The annual average temperature in South Ayrshire is between 8-10°c with around 10-15 days of frost during the month of January. Frost is particularly important to crop because it can destroy the flowers or shoots early in the season which stops the crop from developing. Annual temperatures affect the growth rate of plants meaning that some crops are not viable without protection e.g. greenhouses.
In South Ayrshire, the best quality land is on the coastal fringe stretching approximately 5 miles inland. Further inland and the uplands is class 4 land or worse.
Sandy soils are preferred by farmers in the West of Scotland because they are easy to cultivate and can produce good yields of a wide range of crops. In Ayrshire they are classed as
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Heavier soils cause problems for cultivation because they are easily compacted and need to be rested under grass for some time. They should not be cultivated every year. However, they can give good yields of certain crops such as grass, cereals, and oilseed rape. These soils are usually classed as class 3 or 4 land depending on climate.
Class 3 land is common in Ayrshire because of limitations caused by heavy soils and wet climate. Much of the undulating lowland (lodgement till) is class 3. Class 4 is also common in Ayrshire, here there are greater restrictions on cropping because of the heavier soil, steeper slope, and wetter climate. There is a greater risk of compaction which means the land must be rested under grass for longer than class 3 land (3 years for every 1 year cultivated for arable crops). Grass however, is excellent for improving soil structure and increasing organic matter levels.
Agriculture in South Ayrshire is influenced by the government through regulations, subsidies, and quotas. Subsidies and quotas are provided by the government to encourage new farming practices. Quotas put a limit on food production to prevent food
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Farms require skilled workers i.e. able to use machinery such as tractors, harvesters, and milking machines, as well as unskilled workers. Finding good workers could be difficult for Ayrshire farmers as agriculture is not always the most attractive future for young people who may prefer to find employment in urban areas. Compared with Scotland, South Ayrshire has a higher proportion of employment in public administration, with a small proportion employed in banking, finance and insurance affecting the GVA (Gross Value Added) for South Ayrshire.
The customer who buys the farm produce is the market. Farmers need to sell their produce to make a profit. Prices will fluctuate in response to supply and demand and prices are set by the global markets. Other countries supply crops such as wheat for a cheaper price than Britain, therefore farmers need to remain competitive. The same applies to farmers in South Ayrshire who sell their milk to large supermarket chains such as Tesco, who themselves must remain competitive.
this notion of stable supply and demand affected prices of farm commodities. “Low prices on
The necessity for machinery such as tractors and possibly diet feeders as well as grain stores or silos add to fixed costs on the farm
This soil is geographically associated with Atsion, Berryland, and Downer soils that were discussed above. Galloway series soils have a taxonomy class of mesic which is the lower level of soil taxonomy temperature scale. The distribution of the soil is through New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware, Maryland, and Delaware. The vegetation developed with the galloway soils are wooded areas that are heavily dominated by mixed oaks, sweetgum, red maple, pond pine, and loblolly pine. Major uses of the Galloway soils are cultivated crops that consist of corn, soybeans, hay, and truck crops. Loamy soil loses the quality of nutrients when it is strictly compacted because it depletes the organic matter, dispersing clay throughout the now compacted soil. Usually loamy soil can be found useful in farms and is used for its crumbly and soft conditions. Another way loamy soil can be used is for the construction of building homes. The development using this soil would be post and beam construction layering the soil within the walls to control humidity and air
Due to the moderating effect, this ecozone has long, mild summers (18 to 22°C) and cool, short winters (-3 to -12°C), with around 720 to 1000mm of precipitation, and 180 to 260 growing days annually. The Westerlies can also alter the weather quickly in this ecozone.
Agriculture plays an enormous part in having a functioning society. The farming fields in the
To really begin to understand this complex topic a person really needs to understand the basics of agricultural subsidizing. A subsidy is defined as a grant by a government to a private person or company to assist an enterprise deemed advantageous to the public (Mish, 2003). More specifically, in the agricultural industry the government provides financial assistance to producers in the farm industry in order to prevent decline in production. The government does this by providing financial assistance to farmers and by managing the cost and supply of certain commodities. There a few reasons for this. One reason is to provide assistance to family sized farm owners who have trouble competing with commercial farms. This is supposed to maintain an efficient market balance. Another reason is to control the prices of commodities and keep the global food prices low. There are two main ways that payments are made. The payments may be made directly based on historical cropping patterns on a fixed number of acres. Or they can also be made depending on current market prices. Farmer’s may be guaranteed...
