Agricultural Case Studies in Developed Countries: Netherlands and USA
Senior 3 · Geography
Agricultural Case Studies in Developed Countries: Netherlands and USA
Lesson 4 of 5
30 min
Let's begin
In 2022 the United States had about 1.9 million farms covering 880 million acres (about 356 million hectares), 39% of all its land, and they sold farm products worth US$543 billion (USDA, Census of Agriculture 2022). Fewer than 2% of American workers have jobs on farms (USDA Economic Research Service), yet the country is the world's largest producer of maize and one of the largest exporters of food. Its farms are huge, specialised and run like businesses. Where does each crop grow, and why there?
Definition
Agricultural region (belt): a large area where one type of farming or one crop is dominant because the climate, soils and markets suit it. Commercial farming: farming to sell the produce for profit. Specialisation: concentrating on one or a few crops or animals.
| Feature | The United States |
|---|---|
| Location | North America, between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, Canada to the north and Mexico to the south (plus Alaska and Hawaii) |
| Area | About 9.8 million km², about 370 times the size of Rwanda |
| Population | About 340 million (US Census Bureau estimate, 1 July 2024) |
| Relief | The Western Cordillera (Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, Cascades) in the west; the vast, flat Great Plains and Central Lowlands in the middle; the Appalachian Mountains in the east; coastal plains along the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico |
| Drainage | The Mississippi–Missouri system drains the interior to the Gulf of Mexico; the Great Lakes in the north-east |
| Climate | Humid continental in the north-east (cold winters, warm summers); humid subtropical in the south-east; semi-arid on the Great Plains; Mediterranean in California; desert in the south-west |
Figure 1 is simplified: the boundaries are not sharp, and modern farms mix crops within each region.
| Region | Main states | Products | Why there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dairy belt | Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Vermont | Milk, cheese, butter | Cool, moist summers grow good grass and fodder; glaciated soils better for grass than for grain; large city markets (Chicago, New York) |
| Corn (maize) and soybean belt | Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska | Maize, soybeans, pigs, beef cattle | Deep fertile soils, flat land, hot humid summers with rain, a long growing season |
| Spring wheat belt | North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota | Wheat sown in spring, harvested late summer | Winters too cold for wheat to survive in the ground; flat land, fertile prairie soils |
| Winter wheat belt | Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado | Wheat sown in autumn, harvested early summer | Milder winters; dry summers for ripening and harvest; flat land for combines |
| Cotton belt | Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama | Cotton, also peanuts, soybeans, rice | Long, hot growing season of 200 frost-free days or more, with a dry harvest period; irrigation in Texas |
| Ranching | The dry West: Montana, Wyoming, Texas, Nevada and others | Beef cattle, sheep | Too dry or rugged for crops; large areas of grassland |
| Central Valley, California | California | Almonds, grapes, tomatoes, lettuce, fruit | Mediterranean climate, irrigation from mountain snowmelt, large markets |
| Subtropical south | Florida, Louisiana | Oranges, grapefruit, sugar cane, rice | Warm winters with few frosts |
Definition
Spring wheat: wheat sown in spring and harvested in late summer, grown where winters are too cold. Winter wheat: wheat sown in autumn, which survives the winter as young plants and is harvested in early summer. Frost-free days: the number of days in the year between the last frost of spring and the first frost of autumn.
Worked example
Worked example 1: average farm size. In 2022 US farms covered 880 million acres and there were 1.9 million farms (USDA). Find the average farm size in hectares (1 acre ≈ 0.405 ha).
880,000,000 ÷ 1,900,000 ≈ 463 acres. 463 × 0.405 ≈ 188 ha. (USDA gives 463 acres exactly.) That is roughly the area of 260 football pitches; but the average hides huge differences, from small part-time farms to ranches of thousands of hectares.
Worked example
Worked example 2: why spring wheat in the north? In North Dakota, winter temperatures often fall below −20 °C for weeks. Explain why farmers there sow wheat in spring, not autumn.
Young wheat plants sown in autumn would be killed by the long, severe winter. Sowing in spring, after the thaw, lets the crop grow through the warm summer and ripen before the autumn frosts. Further south, in Kansas, winters are mild enough for autumn-sown wheat to survive.
Warning
"Corn" in American English means maize. In the Corn Belt, the crop is maize; much of it feeds pigs and cattle or is made into ethanol fuel, not eaten directly by people.
Discover Agriculture: agriculture in the United States and its top crops. As you watch, place each crop it names on your own copy of Figure 1.
Practice
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
