Common Terms

Azimuth

A heading relative to true north. Used by farmers when setting a path through a field on a GPS device.

Combine Harvester

A machine that combines the tasks of harvesting, threshing, and cleaning grain crops.

Condensation

Condensation occurs when a gas turns into a liquid. For example, when water vapor (a gas) turns into liquid water.

Corn Header

On a combine, the header that is used to harvest corn.

Cotton Picker

Self-propelled machines that pick cotton. There are many different types of cotton pickers.

Doffer

Rotates the opposite way of the spindle pickers on a cotton picker to remove the cotton from them.

Drainage Basin

Same as a Watershed. The land area that drains water from rain or snow into a bigger body of water.

Evaporation

Evaporation occurs when water gains heat energy and changes to a gas.

Gin Yard

A place where cotton is stored before it is ginned.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

The GPS receiver on farm equipment receives signals from satellites in space that tell the farmer exactly where the cotton picker is located. This helps the farmer travel exactly the same path in the field when harvesting his crop as when he planted it.

Grain Table

On a combine, the header that is used to harvest grain.

Grain Wagon

When a grain bin on the top of a grain combine is full a Grain Wagon drives up beside the combine. The boom on the side of the combine will put the grain from the bin into the wagon while the combine is still operating.

Groundwater

Water located beneath the surface of the earth.

High Boys

A type of large, self-propelled sprayer.

Hydrologic Cycle

Also known as the water cycle. Water's movement from the earth to the atmosphere and back.

Module Builder

Once the basket of the cotton picker is full the picker dumps the seed-cotton into the Module Builder.

Precipitation

Falling products of condensation from the atmosphere. Examples are rain, snow, sleet, and hail.

Row Gators

A type of large, self-propelled sprayer.

Shaker Pan

In a peanut combine the Shaker Pan removes dirt and foreign debris from the peanuts.

Spindle Picker

A type of cotton picker that has barbed spindles that rotate very fast and remove see-cotton from the plant.

Sprayer

A piece of equipment that applies herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers to agricultural crops.

Starfire Technology

This technology guides tractors through the field based on a programmed trajectory by the farmer. It allows the tractor to travel in a straight, circular, or curved path through the field.

Stripper Picker

The stripper picker is primarily used in Texas. It removes lint from the plant and much of the vines and other foreign matter.

Threshing Cylinders

On a peanut combine the threshing cylinders separate foreign matter (vines and dirt) from the peanut.

Tractor

Commonly known as the distinctive farm vehicle. A more precise definition of a tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to provide a high tractive effort at slow speeds.

Tributaries

Smaller streams and rivers that feed into a larger body of water.

Variable Rate Technology

This technology keeps the farmer from spraying the same areas twice by inputting a map of the field into the system containing obstacles in the field. The sprayer will adjust the flow and output of fertilizer or herbicides according to what the farmer has told the machine to do.

Water Cycle

Also called the Hydrologic Cycle. Water's movement from the earth to the atmosphere and back.

Watershed

The land area that drains water from rain or snow into a bigger body of water.

Yield Map

The Yield Map illustrates the yield across the field.

Yield Monitoring System

This system measures the mass flow with sensors and gives the farmer an accurate measurement of how much he is harvesting from his fields.

Yield Monitors

Grain harvesters and cotton pickers are equipped with Yield Monitors. These show the farmer how much of a crop they have harvested.