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GIS Solutions or AgricultureSolutions or Production, Agribusiness, and Government
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GIS Solutions or Agriculture
All sectors o the agriculture industry use ESRIs geographic
inormation system (GIS) technology to share data, increase
yields, predict outcomes, and improve business practices.
By applying GIS technology to their operations, agricultural
operations are able to manage resources and responsibilities
more eciently, devise data portals that disseminate vast
amounts o agricultural data and interactive maps, and support
arming communities.
Producers use GIS to better manage their arms by creating
inormation-dense reports and maps that give them a unique
perspective o their operations. The powerul analytical
capabilities o GIS oer an array o options or visualizing
arming conditions, as well as measuring and monitoring the
eects o arm management practices. Combined with remote-
sensing technology, GIS can be used to precisely determine
and control inputs, saving preventive expense and reducing
the amount o harm to the soil. Farm managers also use GIS to
submit government program applications, simpliying what used
to be time-consuming multistep processes.
ESRIs GIS technologies support people working in
agriculture by providing
Greateranalyticalsupportforprecisionfarming
Betterunderstandingofriskfactors
Higherrevenuegenerationandcostrecovery
Greaterefciencythroughtaskautomation
Greateraccesstogovernmentservicesanddata
Moreaccuratesupportfordecisionmaking
Greaterinsighttopolicymaking
Easierreportingforgovernmentapplicationsand
regulatory compliance
Betterresourcemanagement
www.esri.com/agriculture
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GIS for Precise Farm Management
Monitoringmarkettrends,improvingyields,andpredicting
weather are among the many responsibilities required to reducethe risk o loss and increase protability. The Farmers Almanac
has been replaced with geospatial analysis and predictive
modeling. With these tools at their disposal, armers now
have the ability to visualize their land, crops, and management
practices in unprecedented ways or precise management o
their businesses.
Today, accessing spatial data has become an essential arm
practice. Government agencies such as the U.S. Department o
Agriculture (USDA) and the European Union host Web sites that
deliver valuable inormation to help armers better understand
their land and make more inormed decisions. This data can be
accessed on the Internet and used to create intelligent maps orbetter arm business practices.
Irrigation
Soil Treatments
Crop Yield
Soil Types
Terrain
In a map o an agricultural area, one layer might represent the boundaries
o a piece o land; a second layer, soil types; another, the crop yield or
a specic soil treatment; and still another, irrigation. GIS can show, or
example, how the relationships between soil type, ertilizer, and water
aect crop yield on a given square acre o land. A map depicting how soil
variability infuences crop yield suggests precise soil management solutions.
Detailed soil survey atlas map for Antelope County, Nebraska
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GIS for Government Agriculture
Federal, state, and local agricultural agencies serve and share
inormation with many dierent groups. Throughout the supplychain, rom producer to consumer, agricultural ministries and
institutions collect, collate, manage, and disseminate data. With
growing public awareness o arming practices and legislation,
these activities will inevitably become more complicated. I
there is a common theme in new eorts to better conduct
these activities, it is communication. A powerul medium o
communication, GIS enables the sharing o inormation not only
internally but also between government and consumer.
The agricultural industry uses GIS to meet the challenges o
arm management including regulatory compliance, permit
distribution, subsidy tracking, and pest management. By
improving the way producers collect, store, and accessinormation related to these activities, GIS enables a more
complete command o their businesses.
Agriculture Information Delivered Online
In the agriculture industry, those unacquainted with GIS
technology need to view and print custom maps and be able
to download these maps to desktop and GPS-enabled mobile
applications. Using ESRI GIS sotware, AgTerra Technologies Inc.,
a manuacturer o agriculture management applications located
in Sheridan, Wyoming, set out to make this happen.
AgTerra uses its Internet map server program in conjunctionwith its AgTrac application to make it easier to build an online
map that can be downloaded as an ArcGIS, ArcExplorer, or
ArcPad project. To make system data more accessible to work-
ers,AgTerrausesArcIMS or many reasons, the oremost being
itshighlyscalableframeworkforGISWebpublishing.ArcIMS
gives users the ability to serve maps and other data to a variety
o clients ranging rom wireless devices, such as cellular phones
and personal digital assistants (PDAs), or lightweight browser-
based clients to ull-eatured GIS desktop clients. As a result o
this project, AgTerra improved AgTracs ability to manage and
acilitate improved business.