To explain, Murray Goulburn, Australia’s biggest milk processor, dropped the farm gate milk price from $5.60 a kilogram of milk solids to approximately $4.75 a kilo for the whole year of 2015 to 2016. At the same time, Fonterra, the second largest milk processor, also followed suit by cutting the price by $1.91 a kilo (Neales, 2016). In the other words, the dairy farmers were forced to accept the reduction of more than 10 per cent of the milk prices for this entire year. According to Parliament of Australia (2017). The increasing of global suppliers such as Europe, the United States and New Zealand, the decreasing demand from Russian trade bans and an economic slowdown in China because of political instability seem to be the reasons for the cutting price of those processors.
The suffering farmers face due to the supermarket industry is not recognised by the industry. Instead, they refer to their price setting as putting consumers first (Richards et. al. 2013). The industry benefits from setting prices and demanding unreasonable quality without risk of reprimand or punishment from the government. Both the government and the supermarket industry gain economically from the agriculture
In the absence of government intervention, price is determined by demand and supply. The equilibrium price is where demand and supply are equal. At this point there are no forces causing the price to change. The quantity which consumers want to buy will equal the quantity which producers want to sell at the current price.
Farmers will take account of physical conditions at a local scale when considering which crops to grow. For example, the Moray coast in NE Scotland between Elgin and Lossiemouth is a rich agricultural area where winters are relatively mild and summers averaging 17oC, rainfall occurs throughout the year and is typically 600mm. There are a variety of soils but mainly glacial sandy loams on the higher ground and alluvial soils where there were once areas of open marshy conditions.
Financial factors include interest rates, credit availability, currency exchange rates, monetary and fiscal policies set by the government, net farm income and government regulated price floors on the agriculture segment. Crops/Crop Prices include planed acreage, grain export and crop prices of wheat, corn, soybeans and cotton.
...earch and extension, rural infrastructure, and market access for small farmers. Rural investments have been sorely neglected in recent decades, and now is the time to reverse this trend. Farmers in many developing countries are operating in an environment of inadequate infrastructure like roads, electricity, and communications; poor soils; lack of storage and processing capacity; and little or no access to agricultural technologies that could increase their profits and improve their livelihoods. Recent unrest over food prices in a number of countries may tempt policymakers to put the interests of urban consumers over those of rural people, including farmers, but this approach would be shortsighted and counterproductive. Given the scale of investment needed, aid donors should also expand development assistance to agriculture, rural services, and science and technology.
Perhaps the most significant impact of industrial agriculture on the soil is erosion. Though erosion is a natural process that occurs through the movement of soil by water, wind, and gravity, intensive farming acts as a catalyst. The manner in which industrial agriculture is performed makes the farmland more susceptible to erosion. Over-plowing the land removes the protective layer of plants and decaying organic matter whose root systems hold the soil in place. Soil erosion becomes problematic as a result of the slowness of soil formation. Because of the slow process of soil formation, arable lands are vulnerable to desertification or the progression of arid soil becoming barren and incapable of supporting life. Sustainable Table reports: “The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service notes that erosion is the single greatest threat to soil productivity” (Soil Quality). Furthermore, soil erosion has devastating effects on aquatic ecosystems. Erosion leads to the pollution of waterways with sediment. The addition of sediment to a waterway decreases the depth and increases turbidity. Turbidity refers to the clarity of the water; the more turbid a waterway the less light can penetrate. This poses problems to aquatic life because the less light that can penetrate the surface, the lower the capability of plant
Agriculture is a tough field to enter. Farming is no ordinary profession, nor is it cheap. With farming, comes many risks - some even life threatening. As with any other profession, equipment is needed to perform the job effectively. In this field, the equipment is very costly. The prices of the equipment, chemicals, and seed are increasing whereas the prices of the crop are steady decreasing. How are farmers supposed to make a substantial income when the prices are overwhelming? Can the government not allow a set income for farmers each year, in addition to their profit?
Soil is the most important non-renewable resource on any farm. Healthy soil is key to a good