Royd Moor Wind Farm in the United Kingdom

Bangui Wind Farm in the Philippines.

Lillgrund Wind Farm in Sweden

A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other purposes. A wind farm may also be located offshore.

Many of the largest operational onshore wind farms are located in the USA and China. The Gansu Wind Farm in China has over 5,000 MW installed with a goal of 20,000 MW by 2020. China has several other "wind power bases" of similar size. The Alta Wind Energy Center in California is the largest onshore wind farm outside of China, with a capacity of 1020 MW of power^[1]. As of February 2012, the Walney Wind Farm in United Kingdom is the largest offshore wind farm in the world at 367 MW, followed by Thanet Offshore Wind Project (300 MW), also in the UK.

There are many large wind farms under construction and these include Anholt Offshore Wind Farm (400 MW), BARD Offshore 1 (400 MW), Clyde Wind Farm (548 MW), Greater Gabbard wind farm (500 MW), Lincs Wind Farm (270 MW), London Array (1000 MW), Lower Snake River Wind Project (343 MW), Macarthur Wind Farm (420 MW), Shepherds Flat Wind Farm (845 MW), and Sheringham Shoal (317 MW).

Design[link]

A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other purposes. A wind farm may be located offshore to take advantage of strong winds blowing over the surface of an ocean or lake.

Map of available wind power over the United States. Color codes indicate wind power density class

As a general rule, economic wind generators require windspeed of 10 mph (16 km/h) or greater. An ideal location would have a near constant flow of non-turbulent wind throughout the year, with a minimum likelihood of sudden powerful bursts of wind. An important factor of turbine siting is also access to local demand or transmission capacity.

Usually sites are screened on the basis of a wind atlas, and validated with wind measurements. Meteorological wind data alone is usually not sufficient for accurate siting of a large wind power project. Collection of site specific data for wind speed and direction is crucial to determining site potential^[2][3] in order to finance the project.^[4] Local winds are often monitored for a year or more, and detailed wind maps constructed before wind generators are installed.

The wind blows faster at higher altitudes because of the reduced influence of drag. The increase in velocity with altitude is most dramatic near the surface and is affected by topography, surface roughness, and upwind obstacles such as trees or buildings. Typically, the increase of wind speeds with increasing height follows a wind profile power law, which predicts that wind speed rises proportionally to the seventh root of altitude. Doubling the altitude of a turbine, then, increases the expected wind speeds by 10% and the expected power by 34%.

Individual turbines are interconnected with a medium voltage (usually 34.5 kV) power collection system and communications network. At a substation, this medium-voltage electrical current is increased in voltage with a transformer for connection to the high voltage transmission system. Construction of a land-based wind farm requires installation of the collector system and substation, and possibly access roads to each turbine site.

Onshore installations[link]

Part of the Biglow Canyon Wind Farm, with a turbine under construction

The world's first wind farm – consisting of 20 wind turbines rated at 30 kilowatts each – was installed on the shoulder of Crotched Mountain in southern New Hampshire in December, 1980.^[5][6]

Falling costs mean that the average onshore wind farm will be competitive with natural gas-fired power generation by 2016.^[7]

Onshore turbine installations in hilly or mountainous regions tend to be on ridgelines generally three kilometers or more inland from the nearest shoreline. This is done to exploit the topographic acceleration as the wind accelerates over a ridge. The additional wind speeds gained in this way can increase energy produced because more wind goes through the turbines. The exact position of each turbines matters, because a difference of 30m could potentially double output. This careful placement is referred to as 'micro-siting'.

Offshore installations[link]

Offshore wind turbines near Copenhagen

Europe is the leader in offshore wind energy, with the first offshore wind farm being installed in Denmark in 1991. As of 2010, there are 39 offshore wind farms in waters off Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, with a combined operating capacity of 2,396 MW. More than 100 GW (or 100, 000 MW) of offshore projects are proposed or under development in Europe. The European Wind Energy Association has set a target of 40 GW installed by 2020 and 150 GW by 2030.^[14]

As of February 2012, the Walney Wind Farm in United Kingdom is the largest offshore wind farm in the world at 367 MW, followed by Thanet Offshore Wind Project (300 MW), also in the UK. The London Array (630 MW) is the largest project under construction.

