# measure acerage



## robert23239

do you guys ever use google map to measure the acres ?

I took it to square feet to figure out the size of the fields .

I was wondering if google maps was accurate ?

Anything else to use to check the size ?


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## wheatridgefarmMD

Web Soil Survey-

websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/

1. CLick green button -"Start WSS"
2. Select a route to navigate- address , city, state, coordinates, etc 
3. Across the top of the map click AOI either square or custom, 
4. outline the field(s)
5. double click the last point
6. Green colored grid will appear across field, Acreage info on the left hand side.

Seems to be fairly accurate, introduced to it through college classes and have used it many times for my operation.


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## haybaler101

Google earth measurements have been very accurate for me. Works great on square fields. I have actually checked it out on one of my buildings. The barn is 192' long and it measured 192.5' with google earth. Close enough for government work!


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## Grateful11

wheatridgefarmMD said:


> Web Soil Survey-
> 
> websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/
> 
> 1. CLick green button -"Start WSS"
> 2. Select a route to navigate- address , city, state, coordinates, etc
> 3. Across the top of the map click AOI either square or custom,
> 4. outline the field(s)
> 5. double click the last point
> 6. Green colored grid will appear across field, Acreage info on the left hand side.
> 
> Seems to be fairly accurate, introduced to it through college classes and have used it many times for my operation.


Thanks! That's about the coolest thing I've seen online in quite a while. I'm 
having a blast checking all the fields and pastures.


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## Hayboy1

definetly a very handy and neat tool to use, thanks for the link


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## swmnhay

Anyone use a hand held GPS for measuring acres,or marking spots in fields?


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## Grateful11

swmnhay said:


> Anyone use a hand held GPS for measuring acres,or marking spots in fields?


The guy that spreads our fertilize has one that shows exactly what spots he's covered and the ones he hasn't.


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## JoshA

That WSS link seems pretty cool, too bad it doesn't work in Canada.

I have an EZ-Steer 500 that I use, just drive the perimeter of the field, down to 0.00 of the total acres. Has saved on rental costs, not to mention for custom work! There's a big margin of error possible on "about 450" acres!

And if there's two machines people working (ie, "helping someone out), no problem, GPS shows number of acres covered by the machine it's in.


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## mf124gy

swmnhay said:


> Anyone use a hand held GPS for measuring acres,or marking spots in fields?


I did just that when I was checking out my 10-acre place prior to buying it in late 2005. It's flat pasture layed out in a square shape with 1-furlong sides (660 ft).


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## rank

robert23239 said:


> Anything else to use to check the size ?


I usually use the (ground speed x cutter head width of the haybine)/43680 to give me a quick idea.

i.e., with a 14.5' cut (15' head), traveling at 8 mph;

(14.5 ft x 5280 ft/mile x 8 mph)43,680 sq ft per acre = 14 acres per hour. If it takes 2 hours to cut, it's a 28 acre field. Give or take.


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## ecofarmer

I have a USB GPS card for my computer. I can set it up and drive around the field and it will tell me the flat acres. I have found that a lot of farmers around me think they have about a sixth more land than what it shows.


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## kingranchf350

Swmnhay, I use a handheld GPS for measuring fields. I have it on my ATV. It actually works pretty good.


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## PaCustomBaling

WebSoilSurvey.nrcs.usda.gov, best site I've found for measuring acreage thus far.


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## kfarm_EC_IL

We use Live search (MSN) for the ability to get the maps from any computer anywhere that has the internet. But we like teh Websoilsurvey site for the presicion and data that is offered. good site. None of the sites will jive with the FSA but they will be close. What would be nice is for the mapping portion of FSA to be online.

Does anybody live in an area that google updates with the 3 meter maps? They look awesome, but no where near here...middle of no where.
Mark


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## vhaby

Want to do some more learning in the Web Soil Survey?

websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/

Once you have outlined your field area as described in an earlier reply and gotten the AOI highlighted with the diagonal lines that allowed you to see the acreage, then click Soil Map near the upper left. This will draw the approximate soil series boundaries of your field/farm and will give you the soil map unit symbol, the map unit name, the acres of that soil, and the percentage of those acres.

Now, you can take the soil series name/names and go to

Official Soil Series Descriptions (OSD) | NRCS Soils

At this site, click Soil Series Name Search, and then type the soil series name in the rectangle and click Process. This will allow you to view the complete soil serise desctiption for that soil.

A Note: The Web Soil Survey cannot locate my place using the address. I initiate Google Earth, find my place, record the Latitude and Longitude, and then go to the Web Soil Survey, click Latitude and Longitude, click Degrees/Minutes/Seconds, and then enter the L and L numbers. It locates my place exactly.

vhaby


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## vhaby

Rank,
Wow! 14 acres per hour is moving on...you could cut my hay field in just over two hours, but you might be jostled about a bit going over the feral hog rooting and gopher mounds. You might double check the square feet per acre number that you showed in your equation. Should be 43,560.


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## Heyhay..eh

go here for free converter. More than just area so good for a lot of things especially for us Canucks who are always converting from metric to imperial or us measure

Convert for Windows | Josh Madison


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## downtownjr

Just wanted to bring this post back up for the new year. Some of us picked a few pieces of ground to custom harvest and like others I like the WSS site discussed in this post.Thought I would reshare the article.


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## mlappin

haybaler101 said:


> Google earth measurements have been very accurate for me. Works great on square fields. I have actually checked it out on one of my buildings. The barn is 192' long and it measured 192.5' with google earth. Close enough for government work!


I don't believe it's free version, but the guy that does our crop dusting uses some form of Google Earth and he's believes it close enough that he charges by what it tells him.

Really convenient as well. Stop in their office the first time, give em the nearest intersections, help em to outline the proper fields, next time you need em simply call and tell em what fields to spray.


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## Riverside Cattle

Google Planimeter


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## kfarm_EC_IL

Thanks, the Google mapping shows acres!. I was using bing and then hand calculating the acres.


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## mlappin

I was playing around with Google earth last night and found a person needs to upgrade to the Pro version to map out areas and find the acreage. I'm I mistaken about this. I play around with the free version and found upgrading to Pro was like a yearly $400 fee.

There's plenty of free or one time fee programs out there at considerably less cost than Earth Pro.

I used the other one that was linked for soil mapping and it works alright as well, but I think Google Earth is a lot more user friendly.

Please point me in the right direction if I missed something.


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## kfarm_EC_IL

I got acreage if I scrolled down the page (listed under the graphic / picture) But that maynot be what your asking.
Mark


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## mlappin

You're just using the free downloaded version of Google Earth correct?


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## kfarm_EC_IL

Yes, I'm to tight to pay for it, however I didn't look at what the upgrade would do. So Maybe it would save the fields like Bing / MSN. I not sure. My students were showing me yesterday how using google near a highway you can drive down the road in 3d. Really wild, but doesn't help us in agriculture that I could figure out.
Mark


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