Agriculture has become a major part of many Americans everyday lives. From growing crops to raising cattle, it’s how many people make a living. People grow crops like soybeans, corn, and cotton. They also raise animals such as cattle, hogs, and chickens. Agriculture has a wide variety of things to choose from. Whether dealing with crops, animals, or equipment, agriculture in America impacts every individual in the nation. To start, soybeans are the world’s largest source of vegetable oil. The United States is the leading soybean producer and exporter. Rising yields have also encouraged expansion of soybean acreage, as seed varieties, fertilizers, pesticide applications, and management practices have improved over time. Higher yields reduce per-bushel production costs, increasing profitability. Soybeans are mostly grown in a crop rotation with corn. Since the early 1980s, double cropping of soybeans with wheat in the south has declined. In recent years, an increasing number of soybean farmers have adopted conservation …show more content…
With its abundant grasslands and large grain supply, the United States has developed a beef industry that is largely separated from its dairy sector. With the world’s largest fed-cattle industry, the United States is also the world’s largest producer of beef—primarily high quality, grain-fed beef for domestic and export use. Cow-Calf operations are located throughout the United States, typically on land not suited or needed for crop production. These operations depend on range and pasture forage conditions, which in turn depend on variations in the average rainfall and temperature for the area. Beef cows harvest forage from grasslands to maintain themselves and raise a calf with very little, if any, grain input (“USDA”). About 40 percent of the land in the United States is used for agriculture of some form, including livestock grazing (“United States