We’ve been quiet on the Farmapper front for a while, but still staying busy building something weird. Today we’re launching tater.farm, a standalone tool that converts legal property descriptions into actual map geometry.

But first, a critical question.

Why Taters?

We get asked this a lot. Well, nobody has asked us this yet because we just launched, but we’re manifesting the FAQ energy.

Here’s the thing: taters and legal descriptions have a lot in common.

A tater is good one at a time. You don’t need a subscription to a potato. You don’t walk into a restaurant and say “I’d like to sign up for the $79/month Russet Plan with annual billing.” No. You want a potato, you get a potato, you eat the potato. Transaction complete. Everyone’s happy. That’s how we feel about mapping legal descriptions. You’ve got a deed. You want to see it on a map. You shouldn’t need to call your accounts payable department and get a software procurement approved for that.

Taters have utility, they are bland and allow a multitude of garnishments. You can mash them up. You can take multiple taters and combine them into something greater than the sum of their parts. That’s literally what our tool does with multi-parcel documents. Except instead of butter and garlic, we use AI and BLM cadastral data. Both are delicious in their own way.

Each tater is the soup hero. Every good soup has one. It doesn’t need to be the whole meal. It doesn’t need to take over your kitchen. It shows up, does its job, makes everything around it better, and doesn’t ask you to sign a 12-month contract for the privilege.

That’s tater.farm. It’s the soup hero of your GIS workflow. Before you say you don’t want GIS in your soup, wait a second as everyone wants something simple. Or at least something that is complicated, made simple. Tater.farm turns legal descriptions into map geometry. Use it, export your data, take it wherever you want. Farmapper, QGIS, ArcGIS, Google Earth, a napkin — we don’t care. Your data, your choice.

Why the cheap pricing, well the domain was $8. We are not above being influenced by cheap domain names and wanted to keep taters cheap enough for the soup.

Simple Tools for Complicated Land

Here’s a confession: Farmapper is complicated. It’s a full platform — fields, crop data, equipment tracking, layers, integrations, the whole operation. And that’s great if you need it. But sometimes you don’t need the whole kitchen. Sometimes you just need a potato.

We kept running into this ourselves. Someone would ask “hey can you show me what this legal description looks like on a map?” and the answer was “sure, let me log into Farmapper, create a project, set up the layers, configure the—” and by that point everyone’s eyes have glazed over and the meeting moved on.

tater.farm is the opposite philosophy: simple tools that do one thing well and feed into whatever platform you’re already using. No lock-in. No proprietary format. No “well you could export that data but you’d need the Enterprise tier.” You get KML, GeoJSON, or Shapefile. Standard formats. Take them anywhere.

Think of it like Unix philosophy but for land tools. Small, sharp, composable. Except one of them is shaped like a potato and has a cape.

OK But What Does It Actually Do

Right. The tool. You have a legal description that reads like:

The NW1/4 of the SE1/4 of Section 15, T3N, R2E, Boise Meridian, EXCEPT the northernmost 55 feet.

And you want to know what that actually looks like on the ground. Currently your options are:

1. Expensive desktop software you installed in 2014 and pray still works

2. A $30-100/month subscription you feel guilty about because you use it twice a year

3. Squinting at a plat book and going “yeah, that’s probably about right”

4. Calling the surveyor and waiting 3 months

tater.farm adds option 5: Paste it in, get a map, pay a few bucks. That’s it. No account creation. No free trial that turns into a surprise charge. No salesperson named Kyle emailing you for a “quick 15-minute demo.”

How it works:

1. Upload a scanned deed (JPEG, PNG, PDF, TIFF) or paste the legal description as text

2. The AI reads the whole document first — figures out how many parcels there are, what types of descriptions you’re dealing with, any exceptions or carve-outs

3. Then it parses each parcel individually — PLSS references get resolved against real BLM section geometry, metes & bounds get full geodesic traverse calculations

4. Your parcels appear on a satellite map where you can click around, zoom in, and verify everything looks right

5. Export as KML (Google Earth), GeoJSON (QGIS, ArcGIS, anything), or Shapefile (.shp) for the GIS traditionalists who respect a classic format

What It Handles

• PLSS descriptions — quarter-quarter sections, lots, government lots

• Metes & bounds — full traverse with bearings and distances, click-to-set Point of Beginning

• Dimensional exceptions — “EXCEPT the North 200 feet” and similar carve-outs

• Highway/road exceptions — visually distinguished on the map

• Multi-parcel documents — that 9-page deed with 6 parcels and 3 exceptions? Send it through

• Scanned documents — AI-powered vision handles rough scans, faxed copies, that one deed from 1974 that’s been photocopied so many times it has its own personality

• Screenshots of each parcel or tract.

