An American geographer is urging farmers to manage their own digital mapping data.
“If you have the desire to know more about your farm, then digital mapping is for you,” says Noel Anderson, who specializes in digital mapping and soil surveying.
“And with basic computer skills you can do it yourself. You don’t need a machinery dealer or agronomist to do it for you.”
Anderson said farmers often don’t know enough about their land and the resources that surround them.
“When farmers explore the technology a bit, they quickly learn what they bring to the map, too,” he said.
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“All that expert farm knowledge about their land is otherwise the last thing that ends up in a precision farm map, if it ends up there at all.”
Anderson has made a career managing agricultural and water surveys in the U.S. Midwest, working for universities and government as well as a private consultant.
“Farmers large and small benefit from knowing their land, and not only just the first six inches or six feet,” he said.
“But by (layering) any other information, they can get … what lies below. They should have access to water surveys by governments and have the full picture of what is down there. They will make decisions based on that kind of information.”
Digital mapping tools used to be expensive and required more than a casual interest in computing.
However, software has become more user friendly and prices have fallen, with many farm data management packages allowing for at least some integration of mapping information and layering.
“Google Earth Pro is one of the best tools out there, and it gets better all the time,” he said.
“At about $400, it is also a price that any farmer can afford, secure in the knowledge that it will pay that back in the first few hours.”
Google Earth Pro allows producers to import data from a variety of sources and create custom maps that calculate areas of odd shaped fields and export them in formats that most precision ag tools can read, including ESRI Shape files, which have a SHP suffix common in agricultural applications, MapInfo with the TAB suffix, and the keyhole markup language KML.
Spreadsheet files, such as CSV format information, can be imported and over-laid on top of topography and field shape-files from as-applied, yield and scouting maps.
Google Earth Pro also provides one-on-one help from technical specialists. Anderson also offers assistance to farmers who want to learn more about their mapping opportunities.
“I’m doing it for free right now. I am looking for some Johnny Appleseeds that are interested in taking control of their own data and putting it to work for themselves,” he said.
“Why would I do it for free? I’ve found over the years when I want to develop a new paid practice, that sometimes you need to develop a critical mass around an idea or some technology.”
Some of Anderson’s paying farm clients use his mapping expertise to think differently about their farms.
Charlie Crave of Crave Brothers’ Farm in Wisconsin is one of those businesses. The farm raises its own feed and dairy cattle to produce milk for its cheese business.
He said they developed a full three dimensional map of their farm that lets them map a wide variety of elements, including aquifers, buildings and fields.
Anderson used a Leica laser to create a layer that shows the Crave farm in real-scale, relative to its environment.
Anderson said the Craves now have a full view of their 1,500 acre farm, including all the pipes, power lines and other infrastructure, as well as the ground water.
“They can confirm or make decisions for their manure digesters’ locations and power generation, as well as barns and feed storage based on an easy to use visual platform,” said Anderson.
Anderson is offering free, online seminars about the use of Google Earth and mapping software.
For an invitation to a webinar, contact him at namadisan@gmail.com.
