Section 700.APPENDIX A   Illinois Department of Agriculture

Section 700.EXHIBIT D   Land Use Definitions

Cropland – Land utilized for the production of cultivated, close growing row, fruit or nut crops for harvest.  Cropland includes the following applications:

Horticulture

Fruit

Nut

Vineyard

Bush Fruit

Berries

Flowers

Other Horticulture

Row and Close Grown

Corn

Soybeans

Wheat

Oats

Sorghum

Barley

Rye

Vegetables

Sunflowers

Other Cropland – Cropland that is idle or placed in set-aside or similar state or federal government programs, or devoted to crops not mentioned above.

Hayland – Land managed for the production of forage crops that are machine harvested.  Forages are classified as grasses, legumes or a combination of grasses and legumes.

Forages – All browse and herbaceous food that is available to livestock or game animals used for grazing or harvested for feeding.

Legumes – One of the major groups of forage plants utilized as food for animals.  This classification includes principally alfalfa, clovers, trefoil, lespedezas, vetches, and kudzu.  Soybeans, peas and beans are also contained within this broad groupings; however, for the purpose of annually reporting the amount of farmland converted to nonagricultural uses as a result of state agency action, these crops shall be categorized under the cropland designation.

Pastureland – Land used for the production of adopted, introduced or native forage plants for livestock grazing.

Forestland – Land utilized for growing trees of any species whether or not managed for timber products.  Such lands minimally contain sixty (60) trees per acre when average diameter at breast height (DBH) of the stand is less than five (5) inches, or twenty (20) trees per when DBH average for the stand is five (5) inches and larger.

Farmstand – That part of a farm that is occupied by the dwellings, buildings, adjacent yards or corrals, plus family gardens and orchards in which the produce is utilized for family consumption.  Land in farmsteads includes land used for barns, machinery sheds, grain bins, waste lagoons, feedlots, pens, corrals and farmstead or feedlot windbreaks.  Lanes to farm residences are considered part of the farmstead.

Research and Experimentation Land – Land utilized for research farms and experiment stations.

Other Land in Farms – Areas of farms not classified as cropland, pastureland, hayland or forestland.  Other land in farms includes field windbreaks, ponds, commercial feedlots, confinements, greenhouses, nurseries, and broiler facilities.  Field lanes and field landing strips are also included within this classification.

Other Land – Land used for residences, industrial sites, commercial sites, construction sites, institutional sites, public administrative sites, railroad yards, cemeteries, airports, golf courses, sanitary landfills, sewage treatment plants, water control structures, and spillways.

(Source:  Exhibit D renumbered from Exhibit C and amended at 11 Ill. Reg. 20527, effective December 2, 1987)