The Basic Farming Quiz

We don't often think about dairy cows as mothers, but when you consider that most mammals cannot produce milk until they are pregnant or have a child, it all makes much more sense.

One of the best forms of pest control is the natural order of things. Cats like to chase mice, and farmers hate to have mice in their barns. This symbiotic relationship has been around since farming started.

Cow and horse manure have a lot of great uses. They can both be used for composting and fertilizing the ground that people farm on. They are excellent for growing plants because both cows and horses are herbivores.

An acre is a portion of land measured by square footage rather than distance. One acre is equivalent to 43,560 square feet. The largest farm in the United States boasts 2.2 million acres.

The rectangular bale of hay that you might be used to from pumpkin patches is usually around 70 to 100 pounds. However, the large rolled bales of hay that you see in fields can weigh up to 1,500 pounds.

Chicken coops come in all different shapes and sizes. On large chicken farms, you might see a coop that looks like a small building, but on smaller farms, they might look like a greenhouse for animals.

A sow is an adult female pig. One sow can have up to ten piglets in a single litter. Additionally, a sow can give birth to two litters a year, meaning a single cow can produce twenty cows in one year alone.

Like chicken coops, horse stables come in different shapes and sizes. Depending on what kind of farm the horses are on and how many horses there are, many of these stables have arenas for the horses to exercise in when the weather doesn't cooperate.

At the end of harvest season, farmers will put natural mulches into the soil (including hay, manure and straw). This prevents the soil from drying out too bad before the next planting season begins.

Some people think that pig slop is every edible waste from a farmer's kitchen. However, even though pigs are omnivores, they usually eat vegetables, fruits and maybe some fish. They're technically pescatarians.

A trough is basically a long, skinny bathtub that can be filled with something for animals to eat or drink out of. Feeding troughs and watering troughs are not an uncommon sight on farms that have a lot of animals.

Every different crop has a slightly different harvest season. For most of the starchy crops in the United States (corn, squash, pumpkin, etc), the harvest season usually lands in the fall.

While a lot of people mistake a pony for a baby horse, ponies are actually just smaller horses. A baby horse is known as a foal until it reaches one year of age. After that, it is called a horse. A pony is always known as a pony.

While many of us don't think about it, taking care of a dairy cow's udders is essential to the production of untainted milk. Additionally, a cow's udders can chafe, so it's important to keep them balmed up.

Signs of irrigation go back to 3100 BC in Egypt. Using man-made dams and canals to divert waters toward the crops gave early civilizations an edge on food production, and these methods are still used today.

Different types of corn include flint, flour, dent, pop, sweet and waxy. As you may have guessed, flour corn is how corn flour is made, and it is generally grown in South America.

The concept of the scarecrow is not what you see in Halloween movies. As a matter of fact, scarecrows are more common around planting season because the fresh seeds in the ground are much more vulnerable than fully grown plants.

While male donkeys are called jacks, female donkeys are called jennys. For some reason, they aren't called jills ... we feel like they missed something here. A donkey that is under one year old (no matter what gender) is known as a foal.

You may know a meadow as a pasture, field or paddock. However, all of these places are great for growing hay and allowing large herbivorous animals to graze because hay grows so fast.

Pullet is the term used for young female hens. This one isn't necessarily common knowledge, as most people think that baby chickens are known as chicks. If you want to be more specific, however, you would call it a pullet.

Orchards are basically farms where fruit trees are grown and harvested. There are different times of year when different apples are best for picking, but some think that apples are only to be harvested in October for some reason.

During the harvest, a grain cart is pulled behind a tractor. The tractor pulls the grains out of the ground and pours them into the grain cart. One grain cart can hold up to 1,000 bushels of grain at a time.

Plowing fields is basically folding the earth over on itself. This helps the decomposition process. As things decompose in the fields, additional nutrients are added to the soil to help with plant growth.

Owning a horse is a lot of work. It requires you to clean up after the animal. It is important to remember that horses go to the bathroom a lot, and that means that their stalls need to be mucked at least once a day.

It doesn't all have to be cheese, however. In a single day, a dairy cow can produce enough milk to make 10.5 pounds of cheese. It doesn't seem like a whole lot, but when you consider the fact that the United States has nearly 9.5 million dairy cows, you're talking some major cheese.

Poult, like poultry, includes chickens, turkeys and pheasants, along with any other fowl that people might be interested in eating. While they don't smell terrific when they're in the coop, they certainly smell amazing on Thanksgiving.

This nifty contraption works in the same way that your finger works for your garden. You press into the earth, put the seed down, and cover it. The seed drill does this but on a much larger scale without disturbing the ground.

Sickles are smaller than scythes. These handheld grass cutting tools were very popular before mechanical farm tools and machines were easy to come by. They were useful for small patches of large brush.

Cattle thrive in warm, wet climates, but they can also do well in colder climates. The American Midwest makes for the perfect cattle country, as it has luscious fields for the cows to graze on.

Corn is a very versatile crop, and it is grown throughout the United States. However, the top corn producing states are Illinois and Iowa. These states are relatively flat and receive a lot of rainfall.

Each plant takes different nutrients out of the ground, and if the same crops are planted every year, the same nutrients are taken from the soil. However, with crop rotation, different nutrients are taken out of the soil each year, allowing them to replenish every year.

The Future Farmers of America is an American youth organization that specifically helps young children understand the importance of farming and the different techniques that are involved with farming.

How do you make a corn plant resistant to the frost? Simply add some fish DNA. It works, and according to some sources, it doesn't hurt the food at all. With conflicting positions on GMOs, the debate is still heated.

Bio-based plastics do have elements of corn in them. However, for the most part, corn is used in sweeteners and as a side dish on our dinner tables. With six types of corn, the possibilities generally end at wood.