| N |
Chemical symbol for nitrogen |
| Napier Grass |
Pennistum purpureum
Elephant Grass, Uganda Grass See http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/elephant_grass.htm |
| National Income |
Is derived from the Gross National Product by
deducting depreciation and indirect taxation, and adding subsidies
(subsidies in fact, are transfer payments, or grants of money from the
state to certain industries). |
| Native
Species |
A species which is a part of the
original fauna or flora of the area in question. Syn. indigenous.
cf. introduced,
resident
and naturalised
species. |
| Naturalised
Species |
A species
not native to an area but which adapted to that area and has
established a stable or expanding population. Does not require
artificial inputs for survival and reproduction. Examples: barley
grass, starling, etc. |
| Natural capital |
An extension of the economic notion of capital
(manufactured means of production) to environmental goods and services.
It is the stock of natural ecosystems that yields a flow of valuable
ecosystem goods or services into the future. For example, a stock of
trees or fish provides a flow of new trees or fish, a flow which can be
sustainable indefinitely. See Ecosystem
services. |
| Natural
selection |
Selection
which has not been influenced by man. |
| Natural sequence farming |
A farming system devised in Australia by Peter Andrews
based on restoring natural hydrological features in the landscape that
existed before European settlement. |
| Near
Side |
Left-hand side of an animal. The
side from which a horse is mounted. Compare with off
side. |
| Neck
wool |
Matted
collar of wool from around the neck of a sheep. |
| Necrosis,
Necrotric |
Death
of parts of an organism (usually used in relation to plants). Those
parts that are dead
are said to "necrotic". |
| Necrotrophic |
Utilising dead plant or animal tissues as a source of
nutrients. |
| Necrotrophs |
Consumers (mainly fungi) of dead plants and
animal remains. |
| Negative Gearing |
An investment is negatively geared when the interest on
borrowed funds exceed the returns from the investment. |
| Negotiable Quota
Scheme |
Abolished under Dairy deregulation. |
| Nematicide |
A
chemical used to control nematodes
(eelworms). Spelt
“nematocide" in USA. |
| Nematodes |
Unsegmented roundworms, abundant in
many soils, which may infect and damage the roots of plants. |
| Neo-Natal
Mortality |
Deaths among the new born. |
| Nep |
Knot of entangled fibres as a
result of carding |
| Net Cash Flow |
The difference between receipts and payments in any particular
period (month, quarter, year). |
| Net Change |
The change after all considerations
have been made. |
| Net
Farm Income |
The difference between total revenue and total expenses, including gain or
loss on the sale of all capital
assets; also the return to owner equity,
unpaid labour and management. |
| Net Farm Income
From Operations |
See Net
Farm Income |
| Net
Operating Loss (NOL) |
A negative net farm profit for
income tax purposes, which can be used to offset past and/or future
taxable income. |
| Net
Present Value (NPV) |
The present
value of the
net cash flows that will result from an investment, minus the amount of
the original investment. See Interest
rate formulae |
| Net
Primary Production |
The net increase in plant biomass
within a specified area and time interval, i.e. primary production
minus that used in metabolic processes. |
| Net
Profit |
The final profit for the
proprietors as a return to their time and management. Obtained by
adjusting the net cash income for total depreciation,
net inventory changes and the value of products consumed at home. Net
profit is the profit from the year's operation and represents the
return to the owner for personal and family labour, management and
equity used in the farm business. |
| Net Return |
The rate of return of the net
profit per hundred dollars of total asset. |
| Net
Worth |
The difference between the value of
the assets owned by a business and the value of its liabilities. Also
called owner equity. |
| Neutron Moisture
Meters |
A device using the attenuation of
radiation to measure the water content of soil. |
| Niche |
The ecological role of a species in
a community. |
| Nicking |
A term
used to describe a successful cross between two parents. |
| Nitrification |
The conversion in the soil of
ammonium ions into
nitrate
ions by the action of certain bacteria (Nitrosomonas
and Nitrobacter). |
| Nitrogen Cycle |
The sequence of biochemical changes
undergone by nitrogen, wherein it is used by a living organism,
liberated upon the death and decomposition of the organism and
converted to its original state of oxidation. |
| Nitrogen
Fixation, Nitrogen-fixing
bacteria |
The transformation of free nitrogen
from the air into nitrogenous compounds by various bacteria in the
soil. Certain bacteria (Rhizobium spp) living in the root nodules of legumes are able to 'fix'
nitrogen, which is then available to the plant. |
| Nitrogenase |
An enzyme used by some organisms to fix atmospheric
nitrogen gas. |
| Nitrophilous
Weeds |
Annual species that are favoured by
soils rich in nitrogen. |
| Node |
The joint on a plant stem where the
leaf is attached. |
| Nodules |
Swellings
on the roots of legumes which are inhabited by nitrogen-fixing bacteria. |
| Noil |
The
short fibre left over from combing wool or spinning silk. Silk noil is
also (incorrectly) called "raw silk". As noil is a relatively short
fibre, fabric made from noil is weaker and considered less valuable. |
| Nomadic |
Pertaining to the habit of
wandering from place to place, usually within a well defined territory.