World's largest offshore wind farms

Wind farm	Capacity (MW)	Country	Turbines and model	Commissioned	References
Walney	367	United Kingdom	102 × Siemens SWT-3.6	2012	[15][16]
Thanet	300	United Kingdom	100 × Vestas V90-3MW	2010	[17][18]
Horns Rev II	209	Denmark	91 × Siemens 2.3-93	2009	[19]
Rødsand II	207	Denmark	90 × Siemens 2.3-93	2010	[20]
Lynn and Inner Dowsing	194	United Kingdom	54 × Siemens 3.6-107	2008	[21][22][23][24]
Robin Rigg (Solway Firth)	180	United Kingdom	60 × Vestas V90-3MW	2010	[25][26]
Gunfleet Sands	172	United Kingdom	48 × Siemens 3.6-107	2010	[26][27]
Nysted (Rødsand I)	166	Denmark	72 × Siemens 2.3	2003	[21][28][29]
Ormonde	150	United Kingdom	30 × REpower 5.0	2011	[26][30]

Offshore wind turbines are less obtrusive than turbines on land, as their apparent size and noise is mitigated by distance. Because water has less surface roughness than land (especially deeper water), the average wind speed is usually considerably higher over open water. Capacity factors (utilisation rates) are considerably higher than for onshore locations.^[31]

The province of Ontario in Canada is pursuing several proposed locations in the Great Lakes, including the suspended^[32] Trillium Power Wind 1 approximately 20 km from shore and over 400 MW in size.^[33] Other Canadian projects include one on the Pacific west coast.^[34]

As of 2010, there are no offshore wind farms in the United States. However, projects are under development in wind-rich areas of the East Coast, Great Lakes, and Pacific coast.^[14]

Installation and service / maintenance of off-shore wind farms are a specific challenge for technology and economic operation of a wind farm. Service vessels have to be operated nearly 24/7 (availability higher than 80 % of time) to get sufficient amortisation from the wind turbines.^{[citation needed]} Therefore special fast service vehicles for installation (like Wind Turbine Shuttle) as well as for maintenance (including heave compensation and heave compensated working platforms to allow the service staff to enter the wind turbine also at difficult weather conditions) are required. So-called inertial and optical based Ship Stabilization and Motion Control systems (iSSMC) are used for that.

By region[link]

Australia[link]

Canada[link]

Image of Pubnico Wind Farm taken from Beach Point, Lower East Pubnico, Nova Scotia

Large wind farms in Canada^[38]

Name	Capacity (MW)	Location	Province
Anse-à-Valleau Wind Farm	100	49°03′36″N 64°33′18″W / 49.06°N 64.555°W / 49.06; -64.555 (Anse-à-Valleau Wind Farm)	Quebec
Caribou Wind Park	99	70 km west of Bathurst	New Brunswick
Bear Mountain Wind Park	120	Dawson Creek	British Columbia
Centennial Wind Power Facility	150	Swift Current	Saskatchewan
Enbridge Ontario Wind Farm	181	Kincardine	Ontario
Erie Shores Wind Farm	99	Port Burwell	Ontario
Jardin d'Eole Wind Farm	127	Saint-Ulric	Quebec
Kent Hills Wind Farm	96	Riverside-Albert	New Brunswick
Melancthon EcoPower Centre	199	Melancthon	Ontario
Port Alma Wind Farm	101	Chatham-Kent	Ontario
Chatham Wind Farm	101	Chatham-Kent	Ontario
Prince Township Wind Farm	189	Sault Ste. Marie	Ontario
St. Joseph Wind Farm	138	Montcalm	Manitoba
St. Leon Wind Farm	99	St. Leon	Manitoba
Wolfe Island Wind Project	197	Frontenac Islands	Ontario

China[link]

Wind farm in Xinjiang, China

In just five years, China leapfrogged the rest of the world in wind energy production, going from 2,599 MW of capacity in 2006 to 62,733 MW at the end of 2011. ^[39][40][41]. However, the rapid growth outpaced China's infrastructure and new construction slowed significantly in 2012.^[42]

