How are fields with multiple crop types planted in the same season handled in the Cropland Data Layer, such as late season cover crops or winter wheat followed by soybeans?
The primary focus of the Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is on large area summer crops. The Farm Service Agency CLU data is our source of agricultural training data for the CDL classifier. We depend on the data that the farmer reports on their FSA/CLU signup forms. The ground truth is prepared to show whether a single/double crop was planted in a particular field. So, if a single use winter wheat field was under production for a given year, than one ww field will show up in the CDL. A winter wheat crop planted in the Fall of 2009 will be identified in the 2010 CDL, as we consider the time of harvest as the current year of production. If the field is multi-use during a given year, for example winter wheat (ww) followed by soybeans (sb), then a double cropping situation exists and the category for that given field will be ww/sb, and is indicated as such in the legend. If a field is only sb during that year, then it will be identified as sb only. Therefore, all major crop rotations/patterns are
