US geospatial crop frequency data layers

Information on future crop specific planting is valuable for improving agricultural survey estimates. This information is critical for agricultural production planning, agricultural product commodity inventory control, natural resource allocation and conservation, etc. However, future crop planting details are generally unavailable. This paper proposes to use crop specific planting frequency data as indicators to indirectly provide information regarding future crop planting. A methodology to derive crop planting frequency data layers based on 2008-2013 Cropland Data Layers has been presented in this paper. Crop frequency layers for corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton were successfully built at the national level and for two states including Indiana and Mississippi, USA. Multi-year (2008-2013) Farm Service Agency (FSA) Common Land Unit (CLU) data were utilized to assess the accuracy of the derived crop frequency data layers. The accuracies of the national scale crop frequency data layers are 91.00%, 90.13%, 87.67% and 85.96% for corn, cotton, soybean and wheat respectively.