Download MN Agriculture S09

Minnesota’s Agricultural Regions
Concentrated in the Red River Valley, Corn Belt and Dairy Belt
Minnesota is generally divided into four major
regions: the Arrowhead, Corn Belt, Dairy Belt
and the Red River Valley. However, since both the
Red River Valley and the Corn Belt have many
similarities they’re sometimes referred to as the
Cropland Corridor. Each region has unifying
characteristics that sets it apart from neighboring
areas.
Map #1:
Percent of Land in Farms
THE ARROWHEAD
Northeastern Minnesota, known as
the Arrowhead, is largely nonagricultural (see Map #1). The land
is ice-scoured and the soils poor.
Besides being thin and stony, most of
the region is covered by coniferous
(evergreen) forests that have produced light-colored,
acidic and infertile soils called podzol. These soils
have few nutrients and are generally poor for
agriculture.
The climate of the Arrowhead is also cooler than
most of the state. Hot days are uncommon. The
growing season averages only 90-100 days and is too
short and too cool for corn and most field crops.
The Dairy Belt is quite different from either the
Arrowhead, Red River Valley or Corn Belt. The most
noticeable difference involves the physical landscape.
Throughout much of the Dairy Belt there is a gradual
change from the ice-scoured surface of the
Arrowhead to the thick, black soils of the Corn Belt
and Red River Valley.
At one time substantial numbers were employed as
farmers in the Arrowhead, but little farming goes on
in the region today. For example, in 1950 there were
approximately 11,000 employed in agriculture in St.
Louis County, but the number has now declined
below 2,000.
THE DAIRY BELT
Much of the land in the Dairy Belt is rugged with hilly
topography and rocky soils as a result of four
different glaciers moving over the surface. There is
much steep land, many moraines as well many lakes
and marshes. As a result, much of the land is not
suited for raising crops. Farmers have experienced
soil erosion problems when they have tried to
cultivate the steeper land.
Between the Arrowhead to the north
and the Corn Belt to the southwest
and the Red River Valley to the
northwest is the Dairy Belt. The
region acquired its name because in
the past most farmers concentrated
on raising dairy cattle. Today, a
more accurate name would be “livestock belt”
because farmers raise a wider variety of animals than
ever before.
The natural vegetation of the Dairy Belt is also
different from other Minnesota regions. Most of the
Dairy Belt was originally deciduous forest. The
Arrowhead to the north was originally coniferous
forest and the Corn Belt and Red River Valleys were
prairie. Open spaces in the Dairy Belt are common in
the south and west but become increasingly rare the
closer you are to the Arrowhead. Today, most of the
prairies once scattered about the Dairy Belt are now
pastures or fields.
The few farmers in the region raise primarily hay.
Hay can be grown well but averages only two
cuttings per year compared with three to four in
Wright County.
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Map #2:
been estimated that a modern dairy farm must milk
at least 500 cows to provide an acceptable level of
living of a modern American family. However, the
average Minnesota farm today milks only 74 cows.
California with its large-scale dairy operations and
average herd sizes of 559 has become the nation’s
leader milk producer.
Dairy Cattle
Enlarging a dairy farm is neither cheap nor easy. A
modern 500-cow dairy farm costs over $1.5 million
for the buildings and another $1 million for the cows.
No bank is willing to lend these amounts and few
farmers have the necessary down payment and
others are reluctant to take such a financial risk.
Unlike the Red River Valley and Corn Belt, most of
the crops grown in the Dairy Belt are used to feed
dairy cattle and other livestock. Feeding a dairy cow
for a year requires about an acre of alfalfa hay and
an acre of corn silage. As a result hay, which is
commonly fed to livestock on the farm where it is
produced, is concentrated here. While some hay is
grown in all regions, more is produced in the Dairy
Belt because of its superior growing conditions.
Minnesota ranks seventh in the nation in hay
production and Stearns County leads Minnesota in its
production.
Marshy lowlands lie in many low places in the Dairy
Belt. Sometimes the ground dries out in late summer
and farmers can use it for pasture or hay. But it is
always too wet to plow in the spring. Much of this
land can only be used productively to graze cattle.
Map #3:
Beef Cattle
As a result of these natural conditions, dairying has
long been the most important agricultural activity
because milk cows can make good use of steep or
marshy land where grain crops will not grow (see
Map #2).
