Former GIS guy here, I've modeled and mapped hundreds of rural jurisdictions so I'm familiar with what you are trying to accomplish. Not sure how comprehensive USDA soil surveys are these days as soil conditions can be hyper local (down to the feet).

Many of large ranch lands and farms are going to be listed exclusively by a certain broker which may require website scrapping at minimum and or heads up data entry at worst.

Colorado:

https://www.ranchland.com/

For general usability, I'd suggest at a minimum adding State and County lines, and further, census place points for labeling.

You've included some interesting filters that's for sure.

And of course my usual plug for a great mapping book - How to Lie with Maps - https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo274005...

I'd be willing to give you input.

Nice start to what can be a really useful tool. I did try some of the filters and I think there is a problem in your lookup database somewhere. I clicked on one of the listings in south Texas, Real County, and instead of the map showing the location of that property it took me to Uvalde, Texas which is quite a ways southeast of the property.

I saw similar things for a property in Joshua Tree, California that had no address, just a street name.

I would do as /u/ecommerceguy has suggested and at the very least add a toggle for State and County lines, and label roads and towns and other useful information.

As a feature that you could consider eventually adding for those who are interested in finding a rural property to land on, consider adding a toggle that can show the locations of the closest power and water access for a property using an labelled icon or other visual aid.

Sometimes the biggest challenge in determining whether you should purchase a property that you can live on is to find a place that is close enough to existing infrastructure that it doesn't cost more than the land value to gain access to water. Electricity is less important unless you are far enough north that your exposure limits your collection ability so that battery storage becomes a critical cost to consider.

With that in mind, adding info about solar suitability could be useful.

Here is a Google maps project that can help evaluate options for a property.[0]

[0]https://mapsplatform.google.com/maps-products/solar/

Water is the biggest challenge in most places. I see that you recommend pulling state wells logs for the properties. Perhaps a link to that resource would be useful. I have done water availability and quality work now for a couple of relatives in different states. There is a lot of variability in the data available and the quality of the data. Knowing which agency handles private and public well locations helps a lot. Knowing which agency monitors water quality locally also is important.

I know this is part of due diligence for an interested buyer. I think for your tool to maximize value to a buyer it should make it easy to find the bits of information that can steer the buyer to a conclusion.

Many blessings! Thank you for this! My friend just grabbed 5 acres near a phosphate processing plant and was very concerned about the soil. Still waiting on lab results, but the deal is sealed I think.

He intends to occupy and farm it. Organic if possible, else close enough. And I when he can afford, he'll be looking for more. I sent him your url.

Another thanks on his behalf, and his family too!

• ecommerceguy

  yesterday at 11:06 PM

  Relying on soil surveys at 5 acres is typically not advised. Soil samples will always yield best results. Your State Ag School usually will process them gratis or for little cost (they may ask to add the sample to a database). The more samples the better!

  One of the best:

  https://www.agronomy.k-state.edu/outreach-and-services/soil-...

  Homeowners, if you care about your grass looking great, not a bad idea to get a sample.

  • eth0up

    today at 2:02 AM

    Yeah, I am quite opposed to grass in general, as an ornamental in Florida. But I do appreciate the link and advice. Samples over surveys. Remembered!

It's nice to have a better UX the the USDA WSS offers, but I feel that this hides too much information. If I click, I am getting soil information at a point, but that might be a minor component and doesn't tell me about the overall area of interest. Also, as a Californian I feel that is irrelevant bordering on useless to display the non-irrigated capability class, as everyone irrigates. Looking at a parcel I am intimately familiar with, it is "4 of 8" but it is class 1 irrigated farmland, prime land of high value.

Weird question - is there any talks or attempts at limiting land owner usage of their soil for "<insert purpose here>" or is this mostly folklore or conspiracy talk?

I want to buy land some day and want to avoid the hotspots where my freedom of my property is curtailed in this way.

And maybe the soil use isn't specifically limited, but other proxies are in effect: I think of (a) water use, (b) spread of patented seed observed and business prosecution of your crop or even (c) control of your livestock or animals because "<insert plague or health concern here>".

• eth0up

  yesterday at 9:26 PM

  Just slipping in to encourage you to ignore the vacuous comment. I am aware of all the things you alluded to. Land restrictions can be surprisingly strange. I mean, I know geriatric people who've been fined and endured attempts by the city/county to steal their property because their grass and trees were too unwieldy, requiring class-action level intervention to save them. The patented seed has a well documented precedent, but is probably moot for small farms. Water, you can expect, to be an extremely contentious issue in the future.

