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Home >>Agriculture Dictionary >> Wild Oats - Wry tail
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Wild Oats - A tall, annual weed related to cultivated oats, but distinguished by having long, yellow or brown, hairy grains, each bearing a strong, twisted Awn. Wild oat infestations in cereal crops are a serious problem, increasing competition and reducing grain yield, and making harvesting, cleaning and drying more difficult and costly. They also lower the value of the crop
Winter Green - A term applied to plants which remain green and fesh through the winter.
Winter Wash - A spray applied to fruit trees and bushes during the winter months which soaks into crevices in the bark and kills the overwintering stages of pests and diseases. Usually A tar oil or similar organic compound.
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Wild White Clover - A small-leaved, vigorous, truely perennial form of white clover, the stolons of which spread close to the ground keeping out weeds. It is drought resistant, persistent, and remains continuously palatable to grazing animals.
Wilting - A condition of plants due to loss of cell turgour as a result of water loss, characterised by the leaves and young stems drooping and becoming limp. Wilting can result from lack of waters up ply when transpiration exceeds root intake, and can also be induced by certain fungal diseases (wilt diseases). In haymaking and silage making, plants are often crimped or lacerated to increase wilting in order to reduce moisture content.
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Wilting Point - The point at which the water content of a soil reaches such a level on drying out that it is all firmly held by the soil and is unavailable to plant roots, so that the plants wilt permanently and die.
Windbreak - A screen, particularly a line or clump of trees or a piece of woodland, providing protection from the wind to an area of land growing crops or livestock.
Wireworms - The smooth, thin, yellow larvae of the click beetle which inhabit grassland and attack various crops, particularly cereals which are usually sown following a ley. Wireworm attack is greatest in spring and autumn when they eat into plants just below the soil surface, causing foliage to turn yellow before the plants die. Wireworms take 4-5 years to mature after which they pupate in the soil. Control is by the use of seed dressings containing B.H.C.
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Windgall - A puffy swelling in the region of a horse's fetlock.
Windrow - A row of hay ( or other cut crops), consisting of two or more Swaths combined into one in preparation for picking up.
Windrow Pick-up - A mechanism attached to the front of various harvesting machines (e.g., Combine Harvester, pea harvester) to pick up a crop left in a windrow after previous cutting by a mower.
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Wine Lake - A loose descriptive term for the E.E.C. structural surplus of wine, purchased as the Intervention Stock under the Common Agricultural Policy (Mountain).
Winnow - To separate the chaff from the grain of threshed com by blowing it away in a draught from a fan.
Winter Feeding - The feeding regime of livestock, mainly cattle, in the winter months, involving the feeding of hay, silage, other bulk foods and concentrates.
Wirework - A term applied to the system of wires supported on a 'grid' of poles, erected in hop gardens, to which 'stringing wires' are attached, up which the hop bines grow. Various designs of wirework are in use.
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Witcher's Broom - Abnormal bushy growth of parts of the branch system on trees or shrubs, markedly different from that of the normal plant and characterized by the shortening of the internodes and excessive proliferation, generally pathogenic in origin.
Withers - The ridge between the shoulder blades of a horse, its highest part.
Wolf Tree - Tree occupying more space than its value warrants, curtailling better neighbourers. A term usually applied to broadcrowned, short-stemmed tree, or to a weed tree of large size; growing for some time, and overtopping ethers, or taking valuable space.
Wool - A soft, modified form of hair in which the fibres are shorter and curled, and which has an imbricated surface of minute, overlapping, interlocking scales which hold the wool fibres together. Wool is found on various mammals but the term is usually restricted to the fleeces of sheep. The annual wool yield per sheep varies from as low as 1 kg to 7 or 8 kg for certain long woolled breeds.
Wool Ball - A mass of wool, tangled into ball, found in the first or fourth stomach of lambs. Wool is swallowed from the mother'sfleece when suckling and accumulates, sometimes blocking the stomach outlet and causing death.
Wool Rot - A condition of sheep due to a fungus (Dermatophilus dermatonomus) which causes irritation to the skin in wet weather and the development of hard, yellowish scans. The sores heal and the growing wool carries the scabs away in the fleece. Also called Lumpy Wool.
Worms - A common name for a range of elongate, cylindrical legless invertebrates, many of which are parasitic.
Worrying - The tormenting or harassing of livestock, usually by uncontrolled dogs. This often involves the biting and tearing of flesh. Sheep, which become particularly anxious when worried, are frequently killed by dogs, and pregnant ewes often abort. Farmers are entitled to shoot dogs found worrying livestock.
Wry Tail - A term applied to poultry when the tail is carried turned to one side.
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