Introduction to Agriculture

Definition of: the science or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products

Includes: Agronomy Horticulture Forestry Animal Husbandry/Science

Agronomy Using plants to produce food (animal and human consumption), fiber, and fuel Soil science closely related

Horticulture Landscape design and construction Landscape maintenance Nursery and Greenhouse production

Forestry creating, managing, using, conserving, and repairing forests and associated resources to meet desired needs, and values for human benefitforests Practiced in both plantations and natural stands

Animal Sciences Cattle ▫Beef/Dairy Poultry ▫Egg laying / Meat Equine ▫Livestock? Swine ▫Meat Sheep/Goats ▫Meat / Fiber

Agricultural Statistics World-Wide 126 billion acres billion acres are habitable Only 3-4% of that is farmable

Agricultural Statistics United States 360,892,200 acres of cropland Principal operators 34 and younger: ▫2002  123,059 ▫2007  118,613 ▫2014  119,833 Principal operators 65 and older: ▫2002  557,830 ▫2007  655,654 ▫2014  701,276

Vocabulary Domestication: hereditary reorganization of wild animals and plants into domestic and cultivated forms according to the interests of people (generally need human intervention to survive)hereditaryplants Selective Breeding (artificial selection):humans selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which animal or plant reproduce together

Vocabulary Hybrid: mixing, through sexual reproduction, of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species (can create animals with more useful characteristics than parents) ▫ Organic Farming: farming that does not use commercial farming chemicals Monoculture: the cultivation of a single crop in a given area, can be susceptible to disease and crop loss Polyculture: the cultivation of a multiple crops in a given area, can be better able to survive disease and crop loss

Vocabulary Ranching: practice of raising grazing livestock Commercial Farming: farming for a profit, where food is produced by advanced technological means for sale

Vocabulary Breed: specific group of domestic animals having the same appearance, behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species and that were arrived at through selective breeding Species: organisms that reproduce and to create fertile offspring

Thomas Malthus Essay on populations in 1798 Population growth will surpass resources Population will eventually crash unless it reached “checks” to growth

Thomas Malthus Population has continued to grow Have we surpassed his predictions? WHY? Have we completely escaped his predictions? What are the 3 agricultural revolutions?