The Great Plains (sometimes simply "the Plains") is the broad expanse of flat land (a plain), much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland, that lies west of the Mississippi River tallgrass prairie in the United States and east of the Rocky Mountains in the U.S. and Canada. It embraces: the entirety of the U.S. states of Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota parts of the states of Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming the southern portions of the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan The region is known for supporting extensive cattle ranching and dry farming. The Canadian portion of the Plains is known as the Prairies. It covers much of Alberta and southern Saskatchewan, and a narrow band of southern Manitoba. Despite covering a relatively small geographic area, the Prairies are nevertheless home to the majority of each of the three provinces' respective populations.