Agricultural Equipment Parts Key Terms

Learn agricultural equipment parts key terms

By Denise Brown

Farm machinery has a lot of moving parts. Unless you have a good understanding of agricultural equipment parts key terms, you may spend a lot of time at your local farm equipment dealer returning the wrong ones. Because it’s impossible to list all the parts of agricultural equipment individually, it helps to start with a basic list of things you may have on your farm. From there you can find key terms associated with that particular piece of equipment.

Field cultivators

Field cultivators loosen and aerate the soil to prepare the ground for planting. After the field cultivator passes, the seedbed is ready for planting.
Try: You can see examples of field cultivators at Wil-Rich. You can read information about other pieces of agricultural equipment as well.

Chisel plow

A chisel plow is a good tool to till the ground deeply. The individual plow points loosen the soil and break up existing plant root systems from previously harvested plants. Because a chisel plow disturbs the ground less than a traditional moldboard plow, most farmers now use chisel plows in their fields as a form of soil conservation.
Try: Market Farm Implement provides more information about chisel plows.

No-till drill

A farmer can plant seed with a no-till drill without disturbing the previous year's seedbed. The planting shanks of the no-till drill cut through the old vegetation on the ground and allow the farmer to set the new seeds at the proper spacing and depth.
Try: For a detailed explanation of no-till drills and their parts, check out University of Missouri Extension.

Disc mower

A disc mower has a series of round discs with sharp blades attached. These blades, evenly spaced on a horizontal bar, cut grasses and hay by spinning rapidly in a circular motion. A disc mower comes with a heavy cover that goes over the cutting mechanism to protect the tractor driver from flying debris that the blades sling. Hay cut by a disc mower cures more quickly and is ready to bale faster.
Try: Read the article from the University of Wisconsin Extension to see the differences between a disc mower and a traditional sickle mower.

Hay rake

A farmer uses a hay rake to put cut hay into windrows for baling. A hay rake can also stir mown hay to help it cure faster.
Try: You can find more information about different parts of hay rakes from the Penn State University College of Agricultural Sciences.

Hay baler

A hay baler takes cured or properly dried grasses and forms them into bales for storage. It ties the bale with either twine or wire. Newer models wrap plastic covers around the bales for storage. Hay balers can make small round or square bales. New models of hay balers often make large round or square bales.
Try: AgrAbilityProject.org has detailed information about different types of hay balers.