Extensive farming

Extensive farming most commonly means raising sheep and cattle in areas with low agricultural productivity, but includes large-scale growing of wheat, barley, cooking oils and other grain crops in areas like the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia.

Nomadic herding is an extreme example of extensive farming, where herders move their animals to use feed from occasional rainfalls.

Extensive farming is found in the mid-latitude sections of most continents, as well as in desert regions where water for cropping is not available.

In 1957, most parts of Western Australia had pastures so poor that only one sheep to the square mile could be supported.

[1] Just as the demand has led to the basic division of cropping and pastoral activities, these areas can also be subdivided depending on the region's rainfall, vegetation type and agricultural activity within the area and the many other parentheses related to this data.