Glossary Terms

The rate of water loss from liquid to vapour (gaseous) state from an open water, wet soil or plant surface, usually expressed in mm day–¹.

The soil depth from which a fully grown plant can easily extract most of the water needed for transpiration. It can be limited by physical (e.g. cemented pan) or chemical (e.g. saline horizon) properties.

The period after which a crop type returns to a field in the course of years, commonly expressed as a percentage of the number of years needed for a full crop rotation cycle.

The temporal alternation of different crop types (mown vs. lifted, monocots vs dicots, annual vs perennial) on a piece of farm land.

Non-harvested crop grown in between two main crop seasons, mainly intended to protect the structural aspects of soil fertility and reduce erosion.

Using the same traffic lanes for machinery used for different applications within one year and the same traffic lanes across years, usually supported by a sat-nav system, in order to reduce soil compaction.

Growing crops in strips that follow the contour line. Strips of grass or close-growing crops alternate with strips of clean-tilled crops or summer fallow.

Ploughing in a direction that follows the contour, maintaining the same elevation.

Non-harvested crop grown in between two main crop seasons, mainly intended to scavenge residual soil mineral N and thus potentially growing under N limitation.

An agricultural crop grown to provide revenue from an off-farm source (‘the market’).