Farm tools are implements and equipment used for farming purposes. See below the list of farm tools and their functions.
Spade – This is a basic farm tool used for digging, planting, hoeing, shovelling, and cutting lawn edges. Long-handled spades have more leverage when digging, but the short-handled spade encourages the user to grip the handle lower down – more under the load, and to use the leg muscles more. The T-piece, or D-piece on the short-handle type, gives some twisting leverage – a help when turning over spadefuls of soil during digging.
Tractor – The farm tractor is used for pulling or pushing agricultural machinery or trailers, for plowing, tilling, disking, harrowing, planting, and similar tasks. It can also be called an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction. Most commonly, the term is used to describe a farm vehicle that provides the power and traction to mechanize agricultural tasks, especially (and originally) tillage, but nowadays a great variety of tasks. A variety of specialty farm tractors have been developed for particular uses.
Hoe – A hoe is an ancient and versatile agricultural and horticultural hand tool used to shape soil, remove weeds, clear soil, and harvest root crops. Shaping the soil includes piling soil around the base of plants (hilling), digging narrow furrows (drills) and shallow trenches for planting seeds or bulbs. There are basically two types of hoe: push hoe and draw hoe. With a push hoe, the user moves backwards on to the un-hoed ground, and thus avoids walking on the newly-hoed weeds. With a draw hoe, the user moves forward towards the un-hoed ground and walks on the newly-hoed area.
Rake – A rake is a farm implement consisting of a row of straight or curved teeth of metal or wood attached to a bar or frame. It is used for gathering hay or grain into piles; for clearing fields, lawns, and yards; and for stirring and spreading soil. A rake can be used to make a fine seedbed, to open and close seed-drills, to remove lawn clippings and leaves, to tear out moss and dead grass, and to freshen up gravelled areas and flower beds. Long, even strokes of a rake are best, so a long handle is essential. The head should not be very wide, or too narrow. The teeth should be straight, or only slightly curved, and set not too far apart.
Trowel – Garden trowel, a tool with a pointed, scoop-shaped metal blade and wooden, metal, or plastic handle. It is used for breaking up earth, digging small holes, especially for planting and weeding, mixing in fertilizer or other additives, and transferring plants to pots. It is also essential for planting bedding and vegetable plants.
Watering Can – This is a portable container, usually with a handle and a spout with perforated nozzle, used to water plants by hand. A watering can has a vital role in ensuring the establishment of young plants of all kinds. It can also be used to apply weed-killers on paths and lawns. It can be used as a substitute for a sprayer to apply insecticides too.
Garden Fork – This is an implement, with a handle and several (usually four) short, sturdy tines. It is used for loosening, lifting and turning over soil in gardening and farming. A garden fork can be used for digging; it is an essential piece of equipment on stony ground. It is useful for picking up debris such as pruning. For compost-making, it is a tool without which it is difficult to keep the heap tidy. Though not suitable for digging, a dung fork is more useful for the other tasks mentioned.
Hand Cultivator – a three pronged fork with a short wooden handle. The sharp prongs make digging easier. The tool is helpful to dislodge weeds and to cultivate in narrow spaces between plants. Hand cultivators with longer handles and four pronged forks are useful for compost management and cultivating flower-beds without stooping.
Shellers – Shellers are used mainly to separate the seeds from the husk or cob. It is also used for detaching the seed from the pod. Shellers used for rice, wheat, oats are sometimes called thrashers.
Dryer – A dryer is used for removing water from crops and by so doing, lower the moisture content of the crop to a desired level. For most crops the drier the crop, the longer their storage life.
Grinder – A grinder is used for crushing crops into the powder (when dry) or slurry (when wet). Grinder of large capacity is called mills.
Conveyors – These are machines used to move bulk masses of crops from one point to the other on the farms.
Seeds Planting Machines Broadcaster – This is a machine designed to plant seeds by random scattering to seeds about the field.
