# Extrapolating surface measurements pertaining to custom harvesting



## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

I'm new here, not new to reading the forum but new to posting. We are in the custom forage business and have been for a number of years. Most of our customers have odd shaped fields that defy normal methods of linear measurement to ascertain actual surface area ro apply custom rates to. I use to pull my hair out when estimating a job until I discovered (by accident) that using my rangefinder (the one I use when hunting out west and up north) to ascertain boundary measurements, made the process much simpler, less time consuming, more accurate and allows us to have a better handle on cost versus profit in a custom scenario.

My rangefinder is accurate within 2 feet to 500 yards and 3 feet to 1000 yards and direct reads within 5 seconds. I use a reflective target (a aluminum pie tin on a stake) to ascertain linear boundaries. The reflective nature of the pie tin makes acquisition by the ranhefinder instant. I can shoot each linear boundary no matter what the shape of the field is in the time it takes to walk the perimeter.

Sure beats GPS and tape measures and is much more accurate and quicker.

Just thought I'd pass that on. It might help someone.....


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## fredro (May 12, 2012)

i have a app on my phone called area calculator drive around the field hit the hi points comes pretty close


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## Farmall706 (Sep 4, 2011)

I use google earth, seems to be spot on


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

I use Google Area Calculator.
It does not take into consideration any contour but it is a good tool.


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## urednecku (Oct 18, 2010)

Another one is the National Wetlands Inventory map. Has a tool similar to Google Area's.


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## Will 400m (Aug 1, 2011)

That wetlands one is awsome I'v been playing with it all afternoon.


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## Lazy J (Jul 18, 2008)

We use the GIS data for out county to determine land area, much easier than walking fields and gets us very close on the actual acreage.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

I use an app on droid based phone. Area calculator I think, like the use of the range finder tho, guess you have to go around and put the pie plates up, seems like a hassle, but oughta work. I love my rangefinder for hunting anything, best tool I "had" to have.....


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## jrward (Nov 8, 2011)

Smartphone app called google finger measure. Just bring up the map and trace the area with your finger. Very quick and accurate


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## downtownjr (Apr 8, 2008)

Some real cool stuff mentioned on the thread. I love GIS, happen to be lucky enough to have access to ArcInfo through work. But some great apps and web sites I have not used were brought up...thanks


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I used a google map area tool this year to map out my fields. The total area is a lot higher than I expected. I have in the past used a Magellan Gold gps with some old gis mobile map maker software that would build basemaps I could upload to the gps. That was too much work but it was nice to have exact field boundaries after a few hours of atv riding.

Right now looking for a basic farm gps software to layout my plowing. The fields are randomly shaped and they were plowed out last time. Need plowed in now but I don't want to do a bunch of deadheading on the last furrows if I can get a good starting pattern.


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## mulberrygrovefamilyfarm (Feb 11, 2009)

We use a Garmin GPS to measure the area in acres - no additional software is needed. To use the Garmin you clear your "tracks"in the GPS first. Then drive or walk the outside of the field and at the end select "save tracks". It will automatically calculate the area in acres on the fly. I also save markers whenever there are points, cutbacks or other significant terrain features. Then I upload the tracks and markers to Google Earth (again, no special software needed since it has a Garmin upload as part of Google Earth) and hand that to the owner showing where we're going to do the custom work. I use USDA Web Soil Survey for looking at ground before we go onsite and allows us to look at soil properties including CSR and soil types, calculate acres etc. If you're a farmer and do custom work or rent ground this is a must use site.


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