Like shops and factories, a farm is a business. Like all other business it has to make money to survive. Its profits are made when the money the farmer makes by selling his or her outputs is more than is spent on the inputs. Like other business people farmers want to make a substantial profit. Most of the recent changes in farming can be explained by the farmer's desire for a good profit.

Arable farms are mainly found in the eastern side of the U.K. Here the land is lower and flatter, the soil more fertile and the climate drier and sunnier.

In Britain the location of livestock farms depends on the main animal that is being kept.

Sheep are usually found in the upland areas. They are suited to these parts as

• Sheep are hardier (tougher) than other animals, and can cope with the colder, wetter and windier conditions
• They are more surefooted than cattle, so don't mind the steep slopes
• The land certainly can't be used for arable farming

Dairy cattle are more common in the wetter west of Britain as the heavier rainfall helps in the milk production. Lowland areas are favoured as these have warmer temperatures. The south-west of England and Ayrshire in Scotland are particularly suited as the mild winters mean a longer growing season, which in turn means the farmers are less reliant on providing winter feed for the cattle.

Dairy farms are also located nearer the larger settlements. This was important in the past when transport was slower and milk needed to get to the market quickly to still be fresh. This location is less important today with refrigerated transport.

Mixed farms have both livestock and crops. They are found where farmers have good quality, fertile land that they can use for arable farming and other land which is more suited for animals. Farmers will often grow fodder crops for their animals, and so save money on livestock feed.

Intensive farms have a lot of inputs used on a small area of land. An example would be a market garden that uses a lot of chemicals, buildings, electricity and workers in a very small area of land.

Extensive farms have few inputs on a large area of land. An example is a hill sheep farm where perhaps only one farmer will look after a large number of sheep, which do not take a lot of looking after.

The Pattern of Land Use on Farms

If a farm house is located centrally in area of farmland which is evenly fertile a distinct pattern of landuse may be produced. The farmer will keep the animals and crops that need the most attention in fields that are close to the farmhouse. For example, dairy cattle will be milked twice a day will be close at hand, whereas sheep, which rarely need checking up on, will be more remote.

The same is true for crops. Strawberries and raspberries need frequent spraying, fertilising and tending so they will be close by, whilst a grain crop like barley will be planted further away.

Changes

• Mechanisation - machines take the place of many workers; also fewer horses are used and they needed a lot of looking after
• Larger farms run efficiently need fewer workers
• Workers have to be paid - the farm owner wants to make as much money as possible
• Set-aside is land the farmers are paid not to farm. It was introduced as European Union farmers were producing more crops than people needed. These extra crops then had to be stored, often at great expense. This overproduction has been reduced by farming less land.
• Set Aside also introduced to allow nature (plants, insects and animals) to recover away from intensive agriculture, and its reliance on artificial chemicals
• Diversification-non farming activities

• the amount of wheat that farmers have been able produce from an hectare of land has greatly increased. The reasons for this include

·         Increased use of fertiliser which help the growth of plants

·         Increased use of pesticides which reduce plant disease and damage from insects

·         Greater knowledge and expertise in farming

·         Guaranteed prices from the European Union means the farmers could still get a good price for their crop even if it was overproduced

·        Many hedges have been removed which meant fewer small fields and more efficient farming

Problems

A lot of modern farming involves the use of chemical fertilisers, insecticides and herbicides. The yields that farmers have been able to produce have grown enormously. However, these chemicals continue to work after they have been washed off the land into rivers and the water supply. This has led to changes in the flora and fauna of intensively farmed areas. River estuaries have suffered from the growth of weed and algae, as the levels of nitrates in the water has increased.

Governments have tackled this problem by careful monitoring of pollution levels, with fines for the worst offenders. Some farmers have chosen to go "organic", which means they do not rely on artificial chemicals. As well as having environmental benefits the farmer can charge more for the produce as the consumer is willing to pay extra for organic goods.

Some of the best quality farmland has been lost due to the growth of cities. This urban sprawl is mainly caused by new housing developments, but new industry, out of town shopping centres and multi-lane ring roads and by passes all contribute.

One solution is to build within the city in brown-field sites, although these places are not always popular as they have traffic congestion problems and lack of room for expansion.

Another is to use a green belt - an area around a city where development is meant to be restricted by law. Such schemes have only had limited success.

Gathering techniques for farming

• Interview the farmer because-he has first hand information; primary source, you can ask further questions; get plenty of detail
• Take photos of the farm -permanent record of observation
• Jot down notes, eg on to sketch/map/
• Take information from OS map because this gives you height, slope, aspect of farm; 1/25 000 map shows field boundaries-you can calculate areas of fields
• Look at old maps-you can compare field sizes/shapes with more recent maps; you can see where there has been new buildings, roads, woodland
• Look at old photos-again, you can compare

Processing techniques for farm questions

• Draw a transect –this will show relationships between land use and relief for a sample area of the farm; you can annotate to show connection between slope, soil, land use and other factors; allows you to cross reference several pieces of data; you could put a sequence of photos along the transect.
• Draw a base map of relief and rivers; place overlay on top to show land use-you can see relationships over the whole area of the farm
• Draw pie charts to show percentage of land used in two different farms; or on the same farm at two different years (only once you have put the information into percentages)
• Make up bar graphs to show hectares of land devoted to particular crops-you can compare heights of the bars and find out how important each type is. (Bar graphs are good for comparing numbers which are not percentages, eg nos of sheep; nos of machines)
• Annotate photos-you can highlight key features of the photo, which is a way of analysing the information
• Draw a labelled  sketch-you can select the points you think are valid/relevant
• Make up a table or comparison chart to look at differences between two or more farms-a table lets you collate all the data