The name derives from the fact that almost all the winter grains produced in FSU are grown west of the Urals. Sown area of both winter and spring grains has declined since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, but the relative percentages have remained fairly stable. This relationship is particularly strong in Ukraine . Winter wheat, the region's most profitable grain, is grown mainly in the southern regions.
Rye is the main winter grain in the north, where winters are more severe and the soils less fertile.
Oats, a spring-seeded crop, are also grown largely in the north. Farms in the FSU employ a variety of crop-rotation schemes, some including four or more crops, some only two. Wheat almost always follows fallow. Fallow also replenishes soil-moisture reserves. Some crop rotations include several consecutive years of a forage crop.