Letham Shank Glossary

Common terms used in Agriculture and the Countryside.

MAFF

Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food Monolithic government department that changed it's name to DEFRA after the Foot & Mouth fiasco.

Malting

The process of taking barley, steeping it in water, germinating it and then drying it. The dried product is malt and has many uses in food manufacturing and alchohol production.

Mangold

Large, red or gold coloured root vegetable resembling a elongated turnip. Used as animal feed but a relatively low value food source.

Manure

A mixture of bedding straw and animal dung which is lifted out of sheds and stored in heaps (middens) for a period to decompose before being spread on the land. Provides a useful amount of organic matter and some nutrients.

Marker

A device fitted to many soil working implements to allow the tractor driver to return down the field at an exact distance from the previous bout by following a groove in the soil made with a disc or tine. The mark may be followed by the wheel or the centre of the tractor.

Mart

(Auction) Marts are places centrally located where animals are brought to be sold at auction.

Mayweed

(Matricaria) A common difficult to control daisy like weed.

Meadow Grass

An annual grass which is a pernicious weed in cereal crops.

Metering (Seed)

A seed metering unit on a seed drill controls the flow of seed in relation to ground speed so that exactly the correct weight/area is sown.

Mildew (Powdery)

A common disease of most plants but of significance in cereals. White fluffy pustules appear on leaf or stem if rubbed off a brown stain is revealed. May spread to the ear if unchecked.

MinTill

Minimum Tillage. A term used for practically all primary cultivation where the plough is not used. Depths may vary from 150mm to only 50mm and may use tines, discs and presses.

Monoculture

Planting the same crop in the same field year after year with no crop rotation.

Mouldboard

That part of a plough which actually turns the soil after the share has cut the furrow bottom.