Tillable
Tillable is a working word for ground that can be plowed and cropped. The formal test it sits beside is a federal program definition: for Farm Service Agency programs, cropland includes land the county committee determines is currently tilled for a crop, or was tilled in a prior year and is suitable for crop production.
What a farmer calls tillable, and what the county committee calls cropland
Tillable is a working word, used in listings and in talk about a farm. The closest formal test beside it comes from a federal farm program's definition of cropland.
Means land which the county committee determines meets any of the following conditions:
7 CFR 718.2, Farm Service Agency cropland definition
Is currently being tilled for the production of a crop for harvest. Land which is seeded by drilling, broadcast or other no-till planting practices shall be considered tilled for cropland definition purposes;
7 CFR 718.2, Farm Service Agency cropland definition
Is not currently tilled, but it can be established that such land has been tilled in a prior year and is suitable for crop production;
7 CFR 718.2, Farm Service Agency cropland definition
That test belongs to Farm Service Agency programs, and the county committee makes the determination. When a listing or a seller calls a field tillable, it describes the ground in plain language; it does not mean a committee has made a finding on that field. Whether a field counts as cropland for an FSA program is that committee's call, not a seller's or an agent's.
Hay ground, cleared ground, and what a tillable figure leaves open
In the Census of Agriculture, ground cut for hay is counted with crops, not with pasture.
Harvested cropland. This category includes land from which crops were harvested and hay was cut, land used to grow short rotation woody crops, Christmas trees, and land in orchards, groves, vineyards, berries, nurseries, and greenhouses.
USDA, 2022 Census of Agriculture definitions (Appendix B)
How the census handles grazing land that could have been cropped is covered under pasture.
A field just cleared of timber, its logs tallied in board feet, meets the second condition quoted above only if it can be established that it was tilled in a prior year and is suitable for crop production, and the county committee makes that call. A tillable acreage figure does not by itself decide how a farm is priced, and it does not settle what counts as a hobby farm. What the split between tillable ground and pasture does to an asking price is taken up in why the tillable and pasture split matters.
Trying to price the tillable acres on a farm?
Send the county and which fields are cropped or cut for hay. Lowell will look at the tillable ground field by field as part of the farm's number. No cost, no obligation.
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Questions about this term
Does no-till planting still count as tilled ground under the federal cropland test?
Yes. Under the Farm Service Agency's cropland definition, land seeded by drilling, broadcast or other no-till planting practices is considered tilled for cropland definition purposes. Whether a given field meets the definition is still the county committee's determination.
Can a field that has not been plowed in years still count as cropland?
It can under the Farm Service Agency's definition, if it can be established that the land has been tilled in a prior year and is suitable for crop production, and the county committee makes that determination. The condition as quoted does not name a number of years. Whether a buyer would call that field tillable today is a separate, practical question about the ground.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- 7 CFR 718.2: Farm Service Agency definition of cropland Electronic Code of Federal Regulations
- 2022 Census of Agriculture, Appendix B: land use definitions USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service