use agricultural machinery
A hobby farm ( also called a lifestyle block in New Zealand ) is a smallholding or small farm that is maintained without expectation of being a primary source of income . Some are merely to provide some recreational land , and perhaps a few horses for the family ' s children . Others are managed as working farms for sideline income , or are even run at an ongoing loss as a lifestyle choice by people with the means to do so , functioning more like a country ___MASK34___ than a business . A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity . A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines and cover an extended area of hundreds of ___MASK55___ miles , but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other purposes . A wind farm can also be located offshore . A plantation is a large piece of land ( or water ) where one crop is specifically planted for widespread commercial sale and usually tended by resident laborers . The crops grown include fast - growing trees ( often conifers ), cotton , ___MASK98___ , ___MASK80___ , cocoa , sugar cane , sisal , oil seeds ( e . g . oil palms ), rubber trees , and various fruits . Protectionist policies and natural comparative advantage have sometimes contributed to determining where plantations were located . A farm is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops ; it is the basic facility in food ___MASK20___ . The name is used for specialised units such as arable farms , vegetable farms , fruit farms , dairy , pig and poultry farms , and land used for the ___MASK20___ of natural fibres , biofuel and other commodities . It includes ranches , feedlots , orchards , plantations and estates , smallholdings and hobby farms , and includes the farmhouse and agricultural buildings as well as the land . In modern times the term has been extended so as to include such industrial operations as wind farms and fish farms , both of which can operate on land or sea . A crop is any cultivated plant , fungus , or alga that is harvested for food , ___MASK92___ , livestock , fodder , biofuel , medicine , or other uses . In contrast , animals that are raised by humans are called livestock , except those that are kept as pets . Microbes , such as bacteria or viruses , are referred to as cultures . Microbes are not typically grown for food , but are rather used to alter food . For example , bacteria are used to ferment milk to produce yogurt . Agricultural machinery is machinery used in the operation of an agricultural area or farm . A smallholding is a small farm . In third world countries , smallholdings are usually farms supporting a single family with a mixture of cash crops and subsistence farming . As a country becomes more affluent and farming practices become more efficient , smallholdings may persist as a legacy of historical land ownership practices . In more affluent societies , smallholdings may be valued primarily for the rural lifestyle that they provide for the owners , who often do not earn their livelihood from the farm . There are an estimated 500 million smallholder farms in the world , supporting almost 2 billion people . Today some companies try to include smallholdings into their value chain , providing seed , feed or fertilizer to improve ___MASK20___ . Some say that this model shows benefits for both parties . An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food ___MASK20___ . Orchards comprise fruit - or nut - producing trees which are generally grown for commercial ___MASK20___ . Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens , where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive purpose . A fruit garden is generally synonymous with an orchard , although it is set on a smaller non - commercial scale and may emphasize berry shrubs in preference to fruit trees . Most temperate - zone orchards are laid out in a regular grid , with a grazed or mown grass or bare soil base that makes maintenance and fruit gathering easy . A biofuel is a fuel that is produced through contemporary biological processes , such as ___MASK54___ and anaerobic digestion , rather than a fuel produced by geological processes such as those involved in the formation of fossil fuels , such as coal and petroleum , from prehistoric biological matter . Biofuels can be derived directly from plants , or indirectly from agricultural , commercial , domestic , and / or industrial wastes . Renewable biofuels generally involve contemporary carbon fixation , such as those that occur in plants or microalgae through the process of photosynthesis . Other renewable biofuels are made through the use or conversion of biomass ( referring to recently living organisms , most often referring to plants or plant - derived materials ). This biomass can be converted to convenient energy - containing substances in three different ways : thermal conversion , chemical conversion , and biochemical conversion . This biomass conversion can result in fuel in solid , liquid , or gas form . This new biomass can also be used directly for biofuels .