Minnesota has long been one of the nation’s leaders
in milk production. Minnesota currently ranks sixth
in the nation both in the number of milk cows
maintained and in milk production. Minnesota also
ranks fifth in the production of butter and cheese.
Stearns County has more dairy cattle than any other
county and leads Minnesota in the production of milk.
While Wright County was once among the leaders in
state milk production, it no longer ranks in the top
ten.
For the past 30 years the number of dairy farmers in
the state has steadily declined. Dairy farming is
difficult and provides farmers with little spare time.
Cows must be milked every twelve hours, 365 days a
year. Even though milk prices have risen recently,
dairy farms must be large in order to be profitable
and many Minnesota farms are relatively small. It’s
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Oats, another livestock feed, is also an important
differences in climate cause the crops that are grown
to vary greatly.
crop in the Dairy Belt. Minnesota is second in the
nation in the production of oats.
RED RIVER VALLEY
Some corn is also raised along the southern margins
of the region, and part of this crop is used to feed
beef cattle, hogs, turkeys and chickens. Many
farmers who have abandoned dairy farming in the
past 20 years and have begun to concentrate on beef
cattle (see Map #3). Fillmore County leads
Minnesota in beef cattle production.
The Red River Valley is a large level
region that parallels the Red River of
the North in northwestern Minnesota.
The Valley ranges from 30 to 40 miles
wide and extends from Traverse Lake
in the south to the Canadian border.
The Willmar and Melrose areas are especially famous
for raising turkeys, like the Jennie-O brand.
Minnesota ranks first in the nation in the production
of turkeys. One out of every six turkeys raised in the
U.S. comes from Minnesota.
Since it was once the bottom of glacial Lake Agassiz
most of the region is extremely flat. When wet the
soils become very heavy and sticky. Farmers in the
area call it "gumbo." Since it is clay-like, water is
slow to soak through the soil, and it doesn't run off
the flat land, so it just sits there in puddles.
Minnesota chicken production is also concentrated in
the Dairy Belt around St. Cloud where the Gold 'N'
Plump brand is produced.
Early pioneers experienced a variety of problems.
Much of the valley could not be cultivated until
farmers crisscrossed it with drainage ditches and
tiles. Since the Red River Valley was covered by
prairie, there also was no wood for fuel or building.
Early settlers were forced to live in sod huts.
Nevertheless, farms spread quickly across the region
and by 1900 most of the land was being farmed.
THE CROPLAND CORRIDOR
Much of Minnesota’s agricultural
production occurs in the southern
and western regions of the state in
the Red River Valley and Corn
Belt. While both regions have their
own unifying characteristics, the Red
River Valley and Corn Belt have
several characteristics in common. Both regions are
relatively flat with thick, nutrient-rich soils – some of
the best in the world. The borders of the two regions
come close to matching those areas of the state with
the highest soil fertility.
Map #4:
Wheat
Both regions were originally treeless prairie when the
earliest settlers arrived in Minnesota. For this reason,
the two regions were among the first to be settled in
Minnesota because nature saved farm settlers the
costly work of clearing its trees. Even today, less
than two percent of the two regions are forested.
As a result, today over 90 percent of the two regions
are cultivated by farmers who concentrate on raising
cash crops. Cash crops are raised with the intention
of being sold instead of being used to feed livestock.
The biggest differences between the Red River Valley
and Corn Belt involves climate. The Red River Valley
receives less precipitation and has a shorter growing
season than the Corn Belt where both summers are
longer and rainfall more reliable. For this reason,
very little corn is raised in the Red River Valley, but is
an extremely profitable crop in the Corn Belt. These
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Map #5:
While potato production is common throughout the
state (nearby Sherburne County is Minnesota’s
leader) the Red River Valley has intensive production.
Minnesota ranks sixth among the states in potato
production.
Sugar Beets
The region also produces various “small grains”
including sunflowers, rye, canola and flax. Minnesota
ranks fourth in the nation in the production of
sunflowers, third in flax and second in the
production of canola. Polk County leads Minnesota in
the production of sugar beets and spring wheat, and
is among the top three producers in barley, potatoes
and sunflowers.
