Web Soil Survey - A valuable source of information for farmers

A farmer can look at cropland by typing in an address and zooming into desired fields. Then outline the fields to create the area of interest (AOI). Once the AOI is defined, next select the “soil map” tab to view the soil types in the field broken down by acres. Next the “soil data explore” tab provides information for the field such as the land classifications, which includes capability class and farmland classification. The “soil data explorer” tab also provides vegetative productivity which includes yields of irrigated and non-irrigated crops. Also, if you are thinking of building a pond it suggests areas where the soils are better suited for ponds to avoid seepage.

Lastly the “shopping cart” tab allows the user to print out a custom report for the area selected. This information can also be saved as a pdf document for referencing at a later time. This is extremely useful information for farmers as they evaluate renting or purchasing farmland or for those who are looking to better manage the land that they currently manage. The Web Soil Survey is available at http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm