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> - 90% of of Nevada's cropland is used for hay, 90% of Montana's, 60% of Utah's Is the soil in Nevada, Montana or Utah particularly suitable for growing anyth

• jandrewrogers 7y ago
  The soil is good but there isn't enough fresh water in most valleys, and the aquifers are heavily fragmented with poor interconnectivity so you can't treat them as one big aquifer. Consequently, there is often local water that isn't connected to any other watershed i.e. if it wasn't used for local agriculture it could not be used at all because it doesn't go anywhere. The high desert is a good environment for growing many types of high-quality forage, both natural and farmed, so that tends to be what the land is used for. Cattle are raised on natural forage in the summer months and farmed forage in the winter months. Agriculture is highly adapted to the economics and resources of the local environment. For example, there are parts of the high desert that specialize in onion production, of all things. It makes sense in context.