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Britain is very much a land of two halves - either side of the Pennines. The land on the East is often flat, and of good quality - grades 1 & 2, and thus good for arable farming. Here grows much of our grain, vegetables and soft fruit. The West is predominantly grade 3 & 4 land, fit mainly for pasture growing, enabling sheep and cattle to graze. The Moorland in between is Grade 5 land - very poor and hard to work.
From the aerial photo of Britain on right, we can see that too much of our soil is being lost into the sea. That will never come back. It is an indictment of the way we treat our land - or rather soil. Soilscape App to examine soils in England & Wales
Our countryside represents hundreds of years of farming practices. By knowing what we have done in the past can give us help in what we could do in the future. Those idyllic countryside paintings - like Constable's 'The Hay Wain', depict a view that is comforting to many in towns and cities, but does not really reflect the hard work of everyday life in the countryside.
UK after rain. East side light soil washed to North Sea, West side dark brown peat washed to Irish Sea
You will see from the map that there is relatively little 'mixed' farming on mainland Britain - although a high proportion in Northern Ireland. This means that most mainland farms are EITHER arable OR pasture - not a mixture of both - often considered a more sustainable form of farming. The EU encouraged many farms in 1990s to dig up their pastures, chop down their hedges and go arable.
Most analyses suggest that our climate is and will be good for forests, pastures, fruit and vegetables. We can easily grow hundreds of different sorts of apples, but usually our supermarkets carry only a few varieties - often from abroad. So why don't we invest more in this land with over 50% grass/grazing?
In recent years there is talk about planting more trees, but how much could that contribute to reduce our global warming potential? (Forestry Commission Research)
The UK has as much 'rough grazing' land as the whole of the rest of Europe. Rough grazing is uncultivated grassland that is found on the mountains, hills, moors and heaths of the UK. For the most part it is "unimproved" receiving no fertiliser and suffering from difficulties such as poor drainage, steep slopes and physical obstructions. Rough grazing covers approximately 5.6 million hectares, about 23% of the UK land area - equivalent to all the rest of Europe's rough grazing. Is this because of our challenging geography? In part yes. But all of it? It is also because European farming has continued to invest in hard land - much to UK criticism. Quite simply they make more use of their land. Macauley Institute.
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