Category: Agriculture Dictionary

Double Dribble Foul: This takes place either when a player dribbles the ball using both their hands or when a player stops to dribble and then starts to dribble again.

Yield : Also called agricultural output.

Xeriscaping : The practice of gardening or landscaping so as to reduce or eliminate the need for supplemental water from irrigation. Xeriscaping requires the selection of plants whose natural requirements are appropriate to the local climate, with a particular emphasis on water conservation, and focuses on designing and maintaining the land in such a way as to avoid losing water to evaporation and run-off.

Winnowing : The process or technique, performed either manually or mechanically, by which grain is separated from chaff. Traditional manual winnowing involves throwing the unseparated mixture into the air so that the wind blows away the lighter chaff, while the heavier grains fall back to the ground for recovery. In modern agriculture, winnowing is often entirely mechanized.

Windrow : A row of cut or mown hay or small grain crop that is allowed to dry in a field before being baled, combined, or rolled. Windrows may be built deliberately after cutting, or they may form automatically as a result of the method by which the crop is mown.

Windbreak : Also called a shelterbelt.

One or more rows of closely spaced trees or shrubs planted in such a way as to provide shelter to an adjacent agricultural field from the wind, thereby protecting the area from excessive cold and soil erosion. Windbreaks commonly take the form of hedgerows planted around the edges of fields on farms, but may also be made from artificial materials such as large canvas panels. Aside from decreasing wind speeds, they may also be designed to separate farms from roads or motorways or to collect snowdrifts that will provide water to otherwise dry farmland when the snow melts in the spring.

Wildcrafting : The human practice of foraging for uncultivated plants or fungi from their natural or “wild” habitats, primarily for food or medicine.

Weed of cultivation : Any plant that is well-adapted to environments in which the land is cultivated for growing some other plant. See also crop weed.

Water-meadow : A flat area of grassland that is periodically flooded through the use of controlled irrigation in order to increase agricultural productivity. The technique is practiced primarily in Europe.

Volunteer : Any plant, especially a feral crop plant or crop descendant, that grows in an agricultural field or garden unintentionally, rather than by deliberate planting by a farmer or gardener. Volunteers often grow from seeds that have been dispersed by the wind or animals or inadvertently mixed into compost. Unlike weeds, volunteers are not necessarily unwanted, and may even be encouraged to grow, especially if they show desirable characteristics that can be selected to produce new cultivars.

Viticulture : Also winegrowing.

The cultivation of grapes, especially for use in winemaking.

Vertical farming : The practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers, usually indoors as a type of controlled-environment agriculture and by incorporating soilless farming techniques such as hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics.

U-Pick : See You-Pick.

Trap crop : Any plant that is cultivated in order to attract the attention of agricultural pests, usually insects, and thereby distract them away from nearby crops. In small farms or gardens, this practice can help save the primary crop from decimation by pests without the use of pesticides.

Transhumance : A type of pastoralism involving the seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures.

Tractor : A type of heavy engineering vehicle designed specifically to deliver very high tractive effort or torque at slow speeds for the purpose of hauling a trailer or machinery, especially one which provides the power and traction to mechanize agricultural tasks. Modern tractors serve a wide variety of different functions, with many types of agricultural implements and machinery able to be towed behind or mounted on a tractor, such as ploughs, harrows, and cultivators; the tractor may also provide a source of electrical power if the implement is mechanized.

Tilth : The physical texture, structure, and general condition of soil with respect to its suitability for planting or growing a crop, as indicated by parameters such as moisture content, aeration, soil aggregate stability, rate of water infiltration, and drainage. Soil with good tilth has large pore spaces allowing air and water movement, yet is also capable of holding water and plant nutrients for substantial periods of time. The primary objective of tillage is to improve tilth by mechanical manipulation of the soil, with the goal of increasing crop yield; fertilization, irrigation, and soil amendments can also positively impact tilth. When applied excessively, however, these practices may have the opposite effect, causing the soil to lose its structure and become compacted.

Tillage : 1.  The preparation of agricultural soil by any of various types of mechanical agitation, whether human-powered, animal-powered, or mechanised, such as digging, hoeing, raking, ploughing, and harrowing. In this sense, it is also referred to as tilling.2.  The land that is tilled.

Threshing machine : Also simply called a thresher.

Threshing : The process of loosening the edible part of a grain or other crop from the chaff to which it is attached, without removing the bran. In grain cultivation, threshing immediately follows reaping.

Tenant farmer : A person who operates and resides on farmland owned by a landlord. Tenant farming involves a contract between the landowner and the tenant farmer in which the landowner contributes his land and often a measure of operating capital and management in exchange for the tenant farmer’s labor. The tenant farmer may also pay rent to the landowner, though the form and measures of payment and the rights the tenant has to the land vary widely with local custom.

Tedder :Also called a hay tedder.

Swather : Also called a windrower.

