Words you may hear at Oxon Hill Farm.
A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Agriculture - the utilization of biological process on farms to produce food and other products useful and necessary to man. Both a "way of life" and a "means of life" for people involved in this industry.
Aquatic - pertains to living in or near water.
Barn - big buildings that protect animals from winter weather.
Barrow - male pig that has been castrated or neutered when young. This is so that the meat from male pigs can be eaten. (Meat from boar pigs has a strong odor and taste that is not in meat from barrow pigs.)
Beef cattle - breeds of cattle suitable for meat production, usually rectangular in body shape, with broad back and loins and heavy rumps.
Bird - a warm blooded, egg laying, feathered vertebrate with forelimbs modified to form wings.
Boar - male or father pig.
Breed - a group of animals with similar external characteristics that are transmitted (passed on) from generation to generation.
Broiler - type of chicken raised for their meat.
Broiler house - building that broiler type chicken are raised in.
Brooding period - the time between when chicks are one day old until they can be on their own without any heat.
Buck - male adult (or billy).
Bull - male or father cattle.
Go to top Calf - young cattle; can be either male (boy) or female (girl).
Camouflage - concealment by appearing to be part of the natural surroundings.
Candling - shining a light behind eggs to check for cracks and other problems.
Carcass - animal after the hide, head, hooves, and internal organs are removed when being made ready for the supermarket.
Cheese - a solid food made from milk.
Chick - a very young chicken.
Clutch - the egg laying cycle. The hen lays one egg each day for several days in a row and then does not lay for one or two days.
Colt - name for a young male horse up to 5 years of age.
Comb - red crest on top of the head of most chickens. Roosters have large combs.
Confinement - keeping large numbers of chickens or other animals in small cages or pens inside buildings.
Cow - female or mother cattle who has borne a calf.
Crops - plants.
Cud - cattle eat grass and grain, and they chew their food two separate times to digest it. After they chew and shallow the food, they bring it up from one stomach and chew it again.
Cultivator - used to smooth the rough, plowed soil or used to dig up weeds and loosen soil while crops are growing.
Go to top Dairy cow - a cow that gives us the milk we drink.
Dairy farm - where cows are kept to produce milk.
Dairy producer - farmer who owns or runs a dairy farm.
Dairy cattle - produce milk and cream from which many products, such as butter, cheese, and ice cream are made.
Doe - female adult (rabbit, and goat)
Draft horse - work horses because they pull heavy loads.
Draft - large muscular animals with adult weighing 2000 to 2600 lbs used for farm tillage and field work.
Dry cow - a cow having calved, and now giving milk.
Go to top Environment - the total of circumstances surrounding an organism or a group of organisms, including the physical, social, and cultural conditions affecting the nature of the organism.
Erosion - a process by which soil and rock are broken down and transported.
Ewe - a female or mother sheep.
Go to top Farm cat - helps keep the barns free of mice and rats.
Farrow - when a sow gives birth to pigs.
Feeder pig - young pig that is ready to feed and get ready for the market. Feeder pigs weigh from 40 to 120 pounds.
Feedlot - type of farm where a large number of young cattle can be fed gain type feeds, such as corn, oats, or barley.
Filly - name for a young female horse up to 4 years of age.
Fleece - the shorn wool from a sheep.
Flock - a group of sheep.
Foal - name for a young horse either a male or female up to 1 year of age.
Food chain - the path along which food energy is transformed between two or more species.
Fresh cow - a cow having just borne a calf and now giving milk.
Fryer - another name for the broiler type chicken.
Go to top Gait - any forward movement of a horse, the rhythmic movement of the feet and legs, natural or acquired by training. The three natural gaits are walk, trot, canter and or gallop.
Gelding - a castrated or neutered male horse. This is done to make the horse safer to work or ride.
Gilt - female pig less than 1 year old that has never had a litter of pigs.
Gizzard - an organ located between the stomach and the intestines inside the chicken's body. The gizzard grinds the food of the chicken and serves as the "chicken's teeth."
Graze - the way cattle eat grass in the field.
Go to top Habitat - the place where an organism lives.
Hand - 4 inches; used in measuring horses.
Harvester - machines that have blades to cut plants.
Hatch - the birth of a baby chick, when the baby chick breaks through the egg shell.
Hatchery - a company that hatches baby chicks and sells them to farmers.
Heifer - young female cattle that never had a calf.
Hen - a grown female or mother chicken that lays eggs.
Herd - a number of cattle or other large animals eating and living together.
