A guide to speaking farm jargon
November 9th 2006 04:44
There is the tale of the little girl who happened to have relatives on a farm. So when the teacher of her city school started to discuss gender of animals – eg Cow/bull, Ram/ewe etc she piped up with “and then there’s the wethers”.
“Oh!” said the teacher innocently, “What’s a wether?”
“It’s the males what have had their bits cut off.” came the confident reply.
There are times when even the most hardened city dweller will come across that strange being called a farmer or get stuck in a Country town’s pub or find their business client owns a farming property. So here are ten essential guidelines to make sure you are following the drift of the conversation with a sheep, cattle or grain grower and that you won’t put your foot into it by asking “What’s a wether?”
1. What’s a wether? Animals are identified by group names. For example: Sheep are called “lambs” when they are with their mothers, but are “hoggets” when they are weaned. “Ewes” are the females of lamb breeding ages. “Wethers” are male sheep that have been castrated, so that they cannot father lambs. (Now you know!) Unless the farmer owns a stud and wants to keep rams for sale to other farmers, most male sheep become wethers.
2.What’s a “yellow/red/green etc tag? In Western Australia each lamb is given a stipulated coloured ear tag which signifies the year in which they were born. So for 2006 they have red tags and for 2005 they had yellow tags etc. This is standard throughout the State so when sheep are sold the buyer knows exactly what age the sheep are before purchasing them. As far as I know this is not the case in other States – correct me if I’m wrong.
3.Cattle also have different names: A calf is still being fed by its mother. Steers are males who are castrated – like wethers! Cows female and Bulls male. There are lots of different breeds of cattle and sheep. Each are grown for different features- eg good meat or wool, milking cows or excellent breeders and some are bred to live in different climatic conditions.
4. What is live weight? You may hear this expression on a market report. Both sheep and cattle can be sold either as a live entity, in which case the farmer gets so many dollars per head, or by “live weight”, which means that the farmer gets so many dollars per kilo once the animal is killed.
A lot of the conversation is related to measuring – and pricing.
5.Measuring Wool: The most important description for wool is “micron”. Micron measures how fine the wool strands are, and usually the finer it is the better the wool. The finest micron is used to make wool clothes because it is not prickly. Coarser micron wool is used to make carpets etc. Prices for wool vary depending on micron, length of wool, how clean it is and other factors, but mainly on what the buyer is prepared to pay!
6.Wool prices are given as cents per kilogram - e.g. 600 cents greasy or 450 cents clean (after washing). It is no use sounding excited if the farmer says he got 300 per kilo for his wool it's 300 cents and will hardly pay the bills! A farmer gets between 3-4 kilograms of wool off each sheep. It costs $5.00 to shear it –not to mention all the other costs of feed, medicines, pasture fertilizers and that often forgotten commodity farmer’s time and work value etc.
7.What price was your crop? All crops are bought at a number of dollars per tonne – for example wheat may be sold at $350/tonne. The quality of the grain, including how much protein and what other materials are in the sample of grain will vary the price. Also seasons in other parts of the country and in overseas areas will affect the market too.
Farmers measure the success of the crop at harvesting - measuring how many tonnes per hectare actually get in the bins – not before. You might need to ask what, in your farmer’s view, is a good crop, as this varies according to where they live and what they are growing.
8.To make the crop grow the farmer has to put on chemical sprays and fertilizers kilograms per hectares, sold by the tonne. These are mixed according to what the land requires and what is growing. Many farmers test their soils before cropping to ensure they put on the right mix of fertilizer. It is a toss-up as to whether fertilizers or chemicals are the biggest expenses in putting in a crop.
9.It is essential for any conversation with a farmer to be able to discuss the weather. Rain is measured in millimeters, but many farmers still talk in inches- so if you need to do the calculation it is 25 millimetres=1 inch.
