LSRS Soil Productivity Score: How to Find It for Any Alberta Quarter Section
The Land Suitability Rating System (LSRS) gives every Alberta quarter section a 0-100 productivity score. Here's how to look it up and what the number means.
LSRS Soil Productivity Score
Every cultivated quarter section in Alberta has a Land Suitability Rating System (LSRS) class - a 1-to-7 rating of how well that ground supports spring-seeded small grains. Township Canada translates the class to a 0-100 productivity score and surfaces it directly on the parcel report at /app/report/[lld]/pdf.
What LSRS measures
LSRS combines three suitability dimensions into a single class per polygon:
- Climate - growing-degree-days, frost-free period, precipitation
- Soil - drainage, salinity, texture, organic matter
- Landscape - slope, stoniness
The output is a class from 1 (excellent - minimal limitations) to 7 (unsuitable for spring cereals). Township Canada uses an AGRASID 4.1 source for Alberta and translates the 1-7 class to a 0-100 score for easier interpretation:
| Class | Score range | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 90-100 | Excellent |
| 2 | 75-89 | Very good |
| 3 | 60-74 | Good |
| 4 | 45-59 | Moderate |
| 5 | 30-44 | Marginal |
| 6 | 15-29 | Severe limitations |
| 7 | 0-14 | Unsuitable |
The exact translation lives in the app.lsrs_class_to_score() helper on the database.
How to find the LSRS for a specific quarter section
Three paths, depending on the workflow:
Parcel report. Visit /app/report/<your-quarter>/pdf and the LSRS card shows the class, score, and label. Anonymous and Starter users get a limited number of reports; Agriculture Bundle subscribers get expanded report access.
Map overlay (Agriculture Bundle). Toggle the LSRS layer in the data catalog and the entire grid colours by productivity class - useful for comparing parcels side-by-side or scanning a township.
API (any plan with API access). Programmatic lookup against the LSRS join table for batch use cases.
What the score is not
A few common misreadings worth flagging:
- It's not yield. A class-1 parcel still has bad years; a class-4 parcel can outperform if managed well. The score reflects long-run suitability, not the current year.
- It's not market value. Recent FCC farmland values track productivity loosely but other factors (proximity to grain delivery points, water access, road frontage) move price.
- It's not crop-specific. The version Township Canada ships is for spring-seeded small grains. AAFC publishes pasture-specific LSRS too - that's not currently in the catalog.
Coverage and what's next
- Alberta: shipped via AGRASID 4.1. Every cultivated quarter has a class.
- Saskatchewan: in flight. The plan is to compute LSRS from AGRASID + SKSIS + climate + DEM rather than wait for a national bulk dataset (national AAFC LSRS doesn't exist for SK).
- Manitoba, BC, Ontario: not on the immediate roadmap; pasture LSRS likely first.
See the LSRS layer reference for the data pipeline detail.
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