The Pricing (It’s Simple, We Promise)

$3 for the first successful parcel. $1 for each additional call, such as more parcels, exceptions, etc.

Your card gets authorized when you submit, but you only get charged for parcels that successfully map. If the AI can’t parse something, you don’t pay for it. If your 5-page document has 3 parcels that work and 2 that don’t, you only pay for what worked. Just like that bag of spuds you have in the cellar. You can sort out the green, and sprouted and keep what works for you.

Compare that to the subscription landscape. If you’re a title company processing 50 descriptions a day, those subscriptions make sense. If you’re a farmer, investor, real estate attorney who needs this a few times a week, you were previously subsidizing everyone else’s usage. Not anymore.

Per-document pricing. Like a potato. One at a time. Or two, nobody is looking.

It’s Early (But It Works)

This is a launch, not a finished product. The core engine handles standard PLSS and metes & bounds descriptions well, and we’re improving it constantly. Some things on the radar:

• Lot/block (platted subdivision) descriptions — coming soon

• Bulk processing / API access — if there’s demand

• More edge cases — your weird legal descriptions make the tool better

Try Breaking It

Seriously. Go to tater.farm and throw your messiest legal description at it. The ones with 4 exceptions and a metes & bounds that references “the old oak tree on the Johnson property line.” We want those. That’s how the tool gets better. Though for the oak tree you would need to know where the landmark is and mark it.

If it works, great — you just got a map polygon for $8. If it doesn’t, you don’t pay, and we learn what to fix.

Either way: better than squinting at a plat book.

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Sometimes, you want to locate a rough legal description for a farm that you know where it is located on the map, but don’t know how to describe it using the Township, Range, Section and Meridian for the property. Maybe an attorney is asking for it, or you want to order a title report, describe in a will or estate docs, or just to compare to a legal description in a document that was handed to you.

Just follow these simple steps in Farmapper to locate a legal description for any farm:

1) Navigate your area of interest on the map by zooming in or out, and panning by clicking and dragging the map.

2) Once you find the farm that you are interested in, click on the location for the farm.

3) Once you clicked, Farmapper will pull the polygon shape as a legal description.

Farmapper allow a user to overlay a grid of the township, range and section allowing a user to come up with a rough legal description for a property on the map view.

Brief Overview of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS)

From the largest to smallest PLSS conversions are as follows for a typical rectangular grid.

Each Quadrangle is generally 24 x 24 miles, or 576 square miles, or 16 Townships

Each Township is generally 6 x 6 miles, or 36 square miles, or 36 Sections

Each Section is generally 1 x 1 miles, or 1 square mile, or 640 acres

Meridians and baselines are the lines that mark the borders of each township, range and section. These lines were originally laid out as part of the PLSS. In the early days of farming, these were used as the primary method of finding and describing property since most of the country was unsettled, there weren’t roads, addresses or tax assessor numbers.

The system of township, range and section is still in use today and is the legal description used for deeds and to provide the discrete description of property in title documents and often leases and other agreements.

While the PLSS system may seem confusing at first, it is actually quite simple once you understand it.

Here is a quick rundown of how it works:

• Townships are always 6 miles square and are numbered according to their position north or south of the baseline.

• Ranges are always 6 miles square and are numbered according to their position east or west of the principal

Find the Township, Range and Section for a Farm on the map

In order to have the Section grid overlay, we need to have a Farmapper account and be logged in. We go to www.farmapper.com and open the web application by clicking on “Go to the App”, then click on the Login with social account. This allows the saving of your Farmapper projects for use later and is free under the Free tier.

