The 2017 Census of Agriculture results will be released on Thursday, April 11th. If you're looking for updated production information, this is a great resource. Here are some quick facts about the census and some ways to see the results! What is the Census of Agriculture? It's a record of all the humans, animals, and… Continue reading Data Downloads: 2017 Ag Census
Category: Uncategorized
Trial Design App: PLOTS
Field season is basically here, and I am ready to get out of the office. Most of us have our plot maps made already, but we all have a few trials that slipped through the cracks. One great tool, especially for on-farm research, is the Ohio State PLOTS app. PLOTS can help you design a… Continue reading Trial Design App: PLOTS
Data Downloads: DEMs
There are four types of spatial data I download frequently for research purposes-- aerial images, digital elevation models (DEMs), soil maps, and county or other political maps. You can learn more about the first type, aerial images, in one of my early blog posts about Google Satellite, OpenLayers for QGIS, and OGRIP. Today I'm going… Continue reading Data Downloads: DEMs
Vocab Word: Cache
There are some words I get asked about a lot, so I decided to make a running feature on my blog about them. Today's word is cache. It can be a noun or a verb, but I'm going to focus on the verb use because that's the one I get asked about. What does it… Continue reading Vocab Word: Cache
Saving Layer Style Files in QGIS
Sometimes getting a layer to be displayed precisely how you want it can be a tedious process in QGIS. Fortunately, there is a way to save that style so you can apply it to the same layer in another project, or to another layer with similar attributes. Most of the time I use layer style… Continue reading Saving Layer Style Files in QGIS
Averaging Plot Data in Excel
Back in January I shared my favorite way to average plot data in R, but some of my lab mates don't use R and are looking for an alternative. They keep averaging their plot data by highlighting 10 cells at a time and using the AVERAGE function, which is rather inefficient and introduces human error.… Continue reading Averaging Plot Data in Excel
Typewriter Map and Exit Seminar
Tomorrow is my exit seminar and thesis defense, so this seems like the right time to post something fun. I've recently started reading Daniel Huffman's blog, Something About Maps. He's a cartographer whose maps are a perfect balance of educational, data-driven, and artful. He recently made some maps using a typewriter-- my personal favorite is… Continue reading Typewriter Map and Exit Seminar
Types of Curvature
Curvature, the second derivative of elevation, is a very useful terrain derivative. It describes how convex or concave a surface is, which helps predict soil moisture (among other things). The basic terrain analysis feature in SAGA calculates plan curvature and profile curvature. Profile curvature goes with the direction of maximum slope, which helps estimate acceleration… Continue reading Types of Curvature
Table of Figures
Back to the Word example document-- this time to make a table of figures. I've already captioned photos here, so this is pretty quick and easy. If you're looking for more Word formatting tips, check out the permanent page added to the main menu-- Writing. It starts really similarly to making a Table of Contents.… Continue reading Table of Figures
Getting Category Colors into QGIS from ColorBrewer
Are you as obsessed with ColorBrewer as I am? I am making a map where I color Ohio counties based on region, and used ColorBrewer to pick colors. The first thing I did was go to ColorBrewer and find a qualitative color set for 5 categories of data. Next I used the HEX codes provided… Continue reading Getting Category Colors into QGIS from ColorBrewer
Spatially Challenged 