if only the crossword writers knew...

Learning the craft knowledge of farming involves learning its vocabulary - it's got jargon just like any other field. Some highlights -
Fairly obvious:
apple drops - apples that fell off the tree
side dress - add fertilizer to the side of a row of crops (I learned this one on a farm where they did use chemical fertilizer)
dry off a cow - not with towels! to stop milking her/milk her less and less frequently so that she stops producing milk

Less obvious:
thresh - to get grain out of its inedible packaging (removing husk & awns)
tillering - suckers on grass plants (like wheat!)
sucker - lateral shoots
haw & gee - left and right (or right and left?) when directing draft animals
stanchion - a restraining device for cows or sheep that lets them eat but doesn't let them move around; we use them for milking
maddock - like a hoe, but for moving mud around rather than skimming the top couple inches of loose soil
Shetland, Hereford, Aricana - breeds of sheep, cow, and chicken, respectively
peen - delicately hammering to put an edge on a soft metal tool
snath - the handle of a scythe
scorzonera, skirret - root vegetables that we will be growing next year
cardoons - related to artichokes; bred for their stems rather than flower buds; I didn't manage to get them on the seed order...yet
mawl - the heavy, relatively blunt tool used to split wood
creosote - n. burnt; the crusty black carbonaceous charred stuff that collects in a chimney when a fire isn't burning hot enough
polled - cattle without horns

Yay new words! Go forth and win at Scrabble!