[Tagging] Should pastures be tagged landuse=meadow or landuse=farmland?

[David Marchal]

Hi, Steve!

Here is landuse=grassland mainly used for lands which are covered with grass with no agricultural use, but which are still maintained in their grassy state: interchange areas, city parks… When the grassland is used for pasture or hay, landuse=meadow is used. When a non-grass crop is present, landuse=farmland is used.

I don't pretend this is the best way to tag, but here is it done this way, and I'm accustomed to it. Besides, many meadows are routinely dedicated to both pasture and hay: there is at first a hay cut, around June, and then, cattle is placed on the same land lot for the summer and autumn for pasture. Many meadows have both uses, and bypassers can often not say that a grassland is used only for hay, only for pasture or both. Our usage of landuse=meadow allows to tag what we know for sure (grassy land used for agriculture), without bothering with details (hay or pasture?) we can't tell for sure.

As for the crops, I only gave crops that instantly came in my mind: I would certainly also use landuse=farmland for list of crops (berries, artichokes, cotton, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, squash), but I would currently not use it for pasture.

Regards.

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stevea <steveaOSM at softworkers.com> schrieb am Donnerstag, 16. Dezember 2021 um 08:08:

> Hi David, "land covered with grass" sounds like landuse=grassland. (From our wiki: "Areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses..."). Do you NEVER use landuse=grassland? I use it a lot, especially when no cattle are grazing.
>
> "Land covered with grass where cattle graze," well, THERE, I tag landuse=meadow. Despite the recent changes to this wiki, which I consider wholly wrong.
>
> Farmland is something else, and has its own quirks, many (most?) of which I've mentioned. I don't think landuse=farmland is purely for "cereal" crops or potatoes, but rather for almost any "farm," but not forests, orchards, vineyards or greenhouse_horiticulture, which have their own tags. I use farmland on farms that grow much more than cereal crops and potatoes, for example, berries, artichokes, cotton, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, squash and much more.
>
> Trees? Tag forest or orchard. Mushrooms? Might be forest, might be farmland. Hothouses? (Whether just one or hundreds of hectares of them?) Tag landuse=greenhouse_horticulture. Recall that we are talking about landUSE, as in "farmed by humans." LandCOVER is something else. The tricky thing is here we bump up against the wood / forest debate, where many tag as if landuse=forest is only "timber-producing" (cut down by humans, whether quickly or slowly) and natural=wood should be reserved for "treed, but we don't cut them down." I don't want to open that controversy here, but we do bump up against it. (And we really should try for another forest_compartment-style proposal — again, for another thread / time / conversation).
>
> > On Dec 15, 2021, at 10:52 PM, David Marchal via Tagging tagging at openstreetmap.org wrote:
> >
> > I agree; that's how this tag is used in France, AFAIK. If the agricultural land is covered with grass, whether for hay and pasture, landuse=meadow is used. The distinction with meadow=* is rarely used. landuse=farmland is for cultures (cereals, potatoes…) but not for grasslands.