[viridian]

Not all pastoral land is able to yield crops though.

There's a reason that Wyoming is home so many ranches, while San Joaquin valley is overwhelmingly money crops like grapes, almonds, and pistachios.

Some fertility problems (hardening, soil compaction) can be fixed in places like the Steppe and the northern American plains, but retention, drainage, and composition are inherent to the environment, and crop yield is one of those things that's damn near exponential to its inputs.

Honestly I'm glad that the terrain is at least useful for some purpose, out in the Appalachian mountains the % of land that can either support crops or livestock is incredibly small.

[jogjayr]

You can let pastoral land that's unfit for growing crops return to the wild.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/16/most-dam...