Seed Drill – This also designed to plant seed along the rows on the field. A seed drill is a sowing device that precisely positions seeds in the soil and then covers them. Before the introduction of the seed drill, the common practice was to plant seeds by hand.
Planter: A planter is an agricultural farm implement towed behind a tractor, used for sowing crops through a field. It is connected to the tractor with a draw-bar, or a three-point hitch. It is used for planting seeds. Planters lay the seed down in precise manner along rows. Seeds are distributed through devices called row units. The row units are spaced evenly along the planter.
Harvesters – These are machines designed primarily to facilitate the removal of matured crops. E.g. mover, forage harvester etc.
Sprayer: A sprayer is a piece of equipment that is used to apply herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, agro-chemicals and water in irrigation farming on agricultural crops. These are machines for the application of liquid chemicals in droplets spraying form for various farm operations. Examples of sprayers are knapsack, hand gun, motorized sprayer, boom etc. Sprayers range in sizes from man-portable units (typically backpacks with spray guns) to trailed sprayers that are connected to a tractor, to self-propelled units similar to tractors, with boom mounts of 60 –151 feet in length.
Incubators – These are machines used for hatching fertilized eggs artificially. It takes 21 days for fertilized eggs of domestic fowl to develop and hatch in incubators.
Milk Machines – These are used for expelling milk from the udder of diary animals. In use, the machine is connected to the teats at the base of the udder. Through sucking action, milk flows through the teats into the machine. These are machines designed to deliver feed at a rate that ensures best growth and development of livestock. Milking machines are used to harvest milk from cows when manual milking becomes inefficient or labour-intensive. Milking machines work in a way that is different from hand milking or calf suckling. Continuous vacuum is applied inside the soft liner to massage milk from the teat by creating a pressure difference across the teat canal (or opening at the end of the teat). Vacuum also helps keep the machine attached to the cow.
Plough: Tillage is the basic operation in farming. It is done to create favourable conditions for seed placement and plant growth. This is done mainly with a plough. To breakup or loosen the soil, kill insects and uprooting weeds. The basic components of the plough are a shoe, a share, a body, a handle and a beam.
Flail Mower: A flail mower is a type of powered garden/agricultural equipment, which is used to deal with heavier grass/scrub which a normal lawn mower could not cope with.
Rice Huller: A Rice huller or Rice husker is an agricultural machine used to automate the process of removing the chaff (the outer husks) of grains of rice.
Assessment
Spade, Tractor, Hoe, Grinder, Sheller, Milking machine, Incubator, Dryer, Grinder, Seed drill, Rake, Garden Trowel, Rice Huller, Flail mower, Conveyor, Plough, Planter, Hand cultivator, Garden Fork.
Use the options above to answer questions 1 to 10.
- A ____ is a piece of equipment that is used to apply herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, agro-chemicals and water in irrigation farming on agricultural crops
- A ____ is a type of powered garden/agricultural equipment, which is used to deal with heavier grass/scrub which a normal lawn mower could not cope with.
- A ____ is a machine used to move bulk masses of crops from one point to the other on the farms.
- A ____ is a farm implement consisting of a row of straight or curved teeth of metal or wood attached to a bar or frame.
- A ____ is a sowing device that precisely positions seeds in the soil and then covers them
- An ___ is a machine used for hatching fertilized eggs artificially
- A ____ is used mainly to separate the seeds from the husk or cob
- A ____ is used for crushing crops into the powder (when dry) or slurry (when wet).
- A ____ is a basic farm tool used for digging, planting, hoeing, shovelling, and cutting lawn edges
- A ____ is a tool with a pointed, scoop-shaped metal blade and wooden, metal, or plastic handle and it is used for breaking up earth, digging small holes, especially for planting and weeding, mixing in fertilizer or other additives, and transferring plants to pots.
Answers
- Sprayer
- Flail mower
- Conveyor
- Rake
- Seed drill
- Incubator
- Sheller
- Grinder
- Spade
- Garden Trowel