Major Land Uses

Jul 23, 2019

By Ray Massey

Missouri has 44 million acres of land, 64 percent of which is listed as agricultural land. Taking the long view of land use clarifies the impact of agriculture on the environment. The USDA Census of Agriculture has published the number of acres in major land use categories since 1945. Exhibit 2.1 shows that the number of acres in cropland reached a maximum of 21.5 million acres in 1969. Since then, land dedicated to crop production decreased to 15.6 million acres in 2012. The black line in Exhibit 2.1 shows that the amount of land used for crop and livestock production decreased from 36.2 million acres in 1945 to 28.8 million acres in 2012.

Using less land for crop and livestock production has resulted in an additional 6.2 million acres of forestland not grazed and an additional 700,000 acres of parks and wildlife areas.

Exhibit 2.1 — Missouri land uses, 1945–2012

Source: missouri.edu

Video: Validating Net Energy in Commercial Swine Systems - Gustavo Lima

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Gustavo Lima, PhD candidate at Iowa State University, explains how soybean meal net energy is evaluated using growth assays and calorimetry. He discusses caloric efficiency, validation under commercial conditions, and differences between controlled and real-world environments. Gustavo also highlights practical implications for diet formulation and ingredient valuation. Listen now on all major platforms!

“Indirect calorimetry provides a precise estimation of ingredient energy, yet validation under production conditions remains essential for accurate application in real systems.”

Meet the guest: Gustavo Lima / gustavo-lima-a9867127 is a PhD candidate in Animal Science at Iowa State University, specializing in swine nutrition, ingredient evaluation, and energy metabolism. With over 15 years of experience across Latin America, his work focuses on soybean meal utilization, caloric efficiency, and applied research for commercial production systems.