At the end of 2009, wind power in China accounted for 25.1 gigawatts (GW) of electricity generating capacity,^[43] and China has identified wind power as a key growth component of the country's economy.^[44] With its large land mass and long coastline, China has exceptional wind resources.^[45] Researchers from Harvard and Tsinghua University have found that China could meet all of their electricity demands from wind power through 2030.^[46]

By the end of 2008, at least 15 Chinese companies were commercially producing wind turbines and several dozen more were producing components.^[47] Turbine sizes of 1.5 MW to 3 MW became common. Leading wind power companies in China were Goldwind, Dongfang Electric, and Sinovel^[48] along with most major foreign wind turbine manufacturers.^[49] China also increased production of small-scale wind turbines to about 80,000 turbines (80 MW) in 2008. Through all these developments, the Chinese wind industry appeared unaffected by the global financial crisis, according to industry observers.^[48]

According to the Global Wind Energy Council, the development of wind energy in China, in terms of scale and rhythm, is absolutely unparalleled in the world. The National People's Congress permanent committee passed a law that requires the Chinese energy companies to purchase all the electricity produced by the renewable energy sector.^[50]

European Union[link]

Parts of this article (those related to section) are outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (December 2010)

A wind farm in a mountainous area in Galicia, Spain

Wind farm in Lower Saxony, Germany

The European Union has a total installed wind capacity of 74,767MW. Germany has the second largest number of wind farms in the world after the United States. Its installed capacity was 25,777 MW at the End of 2009. The fourth country in capacity was Spain with 19,149 MW. Italy was in the sixth position, with 4,850 MW.^[51]

Whitelee Wind Farm near Glasgow, Scotland is Europe's largest windfarm with a total capacity of 322 MW. In 2012 Europe's largest windfarm will be Fântânele-Cogealac Wind Farm near Tulcea, Romania with 600 MW (300 MW already operational) ^[52] ).

In 2006, the British government gave planning consent for the world's largest offshore wind farm, the 'London Array'. It is currently being built 12 miles off of the Kent coast and will include 341 turbines when finished.

An important limiting factor of wind power is variable power generated by wind farms. In most locations the wind blows only part of the time, which means that there has to be back-up capacity of conventional generating capacity to cover periods that the wind is not blowing. To address this issue it has been proposed to create a "supergrid" to connect national grids together^[53] across western Europe, ranging from Denmark across the southern North Sea to England and the Celtic Sea to Ireland, and further south to France and Spain especially in Higueruela which was considered for some time the biggest wind farm in the world.^[54] The idea is that by the time a low pressure area has moved away from Denmark to the Baltic Sea the next low appears off the coast of Ireland. Therefore, while it is true that the wind is not blowing everywhere all of the time, it will always be blowing somewhere.

South Africa[link]

Turbines at the Darling Wind Farm, South Africa.

There are currently no large scale wind farms operational in South Africa, though a number are in the initial planning stages. Most of these are earmarked for locations along the Eastern Cape coastline.^[55][56][57] Eskom has constructed one small scale prototype windfarm at Klipheuwel in the Western Cape and another demonstrator site is near Darling with phase 1 completed. The first commercial wind farm, Coega Wind Farm in Port Elisabeth, was developed by the Belgian company Electrawinds.

United States[link]

Brazos Wind Farm in the plains of West Texas

U.S. wind power installed capacity now exceeds 46,919 MW and supplies 3% of the nation's electricity.^[65][66]

New installations place the U.S. on a trajectory to generate 20% of the nation’s electricity by 2030 from wind energy.^[67] Growth in 2008 channeled some $17 billion into the economy, positioning wind power as one of the leading sources of new power generation in the country, along with natural gas. Wind projects completed in 2008 accounted for about 42% of the entire new power-producing capacity added in the U.S. during the year.^[68]

