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British farmers care for more than 70% of the total land area of the UK and produce nearly 65% of the food we eat in this country.
Agriculture in the UK is made up of many different activities, according to the region, climate, type of soil and the accessibility of resources and markets. These activities generally fall into the following broad categories:
• Arable: Production of crops for human and animal consumption and, increasingly now, crops for non-food uses (e.g. biofuels). The main crops grown here are wheat, oats, oilseed rape, sugar beet, barley and potatoes.
• Beef and sheep: Beef and lamb production from cattle and sheep is concentrated mainly in the upland areas, with weaned offspring being moved to lowland areas in preparation for being sold into the retail sector. Britain has more than one and a half million suckler cows producing calves for beef and it is one of the European Union’s biggest sheep producers, with a national flock of approximately 25 million sheep and lambs, making the UK the seventh biggest lamb producing country in the world. As well as meat, British sheep farmers produce about 70 thousand tonnes of wool
• Dairy: Dairy farms are found mostly in the western part of Britain where there is a lot of rain and grass grows well. Dairy cows graze outdoors for most of the year but are kept indoors for the winter months, where they eat silage (pickled grass) and cow cake (dried cereal). There are over 2 million cows in Great Britain, who collectively produce around 14 billion litres of fresh milk a year. Around half of this milk is processed further in order to create such products as cream, yoghurt or cheese.
• Horticulture: This refers to the specialist production of fresh produce and includes vegetables, salads, fruit, flowers and plants. The value of horticultural production to the rural economy is more than two billion pounds a year.
• Poultry: The British poultry and egg industry is seen as a leading light within the European and world markets. We are the largest producer of chicken within Europe and a leading supplier of free range, barn and organic eggs, and traditional turkeys. This is an industry that has constantly reinvented itself in order to keep up with the market, and on occasions, get ahead of it.
• Pigs: British pigs enjoy some of the highest welfare standards in the world. Pig farming is a specialised business and the major pig-producing areas in the UK are found in East Anglia, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. A significant number of UK pigs are kept outdoors.
• Organic farming: Organic farming is another method of food production, which uses lower inputs (such as pesticides and artificial fertilisers). Organic food is growing in popularity, but due to higher production costs is still generally more expensive than conventionally produced food. During 2003/4 organic sales grew by 10.2%, and organic or in-conversion land now accounts for 4% of the UK’s farmland.