly than others. Many methods of food processing and preservation have been developed to prevent or delay this decomposition in order to make foods usable and marketable for longer periods, ranging from storage in cold, dry, or oxygen-poor environments (all of which can greatly reduce the rate of microbial growth) to pasteurization or treatment with protective waxes or chemical preservatives. The most perishable foods are generally those for which preservation is difficult or undesirable, especially fresh produce such as fruits and vegetables, but also animal meat. Commercial foods which have been pre-cooked, canned, or extensively processed may be considered "non-perishable" for the purpose of calculating shelf life or expiration dates.
perlite: An amorphous glass mineral of volcanic origin with a relatively high water content and the unusual property of expanding to many times its original volume when heated sufficiently. Expanded perlite is commonly used as a soil amendment in horticulture, where its low density and high permeability help to improve drainage and prevent soil compaction. It is also sometimes used alone as a growth medium for starting cuttings or in hydroponics.
permaculture: An approach to land management that adopts arrangements observed in healthy natural ecosystems, with particular emphasis on utilizing creative design principles derived from whole systems thinking. Permaculture principles are often employed in regenerative agriculture, rewilding, and sustainable agriculture, but the concept has a wide range of applications, including in ecological engineering, water resource management, and architecture.
permanent crop: Any crop produced from a perennial plant which produces crops repeatedly over multiple seasons, rather than having to be replanted after each harvest.
permanent wilting point (PWP)
pesticide: Any chemical or biological agent used to deter, incapacitate, kill, sterilize, or otherwise discourage the activity or proliferation of one or more target organisms considered pests by humans, which includes herbicides used to control noxious plants, insecticides, miticides, fungicides, nematicides, antimicrobials for bacteria and viruses, and any other substance intended to control a pathogen of any kind.^[7] Pesticides are widely used in agriculture to protect crop plants or domestic animals from pathogens which may cause or transmit disease or destroy crop value, though they are also used for a huge variety of other purposes. Some are applied directly to the pest, while others are applied to the crop or animal itself, or to the air or soil around it. Pesticide use may also have drawbacks, including unintended or off-target effects such as toxicity to humans.
pesticide refuge
pharming: The use of genetic engineering technologies to insert one or more genes that code for useful pharmaceuticals into a host plant or animal that would otherwise not express those genes, thereby creating a genetically modified organism. Crops modified in this way are sometimes called pharma crops.
pig: A domestic swine of either sex, especially a member of the species Sus domesticus, often considered a domesticated subspecies of the wild boar, Sus scrofa.
piglet: A young domestic pig of either sex. See also farrow.
pigsty: See sty.
pineapple pit: A method of cultivating pineapples in temperate climates, consisting of a trench dug into the ground and covered with transparent glass, with two internal walls dividing it into three troughs. Pineapples are grown in the central trough while the outer troughs are filled with fresh manure, which gives off heat as it decomposes, keeping the central trough warm and humid.
pinery: 1. A natural or cultivated pine forest which is harvested for timber.; 2. A plantation where pineapples are grown, or another name for a pineapple pit.^[12]
pioneer crop: A crop grown to improve the general fertility of a parcel of land prior to sowing another, typically more valuable crop on the same land. Farmers often permit livestock to graze the pioneer crop in the hope that their dung will add soil nutrients.^[18]
pisciculture: A branch of aquaculture involving the raising of fish in tanks, enclosures, or hatcheries with the goal of producing any of a variety of products that can be used by humans, most commonly food.
pitchfork: A two-handed agricultural tool with between two and five long, thin tines and a long handle, used to efficiently pitch or toss large clumps of loose material such as hay, straw, leaves, or manure. Pitchforks are used for a wide variety of tasks such as feeding cattle and bucking hay.
plant breeding: The deliberate and systematic reproduction of plants in agriculture and horticulture, especially involving the artificial selection of which individual plants will breed in order to produce progeny with desirable characteristics.