At the end of 2008, about 85,000 people were employed in the U.S. wind industry,^[69] and GE Energy was the largest domestic wind turbine manufacturer.^[70] Wind projects boosted local tax bases and revitalized the economy of rural communities by providing a steady income stream to farmers with wind turbines on their land.^[70] Wind power in the U.S. provides enough electricity to power the equivalent of nearly 9 million homes, avoiding the emissions of 57 million tons of carbon each year and reducing expected carbon emissions from the electricity sector by 2.5%.^[68]

Texas, with 10,394 MW of capacity, has the most installed wind power capacity of any U.S. state, followed by Iowa with 3,917 MW.^[71] The Alta Wind Energy Center (1,020 MW) in California is the nation's largest wind farm in terms of capacity.^[72] Altamont Pass Wind Farm is the largest wind farm in the U.S. in terms of the number of individual turbines.^[73]

Impact[link]

Environmental and aesthetic impact[link]

Livestock ignore wind turbines,^[74] and continue to graze as they did before wind turbines were installed.

Compared to the environmental impact of traditional energy sources, the environmental impact of wind power is relatively minor. Wind power consumes no fuel, and emits no air pollution, unlike fossil fuel power sources. The energy consumed to manufacture and transport the materials used to build a wind power plant is equal to the new energy produced by the plant within a few months. While a wind farm may cover a large area of land, many land uses such as agriculture are compatible, with only small areas of turbine foundations and infrastructure made unavailable for use.^[75]

There are reports of bird and bat mortality at wind turbines as there are around other artificial structures. The scale of the ecological impact may^[76] or may not be significant, depending on specific circumstances. Prevention and mitigation of wildlife fatalities, and protection of peat bogs, affect the siting and operation of wind turbines.

There are anecdotal reports of negative effects from noise on people who live very close to wind turbines. Peer-reviewed research has generally not supported these statements.^[77]

Effect on power grid[link]

Utility-scale wind farms must have access to transmission lines to transport energy. The wind farm developer may be obligated to install extra equipment or control systems in the wind farm to meet the technical standards set by the operator of a transmission line. The company or person that develops the wind farm can then sell the power on the grid through the transmission lines and ultimately chooses whether to hold on to the rights or sell the farm or parts of it to big business like GE, for example.

Ground radar interference[link]

Wind farm interference (in yellow circle) on radar map

Wind farms can interfere with ground radar systems used for defense, weather and air traffic control. The large, rapidly moving blades of the turbines can return signals to the radar that can be mistaken as an aircraft or weather pattern.^[78] Actual aircraft and weather patterns around wind farms can be accurately detected, as there is no fundamental physical constraint preventing that. But aging radar infrastructure is significantly challenged with the task.^[79][80] The US military is using wind turbines on some bases, including Barstow near the radar test facility.^[81][82]

Effects[link]

The level of interference is a function of the signal processors used within the radar, the speed of the aircraft and the relative orientation of wind turbines/aircraft with respect to the radar. An aircraft flying above the wind farm's turning blades could become impossible to detect because the blade tips can be moving at nearly aircraft velocity. Studies are currently being performed to determine the level of this interference and will be used in future site planning.^[83] Issues include masking (shadowing), clutter (noise), and signal alteration.^[84] Radar issues have stalled as much as 10,000 MW of projects in USA.^[85]

Some very long range radars are not affected by wind farms.^[86]

Mitigation[link]

Permanent problem solving include Non-Initiation Window to hide the turbines while still tracking aircraft over the wind farm, and a similar method mitigates the false returns.^[87] England's Newcastle Airport is using a short-term mitigation; to "blank" the turbines on the radar map with a software patch.^[88] Wind turbine blades using stealth technology are being developed to mitigate radar reflection problems for aviation.^{[89][90][91][92]} As well as stealth windfarms, the future development of infill radar systems could filter out the turbine interference.