Hog - pig that weighs over 125 pounds; a full grown pig.
Homogenization - breaking up the fat in the milk into tiny globs. This is done so that the cream in the milk will not rise to the top when milk is put in the refrigerator.
Go to top Incubator - machine used to keep eggs warm so that baby chicks will hatch from them.
Insect - an invertebrate having an adult stage characterized by three pair of legs, a segmented body, usually one or two pairs of wings.
Go to top Kid - young goat.
Go to top Lactation period - the length of time a female gives milk following birth of an offspring.
Lamb - a male or female sheep less than one year old of age.
Lanolin - grease that is on the fleece of sheep. Lanolin is used in make up and lotions and also to "waterproof" shoes.
Layer - type of chicken raised for producing eggs.
Litter - a group of pigs born at the same time to the same sow; most litter have between six and ten pigs.
Livestock - animals.
Go to top Mammal - a warm blooded vertebrate with hair; in the female milk producing glands; and give birth to live young.
Mare - adult female or mother horse.
Market hog - a hog that is ready for the market. Market hogs weigh from 200 to 400 pounds.
Milk - a white liquid secreted by special glands of female mammals for suckling their young.
Milking parlor - a special room attached to the barn where the cows are milked.
Go to top National Park Service - a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior, created in 1916, that manages the natural, cultural, historical, and recreational areas of the federal government.
Niche - the unique way of life of an organism - where it lives and what it does in the community.
Go to top Organism - a living thing.
Go to top Packing plant - place where hogs are slaughtered, cleaned, and cut into pork chops, bacon, and roasts for the supermarket.
Pasteurization - heating the milk to around 180 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds to kill bacteria.
Pasture - a field of grass where cattle or other farm animals live and eat.
Photosynthesis - the process by which plants, using energy from the sun, combine carbon dioxide and water to form sugar, from which the plants obtain nutrition.
Pig - unmature hog.
Piglet - young new born pigs.
Planter - used to plant seeds.
Plow - used to help break the soil so that it is ready for planting.
Polled - cattle that are not able to grow horns.
Pollution - made dirty or impure due to the presence of waste or garbage in the air, water, or on land; the contamination of natural system.
Pork - meat from pigs.
Poultry grower - farmer that raises poultry.
Poultry - term for all the different birds that are raised on farms. Examples - turkeys, ducks, geese, and chickens.
Predator - an animal that kills and eats other animals.
Prey - an animal that is taken by a predator as food.
Production - the amount of milk a cow or group of cows is giving.
Pullet - a young female chicken who has never laid an egg.
Go to top Ram - a male or father sheep.
Recycle - to extract and reuse substances found in human and natural products.
Resources - the goods and services that ecosystems provide, especially for humans.
Rooster - male or father chicken.
Roughage - feeds that are made up of grass, hay, or silage.
Ruminant - animal that has a stomach with four different sections. This type of animal can eat hay, grass, and hard to digest feeds that other animals cannot. Some commonly known ruminants are cattle, sheep and goats.
Go to top Shearing - cutting off the fleece of the sheep. This is done once or twice a year.
Silage - grasses or cornstalks that are cut and stored wet and allowed to ferment (pickled).
Silo - building used to store silage.
Sow - female or mother pig.
Stallion - adult male or father horse.
Steer - male cattle that have been neutered or castrated when young. Young bull calves are castrated to make their meat taste better and be more tender when they are old enough for market.
Succession - the orderly replacement of one plant or animal by another.
Go to top Teat - the projecting organ through which milk is drawn from the udder of female mammals in suckling young.
Tractor - heavy duty vehicle, low geared, used to carry, push, and/or pull implements for tillage, planting, and harvesting crops.
Go to top Udder - a mammary gland, especially one that relatively large and pendulous, with two or more teats.
Go to top Veal calf - a calf used for meat when 4 to 8 weeks old.
Go to top Watershed - a region or area that has drainage ultimately into a particular watercourse or body of water.
Wattles - pieces of red flesh that hang under the chickens' beaks.
Wean - to take the young animal away from their mother so they are not able to get milk. This is done so the animal will learn to eat on its own.
Web of Life - the concept that all organisms are interrelated. If one part of the "web" is broken, the entire web is affected.
Wether - castrated male (sheep, goat, and burro).
Wool - the "hair" of sheep that is cut off and made into cloth for clothes. Wool is very wavy and is made up of many tiny scales.
Go to top Yearling - a name for a horse that is at least 1 year old, but not 2 years old.
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