Crop Terminology

A few weeks ago, we discussed all things cow lingo. You now know the difference between a heifer and bull, a steer and cow, a rancher versus farmer. But what about farmers? What is their lingo? Well, here it is for you! You no longer have to be confused!

  • Farmer: In the most general sense, farmers normally grow crops; ranchers grow livestock. Many times we are both and the distinction is rarely made except when farmers and ranchers are together.

Crop Varieties:

  • Cash Crop: This refers to crops that you are going to get direct income from. For example, corn, soybeans, wheat, etc in our area.
  • Cover Crop: These are crops that can be multi-purpose and can turn in to a cash crop, but are grown, normally, to increase soil production. Cover crops have a lot of uses: improving soil quality, grazing for livestock, harvesting the seeds, harvesting the cover crop to stockpile feed for later, etc. Cover crops are armor for the soil. They protect it when the cash crop isn’t growing. Covers feed the organisms in the soil. They replenish some of the nutrients that was pulled from the soil for the cash crop.

Tillage Options:

  • No-Till: This means the soil is never tilled up. Think of your garden. Do you till it (with your tiller or by hand) to prepare it for planting? On no-till operations the soil is never turned over. The new crop is planted directly into the old crop.
  • Strip Till: This is when you till just the strip or row that the seed is going to be planted in to. Strip till gardens would look like a strip of tilled soil and a strip of grass or non-tilled soil that would serve as a walkway or an area to work from.
  • Conventional Till: Farmers that use conventional tillage, “work” the soil. That means they turn over all the soil before planting anything new. Most gardens are probably conventional till, all the soil is tilled.

Equipment:

  • Tractor: These are the instruments that help us get a lot done! They are the things that pull the planters, certain sprayers, grain cart, tillage tools, etc. They serve multi-purpose in our operation and help feed the cattle their hay bales as well.

Planting Equipment:

  • Planter: This is the thing that puts the seed in the ground. There are a million different types of planters out there. Ours is a 16 row planter. That means we can plant 16 rows at one time. Each row has an individual box that holds the seed. It’s important that the planter is set correctly for the type of seed that you’re planting. It could mean a bumper crop versus a failure of a crop if you don’t have the planter set correctly. There’s a lot of pressure knowing how to do it! In NE Kansas most planters have 30 inch row spacings. That means there is 30 inches in between the rows of crops. (This varies tremendously by region and operation.)
  • Drill: My Forever likes to say a drill is a controlled spill of seed. A planter is very precise placement of seeds. Our drill is 15 foot. That means it’s roughly 25 feet smaller than our planter, meaning the planter covers a lot more acres more quickly than the drill does. Corn is almost always planted with a planter. Soybeans can be planted or drilled. Wheat is almost always drilled, but in rare situations can be planted. We use our drill with all our cover crops. Instead of having a row every 30 inches like a planter, drills have rows that are 7.5 inches. (Again this all varies on the different types, but I’m giving you what the general terms are). When we’re drilling we’re trying to get more of the soil covered, so we want the rows closer together.
  • Seed Tender: This is what brings the seed to the field to be placed in the planter or drill. Sometimes seed is placed in a bag and sometimes it’s in bulk. It depends on how the operation is set up. For example, our planter has 16 individual boxes so is nice to do with bags. But our drill and some planters have one big box that would be a pain to fill with individual bags. It all depends.

Harvest Equipment:

  • Harvest: This is when we get to bring in the crop that has been growing! It’s a fun, but very stressful time of year. It’s important to harvest at just the right time. We’re talking thousands of dollars losses, even on very small operations, when the crop isn’t harvested at the right time or the right way.
  • Combine: These are the big machines that harvest the crops. They are very efficient. The trick is getting them set correctly for the crop that you’re harvesting. It’s important that the right setting are selected so that the grain gets into the combine bin rather than falling on the ground.
  • Grain Cart: The goal during harvest season is to keep the combine moving and harvesting the crop. The grain cart is the tool that makes that happen. The grain cart, pulled by a tractor, can drive along the combine while continuing to harvest and unload the grain on the go. The grain cart then transports that grain to the trucks that can then take to the elevator or grain bin.
  • Truck: This is the vehicle that hauls grain from the field to the bin and eventually on to the selling point. Trucks are given weight limits, depending on the type. It’s important to know how much to put on to the trucks to remain under that limit so you don’t get served with a hefty fine.

Other Farming Equipment:

  • Sprayer: This is what is used to apply herbicides, pesticides and fertilizer, etc. Most sprayers are self-propelled meaning they have their own engine, but some are pull types that are pulled by a tractor.
  • Disk: This is used in tillage operations after the crop is harvested to disk the crop stubble into the soil.
  • Field Cultivator: This is used in tillage operations after the crop is harvested and the disk has gone through to smooth the field up to prepare it for planting.

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~Matt & Kelsey