Field boundaries in Sirrus are the most critical component of your data. Without accurate field boundaries, the precision capability of Sirrus will diminish with the inaccuracies of the field boundaries.
Luckily, ensuring the accuracy of your growers fields couldn't be simpler in Sirrus Mobile. Whether you need to create field boundaries for new ground or your business is migrating existing boundaries from previous data management systems, creating, managing and editing these boundaries are simple.
A Field Boundary is defined as the largest extent of the cultivated and managed area that a farmer would designate as a single field boundary. As a general rule, the area defined as the field boundary tend to stay static or the same over time, from season to season. Every Activity, Operation, Layer, Recommendation and Application are spatially tied to the recorded field boundary in Sirrus.
It is important to ensure that the settings for the Field Boundary are correct:
Setting the minimum boundary size for creation
Setting up the GPS information if you will be using this method to collect or digitize your growers farms and fields
How do I create a Field Boundary in Sirrus Mobile?
Using the Draw Tool in Sirrus Mobile
Creating a new field boundary can be accomplished from the Grower, Farm or Field level in Sirrus mobile. To begin to the field boundary tools, tap the plus sign at the bottom of your devices screen and select create boundary.
On the following screen, tap the wrench icon and select the Draw option from the tool list.
Navigate to the area of the field on your devices screen, with the field in view, simply begin by tapping the screen and drop the first vertex for the field. Continue dropping points around the field boundary. If you need to adjust a vertex, tap and hold the pin and adjust accordingly.
When you are satisfied with the boundary of the field, click or tap Close Polygon in the bottom right of your screen.
Creating a field with the Pick a Field method
The Pick a Field tool is a quick and easy option to create a field boundary in Sirrus Mobile. After you have tapped the orange plus sign and selected Create Boundary option, tap the Pick a Field from the list of tools.
Navigate to the area of the field on your screen and zoom in until the crosshairs are shown. Place the crosshairs over the field you want to digitize, the boundary of the field will appear as a white field shape.
With the field highlighted in white, tap the Select Polygon button in the bottom right to enclose the field boundary. Within the pick a field tool, you do have the option to continue selecting multiple polygons to complete a field boundary.
Continue adding these polygons by tapping the wrench icon and selecting the pick a field option. Each land unit or polygon will be treated individually but will be combined during the saving process and will represent one field.
When you are satisfied with the boundary selected, tap the Save button in the top right. Be sure to assign the new Field to the correct Grower and Farm and give the new area a name.
Editor's Tip: The Pick a Field tool is only available for users within the U.S.
Digitizing with the Pivot tool
In Sirrus Mobile you have the option to quickly create a field boundary for irrigated ground using the Pivot option. With the interactive map displayed on your devices screen, navigate to the area of the field you want to digitize. From the tool options, select the Pivot option and a pivot boundary will be dropped onto your screen.
To adjust the center of the Pivot, tap, hold and drag the magnified pin to the center of the irrigation system.
To adjust the size of the boundary, in the top right corner under the Settings button, tap the orange Edit Pivot button. To adjust the acreage covered, one option is to enter in the latitude/longitude coordinates for the pivot. If you know the irrigated acreage covered, you can enter in the value for either the radius or the total number of acres.
With the pivot boundary in place, click Set Pivot in the bottom right of your devices screen and Save the new field boundary in the correct GFF (Grower, Farm, Field) structure.
Capturing a Field Boundary with GPS
With Sirrus Mobile, you have the option to use an external GPS or your devices GPS to create a field boundary.
Arriving at the new field, select the GPS option from the boundary creation tool bar and prior to beginning, ensure that the settings for the GPS are correct in your Sirrus Mobile account.
Editors Tip: When you're ready to begin, pay close attention to the blue dot on the screen to ensure the GPS is accurately recording your location.
To begin, simply tap the Start button. As you walk or drive the boundary, points will begin to drop at set intervals of time or distance as you make your way around the field.
If you need to stop or pause while moving around the field, press the pause button and your location will stop being recorded. Be sure to resume recording your location when continuing on.
When you have successfully recorded the field boundary outline, tap Stop to end the GPS boundary recording and save the new Field to the correct Grower and Farm.
Thank you for reading this how to article about the different ways to create field boundaries in Sirrus Mobile. To learn more about creating field boundaries in Sirrus Web, click the link here!
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