This guide provides an overview of some of the key measures used in agriculture along with a series of imperial to metric conversions.
Agricultural areas
In the UK agricultural sector the acre is the traditional unit of area measurement. One acre is 4840 square yards and would cover about half a full size football pitch.
The hectare is the metric unit of area measurement and equals 10,000 square metres. It has been widely adopted by the industry but has not superseded the acre. As a result both are in mainstream use. A hectare is about a third bigger than the New Wembly Stadium pitch
Weights and volumes
In the UK the metric system of weights and volume are used with tonnes, kilograms and litres being the principal units. However in the US soft commodities (eg. wheat and barley) are traded using a unit of volume known as the bushel. The bushel originated in England a thousand years ago but today's bushel is not much different having a similar volume to the average PC case.
Yields
Farmers habitually talk of yields as a measure of both performance and success but they may mean little to the general public. A typical dairy cow will produce around 7000 litres of milk each year which is enough milk to put with your breakfst cereal each morning for the next 100 years!
An arable farmer growing a crop of wheat on the new Wembly Stadium pitch could make enough bread to serve up 1 double sliced sandwich to a full capacity of 90,000 people. If that sounds spectacular remember that the value of the wheat he grew would be less than £1000!
Key Measures
| Areas | |||
| 1 acre | = | 4840 square yards | |
| 1 hectare | = | 10000 square metres | |
| Volume | |||
| US Bushel | = | 35.239 litres | |
Conversions
| Distance conversions | |||
| 1 inch | = | 2.54 centimetres | |
| 1 foot | = | 0.305 metres | |
| 1 yard | = | 0.914 metres | |
| 1 rod | = | 5.029 metres | |
| 1 chain | = | 20.117 metres | |
| 1 furlong | = | 201.17 metres | |
| 1 mile | = | 1.6093 kilometres | |
| 1 nautical mile | = | 1.8532 kilometres | |
| 1 millimetre | = | 0.0394 inches | |
| 1 centimetre | = | 0.3937 inches | |
| 1 decimetre | = | 0.3281 foot | |
| 1 metre | = | 3.281 feet | |
| 1 metre | = | 1.094 yard | |
| 1 kilometre | = | 0.6214 mile | |
| 1 kilometre | = | 0.539 nautical mile | |
| Area conversions | |||
| 1 square inch | = | 6.452 square centimetres | |
| 1 square foot | = | 929.03 square centimetres | |
| 1 square yard | = | 0.836 square metres | |
| 1 acre | = | 4046.9 square metres | |
| 1 square mile | = | 259.0 hectares | |
| 1 square mile | = | 2.59 square kilometres | |
| 1 square metre | = | 10.764 square feet | |
| 1 square metre | = | 1.196 square yards | |
| 1 hectare | = | 2.471 acres | |
| 1 square km | = | 247.1acres | |
| 1 square km | = | 0.386 square mile | |
| Volume conversions | |||
| 1 pint | = | 0.568 litres | |
| 1 gallon | = | 4.546 litres | |
| 1 UK gallon | = | 1.20095 US gallons | |
| 1 UK bushel | = | 1.03206 US bushels | |
| 1 cubic foot | = | 0.028 cu metre | |
| 1 cubic yard | = | .765 cu metre | |
| 1 gallon | = | 0.005 cu metre | |
| US Bushel | = | 35.239 litres | |
| Imperial Bushel | = | 36.369 litres | |
| Imperial Bushel | = | 8 imperial gallons | |
| 1 litre | = | 1.76 pints | |
| 1 litre | = | 0.22 gallon | |
| 1 cu metre | = | 35.3147 cu feet | |
| 1 cu metre | = | 1.308 cu yard | |
| Weight conversions | |||
| 1 oz | = | 28.35 gram | |
| 1 lb | = | 0.454 kg | |
| 1 cwt | = | 50.80 kg | |
| 1 ton | = | 1.016 tonne | |
| 1 kilogram | = | 35.274 oz | |
| 1 kilogram | = | 2.205 lb | |
| 1 tonne (1000kg) | = | 19.68 cwt | |
| 1 tonne (1000kg) | = | 0.984 ton | |
Statistics for Yields
|
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
|
| Yield - wheat (tonnes / hectare) |
8.0 | 7.1 | 8.0 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 7.2 | Yield - barley (tonnes / hectare) |
5.8 | 5.3 | 5.6 | 5.9 | 5.8 | 5.9 | 5.9 | 5.7 | Yield - oats (tonnes / hectare) |
5.9 | 5.5 | 6.0 | 6.1 | 5.8 | 5.8 | 6.0 | 5.5 | Yield - oilseed rape (tonnes / hectare) |
2.9 | 2.6 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 2.9 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.1 | Yield - sugar beet (tonnes / hectare) |
52.5 | 47.0 | 56.5 | 57.3 | 57.5 | 58.5 | 56.6 | 60.2 | Yield - combine peas (tonnes / hectare) |
3.7 | 3.5 | 3.4 | 3.9 | 3.5 | 3.8 | 3.3 | 3.1 | Yield - combine beans (tonnes / hectare) |
3.9 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 3.4 | 3.0 | Yield - potatoes earlies (tonnes / hectare) |
22.6 | 12.4 | 16.4 | 18.2 | 16.8 | 14.3 | 15.7 | 12.5 | Yield - potatoes maincrop (tonnes / hectare) |
41.4 | 42.8 | 46.7 | 42.9 | 45.2 | 46.4 | 43.0 | 43.7 | Average yield per cow (litres) |
5978 | 6347 | 6495 | 6620 | 6571 | 6749 | 6983 | 6908 |
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