Example question

Below is a typical exam question:

Look at these three maps of mainland Britain and answer the question that follows:

Describe the influence of relief and climate on the pattern of both hill sheep farming and arable farming in mainland Britain.

Question 1

Can you remember what is meant by relief and climate?

Can you remember what is involved in hill sheep farming and arable farming?

Happening Hint

Farmers are affected by physical and human factors when making decisions on the type of farm they can run.

This revision bite should help you to answer these types of exam questions.

Factors affecting farming

Physical factors (or natural inputs)

Human factors (or economic/political inputs)

Farmers can also choose to run different types of farm (using different processes) with different outputs. The diagram that follows shows the hill sheep farming system:

The Hill Sheep Farming System

Question 2

Can you do the same sort of diagram for arable farming?

The Answer

Your diagram should look like this :

The Arable Farming System

Examiner's Note

You will need to know the classification of farming types:

Check that you also know the meaning of the following farming terms:

arable farming, pastoral farming, market gardening, intensive farming, extensive farming, subsistence farming, commercial farming.

Question 3

Look at the following farming photographs.

Try to identify which farming system they show.

a)

b)

The Answer

a) Typical arable farm (arable + extensive + commercial)

b) Typical pastoral farm (pastoral + extensive)

Hill sheep farming is concentrated in the north and west of mainland Britain because the sheep can cope with the steep slopes on the mountains (land over 200m) and the grass that they eat will grow well in the wet weather (over 1000 mm of precipitation). The colder temperatures will not bother them too much because they have thick wool coats.

Arable farming is concentrated in the south and east of mainland Britain because crops need lower, flatter land (below 200m) for ploughing and harvesting using machines. The east is also drier (under 750 mm of precipitation) and warmer (mostly +16°C) which will bring more sunshine for ripening the crop and dry weather for harvesting.

To help your revision further. Make a list of the key terms used in this Bite, and then try to write out a definition for each one.

Now try a Test Bite