THE voting is on after another year of innovation in the English language for the Macquarie Dictionary’s Word of the Year 2011. What has particularly caught our eye here at FarmOnline is the breadth of words linked to modern farming – from fracking to soil liquefication.
We’re not sure what the most popular ag word on everyone’s lips will be, but they’re bound to strike a chord with farmers and industry professionals from every sector.
Under the category ‘agriculture’ punters can vote for the terms:
Balancer
noun one of a breed of cattle developed by crossing a Gelbvieh with a Hereford, Murray Grey, or Angus; characterised by fast growth, muscle with added fat, and easy calving.
Buffalo fly
noun a small fly, Haematobia irritans exigua, which feeds off cattle and buffalo, causing irritation which can lead to skin sores and weight loss; a pest in Qld and northern NSW. (No, the The Beyonce fly isn’t on the list, but we’re sure it will show up next year.)
Dairyness
noun the productivity of a cow in terms of the quality and quantity of its milk, assessed by udder shape and size, pedigree, genomic screening, etc.; used as a judging criterion in competitions.
Genetic gain
noun the rate at which a flock or herd develops desired traits, this having been brought about by the selection, on the basis of genomics, of the animals within the group who will breed.
Meteogram
noun a graph showing weather data for a specific location, either for a chosen time or for the future beyond the chosen time, giving such variables as temperature, dewpoint, wind speed and direction, and pressure.
All pretty straight-forward with few surprises there, but it would be nice to think that the inclusion of these terms might bring farm-speak to a wider audience. Maybe next time the milk is poured onto morning cereal, people will just for a second wonder at the particular dairyness of the cows from which it came.
Other words peppering the farming landscape (under the environment category) include fracking, solar farms, and the fascinating peak P – the point at which the world’s demand for phosphorous outstrips its supply from depleted reserves.
Under cropping we have the achacha tropical fruit, the noni shrub and even the trendy superfruit - a fruit which is believed to have exceptional qualities in terms of nutrients and antioxidants, as the mangosteen, wolfberry, acai berry.
Under health, is the rather telling phrase wind farm syndrome, which describes tinnitus, vertigo and nausea, caused by infrasound from wind turbines.
Let us know your favourite agriculture related term by voting from the full list in the poll on the right.
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