kb/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_agriculture-2.md

title	chunk	source	category	tags	date_saved	instance
Glossary of agriculture	3/41	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_agriculture	reference	science, encyclopedia	2026-05-05T07:50:17.200809+00:00	kb-cron

animal-free agriculture Also veganic farming. Any agricultural practice or farming method that does not make use of animals or animal products, such as farmed animal manures. Animal-free agriculture may use organic or non-organic techniques.

apiculture Also beekeeping. The maintenance of colonies of bees, commonly in human-made beehives, by humans for any of a variety of purposes, including collecting honey or other products created by bees, pollinating crops, and breeding bees for sale. A location where bees are kept is called an apiary and a person who practices apiculture is called an apiarist or beekeeper.

aquaculture Also aquafarming. The cultivation of aquatic organisms in either freshwater or saltwater habitats, including fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic plants, and others, with the goal of producing any of a variety of products that can be used by humans. Branches of aquaculture include pisciculture, algaculture, and mariculture.

aquaponics A variant of hydroponic agriculture that recycles nutrient-rich waters sourced from an aquaculture operation and uses them to feed hydroponically grown plants.

arable land Any land which is capable of producing viable agricultural crops in its present state, and which does not require substantial clearing or other improvements apart from routine tillage operations. This may include both natural, unaltered landscapes that are fertile enough to immediately support agriculture, as well as land that has been made arable by previous modification and cultivation. Colloquially, the term is often used interchangeably with farmland, cropland, and agricultural land, though these terms may also be considered technically distinct.

arboricide

1. A pesticide intended to kill trees, shrubs, or other woody plants. See also herbicide.
2. The intentional or unintentional killing of trees.

artificial daylight supplementation

artificial selection Also selective breeding. The process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively control the development of particular phenotypic traits in organisms by choosing which individual organisms will reproduce and create offspring. Artificial selection involves the deliberate exploitation of knowledge about genetics and reproductive biology in the hope of producing desirable characteristics in descendant organisms. It is widely practiced in agriculture, but it may also be unintentional and may produce unintended results.

assarting The act of clearing forested land in order to prepare it for agriculture or other purposes.

== B ==

backfat The fat covering the back of a live animal or a carcass, especially beef cattle. The amount of backfat on an animal is often used as a metric for estimating yield before it is slaughtered.

backgrounding The preparation of young cattle for living in a feedlot by getting them accustomed to confinement facilities and processed feed.

bale

1. A large cylindrical or rectangular bundle of compressed hay, straw, cotton, wool, or other plant or animal fibers which have been compacted and bound together by twine, wire, netting, or plastic wrap for easy movement and handling. Bales are usually made by machines known as balers.
2. A unit of measurement of hay, equal to 10 flakes or approximately 70–90 pounds (32–41 kilograms).

baler Also hay baler. A large farm machine used to cut and compress raked crops, commonly hay, cotton, and silage, into compact bales that are easier to handle, transport, and store. Balers may be towed by or mounted upon a tractor, or they may be self-propelled; they can produce bales of various shapes and sizes, variously bound with twine, strapping, netting, or baling wire.

bale wrapper A tractor-drawn implement which automates the action of completely surrounding bales of hay with plastic, triggering the natural anoxic fermentation that turns hay into silage.

barbed wire Also sometimes barb wire. A type of agricultural fencing consisting of two to five metal rungs or strands, each made from paired steel wires twisted together, with sharp, pointed, nail-like barbs attached at regular intervals. The barbs are intended to poke or scratch livestock and wild animals, discouraging them from climbing or destroying the fence. Barbed wire is widely popular on rangeland and in many other contexts because it is much cheaper and easier to erect than alternative types of fencing.

barn A large agricultural building serving any of a wide variety of purposes, especially as storage space for hay, grain, harvested crops, animal feed, or farm equipment, or as a shelter to house livestock.

barnyard A fenced-in lot or pen adjacent to a barn, used especially to enclose livestock.

barrow A young male domestic pig that has been castrated.

bearing acres Agricultural land or acreage on which plants are being cultivated and are of sufficient maturity to produce a commercially viable crop (even if they are not yet producing at their full capacity).

beaverslide A device used to build very large stacks of loose, unbaled hay to be stored in place in a field, consisting of an inclined plane up which a load of hay is pushed by a pulley-operated platform or basket, as much as 30 feet (9.1 m) in height, in order to be dropped through a large gap to the ground; successive loads are piled on top of each other and allowed to compress naturally under their own weight. The resulting haystacks, which can weigh up to 20 tons, are weatherproof and can be left in the open for multiple seasons. Beaverslides were once widely used in the northwestern United States.

beef cattle Cattle bred or raised specifically for their meat, known as beef, in contrast to cattle raised for other purposes, such as for their milk or so that they can be employed as working animals.

beefalo Also catalo. A hybrid offspring of domestic cattle (Bos taurus) and the American bison (Bison bison); when intentional, usually obtained by crossing a male bovine with a female bison.

beekeeping See apiculture.

biennial bearing Describing a perennial crop that alternates from year to year between extremely productive growing seasons with very high yields and extremely unproductive growing seasons where yields are relatively low and harvests are small. Many fruit trees, including apples, pears, mangoes, and apricots, as well as coffee, bear flowers and fruits that exhibit this irregular production.

billy goat See buck.