Overview:
Importing FSA boundary Shapefiles into Traction Enterprise Business is beneficial because it will help you quickly prepare reporting your FSA acreage to your local FSA Office in the spring.
Requirements:
FSA shapefile requirements:
- You must upload a zipped folder which includes the following four file formats: .shp, .shx, .prj, and .dbf
- The ".dbf" file must contain attributes of each shape's farm, tract, and field number. If you don't see these attributes when importing your files, then you should acquire updated files.
- If you are still having problems uploading your boundaries, try unzipping the file, re-zipping it back up, and then upload the file again.
- If problems still persist, please request the full set of files from the FSA office which includes the optional file extensions of .xml, .sbn, and .sbx
Answer:
There are two ways to obtain your electronic FSA Boundaries:
- Your county FSA office: Visit in person, or email your FSA agent (email template below) and ask for the shapefiles associated with your farm.
- Your crop insurance agent: Your insurance agent should also have digital records of your FSA boundaries.
FSA boundaries obtained from your insurance company and the FSA office might have some differences because there is a time delay between updates moving between these two organizations.
Email Template
Hi [FSA Director]
I would like to request a ZIP file of shapefiles representing the fields I manage and report to FSA as [farm name]. The ZIP file is comprised of the FSA boundary data for all [farm name] fields (it contains the full set of GIS data files with the extensions .shp, .shx, .prj, .dbf, .xml, .sbn. and .sbx). I request that the file includes attributes including the Farm, Tract, & CLU numbers and Common Land Unit Classification Code. If a password is necessary, please communicate that separately, as needed.
These Shapefiles will be associated with [farm name] as configured in Traction Enterprise Business software. All field activities recorded as part of this platform will be reported with the FSA boundaries once we have them configured. The subsequent reporting function is a valuable tool.
If there is any further authorization that would keep this process moving forward, please let me know.
Thank you very much for your assistance.
Regards,
YOUR NAME
Related Articles:
How do I import my FSA boundaries?
What are FSA boundaries?