Y10 Arable Farm in East Anglia

click here to go to Lynford Farm – this is a link to all the information on Lynford farm from the web site FACE.

   This is the placemark for the farm and should also open an overlay of the farm showing field sizes and the boundary of the farm.

When we are focusing on East Anglia remember it is a region and includes the counties of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and the northern part of Essex.  It is one of the most important arable farming regions in the UK mostly because of its physical advantages

Arable farming is INTENSIVE(farms can be over 200 hectares and are highly mechanised using combine harvesters and specialised machinery – see the outputs of Lynford farm  for how much this machinery costs) and COMMERCIAL (mostly the crops are cash crops sold for profits to the local mills who use it for food production for humans and animal feed.  Sugar beet is produced in the UK and is sent to UK refineries such as silver spoon, not to be confused with sugar cane which supplies Tate and Lyle.  Vegetables are sent to canning and freezing factories.

Physical Factors

There are a number of physical factors that makes arable farming in this area

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.

Human  Factors

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 rape and linseed.

Changes to Arable Farms