10. If you want to buy some farm land you need to be able talk in hectares and acres: one hectare is 2.471 acres – just to help you out. Farmers will talk about arable acres – they are talking about how much of the farm they can crop if they wanted to – so that excludes bush areas, wetlands and salty country.
Have you talked to a farmer lately – Any tales to tell? Any thing else you need to know?
“Oh!” said the teacher innocently, “What’s a wether?”
“It’s the males what have had their bits cut off.” came the confident reply.
There are times when even the most hardened city dweller will come across that strange being called a farmer or get stuck in a Country town’s pub or find their business client owns a farming property. So here are ten essential guidelines to make sure you are following the drift of the conversation with a sheep, cattle or grain grower and that you won’t put your foot into it by asking “What’s a wether?”
1. What’s a wether? Animals are identified by group names. For example: Sheep are called “lambs” when they are with their mothers, but are “hoggets” when they are weaned. “Ewes” are the females of lamb breeding ages. “Wethers” are male sheep that have been castrated, so that they cannot father lambs. (Now you know!) Unless the farmer owns a stud and wants to keep rams for sale to other farmers, most male sheep become wethers.
2.What’s a “yellow/red/green etc tag? In Western Australia each lamb is given a stipulated coloured ear tag which signifies the year in which they were born. So for 2006 they have red tags and for 2005 they had yellow tags etc. This is standard throughout the State so when sheep are sold the buyer knows exactly what age the sheep are before purchasing them. As far as I know this is not the case in other States – correct me if I’m wrong.
3.Cattle also have different names: A calf is still being fed by its mother. Steers are males who are castrated – like wethers! Cows female and Bulls male. There are lots of different breeds of cattle and sheep. Each are grown for different features- eg good meat or wool, milking cows or excellent breeders and some are bred to live in different climatic conditions.
A lot of the conversation is related to measuring – and pricing.
5.Measuring Wool: The most important description for wool is “micron”. Micron measures how fine the wool strands are, and usually the finer it is the better the wool. The finest micron is used to make wool clothes because it is not prickly. Coarser micron wool is used to make carpets etc. Prices for wool vary depending on micron, length of wool, how clean it is and other factors, but mainly on what the buyer is prepared to pay!
6.Wool prices are given as cents per kilogram - e.g. 600 cents greasy or 450 cents clean (after washing). It is no use sounding excited if the farmer says he got 300 per kilo for his wool it's 300 cents and will hardly pay the bills! A farmer gets between 3-4 kilograms of wool off each sheep. It costs $5.00 to shear it –not to mention all the other costs of feed, medicines, pasture fertilizers and that often forgotten commodity farmer’s time and work value etc.
7.What price was your crop? All crops are bought at a number of dollars per tonne – for example wheat may be sold at $350/tonne. The quality of the grain, including how much protein and what other materials are in the sample of grain will vary the price. Also seasons in other parts of the country and in overseas areas will affect the market too.
Farmers measure the success of the crop at harvesting - measuring how many tonnes per hectare actually get in the bins – not before. You might need to ask what, in your farmer’s view, is a good crop, as this varies according to where they live and what they are growing.
8.To make the crop grow the farmer has to put on chemical sprays and fertilizers kilograms per hectares, sold by the tonne. These are mixed according to what the land requires and what is growing. Many farmers test their soils before cropping to ensure they put on the right mix of fertilizer. It is a toss-up as to whether fertilizers or chemicals are the biggest expenses in putting in a crop.
9.It is essential for any conversation with a farmer to be able to discuss the weather. Rain is measured in millimeters, but many farmers still talk in inches- so if you need to do the calculation it is 25 millimetres=1 inch.
10. If you want to buy some farm land you need to be able talk in hectares and acres: one hectare is 2.471 acres – just to help you out. Farmers will talk about arable acres – they are talking about how much of the farm they can crop if they wanted to – so that excludes bush areas, wetlands and salty country.
Have you talked to a farmer lately – Any tales to tell? Any thing else you need to know?
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