Glossary of Farm Terms

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Acre: An acre is 43,560 sq feet of area. or roughly 208 feet by 208 feet.

Alta Vista, Iowa: Our church community town. A few small businesses located here. We do as much business as possible in this town. Population of about 300.

Apron: A conveyor chain that moves the material in a manure spreader.

ATV: All Terrain Vehicle. This machine has four wheels. We use this for farm transportation. An ATV is also known as a four-wheeler.

Auger: A device to move grain from the wagon to the grain bin.

Barley: A major cereal grain. This is grown all over the world even on our farm. Barley is used for livestock feed, cereals, and brewing.

Barn: A home for the livestock usually during the winter.

Boar: A father pig. A boar is the same size as a mother sow. He breeds sows so they can give birth to young.

Bulk Bin: Large metal cylinders for feed storage.

Bull: A father cow. A bull is like a boar. He breeds mother cows to give birth to young.

Bushels: A measurement of 1 and 1/4 cubic feet of grain. A bushel of corn weighs 56 pounds, wheat is 60 pounds and oats has a bushel weight of 32 pounds.

Cargill Floor (Hog Floor): A narrow long cement floor for hogs, sows, sheep, or calves. There are shelters on one end, and on the other end, there is a gate.

Cattle: A farm animal. Our cattle are for beef production.

Cattle Bunk: A long, narrow, shallow wood box where cattle eat grain or hay.

Cattle Feeder: A wooden box. The top of the wooden box has a floor to set one or two large rectangle bales of hay on. The hay is fed to the cattle in the wooden box.

Chicken: A farm animal. Chickens give us eggs for breakfast or to sell in the neighborhood.

Chopping grass: An harvest operation that cuts off plants. This chopper is just like a lawnmower, but it is bigger and it is hitched to a tractor.

Cleaning Oats: An operation where we remove any dirt or weed seeds from the oat grain.

Cooperative (Farmers Co-op): A store or business where the farmers own a share of it. Organic Valley/CROPP Cooperative is an example.

Combine: A device that harvests grain.

Compost Pile: A large collection of animal manure. This produces its own heat as it biologically degrades into fertilizer for the soil.

Conveyor: A device that moves small bales of hay or straw.

Corn: A grain crop we grow for animal feed.

Corn Cob: The body of what corn kernels grow on.

Corn Crib: A grain storage for corn harvested on the ear.

Corn Ear: The cob with corn kernels on it. There is husks wrapped around the ear to protect it.

Corn Elevator: A device that transport corn ears from a wagon to storage in a corncrib.

Corn Husks: The outer skin of corn ears.

Cover Crop: a small grain (oats, barley, or wheat) planted in a field or area. When the crop grows, the weeds will not be so thick. Usually, the cover crop is cultivated later in the future.

Crop Rotation: A farming technique that utilizes growing crops in sequences.

Cultivator: A farm implement for removing weeds from growing row crops.

Dad: My father, Tom! I enjoy talking to him about my favorite subjects like history and farming. This is his favorite subjects, too! Grandpa, Dad, and I have had common interests: fishing, farming, watching sunsets, and the season of fall.

Disc: A farm implement for working the soil.

Drag: A farm implement for light soil preparation.

Drainage Pipe: Flexible plastic pipes placed underground to reduce the excess moisture in the soil. The water is emptied into nearby streams.

Eggshells: We get eggshells from an nearby egg-breaking plant. We recieve them by a dump truck and handle them with our loader. We spread eggshells in our fields to supply nutrients for the soil.

Ear Corn Picker: A harvester that picks the corn ears and places it in a wagon. Most of the corn husks are removed by the machine.

Electric Hover: A heat lamp in a corner of a sow hut. You plug it in to an outlet above the hut on the ceiling and it stays plugged in for the first 2 weeks of the new pig's life. It keeps the pigs warm. This is used for indoor farrowing during the cold season.

Farrow: A sow giving birth to a litter of pigs. The pigs stay with the sow until they are 6 to 8 weeks old. We pen farrow (inside farrowing) during the winter and pasture farrow (outside farrowing) during the warm season.

Feed: Livestock food.

Feed Mill: A farm implement used to prepare and mix livestock feed.

Fence: A boundary barrier. Fence is important for livestock so they won't get out.

Fields: Areas of farmland.

Field Cultivator: A farm implement for soil preparation.

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