plantation: A large-scale estate which specializes in farming cash crops, most commonly cotton, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar cane, opium, fruit trees, rubber trees, and forest trees.
plashing: See pleaching.
plastic mulch: An artificial mulch consisting of a thin film of plastic polymers, used in both crop production and landscaping for the same reasons as natural mulches, i.e. to suppress weeds, conserve water, and maintain soil integrity. Crops grow through regularly spaced holes cut in the plastic film. It is most commonly used with row crops, often in conjunction with drip irrigation.
plasticulture: The use of plastic materials in agricultural applications. Plastics are used for a huge variety of purposes in all types of agriculture, including as irrigation drip tape, row covers, plastic mulch, bale wrap and postharvest packaging, polytunnels, and feed troughs, among numerous others.
pleaching: The practice of interweaving the living and dead branches of a hedgerow so that they become tangled, either for the purpose of strengthening the hedge by forming a natural fence or wall which continues to thicken as it grows, or for ornamental reasons.
plough: Any farm implement used to loosen or overturn soil in preparation for sowing seed or transplanting, a practice known as ploughing. Ploughs typically consist of a series of blades attached to a wooden or metallic frame, often with wheels, which is then pushed or pulled either by humans, by draft animals, or, on modern farms, with a tractor.
plough pan: A hard layer in the subsoil caused by excessive compression due to repeated ploughing at the same depth over multiple consecutive seasons.^[18] See also hardpan.
plough planting: A reduced-tillage system in which a planting or seeding apparatus is mounted directly behind a plough such that a field is ploughed and sown simultaneously in a single step, with no intervening secondary tillage.^[12] See also once-over tillage.
ploughing: The use of a plough in the cultivation of agricultural land. Ploughing is an ancient and fundamental agricultural technique, the primary purpose of which is to evenly distribute fresh nutrients, moisture, and air through the uppermost layers of the soil while also burying weeds and crop residues to decay. Modern ploughed fields are typically left to dry and then harrowed prior to planting. The use of a plough usually leaves the soil with a rough, unfinished look and parallel trenches called furrows; conventional, intensive ploughing practices may contribute to soil erosion and the formation of hardpan.
ploughshare: The large metal blade that is the leading edge of the mouldboard of a plough, used to cut through large amounts of soil to the bottom of the furrow. Certain ploughs have a coulter immediately preceding the ploughshare.^[18]
plug: In horticulture, a juvenile plant, seedling, or cutting germinated and grown individually in a very small container filled with a small amount of potting soil or other growth medium, with the intention of transplanting it into a larger container or into the ground after it has grown to a certain size (at which point the soil or growth medium is held together by the plant's roots, allowing it to be easily removed from the starting container). Plug plants are often grown by commercial nurseries in large numbers in portable seed starter trays under controlled conditions, which makes it convenient to manage numerous plants during the early stages of growth and to ensure their health and viability before selling to customers, who may find establishing a garden with transplanted plugs to be easier than starting from seed.
plunge dip: A deep trough or basin designed to immerse and bathe livestock in a liquid pesticide formulation or other treatment. Cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, or horses are prodded to walk through a narrow channel containing the liquid, briefly submerging most or all of their bodies, which makes it possible to treat large herds of animals quickly and efficiently.^[36] See also drenching.
poddy: A calf that has been orphaned by the loss of its mother. See also dogie.
pollarding
polled: Born without horns, used when describing livestock of a species that is normally horned, e.g. in cattle, goats, and sheep. The term may refer to animals that have been selectively bred to be naturally hornless or, in the broadest sense, to otherwise horned animals that have had their horn buds removed after birth by disbudding.^[5]
pollen drift: Unintentional cross-pollination of wild plants by crop plants or vice versa, or between distinct crop varieties or cultivars, through natural mechanisms of pollen dispersal (e.g. wind or insects).
polyculture: The practice of growing or raising more than one species, variety, or breed at the same time and place, often in imitation of the biodiversity of natural ecosystems. Contrast monoculture.
