Agricultural Land: 5 Types of Use and Classification

Agricultural land is land used to grow crops or to graze livestock. In the United States, the 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 880.1 million acres of land in farms, which is 39% of all U.S. land. Of that, 45% was permanent pasture, 43% was cropland, 8% was woodland and 4% was farmsteads and other uses. The five types of agricultural land use below follow that split. Classification is a second, separate question: it grades how good the land is, from the best soils to land that should stay in grass or trees.

This guide explains both. It covers the five land-use types, then the grading systems used in the USA, England, Canada, New Zealand and by the FAO, with the class rules in plain words. It ends with a calculator that turns the share of your land in each class into a rough yearly margin.

The five types of agricultural land use

There is no single official list of five. The USDA Census uses four groups, and the FAO uses three. The list below is a practical five-part view built from both data sets.

1. Cropland

The Census counted 382 million acres of cropland in 2022, and 301 million acres of it were harvested that year. The other 81 million acres were not harvested that year. The FAO defines arable land as the total of temporary crops, temporary meadows and pastures, and temporary fallow, as set out in its Statistical Yearbook (2022). Land in cropland rotates between these uses, so a field can move between categories from one year to the next.

2. Permanent crops

The FAO counts land with long-term crops that do not have to be replanted for several years, such as cocoa and coffee, as permanent crops. Tree fruit, nuts and vines are the usual examples in North America and Europe. The FAO adds arable land and permanent crops together to get its total for cropland. The U.S. Census does not report permanent crops as a separate land-use line in the table used here, so they sit inside its cropland figure.

3. Pasture and rangeland

This is the largest single use in both data sets. The Census put permanent pasture at 393 million acres in 2022, 45% of U.S. farmland, and most of it is in the western states. The FAO counts land used for five years or more to grow forage, whether sown or wild, as permanent meadows and pastures. It reports 3.18 billion hectares of it worldwide in 2020, about two-thirds of all agricultural land.

4. Farm woodland

Woodland was 72 million acres of U.S. farmland in 2022, or 8%. Farm woodlots give timber, firewood, shade and shelter for animals. They stay part of the farm, though national accounts such as the ERS series below count grazed and ungrazed forest as a separate use.

5. Farmsteads and other land

The last 33 million acres, 4% of farmland, were farmsteads, buildings, livestock facilities and other uses. This land produces nothing directly, but it makes the other four types work.

Chart

How US farmland was used in 2022

Million acres of land in farms, by use

Agricultural land by the numbers

Three data sets answer the question of how much land farming uses. Each counts something slightly different, so do not mix their totals.

• Census of Agriculture (USDA NASS): land in farms, reported by farm operators, every five years.
• National Resources Inventory (USDA NRCS): a sample-based survey of all non-federal rural land, farm or not. The 2022 summary report counts nearly 1.4 billion acres of it, mostly 421.5 million acres of forest, 399.7 million acres of rangeland and 364.3 million acres of cropland.
• Major Land Uses (USDA ERS): a national accounting of all U.S. land in seven classes: total land, cropland, grassland pasture and range, forest-use land, special use land, urban land and miscellaneous land. The ERS series has run since 1948.

The NRI also shows how fluid the categories are. Between 2017 and 2022, about 73% of the land that became cropland had been pasture in 2017, and of the 2017 cropland that went to other uses, about 59% became pasture.

Chart

US land in farms, 2002 to 2022

Million acres, Census of Agriculture years

How the world uses its farmland

The FAO reports that the global agricultural land area was 4.74 billion hectares in 2020, down 3% from 2000. Pasture is the larger part. China held 12% of the world’s permanent meadows and pastures, Australia 10% and the United States 8%.

Chart

World agricultural land by use, 2020

Billion hectares

Land classification systems compared

Land use says what the land is doing now. Land classification says what the land can do. Each system grades land by its limits, such as slope, wetness, drought, stones and erosion risk. The grade does not depend on who farms it or what is planted today.

USDA land capability classes

The U.S. system groups soils by their ability to produce common cultivated crops and pasture plants without deteriorating over a long period, as described in an NRCS handbook chapter. The class definitions in the NRCS land capability guide run as follows.

