Ever wondered what’s growing in farmers’ fields? Here are 5b common crops to look out for
Fields of golden wheat rippling in a summer breeze, the sight of acre after acre of ripening barley or the rumbling sound of combine harvesters, carried on the still night air as farmers work late to gather in their crops…
What is arable farming?
Very simply an arable farm is a farm that grows crops. The image of British arable farming can be a romantic one but growing crops for food is big business and its importance to the UK economy can often be overlooked. The word arable can be traced way back to the Latin word arare which means simply ‘to plough’; and centuries later we still depend on soil that can be tilled and cultivated productively to provide us with our crops.
Today, cereals alone account for about 15% of all agricultural land in the UK. We are also one of the biggest producers of cereal and oilseed crops in the EU. Cereals differ in many ways but they all have one thing in common – they need plenty of moisture and sunshine.
6 common crops arable farmers grow
Oilseed rape
The bright yellow flowers of oilseed rape became a familiar springtime sight in this country from the early 1970s onwards. Forty years later, it’s hard to imagine the British countryside without them. But it’s after the flowers have gone that the crop earns its keep. When the pods dry out and turn brown, it’s time to harvest the tiny black seeds inside.
Wheat
Wheat is easily the number one arable crop in the UK. It’s widely grown, covering about five million acres and producing a national yield of about 15 million tonnes every year. It’s best known for use in milling to produce flour for bread, cakes and biscuits. But about half the annual yield is used as an ingredient in animal feed and some is exported.
Barley
Barley ripens more quickly than many other cereals and is much hardier in heatwaves or cold weather than wheat. The ears are surrounded by long bristles (or awns) that can look like whiskers. When the ears ripen they hang downwards on soft stems. Malting barley is crucial in beer-making and whisky production.
Oats
Most oats are sown in the autumn months and although the grain is nutritious, when it’s milled into flour it lacks gluten, so a lot ends up as animal feed, although some of the annual harvest is used in popular foods such as breakfast cereals, biscuits and even haggis. In the field, oats are easy to spot by their loosely branched open heads.
Rye
This is the new kid on the block compared with long-established crops such as wheat and barley. It’s thought rye was probably a weed originally, but as agriculture spread to cooler regions with poorer soil, the plant was cultivated and developed to add to the harvest. It’s particularly well suited to northern England and East Anglia.
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