Excerpt: The western range region contains a total lend area of about 975 million acres lying west of an irregular north-south line through North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Most of the land in the so-called range States is used for the grazing of livestock. In the early years of settlement dependence was placed almost entirely on range forage to maintain the herds and flocks, with very little forage coming from cultivated fields. Later farmers began to cut wild hay to winter the stock. This process culminated in the development of many irrigated areas and reclamation projects. Today; outside of the short grass and desert grass ranges of the southwest, few areas exist that are not dependent upon some irrigated or cultivated lands to round out the yearly forage requirements for the livestock. Some exceptions for sheep are noted later
