Grain Belt: Difference between revisions
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The map depicts the current location of the Corn Belt as per USDA production information. The historic definition starts in central Indiana and Illinois (but not the extreme northern and southern areas of those states; this roughly corresponds to the "prairie peninsula"), through Iowa, with a fringe of Nebraska. |
The map depicts the current location of the Corn Belt as per USDA production information. The historic definition starts in central Indiana and Illinois (but not the extreme northern and southern areas of those states; this roughly corresponds to the "prairie peninsula"), through Iowa, with a fringe of Nebraska. |
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==History== |
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In the era from 1860 to 1982, new agricultural technology transformed the Corn Belt from a mixed crop-and-livestock farming area to a highly specialized cash-grain farming area. While the landscape was greatly modified, the family farm remained the normal form. Its acreage doubled, as farmers bought out their neighbors (who then moved to nearby towns). After 1970 increased crop and meat production required an export outlet, but global recession and a strong dollar reduced exports, depressed prices below costs of production, and created serious problems even for the best farm managers<ref> Hart (1986)</ref> |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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Revision as of 08:35, 29 May 2010
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2009) |
Grain Belt
The Grain Belt is an informal name for a United States region composed of the prairie-region states across the Midwest.
This region produces a substantial amount of the world's grain and soybeans.
The Grain Belt area includes most if not all of
The Grain Belt includes part of
Corn Belt
The Corn Belt is a region of the Midwestern United States where corn has traditionally been the predominant crop. Geographic definitions of the region vary. Typically it is defined to include Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, and Missouri.[2] As of 2008, the top four corn-producing states were Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, and Minnesota, together accounting for more than half of the corn grown in the United States.[3] The Corn Belt also sometimes is defined to include parts of South Dakota, North Dakota, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Kentucky.[1] The region is characterized by relatively level land and deep, fertile soils, high in organic matter.[2]
The map depicts the current location of the Corn Belt as per USDA production information. The historic definition starts in central Indiana and Illinois (but not the extreme northern and southern areas of those states; this roughly corresponds to the "prairie peninsula"), through Iowa, with a fringe of Nebraska.
History
In the era from 1860 to 1982, new agricultural technology transformed the Corn Belt from a mixed crop-and-livestock farming area to a highly specialized cash-grain farming area. While the landscape was greatly modified, the family farm remained the normal form. Its acreage doubled, as farmers bought out their neighbors (who then moved to nearby towns). After 1970 increased crop and meat production required an export outlet, but global recession and a strong dollar reduced exports, depressed prices below costs of production, and created serious problems even for the best farm managers[4]
See also
- The Breadbasket
- Midwest
- Black Earth Provinces (Russian language equivalent of Grain Belt)
Canadian grain production regions
- Canadian prairies, Canada's 'Breadbasket'
- Palliser's Triangle, Canada's semi-arid grain production region.
Further reading
- J. L. Anderson. Industrializing the Corn Belt: Agriculture, Tech�nology, and Environment, 1945-1972 (2009) 238 pp. ISBN 978-0-87580-392-0
- Bogue, Allan. From Prairie to Corn Belt: Farming on the Illinois and Iowa Prairies in the Nineteenth Century (1963) excerpt and text search
- Cayton, Andrew, et al. eds. The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia (2006) excerpt and text search
- Hudson, John C. Making the Corn Belt: A Geographical History of Middle-Western Agriculture (1994)
- Power, Richard Lyle. Planting Corn Belt Culture: The Impress of the Upland Southerner and Yankee in the old Northwest (1953)
- Snapp, Roscoe R. Beef Cattle Their Feeding and Management in the Corn Belt States (1950)
- Wallace, Henry Agard. Henry A. Wallace's Irrigation Frontier: On the Trail of the Corn Belt Farmer (1909) 1991 edition edited by Richard Lowitt, and Judith Fabry
References
- ^ a b http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2007/Online_Highlights/Ag_Atlas_Maps/Crops_and_Plants/Field_Crops_Harvested/07-M163.asp
- ^ a b Corn Belt, Encyclopedia Britannica Online
- ^ USDA State Factsheets
- ^ Hart (1986)
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