polytunnel: A type of greenhouse in the form of a typically semi-circular, elongated tunnel made from a steel frame covered with transparent polyethylene; temperature, humidity, and air circulation can be adjusted by the opening and closing of doors or vents. Polytunnels are used in similar ways to glass greenhouses and row covers, e.g. for season extension or as nurseries. Though primarily designed to provide temperature increases ranging from 5 to 35 °C (9 to 63 °F) above the outdoor air temperature, they can also protect plants (and animals) against extreme weather and the drying effect of wind.
pomology: The study of fruit and its cultivation.
ponding: The formation of small ponds or pools of water in agricultural fields due to surface runoff from oversaturated or poorly draining soils, or from heavy precipitation or irrigation.^[2]
pork: The meat of hogs or pigs.
postemergent: Occurring after the stage in a plant's life when the first leaves emerge from beneath the soil. The term is used in particular to describe a class of herbicides intended to be applied to weeds which are already leafy or established. Post-emergent herbicides such as glyphosate typically work by killing the cells of mature leaves, thereby inhibiting photosynthesis and causing the whole plant to die; they are generally ineffective on very young plants and seeds. Contrast pre-emergent.
postharvest: 1. The stage of commercial crop production immediately following harvest, including cooling, drying, cleaning, sorting, packing, and/or any other processing and handling activities necessary for the crop to become marketable. Postharvest treatment largely determines a crop's final quality and how and whether it can be sold.; 2. Any activities that occur after agricultural products leave or are sold from the farm or ranch where they were produced.^[27]
postharvest losses
poult: A young turkey, especially one too young for its sex to be determined.^[24]^[2]
poultry: Any domesticated birds cultivated by humans for their meat, eggs, or feathers, most commonly various species of fowl, especially chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and pigeons.
poundage quota: A quantitative limit on the amount of an agricultural commodity (e.g. tobacco or peanuts) that can be produced and/or marketed under the provisions of a governmental price support program.^[24]
power take-off (PTO): A device, commonly found on tractors but also sometimes on farm trucks or other vehicles, that transmits electrical and/or mechanical energy from a power source (e.g. a running engine) to an attached implement or a separate machine which is either pulled behind on a trailer or mounted on the vehicle itself. Modern tractors almost always have a power take-off, which can be connected to a wide variety of equipment to supply power for virtually any automatable agricultural task, e.g. mowing, ploughing, tilling, compacting, distributing agrochemicals, harvesting, etc.
precision agriculture (PA): A large-scale agricultural management strategy based on observing, measuring, and responding to inter- and intra-field variability in crops and crop yields with the goal of optimizing returns on inputs while preserving resources. Precision agriculture relies on advanced technologies such as GPS, remote sensing, satellite imagery, multispectral imagery, and agricultural drones to collect data on numerous agricultural variables and to generate datasets and maps of spatial variability which can then be used by variable-rate (and often fully automated) applications to optimally distribute resources.
precision seeding: A method of seeding that involves placing seed with attention to precise spacing and depth, either by hand or mechanically, as opposed to broadcast seeding. Precision seeding usually requires less seed and avoids overcrowding and the need for thinning, but is best suited for plants with very high germination rates in order to make full use of the seeded area.
precleaning: Removing unwanted foreign material such as weeds, seeds, dirt, stems, and cobs from harvested grain before it is dried.^[24]
preemergent: Occurring before germination, or before the stage in a plant's life when the first leaves emerge from beneath the soil. The term is used in particular to describe a class of herbicides intended to be applied to weeds before their leaves have become established. Pre-emergent herbicides such as paraquat work by inhibiting one or more enzymes that are active in cell division only in new seedlings; they do not inhibit germination from seed itself, nor are they effective on established, mature plants. Contrast post-emergent.
