gotta love small towns...............

[rattler]

13 inches of rain a year is not enough to support most crops.

plenty for wheat, barley and safflower without irrigation.......and i wouldnt argue with me on that as my grandfather raised wheat for 60 some years without irrigation getting more than enough off the land to live on and raise his family.......

 

[rattler]

according to Montana State University, about 30 percent of the state's ag land is cropped.

plus Finch thats the entire state...................not just northeast Montana.......the soil over on the western side is thin cause its all mountains........this side is river bottoms and plains......no different from North Dakota.........

 

[herenorthere]

Wheat is a low value crop is basically grown where it's too dry or too cool for corn and soybeans but not so much to have to give up crops entirely and graze cattle. Sounds perfect for eastern Montana. The North American wheat belt runs from Texas on up into Canada's prairie provinces, which is an impressive range for a single crop, but they grow it very differently. In wetter areas, I'm pretty sure wheat is only grown in rotation with higher value crops.

 

[Finch]

wheat, barley and safflower

Thats not really most crops. Thats 3.... Besides wheat, all of those have very very minor rolls in agriculture. Im not arguing that they dont grow crops there, i said that thats not enough rain to support most crops. And thats true. Most crops cannot be supported on that much rainfall.


Although, on the other hand, you dont need alot of crop divirsity to have alot of farmland. I find it interesting that you have alot of cropland there, as the northwest south dakota that touches eastern montana is the driest portion of our state and does not support farms.

similarly, the map of agriculture from north dakota shows primarily pasture in its western area of the state (indicated in green) on the river bottoms and plains.

(purple is wheat, BTW)
I had assumed that was the case, only more so, going westward as it got direr.





But since you live there i will take your word for it.

 

[rattler]

for not supporting farms i drive by alot of fields full of grain driving to Minot ND.............unless all the grain fields are along Highway 2 :grin: