Free range denotes a method of farming husbandry where the animals, for at least part of the day, can roam freely outdoors, rather than being confined in an enclosure for 24 hours each day.
On many farms, the outdoors ranging area is fenced, thereby technically making this an enclosure, however, free range systems usually offer the opportunity for the extensive locomotion and sunlight that is otherwise prevented by indoor housing systems. Free range may apply to meat, eggs or dairy farming.
Commercial free range hens in Scotland
Baby free range chicken in the hand of a person in Ishwarganj Upazila, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
A small flock of mixed free-range chickens being fed outdoors
Free range ducks in Hainan Province, China
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 production. The name is used for specialized units such as arable farms, vegetable farms, fruit farms, dairy, pig and poultry farms, and land used for the production of natural fiber, 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 at sea.
An aerial photo of the Borgboda farm in Saltvik, Åland
Typical plan of a medieval English manor, showing the use of field strips
A farmer harvesting crops with mule-drawn wagon, 1920s, Iowa, US
Farmland in the United States. The round fields are due to the use of center pivot irrigation