| Wagyu |
A breed of cattle
genetically predisposed to intense marbling, and produces a high
percentage of oleaginous, unsaturated fat. In its most famous form,
Wagyu beef is known as Kobe Beef when it is raised in the Kobe
prefecture of Japan. |
| Waiting
period |
The
period which should elapse between the last application of an
agricultural chemical and the harvest of the treated crop for human
consumption. |
| Walk In Walk Out
Value |
The market value of total resources on the farm. |
| Warm-Season
Plant |
(a) A plant which makes most or all
its growth during the spring, summer or autumn and is usually dormant
in winter.
(b) A plant that usually exhibits the C-4
photosynthetic pathway. cf. C-4
plant. |
| Wash
(cow) |
Washing
the udder to stimulate let-down of milk prior to milking. ·
No-wash Milking cows
without washing. · Volume wash
Where udders are hosed down with large volumes of water to wash and
stimulate let down. |
| Washing
systems (for milking machines) |
Reverse
flow A
system whereby cleaning fluids are pumped through a milking machine
under positive pressure and regulated discharge in the reverse
direction to the normal milk flow.
Third line
Washing system where the water flows down another line and back through
the milk line. The
lines are joined by jetters.
Flush
Where buckets of correct volumes of cleaning water are carried to the
clusters. These
fluids follow the milk flow. |
| Wasty |
Poorly
grown wool. |
| Water Balance Equation |
W2-W1 = P – R – D – (Es +
T), where - W2-W1 = the change in soil water content from Time 1 to
Time 2, P = precipitation
(which may be rain, snow or dew), R = runoff,
D = drainage below potential root zone, Es = soil evaporation, loss of
water by evaporation from the soil, and T = transpiration: water
travelling through the plant and out through the leaves. |
| Water Budgeting |
Involves assessing gains and losses
in the soil water store as a result of rainfall, runoff, deep percolation and evapotranspiration. |
| Water Depletion |
Water rendered unavailable for further use in the
present hydrological cycle. In rainfed agriculture this occurs by transpiration,
evaporation, runoff and deep drainage. It may also occur
when water stored in a subsoil becomes unavailable to plants because of
the presence of toxic levels of certain minerals. |
| Water Holding
Capacity |
The amount of water that a layer of
soil can store is related to its texture. The maximum amount after
drainage is called field
capacity. The available water is the amount between field
capacity and the amount held at 15 atmosphere tension viz. wilting point. The
moisture-holding capacity of sandy
soils is usually low, while that of clay
soils is high. |
| Water Logging |
Retention of surface water on the
soil and the filling of spare space with water because of inadequate
drainage. |
| Water
Productivity |
Agricultural output per unit of water depleted. |
| Water Potential |
The thermodynamic state of the
water in a cell, organism, or soil, equal to the difference in free
energy per unit volume between matrically bound, pressurised or osmotically
constrained, water and that of pure water. |
| Water Repellence |
A property of soils which prevents
water penetration and infiltration often caused by microbial action.
Quite common in sands. |
| Water
soluble powder |
A
powder of an active ingredient alone or mixed with biologically inert diluents, which is readily
soluble in water. |
| Water Table |
The upper edge of free water in the
soil. If a hole is dug, water will fill the hole to the level of the
water table. |
| Water Use Efficiency (WUE) |
Technical: The quantity of product (e.g. grain)
produced per increment of water supplied (e.g. mm rainfall).
Economic The value of product produced per increment of water supplied.
See Also Transpiration
Efficiency, Rainfall
Use Efficiency, Farm
Water
Use Efficiency. |
| Watershed |
(a) A total area of land above a
given point on a waterway that contributes runoff water to the flow at
that point.
(b) A major subdivision of a drainage basin. |
| Watt |
Unit of
power, both electrical and mechanical. 746 watts = 1 h. p. |
| Wattle |
In
poultry the fleshy appendage at each side of the base of the beak, more
strongly developed in male birds. |
| Wean,
Weaning |
To cause an young animal to replace
mother's milk by other nourishment - usually by removal from mother.
In dairy calves this is when the calf
stops being given any liquid feed and can be from 6 weeks to 4 months
of age. In beef calves, it is removal of calves from their dams that
they have single-sucked for 5 to 10 months.
In deer, fawns or calves suckling their dams are weaned either at
21/2-4 months, before the next rut, or at 5-8 months in winter-early
spring.
In goats if kids suckle their dams, weaning occurs at about 4 months as
in sheep. In dairy
goats, kids are bottle or bucket fed and could be weaned off liquids at
any age. |
| Weaner |
A young animal that has been weaned from its mother. See
Wean |
| Weanling |
A young horse that has been weaned from its mother |
| Weathering |
A process whereby rocks and
rock-derivatives such as soil are transformed into their component
parts through the action of chemical, physical or biological. |
| Webby |
A term applied to thinly grown wool
with little or no staple
formation and an excessive number of cross fibres. |
| Weed |
(a) Any plant growing where
unwanted. (b) A plant having a negative value within a given management
system. |
| Weighted
Average |
A long - run expected outcome from
an event, found by multiplying each possible outcome by its respective
probability and summing the results. Also called "expected value." |
| Weasand |
Oesophagus.
The muscular tube
connecting the throat to the stomach down which food and drink passes. |
| Webby |
Mild
entanglement of fibres within a fleece.