In early 2011, the U.S. government awarded a program to build a radar/wind turbine analysis tool. This tool will allow developers to predict the impact of a wind farm on a radar system before construction, thus allowing rearrangement of the turbines or even the entire wind farm to avoid negative impacts on the radar system.^[83][93]

A mobile radar system, the Lockheed Martin TPS-77, has shown in recent tests that it can distinguish between aircraft and wind turbines, and more than 170 TPS-77 radars are in use around the world. In Britain, the Lockheed Martin TPS-77 will be delivered and installed in November 2011 at Trimingham in Norfolk, removing military objections to a series of offshore wind farms in the North Sea. A second TPS-77 is to be installed in the Scottish Borders, overcoming objections to a 48-turbine wind farm at Fallago.^[94]

Agriculture[link]

The professor of atmospheric science Somnath Baidya Roy of the University of Illinois, in a study published in October 2010 in the scientific journal PNAS^[95] shows that in the immediate vicinity of wind farms, the climate is cooler during the day and slightly warmer during the night than the surrounding areas. According to Roy, the effect is due to the turbulence generated by the blades.

In another study conducted by Gene Takle and Julie Lundquist University of Colorado, presented at San Francisco conference of the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting (December 13–18, 2010), the analysis carried out on corn and soybean crops in the central areas of the United States has noted that the microclimate generated by wind turbines improves crops as it prevents the spring and autumn frosts, and it reduces the action of pathogenic fungi that grow on the leaves. Even at the height of summer heat, the lowering of 2.5-3 degrees above the crops due to turbulence caused by the blades, can make a difference for the cultivation of maize.^[96]

See also[link]

	Renewable energy portal
	Sustainable development portal

• Floating wind turbine
• Renewable energy commercialization
• Sea breeze
• Wave farm
• Wind energy software
• Wind turbines on public display

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Righter, Robert W. Windfall: Wind Energy in America Today (University of Oklahoma Press; 2011) 219 pages; looks at the land-use decisions involved in setting up a wind farm.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wind farm

• World Wind Energy Association
• Wind Power in the United States: Technology, Economic, and Policy Issues (53p), Congressional Research Service, June 2008
• Database of projects throughout the World
• Database of offshore wind projects in North America
• Wind Project Community Organizing
• World Wind Energy Association
• 4C Offshore's Global Wind Farm Interactive Map and Database
• The Largest Windparks — Index of planned and operational wind farms at RE-Database

v t e Wind power Wind power Environmental effects History Vehicles Offshore wind power Wind turbine Windmill Kitegen Wind power by country Asia Australia Austria Belgium Canada China Croatia Denmark Estonia European Union Finland France Germany Greece Hungary India Iran Ireland Italy Japan Malta Netherlands New Zealand Pakistan Portugal Romania Russia Scotland Serbia Spain Sweden Turkey UK US Wind turbines Aerodynamics Airborne Darrieus Design Floating Savonius Quietrevolution Small Unconventional Vertical axis Devices in use Wind power industry Consultants Manufacturers Software Wind farm management Wind farms Community-owned List of offshore wind farms List of onshore wind farms Concepts Betz' law Capacity factor EROEI Grid energy storage HVDC Intermittency Net energy gain Storage Subsidies Wind power forecasting Wind profile power law Wind resource assessment

Typical plan of a mediaeval English manor, showing the use of field strips

A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food (produce, grains, or livestock), fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production.^[1] Farms may be owned and operated by a single individual, family, community, corporation or a company. A farm can be a holding of any size from a hectare^[2] to several thousand hectares.^[3]

Etymology[link]

Farmer harvesting crops with mule-drawn wagon, 1920s, Iowa, USA

The word in the sense of an agricultural land-holding derives from the verb "to farm" a revenue source, whether taxes, customs, rents of a group of manors or simply to hold an individual manor by the feudal land tenure of "fee farm". The word is from the medieval Latin noun firma, also the source of the French word ferme, meaning a fixed agreement, contract, ^[4] from the classical Latin adjective firmus-a-um meaning strong, stout, firm.^[5][6] As in the medieval age virtually all manors were engaged in the business of agriculture, which was their principal revenue source, so to hold a manor by the tenure of "fee farm" became synonymous with the practice of agriculture itself.

Farming[link]

Overhead irrigation, center pivot design

The term farming covers a wide spectrum of agricultural production work. At one end of this spectrum is the subsistence farmer, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his family. At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture. Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization. These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock.