GSA Schedule
ESRIs GIS sotware and services are avail-
able to ederal agencies through ESRIs
GSA Schedule. To order GIS sotware rom
ESRIs GSA Schedule, call 1-800-447-9778. Reer to ESRIs
GSAScheduleNo.GS-35F-5086H.
Based on ArcIMS, AgTerras AgTrac application helps link tabular fielddata with spatial data to help direct field-based activities such as cropscouting, soil sampling, and ground-truthing remote imagery.
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Publishing Volumes o DataServer-Based Case StudyUSDA Web Soil Survey
In August 2005, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Ser-
vice (NRCS) launched the Web Soil Survey, a Web-based version
o the National Cooperative Soil Survey. The Web Soil Survey
helps the USDA meet two o the U.S. presidents management
agenda items: to eliminate paperwork and to make government
services accessible to more people. Prior to the Web Soil Survey
going live, soil survey maps and data were largely contained in
soil survey books housed at local USDA service centers, NRCS
eld oces, and public libraries. Today, soil survey users can
simply connect to the Internet, select a land parcel anywhere
in the country, see the specied parcel on a map, generate soil
interpretations, and download or print a PDF le.
TheWebSoilSurveyapplicationwasbuiltusingESRIArcIMS,
ArcGIS Server, and ArcSDE sotware. The server sotware is
being ully integrated with the soil surveys master database,
whichcontainsallsoilinformationonanationalbasis.ArcIMSis
the ront end or delivering the application, while ArcGIS Server
delivers the inormation. In addition, ESRIs ArcWebSM
Services
provide address-nding unctionality, enabling users to type an
address and receive a map view o that area.
An application suite, the Web Soil Survey contains a ront-end
applicationthataccessestheSoilDataMartthecentralized
repository o the Web Soil Surveys spatial and tabular soil
data. Because the Web site provides single-point access, users
can access available historical and current soil survey data. Past
publications are available as PDFs or viewing or downloading or
selected areas. On the interactive GIS map, the user can outline
an area o interest (rom 3 to 10,000 acres) and select a usageoption. The application provides suitability levels o the area or
the selected land use.
The Web Soil Survey oers approximately 50 national standard
interpretations. Some examples o interpretations are land appli-
cations; productivity o cropland, rangeland, and orestland; and
suitability or dierent recreational developments such as paths
and trails, campsites, and picnic grounds.
Adding new unctionalities to the Web Soil Survey project is a
constant endeavor. Eventually, USDA customers will be able to log
in to their USDA case les and drop in inormation, such as prop-
erty boundaries, or quick access to inormation about selected
properties in their les. The Web Soil Survey is the beginning o a
new era or NRCS and delivery o soil survey inormation.
Online users select a plant community and assess the suitability and
limitations of a specified ecological site. They can also read about thespecific details and view a map.
Web Soil Survey allows the user to select any location in the United States
and access available soil information, suitability levels, and propertypotential. Here, the Web site user assesses an area for potential cottonlint yield.
www.esri.com/agriculture
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Fertilizer Application System Uses GIS/GPS forPrecision Farming
Today more than ever, armers rely on inputs to increase thequality o the produce they grow. These inputs vary rom seed,
ertilizer, and pesticides to machinery parts and monitoring
equipment.
In past generations, armers tended to spread ertilizer evenly
over the entire eld. Now, thanks to geospatial technology,
spreading methods can be more exact by type, quantity, and
location o application. Outtting the spray rig with computer-
ized controllers and GPS navigation systems is an approach to
arming that is both riendly to the environment and protable
or the armer.
Ravensdown, New Zealands largest manuacturer and distribu-
tor o ertilizers, is using geospatial technology to improve the
way New Zealand armers manage their inputs. By using GIS
and GPS to guide the application o ertilizers, armers are
decreasing the amount o wasted resources that can potentially
cause harmul runo into streams and waterways. At the same
time, they are reducing their total ertilizer expenditure by up to
10 percent per year.
Ravensdown worked with Eagle Technology Group to design the
solution that is built on ESRIs ArcGIS sotware. The system accu-
rately records where and how much ertilizer has been applied to
a certain area. This inormation is merged with digital orthopho-
tos and the arms relational databases to create a vivid picture o
the arms overall soil sustainability.