Syn. migrant. |
| Nominal |
(a) Being such in name only. (b) A
measurement at a point in time, the value of which relates to that
point of time only. |
| Nominal
Dollars |
Dollars that include an inflation
component. |
| Nominal
Interest |
The market rate of interest that
contains a component to allow for inflation |
| Nominal
Terms |
Dollars or interest rates which
include an allowance for expected inflation. |
| Non-aqueous
concentrate |
A
solution of an active ingredient in oil or non-aqueous solvents, used
as such or diluted with non-aqueous solvents to form a true solution. |
| Non-cash Expense |
An expense that does not involve
the expenditure of cash, such as depreciation. |
| Non-current
Asset |
An asset that will normally be
owned or used up over a period longer than a year. (Fixed Asset) |
| Non-current
Liability |
A liability that will normally be
paid over a period longer than a year. (Deferred Liability) |
| Non-Host
Rotations |
Rotations of crops or pasture
cultivars which are not hosts to particular plant diseases or to soil
borne parasites. |
| Non-leakage
device |
A
device for preventing water or cleaning solutions from the reverse flow
cleaning system entering the milking plant during the milking operation. |
| Non-Operating
Items |
Items of revenue and expense and
other gains and losses which are attributable to events and
transactions outside the normal operations of the business. (NB the
most common is interest received or paid) |
| Non-persistent
Pesticide (Soft Pesticides) |
A pesticide whose harmful effects
are of relatively short duration and, therefore, do not normally
contaminate the environment for long periods after application.
Phosphate-based pesticides such as Malathion® and
Parathion® are examples of non-persistent pesticides. |
| Non-Point Source
Pollution |
Pollution whose source is general
rather than specific in location. It is widely used in reference to
agricultural and related pollutants. cf Point Source
Pollution |
| Non-Protein
Nitrogen |
A term used in animal nutrition to
describe that fraction of dietary nitrogen which is not protein i.e.
free amino acids, nitrates, ammonium and nucleic acids. |
| Non - Real
Estate |
All assets other than land and
items attached to land, such as buildings and fences. |
| Non-Renewable
Resources |
Also called fund resources are
those which are consumed in use like the fossil fuels (coal, petroleum
and natural gas) and which for most purposes must be viewed as finite
cf. renewable
resources. |
| Non-selective |
A term
used for chemical substances which show practically no discrimination
and have a wide spectrum of action. |
| Non-Selective
Grazing |
Utilisation of forage by grazing animals in
such a way that all forage species and plants are grazed to a
comparable degree. It is generally achieved by using a high stocking
density for a short grazing period. |
| Non-volatile |
A
description particularly applied to hormone weedkillers, to denote that
the product does not give off volatile fumes.
This term is scientifically inaccurate, as all chemicals have some
measure of volatility, though often it is so low as to be negligible.
The correct term is
"low-volatile". |
| Normal Balance |
The usual balance of an account in
the double-entry system. Assets
and expenses normally
have debit balances, whereas liability,
revenue and equity accounts normally have
credit balances. |
| Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) |
A simple numerical indicator that can be used to
analyse remote sensing measurements, typically, but not necessarily,
from a space platform, and to assess whether the target being observed
contains live green vegetation. |
| Note
Payable |
A liability resulting from signing
a promissory note, which is a legal, written promise to repay a loan. |
| Note
Receivable |
An asset resulting from lending
money to a person and receiving a promissory note (see note payable). |
| No-till |
A form of conservation
tillage also called zero tillage
and previously termed chemical farming. The crop is planted (drilled)
in to the undisturbed soil using equipment designed to handle previous
crop or pasture residues. Chemical sprays are generally used
to kill weeds or other plants prior to planting. See
also Strip-till, Mulch-till, Ridge-till |
| No-Till
Fallow |
A fallow where plant growth is
achieved chemically and the soil remains uncultivated. |
| Novice |
Young
sheep dog that has only competed in a limited number of trials. |
| Noxious Species |
A plant species that is undesirable
because it conflicts, restricts, or otherwise causes problems under
management objectives. Not to he confused with species declared noxious
by laws concerned with plants that are weedy in cultivated crops and on
sown pastures. |
| Noxious Weeds |
Any grass or forb, usually designated as
harmful to livestock, farm crops or other useful plants. |
| NSM |
Not Station Mated. Usually
ewes that have not been joined, and therefore not in lamb. This
description is given to indemnify vendor from the possibility that a
stray ram may have got into the mob and mated with the ewes. |
| Nucleus |
A
specialised body within the protoplasm of a cell that contains the
chromosomes. |
| Nurse
cow |
Cow
used to rear calves by suckling. |
| Nurse
Crop |
A temporary crop seeded at or near
the time primary plant species are seeded to provide protection and
otherwise help to insure establishment of the latter, cf. companion crop, preparatory crop. |
| Nut |
A one
seeded fruit in which the fruit wall is hard or woody at maturity. |
| Nutraceuticals |
A term derived from the words
'nutrition' and
'pharmaceutical' which refers to foods claimed to have a medicinal
effect on human health. Such foods are also called functional foods. It
can also refer to individual chemicals present in common foods. |
| Nutrient |
Any food constituent or ingredient
that is required for or aids in the support of life. |
| Nutrient Toxicity |
Describes a situation where the
concentration of an element is too high e.g. aluminium toxicity. |
| Nutrition |
Ingestion, digestion or
assimilation of food by plants or animals. |
| Nutritive Value |
Relative capacity of a given forage
or other feed-stuff to furnish nutrition for animals. The term is
usually prefixed by high, low or moderate. |
| Nymphomaniac |
Female animal in continuous oestrus. In cattle
called a buller. |