preharvest
prices paid index: An economic index used to monitor and indicate changes in the prices paid by farmers for goods and services used in crop and livestock production as well as those needed for farm family living. In addition to the prices of common farm inputs such as fertilizer, the index also includes interest on debt, taxes payable on farm real estate, and wage rates paid to hired labor. It is used to calculate the price of many fees and fines required by agricultural law, e.g. fees for grazing livestock on federal land.
prices received index: An economic index used to monitor and indicate changes in the prices received by farmers for their products at the point of first sale, usually the farm itself or a local market. Together with the prices paid index, it is used to calculate the parity ratio.
prilled: Pelletized and sold in the form of small, round, solid globules, as is common with many fertilizers, compound animal feeds, and other agrichemicals.^[18]
primary tillage: Any general-purpose tillage that is relatively deep and thorough and which leaves the soil surface with a rough, unfinished texture, such as ploughing, as opposed to subsequent, shallower, and more selective secondary tillage. Primary tillage is usually performed immediately after the last harvest, with the objectives of loosening, softening, and aerating the soil to a particular depth, incorporating crop residues and/or fertilizers, and killing weeds.
priming: 1. The process of moistening seeds in order to initiate germination prior to sowing in soil or other substrate.^[18]; 2. The process of removing ripened leaves from tobacco plants by hand.^[24]
prod: See goad.
produce: A generalized term used to refer to a variety of farm-produced food crops, usually including fruits and vegetables and sometimes also grains and other products, especially implying that such foods are fresh and generally in the same state as when and where they were harvested.
profit crop: See cash crop.
program crop: A crop for which deficiency payments are paid by a government agency to participating producers, e.g. wheat, corn, barley, grain sorghum, oats, upland cotton, and rice.^[24] Contrast non-program crop.
protein crop: Any crop plant whose harvested products naturally contain high concentrations of proteins or amino acids and are therefore important as staple foods or in helping to meet the nutritional requirements of humans or domestic animals. Many oilseeds and grains are considered protein crops.
provender: See fodder.
pruning: The selective removal of certain unwanted plant parts or tissues, such as branches, buds, or roots, from crops or landscape plants during cultivation for any of a variety of reasons, including controlling or redirecting growth, improving or sustaining the plant's health or appearance, reducing risk from falling branches, preparing juvenile plants for transplanting, and increasing the yield or quality of harvestable flowers and fruits. See also topping, pollarding, and coppicing.
pseudocereal: Any domesticated non-grass species that is not a true cereal but is nonetheless cultivated and harvested in much the same way as a cereal, with their "grain" or seed being milled into flour and otherwise used in the same manner as cereal grain; common examples include amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, and chia. Compared with true cereals, pseudocereals are similarly rich in many different nutrients but do not contain gluten, making them popular substitutes in gluten-free foods.
puddling: The practice of tilling rice paddies while flooded, traditionally accomplished by dragging a weighted harrow through the submerged soil of the paddy field but also with mechanized implements.^[37]
pullet: An immature female chicken.
pulpwood: Any wood used in the manufacture of paper, fiberboard, or other pulp-based products.^[2]
push–pull technology: An agricultural pest control strategy that utilizes the intercropping of repellent "push" plants and attractive "pull" plants to divert pests, typically insects, away from vulnerable cash crops. For example, noxious plants (e.g. catnip and Desmodium) may be planted between rows of a valuable cereal crop to repel or "push" certain herbivorous insects away from the cereal, while a more preferable trap crop (e.g. some Brachiaria grasses) is simultaneously planted around the perimeter of the field to attract or "pull" in the insects and keep them there.

Q

quern-stone: A traditional stone tool for manually grinding various materials, especially for milling grain into flour, consisting of a pair of smooth, heavy stones which are rubbed against each other with the grain in between them. A lower stone, called a saddle quern, is usually stationary, while another stone, called a muller, rubber, or handstone, is placed on top of the lower stone and moved by hand in a back-and-forth or rotary motion; often the upper stone has a central hole through which the unground grain is poured and a handle to help rotate it.

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