SEARCH RESULTS 40 hits

A rough check on a ferment. If the drink is not as strong as the sugar suggested, the yeast ran out of food or something else ate the sugar. See Cider And Perry.

Anything more and the extra sugar sits at the bottom of the jar. For a simple syrup, dissolve equal weights of sugar and water and stop there.

The quickest way to plan a bed or a border. Onions at 10 cm square give 100 a square metre; potatoes at 30 cm give 11.

How much feed you get back for every kilo you put in. A higher number means more feed per kilo of meat, and a bigger feed bill.

Concrete gains most of its strength in the first week. Keep it damp for the first three days and cover it if it is hot or frosty.

A first check on cable size. Always follow local wiring rules and derating factors.

The practical version of the stocking rate. It tells you when to move the herd on, and how long a paddock lasts.

A foundation that is too shallow gets lifted by a hard frost and pushes the building out of square. See Building A Step.

How long money takes to double, and how long a debt takes to double as well. Rough, and right to within a few months at normal rates.

For checking that a caustic solution is strong enough, and for understanding why a wash and a rinse need different strengths.

Order the bar in lengths that avoid joints in the worst places, and bend a hook at the ends. See Mixing Concrete.

Sound, water, light and radio. Also the drum length of a pipe organ and the spacing of ripples on a pond.

For beans, beetroot, carrots and onions sown in a drill in a bed. Sowing three seeds in a station and taking the best one is often more reliable.

Warm the milk to 45 C, cool to 40 C, add the starter and keep it warm. See Yoghurt And Kefir.

For working out the cost of a job and whether a machine is worth keeping. Idle burn is a surprising share of a small engine's fuel.

For working out whether a supply will carry a heater, a welder or a three-phase motor. See Three Phase And Single Phase.

The number that shows whether the land or the cow is the limiting factor, and the reason a good dairy farmer looks at the forage first.

A condition score tells you more than a weight, and it takes ten seconds. Handle the animal and look at the hooks, the hips, the tailhead and the ribs.

A boiling thermometer is worth the money. Overcook the jam and it goes tough, undercook it and it runs. See Jam Jelly And Preserves.

A field with one square end, a yard that narrows, the cross section of a ditch bank, a hipped roof panel.

The rule that lets you scale up a gas reaction - a bottle of gas and a cylinder of gas behave the same way.

Divide the fence length by the post spacing, then add one for the end post. Round up to the next whole post. Add strainer posts at corners and gates separately.

Average feed analysis across different batches, average yield across fields of different sizes, average price across different volumes sold.

The way to know if your cider is fermenting and if your wine is ready. Sugar is the fuel for the yeast, and the falling reading tells you it is running out. See Cider And Perry.

Condensation on the roof sheets means the warm moist air is meeting a cold surface and there is no way out. Vent the building at both ends. See Venting The Workshop.

Margin is measured against the selling price, markup against the cost. They are not the same number and confusing them is how people lose money. A 50% markup is a 33% margin.

Before you harvest, work out where the crop is going to go, and whether the bin will hold it all.

How a milk, a must, or a soil stays at a steady pH while things are added to it. A brine is a buffer, and so is the lime in a soil.

Why a soft bag of sand and a hard block hit differently at the same speed, and why you roll with a fall. Doubling the speed doubles the momentum and quadruples the stopping force.

To work out a pulley size for a different speed, and to check whether a driven machine is running at the speed it was designed for.

For ordering felt, tiles, battens and underlay. Always order the underlay and never skimp on it.

Comparing a field of grass with a field of hay, and working out how much feed a field really gives. The green weight is mostly water.

For checking whether there is enough hay for the winter, and for working out how many bales to book in.

For sizing a solar array for the electric fence, the lights or a small freezer. Multiply the panel area by the irradiance you can count on, not the best case.

A warm kitchen gives you a fast loaf and a sour one. The dough temperature at mixing decides how long you wait, not the clock on the wall.

The number that decides what you plant next year. Always leave the fixed costs out of this figure and add them back at the whole-farm level, or you will chase the wrong crop.

Mould on the same corner every winter is not bad luck. Look for the cold spot with a thermal camera or the back of your hand.

Work out the fill for the area you are about to spray, then measure the product with a proper jug. Over-application is expensive, illegal and dangerous.

A 1:5:5 feed doubles in 4-6 hours at 24 C. A 1:10:10 takes 8-12 hours and tastes less sour.

The number that decides whether a second machine, a bigger one, or hiring it in makes sense.