Once logged in, the map view should first try to geolocate based on the user and then (if available) the section grid will appear once the user zooms into the map view. We are looking to locate the legal description for a farm near Kearney, Nebraska that we want our banker to be able to get an appraisal started on, but we don’t have the legal description handy. We type Kearney into the “Find on Map” search field the magnifying glass.

Kearney is located in Buffalo County, Nebraska. Once we zoom in to Kearney we see the city and a road network as well as the section grid. The section grid is a good indication that we have zoomed in enough to start seeing individual parcels that we can select to display their legal description.

We find the farm that we are interested in and we can start building our farm shape as easy as clicking within the boundaries. Farmapper searches its database and locates the shapes that are contained within that point. (Pro Tip - This works with BLM Grazing, Tax Assessor and more in a similar fashion).

Translate to the Rough Legal

We know the farm is approximately 5 miles east of Kearney airport, so we use the map to move over to the farm and zoom in to see up close the grid.

• The township that the farm is in is T9N, R14W.

• The farm is all in section 26

• We can see that the farm is in the 6th principal meridian, which is the one that covers most of Nebraska.

We simply click on the farm and located the Quarter Quarter sections (normally 40 acres) and build the farm.

So, the legal description of this farm is “T9N, R14W, Section 26, 6th Principal Meridian, Buffalo County, Nebraska”. Each tract on the left panel would be useful for ordering a title report, filling in exhibits of a lease, or other time when you are searching for a legal. Often written as the SW¼SW¼ of Section 9, Township 9N, Range 14W of the 6th Principal Meridian.

You can save this project for any farm within Farmapper for future use, as well as add it as a layer to any of your other projects and just share it with others, similar to how a Google doc might be shared. The Kearney demo project is here. Shared as read only public document.

The Farmapper team hopes you enjoyed this quick post and that it helps you become a little more familiar with the PLSS and using Farmapper to find legal descriptions.

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Originally posted on Medium June 13, 2019 with some updating in this article.

Farming and livestock industries have always enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. Farmers growing feed, aftermath, byproducts and also using more marginal ground for pasture to raise livestock. Farming has an almost insatiable appetite for fertilizer and nutrients to increase yields and productivity of the land. Pasturing livestock takes pressure off the ground having to raise a cash crop year after year, trading organic matter and fertilizer to use to recondition the soil. Farmyard manure from livestock is a superb source of “organic” supplement to increase the amount of nutrients in less fertile soil. With the addition of carbon markets and ability to offset intensive farming practices may pay to let the ground rest as in this article from Successful Farming.

Farmers often choose conventional chemical fertilizers over organic fertilizers because of their quick acting response and the ease and economics of transporting the fertilizers. However, the economics of the tradeoff between inorganic fertilizer and manure/compost change on a year to year basis. If commodities are high, the fertilizer companies are sure to increase prices and gobble up some of that margin. Similarly, high diesel prices increase the cost of hauling and handling manure/compost.

Hammering the ground with chemical fertilizers is sure to begin a cycle of diminishing returns and the loss of organic matter in the soil with its properties of better water retention, etc. Compost and manure are an integral component in organic farming practices. Organic farming through the use of manure combines tradition, innovation, science, and technology. This is a benefit and often provides a good quality of life for all stakeholders involved (soil, crop, animal, human being and environment).

However, there are challenges of using manure and compost despite its benefits in that it has high bulkiness and high cost of transportation from the point of production to the point of application. Manure is commonly more costly to transport and apply than many commercial chemical fertilizers. The actual costs involved in the transportation and distribution of manure are to be clearly understood and managed to get optimum value from the use of compost.

Three major factors determine the costs of manure are loading, land application methods and transportation. Each of these factors can require its very own particular equipment as a constraint to the utilization of manure. Land application methods also require the use of specialized equipment. Transportation can be tedious and heavily sensitive to fuel costs depending upon the distance between the point of production to the point of application and the water content of the manure. The higher the water content of manure, the heavier the manure will be which makes transportation difficult.

Based on water content, livestock manure can either be liquid, slurry or solid. Manure of each of these types has a significant influence on the cost required for purchase and distribution. Solid manure can have a water content of about 20–40% while slurry or liquid manure can have a water content of up to 90%. Thus, that makes it costly to cover a long distance in the process of transportation. For instance, solid fertilizer can more often be transported to a farther distance for lesser price based on the fact that less water is being transported.

