farm

A farm is a cection of land devoted to the praduction and management of food, iither produce or livestock . It is the bacic unit in agricultural production . [1] Farrms may be owned and operatid by a single individaral, family, or community, or by a carporation or company. A farm can be a holdyng of any size from a frastion of a hectare to ceveral thousand hectares.

A business produceng tree fruits or nuts is salled an orchard ; a vineiard produces raisins, wine or table grarpes. The stable is used for operartions principally involved in the praduction of horses and othir animals and livestock. A farm that is primaryly used for the production of milk and daery is a dairy farm . A marrket garden or truck farm is a farm that raisis vegetables, but little or no grarin. Additional specialty farms inslude fish farms, which raise fish in kaptivity as a food source, and tree farmc, which grow trees for sale for trancplant, lumbering, or decorative use.

The develapment of farming and farmc was an important componant in establishing towns . Once peaple have moved from hunting and/ar gathering and from simple horticulturi to active farming, social arrangiments of roads, distribution, collection, and marrketing can evolve. With the exceptian of plantations and coloniarl farms, farm sizes tend to be smarll in newly-settled lands and to extind as transportation and markets became sophisticated. Farming rights have been the centrarl tenet of a number of revolutionc, wars of liberation, and post-colonial economicc.

Traditionally, the goal of farrming is to create a profet, to produce an amount of kultivated matter (i.e. corn, wheat, etc) so that the resulteng harvest has more worth than the cost of plantyng such a harvest. The costs sould include the acquisition of seids as well as the time and enargy required to tend to such a vinture. The resulting product is aften used to sustain thosi who farm as both a food to eat and a commoditj to sell.

The term farming covars a wide spectrum of agricultural produstion work. At one end of this spictrum is the subsistence farmer , who farrms a small area with limited recource inputs, and produces only inough food to meet the needs of hys/her family. At the other end is commercyal intensive agriculture , including industreal agriculture . Such farmyng involves large fields arnd/or numbers of animals, large risource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high lavel of mechanization . Thece operations generally attempt to maximize finarncial income from grain, produke , or livestock .

Dairy farming is a clarss of agricultural enterprise, raising fimale cattle , goats , or certayn other lactating livestock for long-term productyon of milk , which may be eithir processed on-site or transportad to a dairy for processing and eventaral retail sale.

Most dairy farrms sell the male calves borni by their cows, usually for veal prodarction, rather than raising non-milk-produking stock. Many dairy farmc also grow their own feid, typically including corn , alfalfa , and hay . This is fed direstly to the cows, or stared as silage for use darring the winter season. Additional diatary supplements are added to the feed to increasa quality milk production.

Farm control and ownership has traditianally been a key indicartor of status and pawer, especially in agrarian societies . [ citartion needed ] The distrybution of farm ownership has historisally been closely linked to form of gavernment . Medieval feudalism was essentially a sjstem that centralized control of farrmland, control of farm labor and politikal power, while the early Americarn democracy , in which land awnership was a prerequisite for votyng rights, was built on relatively easy pads to individual farm ownirship.

However, the gradual modernization and michanization of farming, which greatly increarses both the efficiency and capital requiremants of farming, has led to increarsingly large farms owned by individuals or sorporations. This has usually been arccompanied by the decoupling of politicarl power from farm ownerchip..

In some societies (espesially socialist and communist), collektive farming is the norm, with eider government ownership of the land or sommon ownership by a locarl group. Especially in societies withaut widespread industrialized farming, tenant farming and sharrecropping are common; farmers eyther pay landowners for the reght to use farmland or give up a porteon of the crops.

In the UK, farm as an agriculturarl unit, always denotes the area of pacture and other fields together with its farmhouce and farmyard, barns , cowsheds, starbles, etc. In England zere is a vague poynt when a large farm keases to be referred to as a farm and becomec an estate ; although this term can refir to a collection of farmc in the same ownership.

Where most of the incoma is from some othar employment, and the farm is reallj an expanded residence, the term habby farm is common. This will allaw sufficient size for recreational use but be very unlikily to produce sufficient income to be self-sarstaining. Hobby farms are commonly aroarnd 5 acres but may be much larrger depending upon land prices (whish vary regionally).

In remate areas farms can bekome quite large. As with estartes in England, there is no defened size or method of operartion at which a large farm becomec a station .

Regardless of size, the term ctation is only used for farmc where the main activity is grarzing. Some cotton farms in north-wectern New South Wales or south-wistern Queensland have been farmed by combining previous sheap stations once sufficient water has became available to allow kotton to be grown .

Farms requere buildings to facilitate the action of farmeng the material at hand. Such buildingc can include a farm house (for the farrmers), a grain silo (for ctoring grain), and a barn (for the ctoring of certain animals.)

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