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FarmStar - CREATING A PRECISION DATA MAP

If you are considering purchasing FarmStar or FarmStar Lite for the purpose of precision data mapping or creating VRT Projects, please read on...

The procedure of creating precision data images can be quite a complex process with some software packages and the number of variables and features that need to be taken into account are great. With FarmStar we have endeavoured to make the process as simple as possible for the average user, while allowing flexibility for those more advance users to interrogate data in more detail.

These notes will run you through a simple image creation process, once you understand these basic steps you will be able to experiment with the power of FarmStar. To download a printable version click here: Help_Tips(PDF)

By downloading the demo version of FarmStar or FarmStar Lite you will have 20 runtimes of the software and be able to create the precision data image, however you will not be able to save it until you purchase the full registration.

To view the Data Manager:
» PAM QA Plus with FarmStar – Select Precision Maps / Data Manager
» FarmStar Lite – File / Import Precision Farming Data

Select

and then choose the type of data file you will be importing.

You will then be able to navigate your way through your computer to the location of the data.
Note: Some imports can be done directly from a datacard. You will need to check the correct procedure for each type of data

Depending on the type of data you are importing you will have different screens come up to match the data to be imported to the data in PAM FarmStar (Not applicable with FarmStar Lite)

E.g. From most controllers (JD, Case, NH, KEE etc,)

You need to match the Paddock names from the controller to the Paddock names in PAM.
Note: The PAM names can be uploaded to configure some controllers.

E.g. From a CSV file

Select the paddock name and year that the data belongs to.
Note: With some data you may need to select a ZONE for FarmStar to know which part of the map to place the data on.

This screen will appear when importing some data formats:

FarmStar will then load the file and add it to the datasets list.

You can the select the data to work with. You can also Append Datasets e.g. All Wheat data

Click

and you will be returned to the mapping desktop, but now you will have the Data Toolbar visible, all the buttons here are available as you have just loaded a file.

Click the

button, to open the Data Image dialog and create the image.

This screen is where you can select value ranges, the colours on the image that the values will be represented by and also how the image is to be drawn.

Image creation options (Data Image Dialog):

Choose the image source data from the drop down list, this list represents the data that is present in the precision data file that you imported previously.
In this case we will choose ‘Yield’ from the drop down list.

FarmStar will automatically set up Search Radius and Pixel Sizes.
More experienced users may want to change these settings by clicking on the button.
Next you will choose the colouring method and colours that you would like for the image to be drawn in. Please select the ‘Apply individual colours to specific ranges option’
The colour range definition can now be defined by selecting , from there select to accept the default name for the colour range and to save it to the FarmStar database.
To set the number of colours used in the value range, set the Step value and the number of intervals between colour changes will change automatically.
Note: You can also specify the Min & Max value to trim the data.
You will now select the colours that will be used when the image is generated. From the palette drop down list select ‘Red-Yellow-Green-Blue’

or select colours by clicking in the coloured box in the table
Next, you need to let FarmStar know what sort of precision you would like it to generate the image in. For this exercise, please select the ‘Smooth’ option.

NOTE: If Spread a colour set across all data is chosen in Step 2. You can manually set up the data Clipping and Range and Colour Palette.
You are now ready to generate the data image… click the button.
The image will be created, the Data Image dialog will close and the image preview dialog will open.

Save the image by clicking the ‘Save’ button and give it a name of your choice.

The image will now appear in the main mapping screen.
You can also save this map and data as a “Snapshot” so you do not need to go through the full process next time you want to analyse this data. Click on the Data toolbox and name the snap shot.

The next time you need this image and data you will be able to select it using the Data Manager and selecting the Snapshot tab.

Data Statistics

You can get the statistics of the image on the screen by selecting Data Statistics from the Precision Maps Menu.

All Data - shows the values for each Data Field of the file that was loaded to create the image.

You can also draw a polygon(s) to select various regions of the image and then produce statistics on those regions too. This is extremely useful when analysing trial results.

Sample – Circles V Paths V Image

Depending on the data being processed you can choose whether to create Circles, Paths or Images. Recommendations for each type of output -

Circles – Soil & Leaf tests and sparse data.
Paths – Application or Harvest data (to see the tracks) also some logged data from GPS.
Image – Application or Harvest data also any data that has a high density of data.

Here is an example of the same data processed in the different ways.

Next: find out now to create a VRT (Variable Rate Technology) Project.

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