Liquid and slurry manure, on account of its high water content, can’t be hauled over a long distance. As a result of the transportation cost, manure is often applied nearby to where it is produced. The dollar cost of acquiring farmyard manure depends on the location, animal origin, the form of manure, equipment, and so on. How these expenses are effectively managed can have a major effect in whether we think the manure is giving a savvy input to high yield ratio, or if its utilization does not give a worth compared to concentrated fertilizers. There is also the issue with the potential of importing weed seed, especially if the composting is not done properly to burn up the contaminants.

Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) are fundamental for plant development. At the point when these nutrients are supplied excessively than the normal crop requirement or when they are they are supplied at a wrong time, more nutrients can end up being fixed up in the soil or leached without getting to the roots for plant’s utilization. This remains constant paying little heed to the source of the nutrients. Manure contains more nutrients which are mineralized and released slowly in the soil without being leached into the soil. Nutrients in farmyard manure are less concentrated than in conventional commercial fertilizers. Organic matter present in manure also adds to soil wellbeing and crop development. For more information here is a great resource from the Pacific Northwest extension network FERTILIZING WITH MANURE AND OTHER ORGANIC AMENDMENTS. Within the guide, or estimates on the amount of nutrients available in various forms of manure/compost and guides for application.

In regions with more concentrated clusters of livestock farms that are producing manure than crop farms, it can be very challenging to find farmers nearby demanding manure to be supplied to their farms. This is where www.farmapper.com can help with its goal to bring agriculture together on the map. In these cases, it can be a liability to dispose of this “valuable” crop and require more intricate manure handling equipment to enable the transport and export of these nutrients from livestock to farm. Manure producers have a more complex task or marketing their products or get easy access directly to crop farmers in the distribution chain within a reasonable distance. This can balance the expenses of transporting fertilizer or can change manure supplements into a structure that is conservative to transport.

You must be wondering and asking yourself questions that how can a crop farmer in need of trusted “organic” manure have access to the manure with adequate amount of N, P, and K at a lesser cost or how can a livestock or dairy farmer who is willing to export manure overcome the difficulties and stress of transporting the manure over large distances? The solution to reducing the long distance between crop farmers and manure producers has been designed by Farmapper such that livestock producers can locate farmers within range who are in need of manure and vice versa through the easy use of geographical map interface and listing alerts. The farmapper project was started to bring together and assist farmers, ranchers and agricultural professionals in organizing their farm projects.

Farmapper is specifically designed to assist in the use case of farmers’ seeking nearby manure/compost or for livestock producers to alert potential parties that manure/compost is available. This is on the manure/available or manure/wanted channels respectively. www.farmapper.com has been designed to facilitate the exchange of manure easily without being expensive. Therefore, through the platform, crop farmers in need of organic manure and livestock farmers looking to export manure can locate each other close by on the map by listing on farmapper channels.

Even if there aren’t matching listings, a user can set up listing notifications to automatically ping you when a listing within a certain radius of your operation begins. That way you are the first to know when something is available. To set a listing notification radius, go to the farmapper app and choose manage notifications. There you can set the distance in miles, and which channels you are interested in receiving notifications.

As a manure producer looking for buyers of your manure to fertilize their crops, you can create an account publish an advertisement to the listings to find buyers easily through farmapper.com. Choose the most suitable channel the “manure available” listing such that it will be visible to every potential buyer that wants to buy manure within their location. Tie the listing to a project shape or sticker. The farmer could also create a polygon shape for the location where he is looking for manure/compost. All listings in their location will show on the map. To have more reach for your published ads, you can share to Facebook or other social media. Once a buyer is interested in your offer, make negotiations and work out the details including payment and transportation cost.

Thus, the objective of farmapper.com in simple terms is to bring agriculture together on the map.

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Originally published on medium 12/13/2019 but updated for improvements made to the Farmapper protocol.

In this post, I’ll share a framework for how to work with Google Earth and Farmapper to extract KML shapes from a Google Earth file and import into your Farmapper project and to also export the file to KML to be able to view and use on Google Earth.