• Class I: slight limitations that restrict use.
• Class II: moderate limitations that reduce the choice of plants or need moderate conservation practices.
• Class III: severe limitations that reduce the choice of plants or need special conservation practices.
• Class IV: very severe limitations that restrict the choice of plants or need very careful management.
• Class V: little or no erosion hazard but other limits that are impractical to remove, so use is mainly pasture, range, woodland or wildlife habitat.
• Class VI: severe limitations that make the land generally unsuited to cultivation.
• Class VII: very severe limitations, unsuited to cultivation, mainly range, forest or wildlife habitat.
• Class VIII: limits that rule out commercial plant production; recreation, wildlife, water supply or scenery.

Classes I to IV can be cultivated; classes V to VIII are not suited to regular tillage. A letter after the number gives the main limit: e for erosion, w for wetness, s for shallow, stony or droughty soil and c for climate. Class I has no subclass because its limits are few. This is where the question “what is class 1 farmland” comes from: it is the land with the fewest restrictions on crop choice and tillage.

Canada Land Inventory classes

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada groups mineral soils into 7 classes and 13 subclasses by their potential for field crops. Class 1 has no significant limitations. Class 4 has severe limitations. Class 5 soils suit perennial forage with improvements, class 6 soils suit only perennial forage and class 7 soils have no capacity for arable culture or permanent pasture. The ratings assume good management and a largely mechanized system. Organic soils sit outside the classes and are shown as a separate unit.

England: Agricultural Land Classification grades

England and Wales use five grades, with grade 3 split into 3a and 3b. The grade rests on the long-term physical limits of the land: climate, site and soil, and how they interact. Current use does not change the grade. Under planning policy, grades 1, 2 and 3a count as the “best and most versatile” land, as Natural England technical note TIN049 (2012) explains. The note gave an estimate that grades 1 and 2 together make up about 21% of farmland in England, and subgrade 3a about another 21%.

The GOV.UK guide describes the grades this way: grade 1 is excellent quality land with no or very minor limits, grade 2 is very good with minor limits, grade 3 is good to moderate, grade 4 is poor with severe limits, and grade 5 is very poor, limited to permanent pasture or rough grazing. It advises using the post-1988 ALC map and detailed site survey reports for development questions, and a new survey by a soil specialist if no suitable data exists. The national predictive maps are for strategic use and not for single fields.

New Zealand: Land Use Capability

Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research explains that LUC has eight classes. Limits rise and versatility falls from class 1 to class 8. Classes 1 to 4 suit arable cropping, horticulture, grazing, tree crops or production forestry. Classes 5 to 7 are unsuitable for arable cropping but can carry grazing, tree crops or forestry. Class 8 is suited to erosion control, water management and conservation.

FAO land suitability

The FAO’s framework for land evaluation (1976) grades land for one stated use at a time. Class S1 is highly suitable, S2 moderately suitable and S3 marginally suitable. Class N1 is currently not suitable: its limits might be overcome in time, but not with current knowledge at an acceptable cost. Class N2 is permanently not suitable. The same field can be S1 for one crop and S3 for another, which is why suitability is used for crop planning. Capability systems such as the USDA’s rank land for general use instead.

Soil Taxonomy and agro-ecological zones

Soil Taxonomy was developed by the USDA soil survey staff. It places every soil in one of 12 orders, such as Alfisols, Mollisols and Entisols, as shown by the University of Idaho’s soil orders page. Mollisols, for example, are the soils of grassland ecosystems. It describes what a soil is, not what it should be used for, so it feeds capability and suitability ratings but does not replace them. Agro-ecological zoning goes one step wider: it combines climate, soil and terrain into zones that suit certain crops or farming systems, and is used for regional planning.

▶ A walk through land cover classification and the main farm land types. · 8:53

What classification changes on a farm

Classification is a planning tool. It does not guarantee a yield. It helps in four ways.

• Crop choice and rotation: class I and II soils keep the widest choice of crops. Lower classes narrow the choice to forage, perennial crops or trees.
• Conservation: the subclass letter shows the main hazard. Erosion-prone class III to IV land often needs cover crops or reduced tillage to protect soil health, and wet land needs drainage or a different crop.
• Inputs: nutrient plans start with the soil test. Our guide to soil fertility shows how inputs differ by soil. Fertilizer and pesticide rates must follow the product label and local rules, whatever the class.
• Land use planning and value: governments use grades to protect the best land from development. England protects grades 1, 2 and 3a through planning policy, and the Landcare Research portal shows New Zealand’s baseline extent of highly productive land as LUC classes 1 to 3.

Capability is not the same as current use. Class IV land can be cropped with very careful management, and class II land can sit in pasture for owner reasons. The class tells you the risk and the management needed, not what you must do.

