It sounds like a simple concept to get your head around but in reality across the Ag Industry this fundamental part of farming can differ from person to person, farm to farm, county to county and state to state.

For example, only part of a field may be cropped in any given year, with the rest left as fallow, the field could be split into two or more plantings - the list goes on.

When using Sirrus, a field boundary is defined as: the complete farmable area of the field. This means the total area of any parcel of land that may be put into production and farmed in any given year.

If there is a subfield area within that parcel, we ought to be thinking of these as Management Zones. We cover Management Zones more in depth in our instructor led training courses and webinars.

It's possible that many of your boundaries have been set up previously or have been created on the mobile app but if you're starting with a clean slate you will need to get your Growers, Farms and their Fields into your account in order for data to be collected for the fields.

After you have logged into Sirrus Web, on the left side of the screen, tap the Setup icon. The Setup icon is where you can go to manage the Growers, their Farms and Fields you want to have available to work with in your Sirrus account.

To add a new field boundary for a Grower, you have a couple of options available to you within Sirrus Web.

From the Grower dropdown, in the top task bar, select the Grower for the new field boundary or select the Grower from the list displayed in the Setup tab. After you have picked the Grower, tap on the Fields tab and click the orange Add New button in the top right of the screen.

Clicking the Add New button will launch the map editor window.

Editor's tip: If your zoom is set too high, your tools will be greyed out and the land units will not appear when you hover over them.

Note: The Pick a Field option is only available for land units in the U.S.

The first and most simple option available to you is the Pick a Field option.

This is the quickest and easiest option to get a boundary set up. The first thing you'll need to do is to give this new field a name and assign it to a Farm for your Grower. Secondly, you will need to locate the area of the field you want to create. To do this, you can:

Once you have navigated to the area, as you move your cursor across the map, you will notice boundaries appearing in white. If you don't see these boundaries, you may need to zoom in closer for the boundaries to appear. These are Common Land Units as defined and mapped by the USDA. Simply clicking on the white polygon will capture that boundary and link it to your named field (note: the Save button will remain greyed out until a field name is entered).

Before you save you can also use the Split and Pivot tools to edit the boundary and make any adjustments before saving. Once saved, you can always come back and edit the field later on in web or use the Sirrus Mobile app to make any adjustments.

Just as with the Pick a field option, enter the field name and orient the map to the location of the field. From the toolbox on the left side of the screen, select the blue icon at the top with the pencil: Draw.

When you have selected the Draw option, you simply need to left click your mouse around the field boundary to drop points/vertices around the field boundary. When using the Draw option, it is important to make sure your points are pinpoint accurate, so you will want to zoom in on the field as much as possible.

If you accidentally drop a point incorrectly it is best just to continue with the boundary. Once you have reached the end of the boundary, click Finish anyway. Then, click anywhere on the field again and the points of your boundary will be highlighted. Once they appear, hover your cursor over the point you want to move – simply hold down the left button while you drag the point to the correct location. If you really feel like you want to start over, you can delete the field using the red trashcan button from the toolbox on the left.

Creating a pivot is simple. As with the other methods, you will need to navigate to the location of the field and zoom in. Select the Pivot tool from the toolbox on the left. Drag the outlined shape (using left-click and hold) to the desired location.

The size can be adjusted by either dragging the corners into position, or if known, the pivot can be defined by radius or area. Just click Finish when you are set and save the field.

Another very quick and easy way to set up a field boundary is to use the Import tool from the toolbox (darker blue icon, 4th from top). As with the other methods, you begin the process from Setup and Add New field, however this time there is no need to navigate to the location of the field. Simply click on the Import icon and a window will appear, where you can browse to the location of your saved field shapefiles.

As soon as you click Open, the map will orientate itself to the field and the boundary will be displayed. Once saved, you have the ability to edit as described earlier, if necessary.

So, whether you have an accurate, up-to-date boundary from a GPS controller, if you’re working with pivots or need to manually create a boundary, Sirrus Web has plenty of options for getting you set up quickly and simply. Once saved, all field boundaries will be visible when you are out and about on the mobile app too.

Thank you for reading and learning about creating field boundaries in Sirrus Web. Be sure to check out all of the other articles available in the Help Center!