CyberSpace Farm Glossary

Acre: An acre is a unit of measure and is a square approximately 209 feet per side. It is also about the size of a football field. Farmland is usually measured and spoken of in acres.

Augers: Long tubular pieces of equipment to move grain. Augers have a spiral shaft up the middle which pushes the grain from the lower end to the top end and into or out of storage units. They are usually powered by tractors, electric motors or hydraulic motors and can be a dangerous piece of equipment if alertness and safety precautions are not used.

Bins: Round concrete or corrugated metal covered structures which are used to store grains. They can be found on farms and at commercial storage businesses. Some are equipped with fans to move air through the grain to keep it in good condition. Some are equipped with fuel-fired burners which can be used to dry the moisture in grain down to proper storage levels.

Bushel: A unit of volume measure used as dry measure of grains and produce. A bushel of wheat or soybeans weighs 60 pounds, a bushel of corn or milo weighs 56 pounds, and a bushel of sunflowers weighs 25 pounds.

Cereal grains: Usually refers to small seeded grains such as wheat, barley, rice, and oats.

Combine: A large self-propelled machine which harvests grain crops. It has various attachments called headers designed for use in harvesting specific crops. Wheat is harvested using the reel-type header; corn is harvested using a corn head; soybeans are harvested using a bean head.

Crops: Crops are plants that can be grown and harvested or picked to eat or to sell. Crops are grains (wheat, corn, milo, soybeans, sunflowers, oats), cotton, fruits (apples, oranges, peaches, pears), nuts, vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes), and Christmas trees, and many more.

Custom Harvester: An individual, a family or a group of individuals whose business is to hire out to harvest crops for farmers. They provide the equipment such as combines, grain trucks, semi-tractor trailer trucks, grain carts and tractors to bring the mature crops in and to deliver them either to the farmer's storage facility or to a commercial facility such as a grain elevator. Many custom harvesters have a regular harvest route that begins in the south (such as Texas) and advances north to Montana, North Dakota and Canada. During fall harvest season they return to a more southerly location to provide their harvesting services. Farmers pay the harvesters an agreed upon rate for cutting and hauling the crop depending on acres cut, yields, distance to be hauled, fuel costs, etc.

Disk: A piece of farm equipment pulled behind a tractor to prepare soil, cut up vegetative matter in fields. It is used in preparation of fields prior to planting and also to keep weeds under control.

Drill: A piece of equipment for seeding that is pulled behind a tractor. The drill is used to plant wheat and other small seed crops. It makes a long groove in the soil, drops the seeds into it and then covers and firms the soil above the seed.

Elevator: A long piece of equipment which is powered by a tractor and moves items such as small hay bales to be stored under cover such as in the upper levels of a barn called a hayloft or in a hay shed.

Feed: The cracked, ground, or processed grains usually fed to animals including hay such as alfalfa or silage. Feed is often mixed with added nutrients for better animal health.

Feed grains: Usually refers to coarser grains such as corn, milo, and soybeans.

Grain Elevator: A commercial storage facility used for storing grains.

Harvest: The process of threshing or picking a grain crop by a large machine called a combine. It can also refer to picking vegetable and fruit crops by hand.

Hay: Product such as alfalfa and certain grasses which are cut, baled and fed to animals.

Livestock: Livestock are farm animals, such as beef cattle, dairy cows, sheep, hogs, chickens and turkeys.

Planter: A piece of equipment for seeding that is pulled behind a tractor. The planter is used to seed coarser grain seeds such as corn, soybeans, and sunflowers. Instead of the long seed box that a drill has, planters have individual seed boxes, one for each row the planter will plant. Planters are often designated as 6-row or 12-row planters.

Straw: The stems of the wheat or oat plants which are cut and baled and often used for animal bedding. Sometimes, straw is fed to animals.

Terrace: A raised bank of earth having vertical and sloping sides. Terraces are constructed to follow the contour of the land and to enable rain and snow water to remain on the land rather than run down slopes and cause soil erosion. Terraces are a conservation practice to keep soil and water on the land.

Waterway: An earthen construction which is built to carry water off the land without losing soil or cutting ditches. All water has to go somewhere and if it comes faster than the soils can absorb, it will run-off. Waterways catch the water run-off and direct it to the bottom of the slopes where it goes into ponds, creeks or eventually makes its way to a river. The waterways are usually grassed to catch any silt that accompanies rainwater or snow melt. Waterways are an important component of a terracing system and soil conservation plans.