Mobile Soil Sampling on iPhone & iPad

A guide to replacing clipboards, paper maps, and handheld GPS units with a single device.

If you've ever walked a field with a clipboard in one hand, a handheld GPS in the other, and a stack of sample bags in your vest pockets, you know the drill: write down the sample ID, squint at the GPS screen, scribble coordinates on a mud-smeared form, and hope you can read it all later when you're back at the truck.

There's a better way. Your iPhone or iPad already has a GPS receiver, a camera, a barcode scanner, and a screen you can actually read. GoGIS turns it into a purpose-built soil sampling tool that handles the entire workflow — from generating a sample grid to exporting your results.

The Problem with Traditional Sampling

Traditional soil sampling workflows involve multiple disconnected tools: a handheld GPS for navigation, paper forms for data entry, a separate list for sample IDs, and a laptop back at the office to pull it all together. Data gets transcribed two or three times, and every transcription is a chance for error. Bag labels get swapped, coordinates get transposed, and by the time the lab results come back, nobody's sure which sample came from where.

How GoGIS Handles It

GoGIS collapses the entire workflow into one device and one app. Here's how it works in practice:

1. Set Up Your Field Boundary

Load your field boundaries from a shapefile, GeoPackage, or KML file — whatever your farm management software or agronomist provides. The polygons become the containers for your sample grid.

2. Generate the Sample Grid

Select your field polygon and tap the sampling tool. GoGIS generates a numbered grid of sample points inside the boundary. You control the cell size in acres or hectares, and you can adjust the grid rotation and offset to align with rows or avoid obstacles. Each point gets a sequential ID automatically.

3. Walk to Each Point with GPS

With the grid generated, head into the field. GoGIS shows your live GPS position on the map with a proximity circle around the nearest sample point. Walk toward it — the display updates in real time. When you're close enough, the nearest point highlights green so you know you're in the right spot.

4. Collect Your Data

Tap the sample point to open the attribute form. Fill in your observations — soil color, texture, moisture, depth, whatever fields you've defined. Scan the barcode on your sample bag directly into a text field — look for the barcode icon next to any text field to activate the scanner. Snap a photo of the core or the site conditions. Hit save, and the point turns green to show it's been visited.

5. Built-in Quality Control

Every sample point automatically records metadata you'd otherwise have to track manually:

• Parent ID — links each sample point back to the field polygon it belongs to
• Collection coordinates — records where you actually stood when you collected, not just where the grid point is
• Distance offset — shows how far you were from the target point, giving your agronomist or lab a quick quality-control check

6. Export and Share

When you're done, export the completed layer as a shapefile, GeoJSON, CSV, or KML — complete with all your attribute data, coordinates, and photos bundled in a ZIP. Send it to your agronomist, upload it to your farm management platform, or open it in QGIS or ArcGIS for further analysis.

What You Don't Need Anymore

• A separate handheld GPS unit
• Paper forms and clipboards
• Manual transcription back at the office
• A separate barcode scanner
• Cell service — everything works offline

Works for More Than Soil

The same grid-based sampling workflow works for any field collection task where you need to visit points inside a boundary: environmental site assessments, vegetation surveys, contamination sampling, wetland delineations. Define your boundary, generate your grid, and collect your data.