Agricultural cycle

The recurring sequence of seasonal farm activities, from preparing fields and planting crops through growth, harvest, and preparation for another season.

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Crop rotation: The practice of growing different crops on the same land in a planned sequence across seasons or years. Changing crops between cycles can maintain soil fertility and interrupt pests and diseases.
Phenology: The study of recurring biological events and their timing in relation to environmental conditions. Crop development stages help determine the timing of planting and harvest.
Agricultural calendar: A schedule of farming tasks aligned with seasons, crop development, and local conditions. It translates the cycle into dates and planned tasks for a particular farm or region.
Multiple cropping: The production of more than one crop on the same land within a year. It fits additional crop sequences into a single annual cycle.
Seedbed: A prepared area of soil in which seeds are sown and begin to germinate. Field preparation creates the seedbed that supports successful planting.
Growing degree day: A measure of accumulated warmth used to estimate the development of plants and other organisms. Accumulated heat helps estimate crop progress when calendar dates are unreliable.
Planting season: The period when conditions are suitable for sowing or transplanting a crop. Planting dates set the starting point for many later operations.
Monoculture: The cultivation of one crop species in a field or farming system. Repeatedly growing one crop changes how the field is managed across cycles.
Sowing: The placement of seeds in soil or another growing medium for germination. Sowing begins the crop’s growth phase after fields are prepared.
Photoperiodism: A biological response to the relative lengths of day and night. Day length can trigger flowering and constrain planting schedules for some crops.