farming systems - cpb-eu-west-2-juc1ugur1qwqqqo4 ... · pdf fileectives what is a farming...

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Farming Systems


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What is a farming system?

What different types of farming are there?

What factors affect farming in the UK?


Farming systems involve inputs, processes and outputs. Other systems do too:

Look at this Jam-making system

INPUTS

PROCESSES

OUTPUTS

Things you need to supply to the system, e.g. fruit, sugar, labour.

Things you do to the inputs, e.g. boiling, stirring.

The results – what you make in the end. In this case, jam!

Inputs, processes and outputs


Farming system


Inputs

labour

capital

seeds

animals

fertilizers

pesticides

Processes

ploughing

sowing

spraying

adding fertilizer

harvesting

grazing

milking

Outputs

wheat

potatoes

barley

seeds

crop waste

milk

hides

wool

eggsprofit

Farming system


“I got up at 5:30 and fed

the dogs. I took them up the fell on the quad bike to check on the ewes. The grass is very short at the moment, and the ewes looked a bit thin, so I took them some hay up in the Landrover. I spent the afternoon mending the fences in the lower field.”

A cereal farmer

“I got up early and was in the

farm office by 8:30. The fertilizer I had ordered arrived at 9:00, and I made sure it was safe in the barn before I went to the tractor shed. I spent the rest of the day ploughing, ready for the wheat to be sown next week. Angus used the other tractor for sowing oilseed rape in the next field.”

An upland sheep farmer

A day in the life of…


Farming system


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OUTPUTS

PROCESSES

INPUTS

A Dairy Farm

80 Cows10 tonnes of fertilizer

30 tonnes of feed

Vet bills 65 hectares of pastureLabour

Spreading fertilizer

Making silage Milking

Feeding and tending cows

600,000 litres of milk per

yearCalvesManure

An example of a real farm system


What are the different types of farming?


ArablePastoral

CommercialSubsistence

IntensiveExtensive



Subsistence farmers grow food for themselves and their families.

Their farms are usually small and they do not have enough money to invest in chemicals or machinery.

Subsistence farmers usually live in LEDCs (Less Economically Developed Countries).

Commercial farmers sell their produce.

Their farms are usually larger, and more modern.

In practice, most farmers sell or trade at least part of their produce – there are few true subsistence farmers.

Subsistence and Commercial


Intensive farming involves getting the maximum possible yield from the land. This means putting in a lot of inputs.

Rice production in the Ganges valley needs lots of labour and a good irrigation system.Tomato and pepper growing in the San Joaquin Valley, California uses expensive greenhouses and other equipment.

Extensive farming involves using very few inputs. It usually needs a lot of land instead.

Upland sheep farming in Cumbria.Prairie wheat farming in the Canadian prairies.

Intensive and Extensive


Commercial or subsistence?


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Accessibility to the market and labour supply

The main factors affecting the distribution of farming in the UK are:

Climate

Relief (shape of the land) and altitude

Soil type

What affects the distribution of farming?


The climate of a particular place affects what types of plant grow well there. The important factors are:

Hours of sunshine

Temperature

Rainfall

Cereal crops need lots of sunshine and quite low rainfall.

Tropical fruits need high temperatures and lots of rain.

Grass for pastoral farming grows best in cool, wet climates.

However, there are ways of beating climate. Greenhouses can be used to grow crops that need high temperatures, and irrigation systems can be used to overcome lack of rainfall.

The effect of climate


Steep land is much harder to farm.

Water drains downhill, taking soil and nutrients with it –most upland soil is thin and not very fertile.

Steep slopes make it difficult to use machinery.

There are ways of making farming on steep gradients possible.

Most steep land is used for pastoral farming.

The effect of relief


Soil varies greatly from place to place, and affects what can grow. Here are some important factors:

Depth – plants grow better in deep soils.

Fertility – plants need soils with enough nutrients in them.This depends on the amount of humus (organic matter).

Texture – soils contain sand, silt and clay. The amount of each affects the soil’s ability to retain nutrients and moisture.

pH (or acidity) also affects how well plants grow.

Arable farming needs deep, fertile, well drained soil.Poorer soils are fine for pasture land.

Fertilizers and other chemicals can be added to improve soil fertility and pH.

The effect of soil


Economic factors also affect the distribution of farming.

Farmers that produce perishable goods, such as milk, strawberries and eggs have to farm close to people who buy these products. Otherwise the food would spoil before reaching the consumer.

Farmers must also be able to employ enough skilled labour to run their farms.

These factors mean that it is sometimes difficult to farm in remote areas.

Transport improvements are greatly reducing these problems, especially in more economically

developed countries.

The effects of market and labour


Plenary

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