agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

, a field is an area of land, enclosed or otherwise, used for agricultural purposes such as cultivating

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydropon ...

s or as a

paddock A paddock is a small enclosure for horses. In the United Kingdom, this term also applies to a field for a general automobile racing competition, particularly Formula 1. Description In Canada and the United States of America, a paddock is a small ...

or other enclosure for

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

. A field may also be an area left to lie

fallow Fallow is a farming technique in which arable land is left without sowing for one or more vegetative cycles. The goal of fallowing is to allow the land to recover and store organic matter while retaining moisture and disrupting pest life cycl ...

or as

arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for th ...

. Many farms have a field border, usually composed of a strip of shrubs and vegetation, used to provide food and cover necessary for the survival of wildlife. It has been found that these borders may lead to an increased variety of animals and plants in the area, but also in some cases a decreased yield of crops.

Paddock

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

and New Zealand English, any agricultural field may be called a ''paddock'', especially if for keeping sheep or cattle. If stock are grazed there, the space may be called a ''run'', e.g. ''sheep run''; ''cattle run''. The term paddock is used more specifically in animal husbandry for a system in which grazing land is divided into small areas, paddocks, and the stock graze each paddock in turn for a short period. Paddock grazing systems may be designed with, for example, 6 or 11 paddocks used in rotation. A paddock is normally fenced, usually by wire, and often defined by its natural boundaries, or is otherwise considered distinct. A ''back paddock'' is a smaller field that is situated away from the farm house; possibly land of lesser quality. The equivalent concept in North America and the UK is a

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

. In Australia the word seems to have had its current meaning since at least 1807 and in New Zealand since at least 1842. However, the English meaning of "field" was used earlier in Australia and is still occasionally used. Similarly,

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or arti ...

was in early use and has appeared later, for example, in 2004. Field remains in regular use in Australasia in expressions such as football field, Field Day and field trip. In a new style of

intensive farming Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming (as opposed to extensive farming), conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of ...

developed in North America, a paddock is a small (perhaps 1 acre) temporary subdivision of a pasture made with electric fencing, which is intensely grazed for a day and then left to rest for perhaps 80 days or more.

Image gallery

File:Cows in green field - nullamunjie olive grove.jpg, A green field or paddock with Hereford cattle File:Field Hamois Belgium Luc Viatour.jpg, A summer field File:Spring fields Mallorca.jpg, Spring fields with trees, Majorca, Spain, 2004 File:2016 Pornainen 27.jpg, A combine harvester on the field, Pornainen, Finland, 2016 File:Moforlogiaagrária.jpg, Sown fields in an open field system of farming File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 041.jpg, ''Wheat Field Under Clouded Sky'' by Vincent van Gogh, July 1890 File:Paddy field of near Gingee Fort.jpg, Paddy field

References

{{Authority control Agricultural land

Paddock

Image gallery

See also

References