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Wheat

Rice

Sugar Cane

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More than half of the land in Australia is owned by farmers.

They produce nearly all the food in Australia.

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Where there is enough water, farmers grow wheat, barley, rice, sugar cane, fruit and vegetables.

This wheat field is near Perth.

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The wheat growing area near Perth is called the WheatbeltWheatbeltWheatbeltWheatbelt.

More than 25,000 farms in Australia grow wheat.

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First, the farmer ploughs his field.

Then the wheat seeds are planted using a seed drill pulled behind a tractor.Sam

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The wheat grows until it’s ready to be harvested.

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A combine harvester cuts the wheat so that the stalks are left behind in the field.

The wheat grain is blown into a container pulled by a tractor.

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The wheat grain is stored in big containers until it’s ready to go to the factory.

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Wheat is used to make flour which is used to make bread, noodles, biscuits, cakes, breakfast cereals and pasta.

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This map shows where Australian farmers grow and harvest rice.

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Australian rice farmers prepare their land by building banks of soil around their rice fields and soaking the ground until it turns into soft mud.

Rice needs a lot of water to grow.

channels of water

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Before the seed can be sown, it’s soaked in water for 24 hours then the water is allowed to drain away for 24 hours. This helps a tiny shoot to grow from the seed.

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The rice seeds are usually sown in October.

Some farmers use a tractor that pulls a seed drill. The seeds drop out of the seed drill into the muddy soil.

Most Australian farmers drop the rice seeds from a plane like this one.

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From October to February, while the rice plants are growing, the rice fields are kept watered so that the plants are growing in 5cm to 25cm of water.

Once the seed is sown, it slowly settles in the soft mud where it grows roots and leaves.

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In Australia, the rice fields are called paddocks.

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When the rice grain is almost ready, no more water is let into the fields.

Then the ground is left to dry out so that harvesting can start in the Australian autumn.

The water that is already in the fields is used up by the rice plants.

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These combine harvesters are harvesting the crop.

The grain that is harvested from the crop is called paddy rice.

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Once the paddy rice has been harvested its taken by truck to to be stored in large rice storage bins.

Then the rice is taken to the mill where the hard protective husk that covers the grain is removed.

Without its husk, the brown rice can be put into packets ready to send to the shops.

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Some of the brown rice is milled gently to turn it into white rice.

Australian rice is sold in shops and supermarkets as SunRice. It’s also sent to many different countries around the world.

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Once the rice crop has been harvested, the farmers use the same damp fields to plant another crop such as winter wheat.

Then, when the winter wheat is harvested, they sow rice again.

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Australia often has drought and drought means that there’s no water to spare. If there’s no water, there’s no rice.

Every year the government decides how much water farmers will be allowed to use.

If it’s a bad year the rice farmers have to be very careful with their water.

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Rice Krispies are made from rice.

In Australia the same breakfast cereal is called Rice Bubbles.

Did you know…………………… ?Did you know…………………… ?Did you know…………………… ?Did you know…………………… ?

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Almost all of Australia’s sugar canesugar canesugar canesugar cane is grown in Queensland. Can you guess what it’s made into?

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Sugar cane is a type of grass.

It grows around 6 metres tall and as it grows, its stalks get thicker until they are around 5cm thick.

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This is sugar cane growing on a farm.

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Sugar is made from the juice that Sugar is made from the juice that Sugar is made from the juice that Sugar is made from the juice that is squeezed out of the plant’s is squeezed out of the plant’s is squeezed out of the plant’s is squeezed out of the plant’s waxy stalks.waxy stalks.waxy stalks.waxy stalks.

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When sugar cane is ready for harvesting, the leaves are burned off by setting the fields alight. Then the sugar cane has to be cut quickly before the juice inside the stalks (the cane) dries out.

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Sugar cane is harvested from May to December.

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Queensland’s sugar cane railways take the cane to the sugar cane factory where sugar is made from the juice in the canes.

The trains are very long!

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The train takes the sugar cane to the factory where the cane will be used to make sugar.

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The cane is emptied into a shredder and crushed so that the juice in the stalks is released.

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The juice is collected and, after a long journey through the machinery in the sugar mill, it’s turned into sugar.

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