Satelite acreage measurement

How much do you guys trust the online acreage measurents like the google planimeter? Dad and I are looking to rent some land so I'm double checking using that to measure the tillable acres (some is useless because of large creeks or otherwise non-tillable) and one extremely odd shaped field near some developement is pretty well spot on. The other is next to one of our fields and we always figured it to be about 17 acres which is close to what I got using the planimeter.

How well do you trust them? At $200/acre we want to be as accurate as we can within reason.

Donovan from Wisconsin

For work we do a lot of measuring using hand held GPS devices and computer software. The google measuring tool seems to be fairly accurate from my experience. The hand helds are by far the least accurate, in Massachusetts anyways. Sometimes they are +/- 100 feet at their best. When you walk around a field that adds up. The only true way is to walk the area with a measuring wheel but I would not hesitate to use an online measuring tool to get an approximate area. You may be off a bit but I don't think on a 17 acre piece it would be anymore than an acre. I think the bigger the piece of land, the more room for error with how accurately you can outline the area you are trying to measure with the online tools. Don't forget the line of the measuring tool also "adds" to the size of the plot. The outside edge of the line should match the outside edge of you tillable ground. I make that statement based on my experience using a wheel to get a direct acreage and then using an online tool.

We used to go to the ASCS office and get their maps with the acerages marked on them. It made it fair to both parties.

One field would be no problem to walk, but like I say, the other is very oddly shaped in a developement area. No possible way to walk it without a lot of messing around and lots of figuring. We are gonna submit an offer to the realtor who's selling it, and then they will in turn contact the family (the estate really) so they can make a descision. If we go directly to the one guy who lives there, it'll be a throw of the dice if he responds in time or if he'd accept any reasonable offer.

Donovan from Wisconsin

must be pretty accurate they use it to set survey pins here, they surveyed 100 acres beside me and set up in my field to set corner pins on it

How do you even make that darned thing work? I've gone to it and the site just sits there,nothing happens.

I think a lot of the accuracy of Googleplanimeter has to do with how accurately the "mouse operator" follows the boundaries of the land that is to be measured.

For my neck of the woods no crop land is rented that cheap. Like someone else said, the FSA office should have satellite measurements. Jim

Randy - does it not come up as a map? If you're getting a blank screen in the map area, try sliding the "zoom" button toward the minus. Mebbe you're "too close" and not showing any features. If you back way out, you should get a map of mid USA, then navigate from there, finally switching to satellite image to show the fields.

It works good for my fields, and matches reasonably with the ASC map acreages.

Paul

Buying from an estate is often a good way to get property cheap, but the key is to OFFER CASH. Usually the heirs want to just get their money and move on, and don't want to be tied up for a long term contract- I've seen heirs reject a contract offer in favor of a cash offer for 1/3 less. May be time to get acquainted with your local Farm Credit Services office, if you aren't already.

Around us most land lease contracts are based on FSA map measurements. They use up to date maps and state of the art digital software to measure thousands of cropland fields in a year. They know how to do it with that kind of experience. You likely will have to have the estate's permission to access estate's farms aerial maps at the FSA office, however. And if it is not currently cropland they won't have a measurement. Could be small charge per field to get the info.

By George,Wacker,I think I've got it!

(quoted from post at 16:57:28 02/15/13) By George,Wacker,I think I've got it!

Click to expand...

YEA TEAM

lol
Better'n 20 years of running a danged computer and I might actually figure out how to use one yet.

FSA office

One field hasn't been worked in years, just has weeds on it, waiting for more houses to be planted. The other has been a large garden for the hmongs in the area. They can't find enough families to split it again so they let it go. $200 is near top dollar around here. Some pay more but its for prime land. Its a little harder and out of the way to get to for most which is a benefit to us.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Check with crop insurance salesmen. They have satelite mounted measuring equip on ATV'v jus for that.

Why bother? If you are going to participate in any FSA programs, you will need to use their measurements anyway.

The USDA has been working on converting to "CLU's", "Certified Land Unit". Their aerial photos will have every waterway, grass strip, fields and subfields numbered and will have acreage listed to the hundreth of an acre.

The landowner can get the maps for free, if you dont own it yet they may charge you a dollar.

Gene

I think something was lost here- We're not buying, never said we were. The land is for sale strictly for deveolpment purposes and nothing else. The family that owns it used to operate a feedmill, which was tore down last year.

One field is right next to ours, has been in gardens for Hmongs the last 3-5 years after they got out of cropping. The hmongs can't get enough families to go in on it again, so they're giving it up. We're offering to rent it for $200/tillable acre. This one should even show up on the same plot maps we have, but the geography has changed a little bit due to some water issues and such. Also some trees that have never seen a chainsaw on their side so there is some lost area around the outside. They have no motivation to trim it since they just want to sell it, and we've got our own overgrown fencerows to tend to.

The second field hasn't been planted since they quit growing crops. most of the field has been developed already, and about 17 acres is all that remains of it. It's oddly shaped because of winding streets and such that have been put in, and going around piles of dirt and where the buildings used to be. Using satelite images is probably the most accurate way to measure it due to it's odd shape, and any plot maps would no longer be accurate. We're offering less on that, and trying to go with a per-crop basis (if we plant 2 forage crops this year, we pay 2x, if we can get in a winter forage, then it's 3x) and we'd like to do pay-as-you-go on it simply because of the uncertain future of it. Lately houses have been selling, so it won't be much longer before it's gone.

Again- We're NOT buying, just renting. To buy is WAY over any kind of a budget for agricultural purposes.

We don't have crop insurance because Dad paid in for more than 20 years, and not once was he ever able to collect, even on our worst years where people with better crops had collected. We've been going for probably 10 years or more without it and we've been doing just fine, even with last year being the way it was.

Donovan from Wisconsin

I have been amazed at how accurate the thing is. I have taken googleearth and put pointers on my barns, and stuff I know the measurements of, and it is accurate to within inches. The planimeter program seems to also be super close to what NRCS and FSA have on file- it depends on where the points are set by the operator.

I use the NRCS Web Soil Survey (WSS) web site. Does the mapping and also gives you soil types and other info. Have to run it in Internet Explorer but otherwise works well.

John

I use this and found it to be accurate

http://www.freemaptools.com/area-calculator.htm#sidebar

I have an app on my android phone called area calculator. Works well and it is in my pocket when you need to approximate how many acres remain in a field.

Tommy