Planting a Field Worksheet
You aim is to produce a poster that shows what choices you made and how much
money you expect to make.
Select a crop
You can choose from Peas, Potatoes, Oats, Barley or Wheat.
 Peas are cheap and grow well in all weathers. Birds, fertilisers or bugs do
not particularly affect them.
 Potatoes are cheap. They will grow well in all weathers but for best
results you need a wet summer. Birds are not interested in potatoes and
there are few bugs that eat them. Potatoes respond very well to fertiliser.
 Oats are moderately priced but make a good profit. They prefer moderate
summers and respond very well to fertilisers. Birds and Bugs can be an
issue.
 Barley is a expensive crop that sell for a high price. It doesn’t like wet
summers. Barley crops can be badly affected by birds and bugs if not
treated. It responds well to fertilisers
 Wheat is a premium crop. It is the most expensive to buy. It suffers from
birds more than any other crop and can have issues with bugs. It does not
respond as well as most other crops to fertilisers. It grows best in hot
summers and is badly affected by too much rain. Wheat has the highest
selling price of any crop.
Record on you poster your choice of crop. You teacher will give you a crop info
card that will tell you the cost of your seeds and the expected selling price.
Record these on your poster. The card also contains information about how your
crop is affected by the weather, as you do not know what the weather is going to
be you cannot use that information yet, keep it safe you will need it later.
Fertiliser
Decide if you want to fertilise your field and if so how. Use the Fertiliser card to
help you decide. Record your choice on your poster adding the cost of any
fertiliser to your costs. Now calculate your new expected price and record it on
you poster.
Effect of Birds
Get the Effect of Birds card for you crop. It tells you how birds will affect your
selling price and what you can do about it. Decide if you are going to do anything
about birds and if so what. Record what you have decided on you poster. Add any
money you have to spend to what you have already spent. Now calculate your
new expected price and record it on your poster.
Bugs
Now you have a difficult decision to make. Bugs will reduce you selling price.
Using a pesticide can reduce this loss. Unfortunately, if you use a pesticide you
will not be able to sell you crop as organic. Get the Bugs card and use it to decide
what you are going to do. Record your decision along with any costs on your
poster. Again calculate your new expected selling price.
Profit
You can now work out your final selling price. You will have to do this three
times, once of each type of summer. Remember you can increase this price by
20% if you have not used any pesticide or chemical fertiliser. Now that you know
the selling price for each of the three types of summer you can work out your
profit by subtracting your costs. Record these profits on your poster. Finally
calculate your percentage profit by dividing your profit by your costs and
multiplying the result by 100. Again you will need to do this for all three types of
summer and record the results on your poster.
Review
What maths have you used?
What would you do differently next time?
If you had more fields how would that change your decisions?