The Northern Great Plains region has been experiencing a trend towards reaggregation of fragmented land parcels into larger operations since the 1930s. Grasslands were initially fragmented during the settlement of the region in the 1860s, due to settlement policies and the introduction of cropping, and fragmentation continued as roads and fences were built. Today, however, farmers and ranchers find that expansion of operations is one way to stay in business in the face of the challenging environmental and economic conditions of Great Plains agriculture. The control and use of small tracts of land for agriculture and ranching in the Northern Great Plains did not adequately support homesteader families in the region in the 1860s, and judging from the increase in operation size in the region, smaller tracts are often not adequate today.
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Lackett, J.M., Galvin, K.A. (2008). From Fragmentation to Reaggregation of Rangelands in the Northern Great Plains, USA. In: Galvin, K.A., Reid, R.S., Jr, R.H.B., Hobbs, N.T. (eds) Fragmentation in Semi-Arid and Arid Landscapes. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4906-4_5
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