A farm is a section of land devoted to the production and management of food, either produce or livestock. It is the basic unit in agricultural production. Farms 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. 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.
Concept of farming
Arguably, the goal of farming is to produce an amount of cultivated matter (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 or 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.
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Farms, East of Gorgan, Iran. |
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Specialized farms
Dairy farms
Dairy farming is a class of agricultural enterprise, raising female cattle, goats, or certain other lactating livestock for long-term production of 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, 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).
Most dairy farms sell the male calves borne by their cows, usually for veal production, 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 farming is the raising of chickens, turkeys, ducks, and the like, generally for meat or eggs.
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