: While highly accurate for major commodities like corn and soybeans, accuracy can drop for specialized crops or areas with heavy cloud cover during the growing season. Always check the Classification Confidence Layer provided with the data.
: Downloads from the Geospatial Data Gateway are often provided in UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) for regional accuracy.
: Helping the Agricultural Statistics Board supplement farmer-reported data with objective satellite observations. cropland data layer download
: Primarily distributed as GeoTIFF (.tif) , which includes embedded georeferencing information.
: National layers can be several hundred megabytes to gigabytes. If you only need a specific county, use the "Export" or "Clip" tool in CropScape. : While highly accurate for major commodities like
: The most popular interactive portal. You can zoom into specific regions, draw a custom "Area of Interest" (AOI), and export the clipped data as a GeoTIFF or PDF report.
: Packages usually include a metadata file (.xml or .htm) and a data dictionary that maps numeric pixel values (e.g., 1 = Corn, 5 = Soybeans) to specific crop names. Key Applications for CDL Data If you only need a specific county, use
When you download a CDL package, you aren't just getting an image; you're getting a rich GIS dataset.
: Companies use the data to predict yield and optimize the placement of grain elevators and processing facilities. Common Challenges & Tips
: Ideal for data scientists and developers. You can call the entire CDL catalog (1997–present) directly into a cloud-based coding environment for large-scale analysis without downloading massive files. Technical Specifications & File Formats