Glossary of Terms

[Grassman]

Work in progress

Aerobic - Processes with oxygen
Additives - Material other than the basic raw ingredient used to enhance a final product
Aftermath - Subsequent growth after the cutting or harvest of a crop
Anaerobic - Without oxygen
Amenity An attractive area used for leisure purposes by residents or visitors
Annual - Plants that complete their entire life cycle within the space of a year
Back fence - A barrier restricting the movement of animals to only the new area when strip grazing
Bag silage - Silage fermented, stored and movable (therefore saleable) in a wrapped package. Typically produced from drier, longer (ie not chopped) and slightly more mature grass than clamp silage
Biannual - Plants that have two seasons of growth with a dormant period between
Break crops - Crops grown between harvesting and sowing of a continuous main crop
Broadcast - To scatter over the ground by machine or by hand
Cambridge roller - Picture to follow
Cash crop - A saleable product or a product with monetary value
Carbohydrate - Sugar compounds produced by photosynthesis
Catch crop - A crop grown in the interval between harvesting one and sowing the next
Compaction - Where soil particles are pressed together creating dense, hardened earth
Conservation crop - A crop to be processed for the purpose of storage ie Hay or Silage.
Consolidate - To make firm
Continuous stocking - See set stocking
Creep grazing - Allowing offspring to graze ahead of their mothers by keeping the forward wire just high enough for the offspring to go under
Crude fibre - The indigestable parts of a plant ie the structural component of the plant cell wall
Crude protein - The total protein content of a feed including available and none available.
D-value - The % measure of food that is retained in the body after being consumed by a foraging animal.
Defoliation - Total removal of both stem and leaf of a plant, either from grazing or mechanical cutting
Desiccation -To dry up, as in the depletion of water from a plant
Digestibilty - The difference in the weight of food eaten minus the weight of stool produced
Drill - A mechanical device for sowing seed in furrowed lines ie seed drill
Dry matter - A % measurement of the portion of feed that is not water
Effluent - The liquid discharge or waste products of the silage making process.
Ensile - The process of preservation in a pit or airtight chamber
Enzyme - A protein that acts as a catalyst, affecting the rate at which chemical reactions occur in cells
Fallow - To leave unploughed and unseeded during the growing season
Fermentation - The action by which bacteria convert soluble carbohydrates into lactic acid
Fertility - The ability of the soil to support plant growth (no measurable scale)
Fixation - The conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into organic nitrogen compounds which are then available to plants
Flat roller - Picture to follow
Fodder - Any foodstuff that is used specifically to feed domesticated livestock
Forage - Grasses and other plant material used as feed for livestock
Germination -The point at which a shoot emerges from a seed
Glyphosate - (Roundup)  A non-selective herbicide used to kill weeds, especially perennials
Haylage - Mature grass that is cut like hay but not dryed (or chopped like silage). It is only wilted then packed in airtight bags or wrap for storage
Heading - When a grass plant becomes mature and starts to produce a seed head
Heading date - Indicates the maturity of a grass variety (when 50% of the plants sown are heading)
Headland - The area of a field adjacent to a fence or hedgeline where machinery turns
Herbaceous - A plant that remains soft or succulent and does not develop woody tissue
Herbage - Succulent herbaceous vegetation of grassland
K - (Ref NPK) Potassium
Leaching - The process of soluble soil nutrient being lost or removed via water movement
Legume - A plant such as clover that hosts nitrogen fixing bacteria in nodules on its roots and thereby increases soil nitrogen content
Ley - Grassland within a crop rotation
Live weight gain - Measurable increase in bodymass
Lowland - Low lying land or an extensive region of low land
Meadow - Traditional grass field cut for hay in the summer
Metabolisable Energy - Energy available to the animal body
Mixed grazing - Sheep grazing in the same area as cattle
N - (Ref NPK) Nitrogen
P - (Ref NPK) Phosphate
Paddock - A small fenced off field for keeping horses
Pasture - Grassland managed for livestock
Perennial - A plant that continues to live and grow from year to year
PH - Percentage of Hydrogen. Neutral is 7.0, a pH below 7.0 is acidic, above 7.0 is alkaline
PH scale - the scale measure of acidity or alkalinity.
Poaching - The churning up of grass and soil on wet ground by the repeated treading of grazing stock often at gateways, feeding troughs or regular pathways
Potash - Used primarily as an agricultural fertilizer (plant nutrient) because it is a source of soluble potassium
Protein - Amino acids present in all living matter that are an essential food item necessary for the growth, maintenance and repair of body tissues
Ring roller - Photo to follow
Rotation - Alternation of crop species grown on the same plot of land
Ruminant - Animals with a complicated stomach of 4 parts, rumen, reticulum, omasum, abomasums, eg cow, sheep, deer
Set stocking - The simplest form of grazing management where stock has access to just one area of grassland for the whole grazing season
Silage - Fodder harvested while green and kept succulent by partial fermentation
Silage clamp - Simply the structure of the stored silage area
Silo - A pit or airtight chamber
Sod - A section of soil that is held together by grass and grass roots.
Soluble carbohydrate - Dissolvable sugars
Stolon - A horizontal branch from the base of plant that produces a new plant from buds at its tip
Strip grazing - The grazing of animals in forward stages restricted by a frequently moved electric fence
Sugars - Carbohydrates which can be used by the body to create usable energy
Supplements - Additional feed used to improve the nutritive balance or performance of the general diet
Sward - Density of grass in a pasture
Swath - The heaped ridge or line of grass following mowing
Tedding - The spreading out or turning of grass for drying or wilting
Tiller - Additional or new growing shoots from the base of the plant
Tilth - A layer of fine soil prepared for seeding
Thatching - The build up or layer of dead and decaying organic material on the soil surface
Topping - The removal of growth without cutting the plant too short
Transpiration - The evaporation of water from plants
Turf - Grass and grass roots occupying the soil
Wilting - Method of reducing water content through transpiration of a cut crop (without completely drying it out)
Undersow - Seeding into an already establishing or established crop
Upland - High land or land lying above the flood plain
Winter kill - The death of plant tissue due to frost damage or freezing winds
Zero grazing -  A managent system by where all forage is cut and transported to livestock housed inside or away from the harvested area