  Stay informed, build positive networks of similar minded/valued people and choose your spot wisely. I have lived on farms, but I am far from a guru on the subject. Your list of concerns, in my opinion, is far too short. If you take land seriously, keep learning, and don't let ankle biters discourage you. Freedom is important for a homestead or farm, and not every district agrees.

  I will tell you of a serious problem few speak of... Sludge(1). It has been used all over the country, especially in Florida. It can have permanently disastrous effects on soil, replete with your 'forever' chemicals and such. I advise looking into that before buying, if you want organic. A lot of prospective farmers buy land, then have it tested, and discover Sludge has rendered it unfit for even conventional farming.

  1. (bio-solids, along with everything ever flushed down a toilet or run down a sewer or drain, and then some)

• jeffbee

  yesterday at 6:26 PM

  Yeah those are pretty weird questions. I suggest you may have been spending too much time online. If you ever come across someone marketing property as the ultimate in Libertarian dirt, I would carefully investigate what liberties have been taken with it prior (dumping out New Jersey sewage trains, for example).

  • mannanj

    today at 2:04 PM

    I'm disappointed you focus on weirdness and whats normal, and respond in a dismissive tone from there and then expect that I would suddenly engage your hostility and bad faith with respect.

    You have disrespected me and I am not open to engaging with you further. Please read the hacker news rules as well, you have violated them.

I built Land Atlas, a web application for analyzing the agricultural potential of land listings. The main goal is to answer: What is the quality of the soil? How farmable is the property? Which crops are best suited to its soil and growing conditions? Most property listings contain price, acreage, photographs, and a short description, but provide little structured information about agricultural viability. Land Atlas combines listing and geospatial data with: Soil type and texture Soil productivity indicators pH and organic matter Drainage and water capacity Slope and terrain Flooding and ponding Climate and growing conditions Crop requirements The application attempts to convert those inputs into: Soil-quality assessments Farmability scores Property limitations Crop-suitability rankings One difficult part has been accurately resolving rural listings. Postal cities, listing labels, coordinates, and physical parcel locations frequently disagree. I recently changed the location hierarchy to prioritize parcel identifiers and listing-provided coordinates over ordinary address geocoding. I would appreciate feedback on: Soil-scoring methodology Crop-suitability modeling Parcel-level versus point-level analysis Communicating uncertainty Global agricultural datasets Normalizing data between jurisdictions Demo: https://land-atlas-production.up.railway.app/

• cwmoore

  yesterday at 10:12 PM

  I like the idea but I wonder if your market might be larger still by including precipitation and sunlight, elevation, tax rates, and distance from highways.

  • doodlebugging

    yesterday at 10:58 PM

    He already has precipitation, elevation, and distance from highways. I don't think I saw sunlight or tax rates.

    I suspect you didn't do much digging into the content before posting since 3/5 of the things you mentioned are already there and easy to locate.

    Precipitation - Select one of the properties to view. In the right sidebar the listing should appear. In that sidebar there is a heading "Water Security" so select that. The first item in that list is the expected annual precipitation.

    Elevation - Select one of the properties to view. It will appear on the right sidebar. The main listing block includes the property elevation, in meters, and maximum relief in meters. Under the "Parcel Report" you can find the slope, probably an average value, in percent. Just below that information you find the nearest major road distance, in miles.

    With those notes, it feels like there is room here for a units toggle to select metric or American. Mix and match just feels like I'm selecting wrenches while working on a late 90's vehicle. Use the one that fits best.

    Property Taxes are mentioned in the "Diligence Documents" drop-down at the bottom of the list.

    In a different comment I suggested they include sunlight data so that people could determine suitability for solar installs especially for rural sites that are not close to grid power.

• johnnylambada

  yesterday at 3:13 PM

  I checked it on a property I own in Temecula CA. It gave me great stats but not being a farmer I didn’t talk know what I was looking at. Tooltips or links to definitions would help a lot. The property scores 64 overall.

[dead]

We're in need of more local, non-pesticide based farming

• dmajka

  yesterday at 11:41 PM

  Even organic farmers use pesticides.

• _blk

  yesterday at 4:19 PM

  The project doesn't seem to be about enforcing philosophies on how to form or what do to with land but providing an objective assessment. Your statement depends on whose perspective you take. I don't disagree from a health standpoint and I think even economically this GMO all you can out of a piece of dirt is not long term viable but others disagree.. Don't like it, don't buy it. Capitalism at its best.

  • jasonvorhe

    yesterday at 4:22 PM

    In reality it's more of a "if you don't like it, pay more to not have to buy it".

• cyanydeez

  yesterday at 4:41 PM

  best they can do is drive farmers out of business and kill all the bees.