Traditionally, the goal of farming was to work collectively as a community to grow and harvest crops that could be grown in mass such as wheat, maize, squash, and other cash crops. Centuries later these same farmers took charge of livestock, and began growing food exclusively for the feeding of livestock as well as for the community. With the growth of civilization the farmer's focus changed from basic survival to that of financial gain. In smaller towns on the outset of civilization the farmer did retain the need to grow their own food, but the financially minded farmer was largely spreading. With the Renaissance came the plantation, a farm primarily worked by others primarily for the gain of the plantation's owner. Then came a new age of industry where the farm could be staffed by fewer people and big machines. This meant a complete revolution for farming.

Types of farms[link]

A typical North American grain farm with farmstead in Ontario, Canada

Farmlands in Hebei province, China

A business producing tree fruits or nuts is called an orchard; a vineyard produces grapes. The stable is used for operations principally involved in the training of horses. Stud and commercial farms breed and produce other animals and livestock. A farm that is primarily used for the production of milk and dairy is a dairy farm. A market garden or truck farm is a farm that grows vegetables, but little or no grain. Additional specialty farms include fish farms, which raise fish in captivity as a food source, and tree farms, which grow trees for sale for transplant, lumber, or decorative use. A plantation is usually a large farm or estate, on which cotton, tobacco, coffee or sugar cane, are cultivated, often by resident laborers.

Types of farming[link]

• Collective farming
• Factory farming
• Intensive farming
• Protected culture farming
• Organic farming
• Vertical farming
• Fell farming

Specialized farms[link]

Dairy farms[link]

A milking machine in action

Dairy farming is a class of agriculture, where female cattle, goats, or other mammals are raised for their milk, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy for processing and eventual retail sale.

In most Western countries, a centralized dairy facility processes milk and dairy products, such as cream, butter, and cheese. In the United States, these dairies are usually local companies, while in the southern hemisphere facilities may be run by very large nationwide or trans-national corporations (such as Fonterra).

Dairy farms generally sell the male calves borne by their mothers for veal meat, as dairy breeds are not normally satisfactory for commercial beef production. Many dairy farms also grow their own feed, typically including corn, alfalfa, and hay. This is fed directly to the cows, or stored as silage for use during the winter season. Additional dietary supplements are added to the feed to improve milk production. ^[7]

Poultry farms[link]

Poultry farms are devoted to raising chickens, turkeys, ducks, and other fowl, generally for meat or eggs.^[8]

Prison farms[link]

Prison farms are farms which serve as prisons for persons sentenced to hard labor by a court. On prison farms inmates run the important tasks of a farm, producing crops. ^[9]

Ownership[link]

Typical cattle yard in Northern Iowa, USA

Farm control and ownership has traditionally been a key indicator of status and power, especially in Medieval European agrarian societies. The distribution of farm ownership has historically been closely linked to form of government. Medieval feudalism was essentially a system that centralized control of farmland, control of farm labor and political power, while the early American democracy, in which land ownership was a prerequisite for voting rights, was built on relatively easy paths to individual farm ownership. However, the gradual modernization and mechanization of farming, which greatly increases both the efficiency and capital requirements of farming, has led to increasingly large farms. This has usually been accompanied by the decoupling of political power from farm ownership.^{[citation needed]}

Forms of ownership[link]

In some societies (especially socialist and communist), collective farming is the norm, with either government ownership of the land or common ownership by a local group. Especially in societies without widespread industrialized farming, tenant farming and sharecropping are common; farmers either pay landowners for the right to use farmland or give up a portion of the crops.

Roll of barbed wire used to mark fence line on cattle farms

Farms around the world[link]

Australia[link]

Cows grazing on a farm in Victoria, Australia

Farming is a significant economic sector in Australia. A farm is an area of land used for primary production which will include buildings.

Where most of the income is from some other employment, and the farm is really an expanded residence, the term hobby farm is common. This will allow sufficient size for recreational use but be very unlikely to produce sufficient income to be self-sustaining. Hobby farms are commonly around 5 acres (20,000 m²) but may be much larger depending upon land prices (which vary regionally).

