Match the items on the right to the items on the left.

Read the following text. Give the Ukrainian equivalents to the words in bold.

Farming as a System

Farming can be classified many ways according to what takes place on that farm. The list below contains some of the major types:

Organic farming is farming that takes place without the use of chemicals.

Intensive farming is one that has high inputs of capital and/or labour. The idea is to maximise the amount of produce gained from a unit area of land.

Extensive farming has low levels of input of labour or money and produces a low yield per unit area of land (e.g. Grain farming in the Prairies)

Commercial farming is when a farmer produces food for sale.

Subsistence farming is where most of the food produced is to be eaten by the farmers and little is left over for sale.

Arable farms produce crops.

Pastoral farms rear animals.

Any farm can be viewed as a system, with inputs, throughputs (or processes), outputs and feedback.

Inputs can be divided into two groups.

Physical inputs are naturally occurring things such as water, raw materials and the land.

Human or cultural inputs are things like money, labour, and skills.

Processes or Throughputs are the actions within the farm that allow the inputs to turn into outputs. Processes could include things such as milking, harvesting and shearing.

Outputs can be negative or positive, although they are usually the latter. Negative outputs include waste products and soil erosion. The positive outputs are the finished products, such as meat, milk and eggs, and the money gained from the sale of those products.

Feedback is what is put back into the system. The main two examples of this are money, from the sale of the outputs, and knowledge, gained from the whole manufacturing process. This knowledge could then be used to make the product better or improve the efficiency of the processes.

Fill in the blanks.

Arable, pastoral, mixed or organic

Subsistence or commercial

Intensive or extensive

9. Complete the table using the items:

Read the text about farming types in the UK.

Farming Types in Britain

Farming in Britain is shaped by the country’s membership in the European Union (EU) which the UK joined in 1973. All the 27 countries that make up the EU have to operate by the same set of rules for farming known as the Common Agricultural Policy.

The main types of farming that you would find in the UK are arable, dairying and hill farming. Many farms are actually mixing in an attempt to make more money. Most farming in Britain tends to be intensive although some of the hill farms of Wales and Scotland could be described as extensive. All of them are commercial. Organic farming represents around 4% of the farmed area and is based upon the concept of sustainability utilising the farm's own resources.

One more farm type is market gardening. This is the growing of vegetables and fruits, usually in huge greenhouses. Often the biggest requirement of market gardening is the transport routes needed to take the products to shops and supermarkets for sale. Often products have to be sold within 24 hours of being produced.

In the UK there are approximately 300,000 active farms with an average size of around 57 hectares, much larger than the European average size of approximately 20 hectares. However the UK's high average size is swelled by the impact of Scotland where the average farm size is over 100 hectares. In England average size is around 50 hectares. For Wales and Northern Ireland, sizes are smaller at around 40 hectares.

Despite the relatively large number of farms in the UK, the majority of the agricultural area is farmed by a much smaller number of farmers. Some 41,000 farms (~14% of the total) are larger than 100 hectares and account for over 65% of the agricultural area.

11. a) Read the Bradley Farm Profile.