A typical North American grain farm with farmstead in
Ontario,
Canada
A farm is an area of land devoted to the production and management of food, either produce or livestock. It is the basic unit in agricultural production.[1] Farms may
be owned and operated by a single individual, family, or community, or by a corporation or company. A farm can be a holding of
any size from a fraction of a hectare to several thousand hectares.
A business producing tree fruits or nuts is called an orchard; a vineyard produces 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.
Additional specialty farms include fish farms, which raise fish in captivity as a food source, and tree farms, which grow trees
for sale for transplant, lumbering, or decorative use.
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.
Farmland in the USA. Round farms are a water conservation effort. Photo taken from the window of an airliner.
Concept of farming
-
Traditionally, the goal of farming was to create a profit, and to produce an amount of cultivated material (i.e. corn, wheat,
etc) so that the resulting harvest has more worth than the cost of planting such a harvest. The costs could include the
acquisition of seeds as well as the time and energy required to tend to such a venture. The resulting product is often used to
sustain those who farm as both a food to eat and a commodity to sell.
The term farming covers a wide spectrum of agricultural production work. At one end of this spectrum is the
subsistence farmer, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and
produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family. At the other end is commercial
intensive agriculture, including industrial
agriculture. Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers,
etc.), and a high level of mechanization. These operations generally attempt to
maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock.
Specialized farms
Dairy farms
-
A milking machine in action.
Dairy farming is a class of agricultural
enterprise, where female mammals animals cattle, goats, or other lactating animals are raised for long-term appropriation of
their milk, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy for processing and eventual retail sale.
In most Western countries, a centralized dairy facility
processes milk and products obtained from milk (dairy products), such as cream,
butter, eggs and cheese. In
the United States, these dairies are usually local companies, while in the
southern hemisphere facilities may be run by very large nationwide or trans-national
corporations (such as Fonterra).
Dairy farms sell the male calves borne by their mothers, usually for veal meat, rather than raising non-milk-producing stock. Many dairy farms also grow their own feed, typically including
corn, alfalfa, and hay. This is fed
directly to the cows, or stored as silage for use during the winter season. Additional dietary
supplements are added to the feed to increase quality milk production.
Poultry farms
Poultry farms are devoted to raising chickens, turkeys, ducks, and other fowl, generally for meat or eggs. [1] [2] [3]
Ownership
Farm control and ownership has traditionally been a key indicator of status and power, especially in agrarian societies.[citation needed] The distribution of farm
ownership has historically been closely linked to form of government. Medieval
feudalism was essentially a system that centralized control of farmland, control of farm labor
and political power, while the early American democracy, in which land ownership was a
prerequisite for voting rights, was built on relatively easy paths to individual farm ownership. However, the gradual
modernization and mechanization of farming, which
greatly increases both the efficiency and capital requirements of farming, has led to increasingly large farms owned by
individuals or corporations. This has usually been accompanied by the decoupling of political power from farm ownership.
Forms of ownership
In some societies (especially socialist and communist), collective farming is the
norm, with either government ownership of the land or common ownership by a local group. Especially in societies without
widespread industrialized farming, tenant farming and sharecropping are common; farmers either pay landowners for the right to use farmland or give up a portion
of the crops.
History
-
The practice of agriculture first began around 8000 BC in the Fertile Crescent of
Mesopotamia (part of present day Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Jordan which was then greener).
[2]
Farms around the world
British Isles and Europe
Many farms have fallen into disrepair, such as the ruins of
Higher Hempshaw's in
Anglezarke,
England
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
In 1910 there were 6,406,000 farms and 10,174,000 family workers; In 2000 there were only 2,172,000 farms and 2,062,300 family
workers. [3]
In the United States, eighty-one percent of all farmworkers are migrant workers, and
seventy-one percent are foreign-born. Eighty percent of farmworkers are men, with the average age being 31. Additionally,
farmworkers earn less than $75,000 per year, making an average hourly rate of less than $27.00. On average, farmworker families
earn $10,000 per year, which is significantly below the 2001 U.S. poverty level of $17,640 for a family of four. [4]
In 2007, corn acres are expected to increase by 15% because of the high demand for ethanol, both in and outside of the U.S.
Producers are expecting to plant 90.5 million acres (366,000 km²) of corn, making it the largest corn crop since 1944.[5]
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 (which vary
regionally).
Often very small farms used for intensive primary production are referred to by the specialization 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 (mixed) 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 .
Farm buildings
A pastoral farm scene with a classic red barn.
Farms require buildings to facilitate the action of farming the material at hand. Such
buildings can include a farm house (for the farmers), a grain silo (for storing grain), and a barn (for the storing of certain
animals.)
Farm equipment
-
See also
Vehicles and implements used for farming
Notes
References
- Farming styles and
extension in broadacre cropping. The Australian Society of Agronomy. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
- What is Sustainable Agriculture?.
University of California (December 1997). Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
- Adams, Jane H. (July 1988). "The Decoupling of Farm and Household: Differential Consequences
of Capitalist Development on Southern Illinois and Third World Family Farms". Comparative Studies in Society and History
30 (3): 453-482.
- Blackbourn, David (1998). The Long Nineteenth
Century: A History of Germany, 1780–1918. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Clark, Christopher (2006). Iron Kingdom: The Rise
and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press.
- Diver, Steve (August 2002). Introduction to Permaculture: Concepts and Resources. The ATTRA Project. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
- Gregor, Howard F. (July 1969). "Farm Structure in Regional Comparison: California and New
Jersey Vegetable Farms". Economic Geography 45 (3): 209-225.
- Grigg, David (July 1966). "The Geography of Farm Size a Preliminary Survey". Economic
Geography 42 (3): 205-235.
- Schmidt, Elizabeth (1992). Peasants, Traders, and
Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870–1939. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann.
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