Farming Systems: Challenges and Opportunities in the Northern Great Plains.

Farming systems are defined as the crops, animals, soils, climate, management practices, and technology that characterize an individual farm.  Farming systems are determined by the actions and decisions of the people farming the land. Each farm is unique; however, farming systems have changed dramatically in the past thirty years on the Northern Great Plains in response to factors ranging from market prices to new crop development.  Continued changed is expected over the next thirty years with growing predictions of resource constraints that will influence agricultural production.  Factors influencing historical, current, and future farming system design for the Northern Great Plains will be discussed in the context of crop rotation diversity, integration of livestock and crop production, and production resilience to extremes in weather and predicted changes to climate.