Topographic Map of Dairy Farms

What do the colors represent on this U.S. Geological Service map?
[If you need help, see legend. For even more information, go to USGS.]
What physical (environmental) features are shown?
What human-built structures are shown? [Look at a close-up of a dairy farmstead.]

Answers:

  • green -- forests and woods
  • white -- open fields (row crops of corn, hay, and pasture) [Look at a photo of a dairy landscape with its strip cropping (brown corn and green alfalfa) to reduce soil erosion through run off of rain water when the fields are freshly plowed.]
  • blue -- water
  • brown -- contour lines show elevation
  • environmental features: lakes, swamps, hills, gravel pits
  • human features: houses, barns, field boundaries, roads, section numbers, township name
Optional:
1) read an article on the dairy landscapes of the Upper Midwest and
2) read another one on dairy farming, now and in the future, in Los Angeles.

UW-Eau Claire Seal

 

Created by Ingolf Vogeler on 30 April 1996; last revised on 07 December 2010.