A type of agricultural machinery that cuts hay or small grain crops and forms them into a windrow, with the goal of decreasing the time required for drying the crop to a moisture content suitable for harvesting and storage. A sickle bar or mower cuts the stems of the crop, and a reel helps the cut stems fall neatly onto a conveyor, which then deposits them into a windrow with all stems oriented in the same direction. The mown strip left behind is called the swathe.

Subsoiler :Also flat lifter.

A tractor-mounted farm implement used for tilling soil at depths much below the levels normally worked by mouldboard ploughs, disc harrows, or rototillers. While most such tools break up and turn over surface soil to a depth of 15–20 centimetres (5.9–7.9 in), subsoilers can often extend the action to as deep as 75 centimetres (30 in). They typically consist of three or more heavy, curved shanks with replaceable points and sometimes fitted with horizontal wings, which are used to lift and shatter the hardpan that builds up in deeper layers due to soil compaction.

Subsistence agriculture : Agricultural production that is practiced in order to meet the needs of the farmer or producer, as opposed to that practiced in order to generate profit by selling the agricultural products to consumers. Subsistence agriculture usually refers to farmers growing various food crops strictly for use by themselves and their families, typically on smallholdings, with the output of the farm targeted principally at fulfilling basic survival needs and local requirements, and generally implies small amounts of inputs, use of crude or traditional farming tools, reliance on unskilled labor (often family members), low yields, and little or no surplus. It primarily occurs in the developing world, though most modern subsistence farmers also participate in trade to some degree.

Stubble-mulching : The practice of leaving the stubble or crop residue essentially in place on a plot of cropland as a surface cover during a fallow period. Stubble-mulching can prevent soil erosion and conserve soil moisture.^[5]

Straw : An agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw has numerous different uses, including as mulch, biofuel, bedding and fodder for livestock, and construction material.

Stook : Also shock and stack.

An upright conical or tent-like arrangement of sheaves of the cut stalks of a grain crop, placed so as to keep the grain-heads off the ground prior to collection for threshing. Stooked grains typically include wheat, barley, oats, and maize.

Staple food : Also simply staple.

A food that is eaten routinely and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet for a given population or demographic, supplying a large fraction of energy needs and generally providing a significant proportion of the basic nutrients needed for survival or health. Specific staple foods vary by location and culture, but typically are inexpensive or readily available foods that are suitable for storage over long periods of time without decaying; examples include cereals, starchy tubers or root vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products.

Spoilage : The process by which an agricultural product (typically food) becomes unsuitable for use or ingestion by the consumer. Natural decomposition of agricultural crops by bacteria and fungi is the most common cause of food spoilage. Depending on the type of product, shelf life may be significantly increased with proper packaging and storage and by the application of various food preservation techniques.

Sowing : Often used interchangeably with seeding and planting.

The process of distributing seeds (or any other type of propagule) of crop plants in or upon an area of fertile soil, either by hand or by mechanical methods. Sowing is one of the first steps in any seasonal agricultural operation.

Soil science : The scientific study of soil as a natural resource, including its formation, classification, and mapping; the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils; and how these properties relate to the use and management of soils for agricultural purposes.

Soil amendment : Also called a soil improvement or soil conditioner.

Any product which is added to soil to improve the soil’s quality, especially its fertility and mechanics, either to make poor soils more usable or to maintain soils that are already in good condition. In the broadest sense, the term includes all organic and synthetic fertilizers and all other soil additives.

Site-specific crop management (SSCM) : See precision agriculture.

Silviculture : The practice of managing or directly controlling the establishment, growth, composition, and quality of natural or deliberately planted forests for any of a number of reasons, especially timber production but also for the cultivation of other forest crops.

Silage : A type of fodder made from the green foliage of crop plants that has been preserved by a process of fermentation and storage called ensilage, ensiling, or silaging, which typically involves piling and compressing large amounts of cut green vegetation in an oxygen-poor environment, such as a pit or silo or a bale wrapped tightly with plastic film. Silage is usually made from maize, sorghum, or other cereals, using the entire green plant (not just the grain).

Shifting cultivation : A type of agriculture in which specific plots of land are cleared and cultivated temporarily, often by slash-and-burn methods and for just a few growing seasons, then abandoned and allowed to lie fallow, reverting to their natural vegetation over many more seasons, while the cultivator migrates to a new plot.

Shelterbelt : See windbreak.

Sharecropping : A type of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to cultivate a portion of his or her land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land.

Sericulture : The cultivation of silkworms with the goal of producing silk.

Seedling : The young plant that germinates from a plant embryo contained within a seed.

Seeding : See sowing.

seedbed : Also seedling bed.

The local soil environment in which seeds are sown, often including not only the soil but also a specially built cold frame, hotbed, or raised bed used to germinate the seeds in a controlled environment before transplanting the resulting seedlings into more natural soils in a garden or field. The use of seedbeds can substantially increase germination rates.

