1. Extensive Commercial Farming
Great Plains of
America and Canada

2. Aims
Describe and explain the main characteristics of the farming system
Evaluate the changes which have taken place in this farming system.

3. Introduction
Extensive commercial farming is a system of farming that is carried out on very large holdings with a high reliance on technologies.
Relatively low yields are compensated for by the very large area under cultivation.
Decisions taken by the farmer, or the corporation, are of great importance.

4. Location factors Copy tese down! Lots of available land Land is cheap
Climate
Population is low

6. Location

10. Extensive farming (American Plains)
Rainfall decreases
westwards estward Winter temps decrease
Length of growing season decreases
Farm size increases
Cattle Ranching Wheat farming
on western prairies on central + eastern prairies

11. History (1)
The Great Plains had been categorised as a desert by early explorers and then taken from the Indians to create vast open-range cattle ranches.
In the 19th century early settlers believed that the climate had changed for the better and that ploughing the Plains would literally increase the rainfall to the amount required to grow wheat.
Another major incentive was that the settlers were given 64 ha of free land.

12. Shelter
belts
Main road/ highways
Original 64ha plot

13. Settlement pattern: Low population density, planned grid iron pattern,
linear settlements, hierarchical pattern of small farms, small towns
and occasionally a large service town.

14. History (2)
Many of the early homesteads did not survive because of recurring, prolonged droughts.
Surviving farmers were allowed to increase their holdings and improved agricultural technology allowed them to cope, initially, with the cycles of drought and wet years that followed.

15. Improved Agricultural Technologies
Remember this is the early twentieth century!
Barbed wire for fences
Pumps and
windmills
New types of steel plough
New stains of fast-growing spring wheat, imported from Steppes of Russia

16. Effects on the landscape
In south-east Wyoming many farmsteads were bought up by more prosperous individuals or companies and turned into large cattle ranches.
A major problem in the 1920s and 1930s was accelerated erosion of soil and wind, which culminated in the Dust Bowl

19. Effects on the people
The Dust Bowl led to rural depopulation and as a result farms became larger, that is more extensive. Irrigation of the semi-arid western areas of the Great Plains began.

20. Late 20th Century
1) The rate of rural depopulation continued to increase.
2) Farms became extremely large.
6) Irrigated farming expanded rapidly, resulting in the rapid depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer
3) The dependence on agricultural technologies expanded.
5) More land was brought into production
4) Output soared as new strains of wheat were developed.

21. Tackling Soil Erosion Contour ploughing Afforestation Fallow period
Intercropping and strip cultivation

22. Grain silos next to railway for easy distribution of huge quantities of high value, perishable produce.

24. Contour Ploughing
As a result of ploughing up-and down the steep slope, runoff water has concentrated in the furrows and eroded the soil. Consequently runoff might take fertiliser and seed with it
Ploughing and planting in rows across the steep slope, prevents as much runoff and consequently prevents soils erosion on the slope

25. Trees planted to act as windbreaks to protect crops.
Afforestation
Trees planted to act as windbreaks to protect crops.

26. Fallow Period
An area of land is not cultivated (left fallow) for one or more years.

27. Intercropping and strip cultivation
Different crops often planted in strips - harvested at different times - helps protect the soil.

28. Strip cultivation: limits soil erosion

29. Farming in North Dakota Today (1)
As the smaller family farms are sold off, larger farming businesses continue to expand and to prosper, but the farming landscape as a whole is changing.
New crops have been introduced
e.g.: sunflowers

30. Farming in North Dakota Today (2)
Some land has been taken out of wheat production.
Hutterite colony produces potatoes, eggs and rears pigs on 1600ha communal farm.
Elsewhere a 640ha holding was reseeded with native grasses on which 500 bison
now graze.

31. Farming in North Dakota Today (3)
Part time farming and the dependence on farm cooperatives has increased.
Some farms have become organic, while still operating on a large scale.
The rural population continues to decline, and this is marked by the presence in the landscape of abandoned homesteads and of schools (e.g: Circle)

32. Farming in North Dakota Today (4)
Smaller cattle ranchers have doubled their carrying capacity by careful management of their prairie pasture:
by fencing it into paddocks and rotating their use for grazing (cell grazing).

33. Using your glossary list the Key Words which describe this type of farming system
Commercial
Sedentary
Arable
Advanced
High technology
Extensive
High output per worker