Common Farm Tools and Equipment With Their Uses
Farm tools and equipment are necessary in agriculture to carry out most farm activities, including cultivating, planting, harvesting, and managing crops and livestock.
So, it can be said that farm tools are implements used commonly to plant crops, cultivate farmland, harvest, and manage livestock and crops.
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These tools are always handy and mostly made up of metals with wooden handles (or plastic in some cases) and are mostly used by rural labourer to make their work easier and faster.
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These farm tools include shovels, rakes, hoes, ploughs, forks, harrows, seeders, sprayers and many more. Below is a full list of these common farm tools and equipment with their uses.
- Shovels: You can use the shovel to remove trash and properly dig and mix the soil.
- Rakes: A rake is an essential farm tool used for gathering hays and weeds and clearing the field; it serves the same purpose as a broom on the farm.
- Hoes: This is a farm tool used for making ridges and beds, breaking the soil to make planting and penetration easier, and removing weeds on the farm.
- Ploughs: This is a tool used on the farm to cultivate and prepare the soil for sowing. In ancient times, animals pulled it, but as mechanized farming began, they were now pulled by tractors.
- Hand Forks: This is used for mixing compost with soil, loosening hard soil, transplanting plants and seedlings, and soil aeration.
- Cutlasses: This is an essential tool during pre-planting activities. It is used for clearing and cutting bushes and trees in readiness for cultivation and planting to occur.
- Harrows: This is a machine that you can use to break up the soil’s surface to produce a good soil structure for making seed beds.
- Scythe: This curved, sharp-bladed implement mows cereals and other herbaceous plants.
- Sprayers: Sprayers can serve many purposes on the farm; they can be used to spray insecticides and pesticides and can also be used to apply liquid fertilizers or water on the farm.
- Sprinklers: These can serve the same purpose as the sprayer, but the only difference between their use is that sprinklers are mainly used for spraying water on the farm.
- Pick Mattock: This tool has two sides, the pick (pointed) and the chisel-like side, that can serve different purposes: the pick is used for breaking hard surfaces or rocks, while the chisel-like side is used for digging and chopping.
- Pick Axe: This tool also has two sides, the pick (pointed) and the chisel-like side, that can serve different purposes: the pick is used for breaking hard surfaces or rocks, while the chisel-like side is used for cutting and shaping.
- Spade: Spade can be used for digging and removing soil particles and trash.
- Hand Trowel: It is used for mixing the soil and loosening it around plant roots.
- Watering Can: A watering can is an irrigation equipment to maintain a steady water supply in the garden.
- Axe: The axe is mainly used for falling trees and cutting tree branches and wood.
- Wheel Barrow: The wheelbarrow is used for the easy movement of items from one part of the farm to another, and these items are fertilizers, seeds, manures, plants, waste materials and also the movement of harvested crops to places where they can be stored or transported.
- Harvesting Sickle: This is a tool that is used for the harvesting of grains, vegetables and cereals.
- Pruning saw/shears: This is used for trimming shrubs, flowers and trees. While they both serve the same purpose, pruning saws take care of larger tree branches that are too thick for the pruning shears to handle.
- Tractor: This is one of the most common and popular farming equipment for pulling different machinery.
- Seed Drill: This is a farm tool to plant seeds at equal distance/spacing and appropriate dept.
- Cultivator: This machinery is equipped in a rotatory motion for tilling the soil for planting.
These farm tools range from traditional to modern farm tools and equipment, which are always handy and help make your farm work easier and faster.
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