Season extension : Any method that allows a crop to be grown and/or harvested beyond its natural outdoor growing season or harvest season. Season extension practices most commonly aim to overcome low temperatures or inadequate sunlight in climates where cold weather and shorter days limit the growing season in the spring and fall, but can also include techniques designed to address other seasonally varying conditions such as precipitation and consumer demand, or simply to keep mature crops alive until immediately before the harvest (as opposed to applying postharvest food preservation technologies to prevent spoilage during storage).

Seed crop : A crop grown specifically so that seeds can be harvested from the mature plants, as opposed to crops grown for their edible or usable non-seed parts, without regard for the quality or quantity of any seeds they may produce. A secondary seed crop may be maintained alongside a primary cash crop in order to ensure an adequate supply of seeds for future plantings and/or to manage crop phenotypes by the artificial selection of seeds from parents with desirable characteristics.

Row crop : Any crop that can be planted in rows wide enough to allow it to be tilled or otherwise cultivated by agricultural machinery specifically designed for that purpose. Such crops are generally sown by drilling rather than by broadcast seeding.

Row cover : Any flexible, transparent or semi-transparent material, such as fabric or plastic sheeting, that is used as a protective covering to shield plants from extreme temperatures and wind, as well as from insect damage and large herbivores. Row cover can also provide a limited amount of warming in the same way as greenhouses, by creating a microclimate for the covered plants.

Roughage : Any animal feedstuff with high fiber content, such as hay or straw.^[7]

Roguing : The practice of identifying and removing plants with undesirable characteristics (e.g. plants that are diseased or of an unwanted shape, color, or variety) from agricultural fields, often by hand. The plants, known as rogues, are removed to preserve the quality of the desirable crop plants, often by way of preventing undesirable characteristics from propagating into subsequent generations.^[7]

Roller : An agricultural implement, typically tractor-drawn, used for flattening an area of land by breaking up large clumps of soil, pushing stones into the soil, and generally creating a smooth, firm seedbed, especially following ploughing or disc harrowing.^[7]

Ripper : See subsoiler.

Riddle : To grade and sort produce (e.g. potatoes) according to size, using a sieve.^[7]

Remainder : See crop residue.

Ratooning : The practice of harvesting a crop plant (particularly a monocot species) by cutting most of the above-ground portion of the plant but leaving the roots and the shoot apices intact so as to allow the plant to recover and produce a fresh crop in a subsequent growing season. This procedure usually can be sustained only for a few seasons, as yield tends to decline with each season. Ratoon crops include sugarcane, pineapples, and bananas.

Rangeland : Any grassland, shrubland, woodland, wetland, or desert area that is grazed by domestic livestock or wild animals. Rangelands are generally less intensively managed than pasture lands in that they are dominated primarily by native vegetation rather than by plants established by humans, and typically are not subjected to agricultural practices such as irrigation and the use of fertilizers.

Ranching : The practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle, sheep, and horses on an area of land called a ranch.

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.

Provender : See fodder.

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.

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.

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.

Precision agriculture (PA) : Also called satellite farming and site-specific crop management.

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.

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.^[5]

Polytunnel : Also called a polyhouse, hoophouse, grow tunnel, or high tunnel.

A type of greenhouse in the form of a typically semi-circular, elongated tunnel made from a steel frame covered in polyethylene; temperature, humidity, and ventilation can be adjusted by the opening and closing of 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 25 °C (9 to 45 °F) above the outdoor ambient temperature, they can also protect plants against cold waves, as well as the drying effect of wind.

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.

Ploughshare : Also plowshare.

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.^[7]

Ploughing : Also plowing.

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.

Plough pan : A hard layer in the soil caused by repeated ploughing at the same depth over multiple consecutive seasons.^[7]

Plough : Also plow.

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.

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.

Pisciculture : Also called fish farming.

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.

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.^[7]

Pharming : Also called molecular farming, molecular pharming, and biopharming.

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.

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.

Pastureland : A type of agricultural land used as pasture for grazing animals.

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.

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.

Pastoral farming : Also called livestock farming or grazing.

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).

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.

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.

 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 fences to keep animals off of private or public property.

Once grown seed : Seed obtained from plants that have been grown from a certified seed intended for use by the farmer on his own farm, and not for resale.^[7]

On-the-hoof: (of livestock) Sold live for slaughter.^[7]

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.

No-till farming : Any method of growing crops or maintaining pasture without disturbing the soil through tillage. Though soil tillage is widely practiced in modern agriculture, 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.

Mulchmultigerm 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.^[7]

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.

Mill : Any structure or device used to break solid materials into smaller pieces by grinding, crushing, or cutting.

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.

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.

Lynchet : Also linchet.

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.^[7]

Livestock : Any domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting in order to produce labor and/or agricultural commodities such as meat, eggs, milk, 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.

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, cooling livestock, and controlling airborne dust.

Intercropping : Also called interculture.

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.

Intensive agriculture : Also called intensive farming.

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.

Hothouse : A heated greenhouse.^[7]

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.

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.

Hoophouse : See polytunnel.

Honey wagon : See manure spreader.