Often very small farms used for intensive primary production are referred to by the specialization they are being used for, such as a dairy rather than a dairy farm, a piggery, a market garden, etc. This also applies to feedlots, which are specifically developed to a single purpose and are often not able to be used for more general purpose (mixed) farming practices.

In remote areas farms can become quite large. As with estates in England, there is no defined size or method of operation at which a large farm becomes a station.

Regardless of size, the term station is only used for farms where the main activity is grazing. Some cotton farms in north-western New South Wales or south-western Queensland have been formed by combining previous sheep stations once sufficient water has become available to allow cotton to be grown.

United Kingdom[link]

In the UK, farm as an agricultural unit, always denotes the area of pasture and other fields together with its farmhouse, farmyard and outbuildings. Very large farms, or groups of farms under the same ownership, may be called an estate. Conversely, a small farm surrounding the owner's dwelling is called a smallholding and is generally focused on self-sufficiency with only the surplus being sold.

North America[link]

Farming near Klingerstown, Pennsylvania

Traditional Dutch farmhouse

The land and buildings of a farm are called the "farmstead."^{[citation needed]} Enterprises where livestock are raised on rangeland are called ranches. Where livestock are raised in confinement on feed produced elsewhere, the term feedlot is usually used.

In 1910 there were 6,406,000 farms and 10,174,000 family workers; In 2000 there were only 2,172,000 farms and 2,062,300 family workers.^[10]

In the United States, eighty-one percent of all farmworkers are migrant workers, and seventy-one percent are foreign-born.^{[citation needed]} Eighty percent of farmworkers are men, with the average age being 31.^{[citation needed]} Additionally, farmworkers earn less than $75,000 per year, making an average hourly rate of less than $27.00.^{[citation needed]} On average, one-half of all farmworker families earn less than $10,000 per year,^[11] which is significantly below the 2005 U.S. poverty level of $19,874 for a family of four.

In 2007, corn acres are expected to increase by 15% because of the high demand for ethanol, both in and outside of the U.S. Producers are expecting to plant 90.5 million acres (366,000 km²) of corn, making it the largest corn crop since 1944.^[12]

Farm buildings[link]

Farms require buildings to facilitate the action of farming the material at hand. Such buildings can include a farm house (for the farmers), a grain silo (for storing grain), and a barn (for the storing of certain animals.)

Farm equipment[link]

Gallery[link]

See also[link]

Agriculture and Agronomy portal

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Adams, Jane H. (July 1988). "The Decoupling of Farm and Household: Differential Consequences of Capitalist Development on Southern Illinois and Third World Family Farms". Comparative Studies in Society and History 30 (3): 453–482. DOI:10.1017/S0010417500015334. 
• Blackbourn, David (1998). The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780–1918. New York: Oxford University Press. 
• Clark, Christopher (2006). Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 
• Gregor, Howard F. (July 1969). "Farm Structure in Regional Comparison: California and New Jersey Vegetable Farms". Economic Geography (Economic Geography, Vol. 45, No. 3) 45 (3): 209–225. DOI:10.2307/143091. JSTOR 143091. 
• Grigg, David (July 1966). "The Geography of Farm Size a Preliminary Survey". Economic Geography (Economic Geography, Vol. 42, No. 3) 42 (3): 205–235. DOI:10.2307/142007. JSTOR 142007. 
• Schmidt, Elizabeth (1992). Peasants, Traders, and Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870–1939. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Farms

Look up farm or farmstead in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• "Tiny Farm Wiki". http://tinyfarmwiki.com/. 
• "Farming styles and extension in broadacre cropping". The Australian Society of Agronomy. http://www.regional.org.au/au/asa/1998/7/275howden.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-18. 
• "What is Sustainable Agriculture?". University of California. December 1997. http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/concept.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-18. 
• Diver, Steve (August 2002). "Introduction to Permaculture: Concepts and Resources". The ATTRA Project. http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/perma.html. Retrieved 2007-04-18. 
• "Tiny Extremadura Farm". http://my11.net/. 
• Open Source Ecology

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