Premises Map

Create a Map of Your Farm Premises

The instructions below are from the Secure Beef Supply Premises Map for Cattle on Pasture. However, the basics for creating your own premises map are here, along with details on marking zones, lines of separation, etc.

The Aerial View from Google Maps

Use Google Maps, Google Earth, Bing Maps or another map generator to get an aerial view of your premises.

  1. Open an internet browser. Type in the URL: https://www.google.com/maps
  2. Type in the address of your production site (address where the buildings are located, not home address—if different).
  3. Click on the small box in the lower left that says “Satellite”
  4. Zoom in so that you can see all barns and accessory structures in the satellite view. The entire site should still fit within the screen.
  5. Find your site location on the map where the animals are located and click. A gray “pushpin” icon will appear. At the bottom of the screen, you will see the GPS coordinates in light gray below the location’s address. Copy this information to include in your map.
  6. Go to your biosecurity plan but keep the internet browser in Google Maps open behind Word. Click on “Insert” in the toolbar; click “screenshot;” click “screen clipping.” The browser will move to the front and be frosted. You can now use the mouse to select the area you want to copy into the word document.
  7. In the Word document, label the map with the following items and include a legend similar to the one on the right.
Option: Label the Map by Hand

Use color pencils or pens to draw the lines, arrows, and shapes listed above on your map. View the image on right with a hand written legend.

Label the Map Using a Computer
  1. Use the Insert -> Shapes from the control panel to place the various shapes and lines
  2. Use the “Line” tool to make the line of separation (LOS) surrounding the farm. This allows for editing individual areas if the LOS was to change in the future. The “Freeform” tool is helpful to use in smaller, more complicated areas, but will make it difficult to edit later and should only be used in stationary areas of your LOS.
  3. After you insert your first line, click the “Format” tab at the top of the page. Click the expander button in the “Shape Styles” section to expand your formatting pane to the right side of the page.
    • Use the “Format Shape” panel on the right to adjust the color and line width of your lines, arrows, and shapes.
  4. Copy the formatted line by selecting it and hitting “Ctrl
    + C” on your keyboard. Paste a new line (“Ctrl + V”), already formatted, next to the first one you created. Drag the ends of the lines to connect them at the appropriate locations.
  5. If you have a hard time seeing where to connect the separate lines, zoom in on your map using the zoom option at the bottom right of the word document.
Completed Map with Legend
Farm map with legend and biosecurity zones.

Map Legend
Legend for a farm map
Map with Hand Written Legend
Farm map image with hand written labels.
Labeling Map with Microsoft Word Tools
Screenshot of Microsoft Word toolbarScreenshot of Microsoft Word toolbar

Google Earth for Farmers Videos

These instructional videos are from the Cornell Small Farms Program, and offer basic information and navigation for farm mapping.