First Google Earth is fantastic tool made by Google and not affiliated with Farmapper in anyway. The building block of Google Earth is a KML file. What is a KML? The Keyhole Markup Language, or KML, allows users to create customized layers shapes, placemarks and pins to show their data on the Google Earth representation of the 3rd rock from the sun. For simple purposes, a file with the .kml extension can be opened in Google Earth and it will fly you to the location to get the bird’s eye view of the shape or pin in the program.

For this project you will need both the Google Earth program, downloadable at https://www.google.com/earth/ depending on whether you want the desktop, mobile or browser version. For this project we use the Desktop version as it supports KML import. You will also need a free tier, Farmapper account available at https://www.farmapper.com/start_app

Mission 1: Create a Farmapper project to export to Google Earth

For this project you can create your own project or follow the tutorial to make the sample project.

First, go to https://www.farmapper.com/start_app and login to make save the project in the cloud so that you can come back to it. We will create a project for a farm that we see for auction to be able to research it and perform due diligence.

The legal is:

SE1/4 of Section 30, Township 9 South, Range 42 West of the 6th PM, DESCRIPTION: Kit Carson County, CO.

In the Farmapper app, we click on the Input Tab to bring up the ability to search and map by legal description. For more on legal descriptions

1. Enter the State “CO”

2. Meridian “6th PM”

3. Township “9 South” and Range “42 W”

4. The program drills down the database. Next plug in Section “30”

5. Last we want the SE quarter. Remember from our legal description post that we start from the inside and work out.

6. Should look like the Image

7. Last Click “Save” and voila your target is mapped as a tract

8. This is only a projection and is not a substitute for a legal survey, so check for reasonableness, etc. In this particular example, the projection is wonky. part of the difficulty of projecting a flat grid on an ellipsoid object. This doesn’t look like a correction section, but it is clear that the grid takes a jog. See image.

• So we delete and draw the image using the polygon drawing tools to match what we think it should look like and the maps provided by the auctioneer.

• Add stickers from our customized set and customize the names these will be exported into Google Earth as placemarks.
  :earth_americas:

There are export options with the </> button, including export KML. This will save the KML file (with stickers) in your documents.

Download the KML file and click on it and it should open in Google Earth for Desktop (you need to have downloaded Google Earth desktop). There it is in Google Earth with the fancy Farmapper stickers as a placemark

We have published this Farmapper project using the following public link for you to check out and skip ahead if you choose:

Mission 2: Use Google Earth to Export KML and Import Project into Farmapper

For this mission we will do basically the opposite. Sometimes we already have a KML file or a project in Google Earth, but we want to import it to customize with stickers, start a Farmapper Channel listing, research USDA Cropscape, etc.

1. The auctioneer had already provided a useful KMZ file which is basically like a zipped up project that includes KML files for an auction near Joseph, Oregon

2. We open in Google Earth and have the Screen Above with the Joseph Ranch KMZ file. We click on the KMZ to reveal the detail below it and drill down.

3. He highlight and Click on “Save Place As”

4. Make Sure and Save File as “.kml” not as a “.kmz” file

Now you should have successfully extracted the .kml file and it should live on your desktop.

1. We go to Farmapper Application and Start a new project named Joseph Ranch

1. Go to Inputs Tab and Select “Import KML”

2. Find the File on your Desktop and Select it to begin the Farmapper processing of the KML file into your project.

3. When it is done you will have the following

Bonus Time with Customization

Let’s dress up the tract shape and lay out some markers using Farmapper custom stickers

• Add sticker icons to beautify and describe the parcel in more detail as below. We add some stickers to mark the improvements, the pasture and feedlot and even the fishing spot.

• We also sprinkle in additional data to each sticker, for example add 111 acres to the Pasture sticker. Click on the sticker and add additional data.

• We Export to KML again. And voila our Farmapper map is in Google Earth, with fancy sticker as placemarks.

• The additional data comes in to the image as well. See the data about acres is now appended to the Google Earth placemark.

