User:Gurglypipe/landuse
Some notes about agreed landuse tagging for North West England.
Farmland/Meadows
Ploughed/Sown ryegrass fields (hay/silage)
Used to intensively grow animal feed. Typically fertilised and always machine harvested. Usually only found in larger valleys or lowlands. Anything in upland areas is going to be some form of landuse=meadow (see below).
These can be seen on aerial imagery as uniformly dark green fields, often with signs of mechanical farming.
In winter, they may be grazed occasionally, or may have an arable winter rotation such as winter wheat. This doesn’t change their primary use from being ryegrass.
Uncultivated hay fields
These are less uniform in aerial imagery. They are not ploughed or seeded.
landuse=meadow + meadow=agricultural
Pasture
Much less uniform in imagery. There could be some signs of mechanised farming (fertiliser spreading), but there will more often be signs of grazing (sheep or cows visible in aerial imagery).
landuse=meadow + meadow=pasture