Outlining your fields, beds, enclosures, and buildings is a great way to see an overview of your property. Many Farmbrite users enjoy this feature, as it provides an opportunity to look at your property from a different vantage point, sparking new ideas for field and crop layout which may lead to improved efficiencies in land use. Beyond giving you a bird's eye view, mapping your farm will also enable automatic calculations of estimated plant counts, which then factors into your estimated harvest revenue.
Important Note: Farm mapping is available in Farmbrite's browser based experience (using a computer, not a tablet or phone). You can view your map on your mobile devices, but outlining your fields, beds, buildings, and more is best accomplished on a desktop or laptop computer.
Quick Summary
- The farm map is where you map your fields, buildings, greenhouses, irrigation lines, hazards, and more.
- You can use various shapes and tools to define the areas.
- Areas can be connected to grow locations, grazing locations, and warehouses.
- The map areas can also be imported using your existing GIS data.
- Farm mapping is not required; you can create grow locations, storage locations, and grazing locations without mapping your fields.
To start mapping your farm, just navigate to Farm Map in your left navigation menu. You'll immediately see an aerial satellite view of your property. This map is shown based on the address you gave when creating your Farmbrite account; if you need to update it to point somewhere else, you can change it in your Account Settings. Check out this article for a full tutorial on how that works, but overall you can navigate to the gear icon in the upper right and select Settings, and then either update your address or simply move the pin to update the default map location.
The map displayed in your account will probably look familiar, as the image is sourced from Google Maps. You can zoom using the plus and minus buttons in the bottom right, or use your mouse scroll wheel. You can also click to grab the map and move it around to change the area you are viewing.
Adding Places to Your Map
You'll see a button at the top for you to add a place to your map. Click it, and you'll be given a choice to create different types of areas around your property - boundaries, fields, beds, irrigation and buffer zones, as well as buildings and storage locations, and enclosures for animals and crops. You can even map hazards if you need to look out for rocks, ditches, or uneven land. Many users start by mapping their property boundary, but the order which you add your areas is entirely up to you.
Each type has its own usage and connections.
- Property Boundary - As it sounds, this is the outline of your entire property. This does not connect with other records in Farmbrite and used exclusively on the map.
- Animal Enclosure- A paddock, stall, corral, etc. This connects with the Grazing section so you can move your animals and groups into this enclosure.
- Field - This is a large area that you can use as a grow location or grazing location.
- Bed - A smaller area that you can connect with a specific bed in a grow location that is configured as Planted in Beds.
- Buffer Zone - Usually a strip of land that designates a unplanted area, used especially for organic certification requirement.
- Building - A barn, shed, house, etc. You can move animals here is you need, but not plant crops.
- Growing Enclosure - Usually something like a greenhouse, you'll plant crops here and it can be connected to your grow locations.
- Irrigation - Map your irrigation lines; this is for visual purposes only and does not connect with other areas of Farmbrite.
- Hazard - Note a rock, hole, bumpy soil, old stump, etc. This also is for map purposes only.
- Storage Location - Used to map a warehouse, and it can be connected to your warehouse records in the Resources section.
- Other - Whatever else you need!
To start mapping your first area, select the Place Type from the button above the map. You'll see the menu change to various tools that you can use to draw the shapes of your areas. We've outlined each below, with some usage examples.
- Polygon - Used for an irregular shaped field. If it's not a circle or rectangle, you can use this to place points on the map that connect to form a polygon area. To finish the drawing and save, just click the same starting point you began with.
- Rectangle - A perfect rectangle/square. Click once, and then drag your mouse to create the area.
- Circle - A perfect circle. Click one to start, and then move your mouse to set a radius and outline your area.
- Freehand - Similar to a Polygon, except you don't need to click to drop a point. You simply click once to place a starting point, and then trace the outline of the area with your mouse.
- Linestring - A way to place multiple points along a line without connecting them at the end. You are basically drawing a line, and not an area. This one is great for irrigation!