▶ Plantation versus farm: size, crops, monoculture risk and who does the work. · 4:29

Check your own land mix

Your own acres matter more than any national total. Here is how to find your classes in five steps.

1. Mark the boundary. In the United States, open the NRCS Web Soil Survey, which provides soil data and information produced by the National Cooperative Soil Survey, and draw your area of interest. In England use the Magic map. In Canada use the provincial soil survey maps. In New Zealand use the Land Resource Portal.
2. List the map units. Each colored patch on the soil map is a unit with its own acreage. Write down the acres of each.
3. Read the class and subclass. Note the class number and the letter that gives the main limit, such as erosion or wetness.
4. Group the acres. Add up the acres in classes I and II, in III and IV, and in V to VIII. Use the grade groups of your own country if you are outside the United States.
5. Check on the ground. A map unit is an average of the soils inside it, so a single field can hold better and worse spots. Take a soil sample where yields or crop color differ, and ask a local adviser before you change the land use.

Then enter the acres below. The calculator turns the mix into a rough yearly margin so you can see how much of your farm sits in the classes that carry the crop budget.

Try the numbers for your own farm below.

Common mistakes when reading land data

• Mixing up use and class. A field in pasture can be class II, and a field in corn can be class IV. One tells you what is on the land now and the other tells you its limits.
• Comparing totals from different sources. The Census counts land in farms, the NRI counts all non-federal rural land and the ERS counts every acre in the country. Their cropland and pasture totals differ for that reason, not because one is wrong.
• Treating a class as a yield forecast. A class describes long-term limits. Yield also depends on weather, crop, variety and management.
• Using old maps for a single field. England’s first national ALC maps, made between 1967 and 1974, were not accurate enough for single fields, as the Natural England note says. Use a detailed survey for decisions about one site.
• Forgetting that grades are not forever. Drainage, irrigation, terracing and erosion can change what a field can do. Re-check the class if the land has been changed a lot.

How satellites help, and what they cannot show

Satellites map what is on the land, not its capability class. A satellite image shows whether a field is cropland, pasture, trees or bare soil, and how green the crop is through the season. The USDA’s Cropland Data Layer is an annual, crop-specific land cover map built from satellite images and ground reference data, at 30 m resolution from 2008 to 2023 and 10 m from 2024. Combined Landsat 8 and 9 and Sentinel-2 data gives global 10 to 30 m coverage with a shorter wait between passes, according to a 2020 study.

Capability still comes from soil survey and field checks. Clouds block optical images, so the gaps between clear views vary by place and season. Farmonaut Satellite + AI Farm Monitoring System shows vegetation maps of your own fields through the season in the Farmonaut app. They help you see where a field behaves differently from the rest, which is a reason to take a soil sample there. They do not give a capability class.

Developers can read the API documentation to bring satellite data into their own tools.

Related pages on our site: land classification, sustainable agriculture, modern farming, crop stress, agricultural applications, farm management software, agribusiness partnerships.

FAQ

What are the 5 types of agricultural land use?

A practical list is cropland, permanent crops, pasture and rangeland, farm woodland, and farmsteads and other land. The USDA Census of Agriculture uses four groups: permanent pasture, cropland, woodland and other (2022). The FAO uses arable land, permanent crops and permanent meadows and pastures.

What is agricultural land?

The FAO defines it as land used for cultivation of crops and animal husbandry, the total of cropland and permanent meadows and pastures. In 2020 it covered 4.74 billion hectares worldwide (FAO Statistical Yearbook, 2022).

What is class 1 farmland?

In the USDA system, class I soils have slight limitations that restrict their use. In Canada, class 1 soils have no significant limitations for crops. In England, grade 1 land has no or very minor limits. Each country’s top class means the widest crop choice with the fewest management needs.

How is farmland classified in England?

The Agricultural Land Classification has five grades, and grade 3 is split into 3a and 3b. Grades 1, 2 and 3a are the best and most versatile land under planning policy (Natural England, 2012). A detailed survey by a soil specialist is the way to grade a single site.

What is the difference between land capability and land suitability?

Capability ranks land for general use by its limits, as in the USDA classes I to VIII. Suitability ranks land for one stated use, such as a given crop, as in the FAO classes S1 to N2 (FAO, 1976).

How can I find my land’s classification?

In the United States, use Web Soil Survey from the NRCS. In England, check the post-1988 ALC map on Magic and ask a soil specialist for a field survey if you need an exact grade. For legal, tax or planning matters, get professional advice before you act.