Modern farming techniques in the United States and Canada require specialization in a single cash crop. Such specialized farms tend to cluster by region, where the climate and soil quality are appropriate to a given crop. The supporting agribusinesses such as suppliers of implements, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and grain elevators tend to specialize in products and activities that support the primary crops of their given area.
Wheat, the most important cereal grain in Western diets, grows in the broad, open lands of the Great Plains, in Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
In the southern part of this region, the primary crop is winter wheat, which is planted in the fall, is dormant during the winter, completes its growth in spring, and is harvested in midsummer. In many of these areas, a farmer then can plant a crop of soybeans, a practice known as double cropping. The soybeans often can be harvested in time to plant the following year's wheat crop in the fall. Farther to the north, where the weather is too harsh for wheat to survive the winter, farmers plant spring wheat, which completes its entire growth during the spring and summer and is harvested in the fall. Wheat is used to make bread, pasta, and many breakfast cereals and is an ingredient in numerous other products.
Corn, which originally was domesticated by American Indians, is the best producer per acre. It requires a longer growing season than wheat, so areas where it can be grown economically are limited. The Midwestern states Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio are the principal areas for cultivation of corn and frequently are referred to as the Corn Belt states. Much corn is used as livestock feed, although a considerable amount is processed into human foods as well, often in the form of cornstarch and corn syrup sweeteners.
Rice requires flooded fields for successful cultivation, so it can be grown only in areas such as Louisiana, where large amounts of water are readily available. Because labor costs are the primary limiter in U.S. agriculture, American rice growers use highly mechanized, single-field growing techniques rather than the labor-intensive transplantation technique used in Asian countries. Laser levels and computerized controls tied into the Global Positioning System enable farmers to prepare smooth fields with a slight slope for efficient flooding and drainage. Because the ground is usually wet during tilling and harvesting, the machinery typically used in growing rice is fitted with tracks instead of wheels to reduce soil compaction.
Rye, oats, and barley are other major grain crops, although none form the backbone of an area's economy to the extent that wheat, corn, and rice do. Oats, once a staple feed grain for horses, now is used mainly for breakfast cereals, while most barley is malted for brewing beer. Rye typically is used in the production of specialty breads.
Legumes, such as soybeans and alfalfa, form the next major group of crops produced in North America. In addition to being an important source of protein in human and livestock diets, legumes are important in maintaining soil fertility. Nodules on their roots contain bacteria that help to transform nitrogen in the soil into compounds that plants can use. Because of this, soybeans have also become a regular rotation crop with corn in much of the U.S. Midwest.
Both corn and soybeans can be grown with the same machinery and sold to the same markets, although harvesting corn requires a specialized corn header that pulls down the stalks and breaks loose the cob on which the corn kernels grow, rather than the generalized grain platform used with soybeans and small grains. Soybeans for human consumption generally are heavily processed and become filler in other foods, although there is a market for tofu (bean curd) and other soybean products.
Other crops include edible oil seeds, such as sunflower seeds and safflower seeds, which are generally grown as rotation crops with corn or wheat. Sugarcane is grown in Louisiana and other areas on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico that have the necessary subtropical climate. Many varieties of fruits and vegetables are grown in California's irrigated valleys; Florida grows much of the United States' juice oranges. Other citrus crops are grown in Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas, where these warmth loving trees will not be damaged by frost. Fruits such as apples and pears, which require a cold period to break dormancy and set fruit, are grown in northern states such as Michigan and Washington and the eastern provinces of Canada.
See also: Fibrous Plants, The Business of Farming
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