Early stage of cotting. |
| Weedicide,
Weedkiller |
Any
chemical which will kill weeds. |
| Weight/Volume
(w/v) |
A
method of expressing the weight of a substance in a given volume of a
liquid mixture, e.g. 10 percent w/v = 100 g/litre. |
| Wet
blue |
Hide or
skin tanned with chromium salts, which also colour it blue/green, and
kept in the wet state. |
| Wet Ewe |
A ewe
that is rearing a lamb, or one producing milk. |
| Wet mare |
Mare
producing milk |
| Wether |
A male sheep that has been
castrated as a lamb. |
| Wheat
Grades |
Australian wheat is classified into six major market
grades including Australian Prime Hard (APH), Australian Hard (AH),
Australian Premium White (APW), Australian Standard White (ASW),
Australian Soft (AS) and Australian Premium Durum (APDR). However, each
year more than 50 different wheat products are exported. |
| Wheat-Sheep
Zone |
A region of Australia which
receives an average annual rainfall of 250-600 mm and has a growing
season of 5-9 months. |
| Whelp |
To
produce a litter of pups |
| Whey |
The
watery part of milk that separates from the curds
in the process of making cheese. |
| Whipping
side |
Last
side of a sheep to be shorn. |
| Whip-shy |
Dog
that is frightened by the crack of the stockman's whip. |
| Whitehead |
A bleached cereal ear containing little or no grain.
Usually a result of attack by stem base or root pathogens, particularly
Gaeumannomyces
graminis (take-all). |
| White-washing |
Shearing
young lambs, from which little wool is shorn. |
| Whole farm
approach |
The recommended method of
considering a farm - understanding and analysing it as a whole system
with human, technical, economic, environmental, financial, risk and
institutional elements. |
| Whole-Farm
Budget |
A projection of the total
production, income, and expenses of a farm business for a given whole -
farm plan. |
| Whole - Farm
Plan |
A summary of the intended kinds and
size of enterprises to be carried on by a farm business. |
| Whole Farm
Planning |
A process that assists landholders
to analyse the farm operation from the ecological, economic and social
perspectives, and integrates these in redesigning farm layout and
management in order to ensure more sustainable production. |
| Wideline farm implements |
Term used in Australia for very wide cultivators or
seeders (e.g. 20 metre wide). |
| Wigging |
Shearing the face-wool from sheep
to prevent wool-blindness. Normally
carried out at crutching.
The trade term for this
wool is eye clips.
Also known as topknots or wigs. |
| Wilt
Point |
Or Permanent Wilting Point. The
point at which a plant can't extract any more water from the soil and
can't recover even when water is added. |
| Windrow |
Pasture or crop that is raked into
a row before baling or threshing. The term also
applies to scrub that has been cleared and stacked in windrows for
burning. |
| Wisalts
Banks |
(Whittington Interceptor Salt
Affected Land Treatment Society) Is a farmer group formed to help
farmers control water by installing interceptor banks to stop salinity. |
| Wire |
There
are many kinds of wire: Plain Smooth. High
tensile
Very strong wire, usually 121/2 gauge (2.5 mm). No.8 wire
Smooth wire, 8 gauge (4mm). Barbed
Two smooth
wires into which barbs are spun at intervals. |
| Withers |
The ridge between the shoulder
bones of an animal (especially a horse) |
| Withholding
Period |
The period of time during which
produce cannot be harvested or consumed, or livestock slaughtered,
after being treated with chemicals. |
| Wood |
The xylem,
the woody portion of
the
vascular tissue |
| Woody Shrub
Invasion |
Occurs when "woody weeds" becomes a
serious threat to grazing land in semi-arid areas. |
| Wool-away |
Call
made when a fleece has not been cleared off the shearing board and is
in the shearer's way. |
| Wool base |
Oven-dry weight of wool free of all
impurities expressed as a percentage of the weight of the greasy sample. |
| Wool Blind |
A sheep that can't see because wool
has grown over its eyes. See Wigging. |
| Wool Classing |
An on-farm operation in which wool
is taken from the skirting table, put into various quality categories
by a 'classer', and each category is then baled
separately |
| Wool
grease |
Natural
impurities of wool (wax and suint)
secreted by glands attached to the woof follicle.
Also called yolk |
| Woolgrower |
Sheep
farmer. |
| Woolled-up |
When
the shearers are ahead of the wool table, so that wool is lying around
the floor waiting to go on the wool table.
Also described as snowed-in. |
| Woolly
hog |
Fleece
from a hogget unshorn
as
a lamb. |
| Woolmark |
Symbol
on a product indicating that it is made from 100% virgin or pure new
wool with a small allowance for some other decorative fibre. |
| Woolpack |
Jute or
polypropylene bag of regulated dimensions for packing woof in a
shearing shed or wool store. |
| Wool
pull |
Estimate
of weight of wool able to be removed from a skin in a fellmongery. |
| Wool
putter |
Person
or machine that removes the wool from a lamb/sheep skin after it has
been chemically loosened. |
| Woolscour |
Plant
where wool is scoured. |
| Woolshed |
See shearing shed |
| Woolstore |
Place
where wool is prepared and offered for sale. |
| Wool
table |
Slatted
table on which fleece wool is skirted
and classed. |
| Workers'
Compensation Insurance |
An insurance plan required by law
in most states, which protects employees from job - related accidents
or illnesses, and sets maximum compensation limits for such occurrences. |
| Working Asset |
A type of fixed asset which
supports the production process but is not used up in one accounting
period and is not directly or legally attached to the land. |
| Working
Capital |
The amount of capital that an entity has
to
meet its immediate needs. It may be measured in various ways, eg current assets, the
cash and credit balance components of current assets, or as the excess
of current assets over current
liabilities. |
| Worksheet |
A form drawn up in a standardised
way to assist in the preparation of accounting summaries. |
| Worldview |
A comprehensive, esp. personal, philosophy or
conception of the world and of human life. |
| Worrier |
A dog
that chases, attacks, or kills sheep. |