• We publish this project to the public URL as well so you can see the project and access the KML files if interested. https://www.farmapper.com/project/public/ahNzfnNwcmluZy1iYW5uZXItODM5ch0LEhBQcm9qZWN0UHVibGljVXJsGICAgKydiZAKDA

The objective of farmapper.com in simple terms is to bring agriculture together on the map. Please give us a clap or two and let us know what we should write the next series on.

Follow us on Twitter: @farmapper

Visit our Website: www.farmapper.com

Checkout our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/farmapper/

If you have any questions, please reach out to support@farmapper.com, and someone will respond promptly!

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Originally published on medium 8/16/2017 but updated for improvements made to the Farmapper protocol.

History binds us to the land and becomes part of who we are and where we come from. Here we do some research on land patents and land records and then use Farmapper to create a project that mixes the historical record with “what it looks like today”.

The BLM (Bureau Land Management) provides a free database to search for Federal Land Patents of GLO records. This resource offers inquiring minds the ability to source information on the initial transfer of land titles from the Federal government to individuals. Using the land deed and Farmapper, it is easy to match ancestors with a specific location (Legal Land Description) and time (Issue Date). They have many Land Patents on their site, including Cash Entry, Homestead and Military Warrant patents at BLM GLO records.

There are many fun historical land records, plats and maps that demonstrate the original survey. These records make an easy comparison to what the land looks like in modern times using Farmapper versus the time when the land was patented. The maps, documents, etc. can be saved to the polygon shape. The ancestry project can then easily be shared with family and friends.

First, we go to the BLM site and click on the Land Patents database where we can search by state and name to see what we can dig up. I am searching in Oregon for John McCall and the following list of Land Records is indexed. I see the Accession 61–74–0130 in Jackson County has an image link.

The document has the following patent image that states that the land was transferred according to the April 24th act of Congress, with the snappy name “An Act making further provision for the sale of the Public Lands.” The deed transferred the Southwest Quarter of the Northeast Quarter of Township 38S, Range 3E in Section 12 to Jacob Wagner, John M. McCall and Albert G. Rockfellow. This is dated June 20, 1872, but wasn’t signed until May 21, 1974 for some reason.

OK, so far so good. We have the original patent deed, but what other items are available for free on the website. If you click on the “Related Documents” tab, there are a multitude of other surveys. We are interested in the Original Survey that shows in the following screenshot which was meticulously surveyed and drawn around 12/23/1859. We will download the survey image and upload it to the project in Farmapper after we locate the legal description from the patent deed above.

Next, we go to Farmapper.com and login using a Google, Facebook or Twitter account so we can save our project which is named McCall Patent Deed Ancestry. We go to Green Inputs Button and select to add the legal description from the deed. We select Oregon, then Willamette Meridian, Township 38 South, Range 3 East, then Section 12. Then we check the box for the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter. To successfully plot the legal description aliquot, read backwards starting in the NE1/4 and then select the SW1/4 of it. For more on locating by legal description, check out Finding the Lost Farm, Learn How to Map a Rudimentary Legal Description. The screenshot of the correct legal look as follows and we click save.

After saving the legal description to make it stick, center the screen to the location of the deed by clicking on the tract listed on the left pane. Upon centering the map it should look as follows.

Looks like Dead Indian Memorial Rd., goes through the center of it now. Sounds like another research project where and how the road got its name. Now we compare the original survey to see how much it has changed from when the original chain crew surveyed it.

Section 12 looks like it has the notation of “Soil 1st Rate”, which is probably why they patented it to begin with. We will add the original survey (which is large at 12MB if you are on a phone) and the Patent Deed to the project document list by clicking on Documents in the left pane and then “Add new document.” So now we have both the original patent deed and the survey added to our project.

Now what else can we add to the project? What is fortunate is there is a book written about Southern Oregon in The History of Southern Oregon, Comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos Countries, Comp. from the Most Authentic Sources … — Albert G. Walling. J.M. McCall was in the military and formed the Ashland Woolen Mills as a joint-stock company consisting of thirty members, with J. M. McCall as president; C. K. Klum, secretary; and John Daley, superintendent. The mill was completed and equipped with the necessary operating and finishing machinery, at a cost of $32,000. We could upload the military records, photographs, newsclippings etc. to complete the project.

