Cropland Data Layer

The Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a crop-specific land cover data layer created annually for the continental United States using moderate resolution satellite imagery and extensive agricultural ground truth. It provides detailed information about crop types and land cover using satellite imagery and extensive ground truth data. The current program uses Landsat 8 and 9 OLI/TIRS and ESA SENTINEL-2A and -2B collected throughout the growing season. Agricultural training and validation data are derived from the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Common Land Unit (CLU) Program. Some CDL states incorporate additional crop-specific ground reference. 

For Agsite, we have consolidated the 133 categories in the original Cropland Data Layer into the following 12 categories:

1) Land in fruits and berries
2) Land in vegetables and melons
3) Land in tree nuts
4) Land in other crops
5) Land in grain or oilseed crops
6) Land in forage or hay crops
7) Developed land
8) Barren
9) Wetlands
10) Water
11) Forest or shrubland
12) Grassland and pasture

Within an AgSite report’s Agricultural Activity section, clicking “View map” will generate a map distinguishing crops and land use in the surrounding areas of the selected site, based on data from the Cropland Data Layer. This map will have all available classes from the Cropland Data Layer, not just the consolidated categories.