Handheld GPS Unit on a Farm

Anyone ever used one of those GPS dealies for building fence or estimating property lines and that sorta stuff? It'd be nice to be able to "draw" straight lines from point A point B, or draw a line in any direction from a point. I also do a lot of fishing, some traveling, and hopefully hunting, so it'd be useful for not getting extra lost. Are they handy on a farm?

I have not used one for what you are talking about but I do use one to get proper MPH for planting and spraying.

haha i was going to make a smart azz remark about getting lost in your back yard! the idea of using it to make a straight fence line is pretty good if it works.
i need to make a fence between me and neighbor i know where two end posts go but want to keep it straight in the middle.
how is life up there in the north country?

Sunny, warm, and fantastic. Just about got all the cows out to pasture and gonna start knocking down hay within the week. Life is good!

My farm has always had 3 area codes on it so I was used to dialing the area code . Now there 4 area codes here and I only have 100 acres here .

The handheld ones aren't accurate enough to use for finding property lines and stuff like that. Accuracy can range anywhere from 3 feet at best to ??? For best results you need to set up a base station on a known coordinate and measure from that point.

I have a handheld GPS, they are useful for a lot of things. But, marking property lines is not one of them. My unit is a Garmin Legend. Based on the quality of the signal it will tell you how accurate it is. On a clear day with an unobstructed view of the sky it is usually between 10-20 feet. That is pretty handy for finding the spot you were fishing the other day. One time I put my boat in Lake of the Woods at Wheelers Point. You navigate out through a stump field. I was coming back in after dark and the markers were impossible to see. The track back feature on my GPS saved the day. In those cases being within 20' is accurate enough. For setting fence or marking a property line, it is not.

If you want to justify buying one for farm use... you can use it to get an accurate measurement of the actual acerage by taking it around the field. Pretty handy for irregular fields.

If you want to get real picky, it can get more accurate than that. On a field with some hills or a slope to the field there is a little more acerage than on a perfectly flat field. Since you GPS can measure altitude you can take readings at various positions in the field and there are sites on the internet where you can upload those waypoints and it will give you more accurate surface area. Useful in determining more exact seed and fertilizer needs. Shoot... I just remembered you moved up to the NW corner of the state. Might be a little to flat to get any use out of that.

I used mine this year to mark broken drainage tile early in the year when it was to wet to fix. Now I can go back and see how good of a job I did too! Jim

They would be very handy on a farm. Almost all surveyors use them now. You can get a small handheld with a mounting brackett for $150 that would do the job. I have one that I used as a secondary uniy at the helm of our boat when we traveled. Henry

Naw, I'm not too far NW...it's very hilly and tree-y here. I'm 20 mi. west of Bemidji. Thanks for the information!