Ravensdowns GIS architecture includes ESRIs ArcGIS Server,
ArcSDE,ArcIMS,andArcExplorer.Oncetherawspatialandattri-
bute data is captured rom GPS transceivers on the trucks, it is
transmitted wirelessly to Ravensdowns acility where it is loaded
into the GIS and processed in near real time.
The onboard GIS creates a map-based display that shows ertil-
izer application data as a series o color-coded snail trails that
are overlaid on the map, giving a very good representation o
the process. An additional benet is that the system can be used
as evidence to veriy proo o placement. With geospatial
technology, it is easy to demonstrate that the ertilizer has been
spread in a manner consistent with best environmental practices.
Improving Crop YieldCase StudyRavensdown, New Zealand
Eagle used the development capabilities available in ArcGIS
Server to embed the map interace in Ravensdowns customer
relationshipmanagement(CRM)system.Ravensdownwanted
seamless access to the spatial and attribute data, so Eagle
developers used the .NET ramework to build an interactive map
viewer that the call center sta can access with a click o the
mouse. Sta members can query the database, manipulate the
display, and print or ax hard-copy maps.
Ravensdown is planning to build on this oundation. Eventually,
we want to incorporate GIS into our quoting system to calculate
the road distance between our depots and the elds to be ertil-
ized,saysMarkMcAtamney,CIOatRavensdown.Thedistance
is a signicant component o the cost to our clients.
Once the data has been uploaded and processed, Ravensdown field staff
can log on to the system from a remote location via the Internet. Theycan call up a customers farm, view the results of earlier soil tests, see
what types of fertilizers have been applied, then make recommendationsabout which type of fertilizers are appropriate.
Ravensdown had already
equipped a number of its fertilizerapplication trucks with GPS-
controlled guidance systems and
spreaders that captured location,fertilizer type, and spreading data.
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ESRI sotware oers scalable solutions or agricultural depart-
ments, universities, and businesses. From eld-based products
such as ArcPad to server-level sotware such as ArcGIS Server,
data can be collected and managed more easily than ever beore.
ArcGIS provides all the necessary tools to analyze the spatial
components o agricultural datasets. Below are a ew examples
where organizations are beneting rom taking a geographic
approach to their operations.
Invasive Species ResponseWashington State
The gypsy moth is one o the worst agricultural pests in North
America today. To deal with the burgeoning threat, the Washing-
ton State Department o Agriculture (WSDA) recently implemented
GIS and GPS technology into the states eradication eorts. As
a result, the department has reduced the amount o paper used
in the data collection process and increased the number o moth
catches, signicantly improving WSDAs monitoring eorts. The
accuracy o GPS units, combined with ArcView sotwares state-
o-the-art mapping capabilities, gives trappers a better picture o
where to set the traps to better manage this voracious pest.
Vineyard InspectionWashington State
ChateauSte.MichelleWineEstatesmaintainsawealthofspatial
data or its numerous vineyards. To keep the grapes growing
at peak level, crews routinely inspect the vineyards using ESRIs
ArcPad mobile platorm. Data on the mobile devices is synchro-
nized using TC Technologys GO! Sync or ArcPad. The remotely
captured data is stored centrally in an enterprise geodatabase,
allowingChateauSte.Michelletoanalyzeavastamountofinormation relating to the numerous conditions that aect the
health o its vines such as weed growth, disease presence, and
pest inestation. This eld-collected data is then synchronized
with the winerys centrally stored data.
Mass Animal Burial Soil SuitabilityKansas
The quick disposal o large dead animals ollowing a catastrophe
is critical. The pit method disposes dead animals by placing car-
casses in successive layers in an excavated pit. The chemical and
physical properties o soils can help distinguish areas that are
most suitable or excavating pits and disposal o large animals as
well as areas with the least number o soil limitations.
Using ArcGIS Desktop sotware, the USDA obtained soil data
rom the National Soil Inormation System and combined it with
the Soil Survey Geographic Database to map the soil suitability
or large-animal disposal pits. This interpretive map demon-
strates how important soils are in determining which areas may
be suitable or these emergency response uses.
www.esri.com/agriculture
Map depicting trapping grids in Washington State generated in ArcView
GIS: The Geographic Approach
Map depicting soil suitability for catastrophic large-animal disposalpit in Kansas.
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