- Point - A single plotted point with no area calculated. This is perfect for a hazard.
Once you draw the shape, you can then name it, choose a color for it, and optionally connect it to an existing record like a grow location or warehouse. If you are mapping a field that does not have a grow location already, you can choose to create a new one as well. We map a field using the polygon tool in our example below, and then connect it with one of our existing grow locations. Watch the video above for many more examples!
Updating Your Mapped Areas
After creating your areas, you can update them by clicking on them. You'll see options to Edit Details, Adjust, or Copy them to make additional new ones.Check out this article for a full tutorial on working with all of those options.
- The Edit Details button changes the name, color, text orientation, or linked record.
- The Adjust button enables you to change the pin points and update the areas, or move it to a different location by enabling the move tool after filtering your map.
- The Copy button makes an exact copy of the area, which could be great if you have multiple beds that are the exact same size. You'll likely adjust the copied area after making it using the button described above.
Importing Your Map
If you have your areas mapped in different software like Google MyMaps or ArcGIS, you can import the data to have the area mapped automatically. This article outlines the entire process. You'll need the data in a specific format, and we provide you with a template to ensure all data is transferred successfully.
Filtering Your Map
You'll see some additional tools in the upper right corner of the map as well.
- You can filter your map to only display certain area types - this might be very handy to find all of your hazards!
- You can geolocate yourself on the map, which places a red pin in your current location, based on your devices GPS data. If you have a very large property, this could be beneficial to center the map to your current location. Tip: You can do this in tasks too, check this out!
- You can choose to display the map labels or leave them off. Up to you what you prefer!
- You can also print the map if you need a hard copy of it - or, save it as a PDF.
Adding Notes, Tasks, and Grazing
If you have your mapped areas connected to grow locations, grazing locations, or warehouses, you'll see additional actions available in the menu when you click on them. You can easily write notes for these areas, create tasks that need to be done, or manage your animals grazing in them. You can read more about those actions here.
We know you'll be a pro at using this mapping tool in no time! Go ahead and add a few fields, outline your farm buildings, define your animal enclosures - all of the Area Types that you can use work in the same way as we've shown you for fields here. We've also compiled some Frequently Asked Questions/Tips and Tricks below; check them out, and let us know if you have any additional questions about mapping your farm.
FAQs
I am having trouble selecting the correct area to move because it overlays other areas, how can I make sure I am picking the right one?
Set a filter! If you'd like to move a bed that is over a field or a building within your property boundary, the easiest way to make sure you select the correct area to work with is to filter the map to only show that area type. That lets you enable the move tool, which is shown as a compass/cross in the tool menu when adjusting an area. Check out the video above for an example of this around the 10:30 time mark.
How can I map my farm if I have multiple locations that are not immediately connected or adjacent to each other?
You can zoom out as farm as you'd like on your farm map, and create areas wherever you need to. Whether it's down the street or the next town over, just zoom out, find your additional property, and start mapping there. Any field you map, regardless of location, can still be used as a grow location when planting your crops.
My farm looks different from when this map image was taken, can you update the picture for me?
We'd love to be able to do that, but Farmbrite is reliant on Google Maps data for these farm maps. We find that Google updates these images from time to time when they take new satellite photos, but we cannot request or provide new images. Check back on it every few months though, as Google Maps is routinely updated.
What's a buffer zone and how do I use that Area Type?
If you're farming organically, you likely need to leave buffer zones between you crop and your neighbors fields to ensure no cross contamination occurs. You might leave 10 feet on all sides of the field - if you'd like to call that out on the map, use the buffer zone Area Type to make sure that you don't mistakenly take that area into account when calculating acreage of your fields.
How can I fix my map labels so they can be more easily read?
If you have fields that are oriented north-south, you might want to select the option to Rotate Label Vertically . This writes the label text vertically and makes it easier to read when beds and fields are placed closely next to each other.