The Red River Valley, because of its natural
advantages, has more urban centers than most other
regions this far north. The largest city is Moorhead
(32,000). Fargo, the largest city in North Dakota is
also located in the Red River Valley.
CORN BELT
South of the Red River Valley
covering much of southwestern
Minnesota is the Corn Belt -- the
most prosperous agricultural area in
the state. Its main agricultural
products include corn, soybeans,
and livestock. Nowhere else in the
world is there such a perfect combination of natural
conditions for this type of agriculture.
The rich prairie soils are more than twenty feet deep
in some areas and have made the Red River Valley
one of the richest farming regions in the world. As
early as the 1890s the area was one of the most
famous wheat-growing areas of the world.
Minneapolis was the nation’s largest producer of flour
from the 1880s to the 1920s.
Wheat is still concentrated in the Red River Valley
where the drier climate is more suitable to the
production of hard red spring wheat. Spring wheat is
Minnesota's third most valuable crop and MN ranks
second in the nation in its production (see Map #4).
Corn is the major crop of the region (see Map #6).
Corn requires hot, humid weather and is therefore
concentrated in the southern parts of the state. Corn
is Minnesota’s most valuable crop. The state ranks
fourth in the nation in the production of the crop.
Renville County leads Minnesota in the production of
corn.
The Red River Valley also leads Minnesota in the
production of other cash crops including sugar beets,
barley, potatoes and sunflowers. Sugar beet
production, along with wheat, are the most important
crops of the region. Minnesota ranks first in the
nation in the production of sugar beets (see Map
#5). Crystal Sugar of Moorhead is Minnesota’s
largest selling brand.
In the past most of the crops raised in the Corn Belt
were used to feed to livestock. Farmers could make
larger profits by using the crops to feed livestock and
then selling the meat. The Corn Belt used to produce
more livestock than is done today.
Sugar beets are prone to disease so most farmers
can grow them on the same ground only every third
year. As a result, most farmers rotate sugar beets
with spring wheat, sunflowers or soybeans.
During the 1970s, farmers in the Corn Belt began to
realize they had to become more specialized and
concentrate on doing what they did best. They could
not produce fat cattle and hogs as cheaply as large,
modern livestock operations that were being
developed in other parts of the country, but they
lived in the world’s finest corn-growing area, and
Barley is also an important crop in the region. It is
used primarily in the production of yeast and beer.
Minnesota ranks sixth in the production of barley.
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and turkeys are also raised in the region but are even
more important in the Dairy Belt.
Map #6:
Corn
Farmers’ profit margins per bushel of corn and
soybeans is so small that farmers have had to
produce more bushels per acre by using more
fertilizer and by farming more acres. A modern
family cash crop farm needs around 1,600 acres of
farmland to provide an acceptable level of living for a
modern American family. Most Corn Belt farmers
have acquired the additional land they need by
renting it from neighbors who have stopped farming
rather than by buying it.
Population in the region has been declining for a long
time. The increased mechanization and use of
technology in farming requires fewer people on the
farm. Farms are consistently getting larger and
fewer people are employed in agriculture. Many of
the residents, particularly young people, have moved
closer to the Twin Cities metro area in search of
careers outside of farming.
Map #7:
Soybeans
they could sell their corn to these new operations
instead of feeding it to their own animals. As a
result, like farmers in the Red River Valley, most Corn
Belt farmers have become cash crop farmers.
Soybeans helped Corn Belt farmers make this
transition. As late as the 1950s, they were little more
than a curiosity on most farms. The climate and soil
requirements are similar to corn and can be grown
with the same equipment. Soybean acreage grew
steady and today is Minnesota's second most
valuable crop with production concentrated in the
Corn Belt (see Map #7). Not only are soybeans an
excellent cash crop, but they also replenish soil
nutrients when used as a rotation crop. Minnesota
ranks third in the nation in the production of
soybeans.
Some people are concerned that continuous
cultivation of the same two crops year after year will
result in serious deterioration of the soil, but so far
there are few if any signs that this has occurred.
The eastern parts of this region also have large fields
of sweet corn and Minnesota ranks second in the
nation in its production. Renville County also leads
the state in the production of sweet corn.
Most of Minnesota's hog production is concentrated
in the Corn Belt. Minnesota ranks third in the nation
in the production of hogs. Some beef cattle, chickens
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