Farm
A farm is the basic unit in
agriculture. It is a section of land devoted to the production and management of food, either
produce or
livestock.
It may be an
enterprise owned and operated by a single individual, family, or community, or it may be owned by a corporation or company. A farm can be a holding of any size from a fraction of a hectare to several thousand hectares.
An enterprise producing tree fruits or nuts is called an
orchard; a
vineyard is an enterprise producing raisins, wine or table grapes. The
stable is used for operations principally involved in the production of horses and other animals and livestock.
Encyclopedia
A
farm is the basic unit in
agriculture. It is a section of land devoted to the production and management of food, either
produce or
livestock.
It may be an
enterprise owned and operated by a single individual, family, or community, or it may be owned by a corporation or company. A farm can be a holding of any size from a fraction of a hectare to several thousand hectares.
An enterprise producing tree fruits or nuts is called an
orchard; a
vineyard is an enterprise producing raisins, wine or table grapes. The
stable is used for operations principally involved in the production of horses and other animals and livestock.
A farm that is primarily used for the production of milk and dairy is a
dairy farm.
A
market garden or
truck farm is a farm that raises vegetables, but little or no grain.
History of farming
The word
farm has its roots in the
Anglo-Saxon word
feorm, which relates to provisioning and food supply, and was originally indicative of a form of taxation, whereby goods or monetary equivalents were liable to the king. Over time, this taxation was translated into a form of rental tax.
The development of farming and farms was an important component in establishing
towns. Once people have moved from hunting and/or gathering and from simple horticulture to active farming, social arrangements of roads, distribution, collection, and marketing can evolve. With the exception of
plantations and colonial farms, farm sizes tend to be small in newly-settled lands and to extend as transportation and markets become sophisticated. Farming rights have been the central tenet of a number of revolutions, wars of liberation, and post-colonial economics.
British Isles and Europe
In the UK,
farm as an agricultural unit, always denotes the area of pasture and other fields together with its farmhouse and farmyard, barns, cowsheds, stables, etc.
In
England there is a vague point when a large farm ceases to be referred to as a farm and becomes an estate; although this term can refer to a collection of farms in the same ownership.
North America
The land and buildings of a farm are called the
farmstead.
Enterprises where livestock are raised on
rangeland are called
ranches. Where
livestock are raised in confinement on feed produced elsewhere, the term
feedlot is usually used.
Australia
Farming is a significant economic sector in Australia. A farm is an area of land used for primary production which will include buildings.
Where most of the income is from some other employment, and the farm is really an expanded residence, the term
hobby farm is common. This will allow sufficient size for recreational use but be very unlikely to produce sufficient income to be self-sustaining. Hobby farms are commonly around 5 acres but may be much larger depending upon land prices .
Often very small farms used for intensive primary production are referred to by the specialisation they are being used for, such as a dairy rather than a dairy farm, a piggery, a market garden, etc. This also applies to feedlots, which are specifically developed to a single purpose and are often not able to be used for more general purpose farming practices.
In remote areas farms can become quite large. As with
estates in England, there is no defined size or method of operation at which a large farm becomes a station.
Regardless of size, the term
station is only used for farms where the main activity is grazing. Some cotton farms in north-western
New South Wales or south-western
Queensland have been formed by combining previous sheep stations once sufficient water has become available to allow cotton to be grown.
See also
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Vehicles and implements used for farming
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