Getting Started: How to add Fields

Overview:

The Fields page allows you to add and manage your fields in a variety of ways. Before you begin, note the following distinctions between fields and boundaries:

• Fields are relatively permanent and are the contiguous area of land bordered by permanent boundaries.
• Operating Boundaries are fluid and might change from year to year. They are the subfields that correspond to different farming practices within a given field during a given year. Operating boundaries correspond to your day-to-day operations. Traction Enterprise treats operating boundaries differently from FSA boundaries.
• FSA Boundaries are the field CLUs that the FSA uses for the 578 Planted Acreage Report. When you import your FSA boundaries, Traction Enterprise matches them to your operating boundaries. This allows Traction Enterprise to translate your operational data for your planted acreage report. 

Requirements:

To add your field boundaries in Traction Enterprise, you need to have one of the following:

• Boundary shape, effective dates, and acreage
• Obtain boundaries from a third-party source

Process:

To draw a field or operating boundary:

1. Navigate to Setup>Fields.
2. Click Add on the right.
   
   Note: Best practice is to construct fields from your Operating Boundary shapefiles. 
   
   
3. Click Add Area to begin drawing.
4. Edit, Add Area, or Subtract Area as needed.
   
   

To import an Operating Boundary shapefile:

With this option, you can:

• Add Boundary as New Field
• Add Boundary to Existing Field

1. Locate the relevant .ZIP file on your computer.
2. Generate the field and boundary name and effective start and end dates.
3. Select Add All As New Fields or select individual fields and click Add As New Field.

To import FSA Boundary shapefiles, refer to "How do I import my FSA boundaries".

Next: Action Items

Once you've added boundaries, please take these extra steps to ensure your new boundaries are fully set within Traction Enterprise:

• Add your new boundaries to Field Groups, if necessary.
• Land Agreements:  Add land agreements for new boundaries & update existing boundaries with correct acreage. 
• Crop/Field Plan: Add a Crop Plan to the new boundary
• Add Financial Accounts, if necessary.

Related Articles:
Where can I obtain field boundaries to import into Traction Enterprise?
What is the difference between a field and a boundary?