Arable Farming Case Study for June 2012 GCSE Exam

Information on the Arable Farming Case Study for revision for the June 2012 Key Themes Exam.

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  • Created by: Sarah
  • Created on: 16-05-12 09:19

Arable Farming

The region of East Anglia includes the counties of |Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and the North of Essex. It is one of the most important arable farming regions in the UK due to its Physical and Human advantages.

Arable farming is Intensive, farms can be over 200 hectares and are highly merchandised using combine harvesters and specialised machinery, it is also Commersial, there are mostly cash crops sold to local mills for profit. They use it for human and animal food production

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Physical Factors for Location

Relief:

The land is very flat and is mostly 100m above sea level this makes it easy to use machinery and roads and railways have easily been constructed.

Soils:

 Mostly fertile boulder clays that were laid down during the last ice age are good for growing cereals, sugar beet and potatoes. Loam soils are good for growing vegetables, fruit and cereals and retain the plant foods and moisture. Waterlogged soils are good for grazing cattle for dairying and the infertile soils in this region such as Breckland can be planted with trees such as pine which can be harvested.

Climate:

 The area tends to be in the rain shadow and rainfall is mostly in the region of 500-700mm per year. There are long warm summers with average temperatures of 17 degrees and long hours of sunshine in the summer which allow sufficient crop growth and the ability to ripen cereal crops.

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Human Factors for Location

Location:

It is situated in the east of England to the North of London which means that it is close to a good market for the produce. There is a good motorway network to the most densely populated regions of the UK and also a good east coast railway line which means rappid transport of produce (this is important with perishable food stuff)

Politics:

Since joining the EU many of the farmers in East Anglia have benefited from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as they have recieved subsidies for growing certain types of cereal crops such as wheat, oilseed **** and linseed.

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