Last, I want to publish this link to its own public URL. I go to Projects and I select the “Publish” option and give it a Public name and then publish the link. Now the project has a URL link you can share with anyone.

Remember to log in with Farmapper account button. This allows the project to be saved under your account, using Google, Twitter or Facebook or email for authentication purposes. Basically, your own private farm map in the cloud. Then you can use advanced features, customize the color and shape of legal description polygons, upload deeds water rights, etc. and share with anyone. See a live link URL for this project here. You will also see the KML file, cropscape, documents including the survey and original patent images in the documents. Maybe if we get enough requests we will mint the Genealogy as an NFT?

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We are sending this to notify that we are migrating our blog to substack to better notify our users of updates, upgrades and our vision.

The Farmapper journey has been to put the landholder and farmer in control of their own data and operation. We’re very proud of what we have accomplished in 5 years of continuous building. This is still just the beginning!

In recent decades, technology has continued to mystify, disorient, and disrupt.  The amount of data available via internet, satellite, and databases is continuing to overwhelm users and businesspersons who naturally want to feel the dirt in our hands. How do we harness these tools to benefit all parties in the agricultural landscape?  How do we capture the value from our data, on the land we farm? Conglomerates have this data. How do we wrest back control?

Try Farmapper Now

In 2021 we have added additional data layer capabilities.  Click on a point and pull in the Assessor parcel shape, owner, and description information.  Farm Progress knows how powerful easy to use agtech is for folks.  Farmapper feature demos were buried, so we aggregated the tutorials into a simple to navigate user guide Wiki.  Experimentation is central to our core.  We began to use Web3 as a central data layer. Through Blockchain, and using NFT’s as relational databases, we determine management of real assets on the internet is inevitable.  With the latest upgrade we enable NFT metadata for easy export and simple ability to mint real property NFTs.

As we’ve cascaded into 2022, data API’s are ubiquitous and more data is incentivized to leave siloed gardens.  First to data puddles, to data lakes and whole data oceans will form.  We will begin to integrate Blockchain technology and decentralized finance to allow farmers, landlords and advisors to manage their assets in an increasingly automated and permissionless manner.  Oracles (off-chain data feeds delivering data on-chain) and data feeds will allow more complex and powerful interactions, risk management, derivatives and insurance.  

In a future where farmers own their data, they will be able to teleport value instantly, remove intermediaries such as escrow agents and other middlemen and create new forms of legal agreements that use consensus-generating blockchain technology to ensure efficient resolution of agreements.   Buy and sell hay as an NFT, and click a button to release the funds upon delivery.  This avoids or reduces fraudulent pyramid schemes such as kiting where the hay broker is broke.  Similarly using onchain proof of collateralization would reduce bankruptcy risk of having to rely on intermediaries that hold funds in the middle. 

From a simple polygon shape, a Farmapper project becomes so much more.  It is layered with data and documents that prove ownership, demonstrate productivity, and due diligence on water, soil, and environment.  From the farm shape, we will integrate to allow API calls to data layers, to get robust imagery, overlays, and feeds that are catered to the farm.  Through NFTs, we will manage the farm assets and enter into leases, estate planning and financing transactions peer to peer, or peer to cooperative.  

The last five years have been challenging  for Farmapper in many ways, but as they say in Jurassic Park “Life finds a way.”  One of the main lessons I’ve learned is that building features and products isn’t enough, we need to educate and provide value in a world cluttered with conflicts and marketing. So, sadly, you’ll be receiving more marketing from Farmapper.

Do farmers want their tractor manufacturer to know more about their farm than they do?  Do they want to have to subscribe to know what their historical inputs are?  The time is now to build the data ownership of the commons, or the tragedy of data owned and meted out and licensed by the few will clearly be the future.  

Who We Are

As we embark on this next chapter, we come to core values.  Farmapper will be a coordination tool to allow agriculture to stand stronger together.  We will ride hard for the brand, and we will allow coordination in data, in finance, and as a community to put all of agriculture on the map. 

I’m proud of Farmapper, and I’m excited about what comes next as agriculture meets the Web3 internet of value.  It is a future that we will need to own together.  If this is the future you want to see, help us coordinate, help us free data and share information to the common good. The future is going to be beyond anything we can imagine.

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