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Fairport News

Historical FTI news articles and PRESS RELEASES
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March 2010

IN THIS ISSUE

» Welcome
» Roger's Ramblings
» Staff Matters
» What's New
» Dealer News
    » AgIT
    » Booth Technologies
    » FarmTek Australia
» In Closing

Welcome to all our new and existing clients and especially those of you reading the Fairport News for the first time! We hope you had a pleasant Easter and managed to put your feet up for a moment.
It has been good to see reports of good rains in many of parched areas of Australia. Let’s hope there’s more to come where it’s needed most.  .

For the past 4-5 years the developers here at Fairport  have been quite pre-occupied with projects involving integration with accounting software and client-specific customisation of PAM for our growing number of enterprise clients. As 2009 drew to a close, the development team put the finishing touches on the PAM AusVit enhancements we were doing for the Foster’s Wines project. Foster’s vineyards in Australia went “live” with PAM AusVit in November and have plans to take the program off shore to their international operations in due course.
Meanwhile, we are adding new macadamia-specific features to PAM UltraCrop for Saratoga Holdings (world’s biggest macadamia producers) and getting on with some long overdue feature requests in the general release of PAM and other programs. See later in this newsletter
Henry, our man in America, has got plenty going on over there. As this newsletter goes to air Henry is in New York State for a week visiting consultants and growers. This year to date has been exceptionally cold in most of the US, so he has spent several weeks in Florida presenting to growers, contractors, consultants and educators in the horticulture sector.
While on the subject of America, we welcome Mission Hill Wines (BC, Canada) to our list of clients. Colin spent the first three weeks of March in Canada, California and Washing State installing, training and presenting ... and experiencing the cold first hand.
Speaking of cold, I mentioned in the December 2009 newsletter that my wife and I were setting off for 3 weeks in Europe on Dec. 26th. That was also a cold but interesting experience.  
Apart from a quick trip to Canberra for a Precision Farming “Think Tank” in early February, it’s been nose to the grindstone here for me. Having taken over some of the telephone support load, I must say how nice it has been to talk to you people out there again.
Colin will be in NSW in week or two to do some training with Macquarrie as they prepare to go live with PAM Enterprise... then he is due to return to Canada and the US for more installations, presentations  and training – including the Canadian Department of Agriculture.

There’s plenty more happening here ... stay tuned for more announcements in June.

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Within days of saying (in the December newsletter) how there had been no staff movements at Fairport for 6 months, William, our chief software tester and deputy support line guy handed in his notice! Unfortunately, William was required by his family back in Mauritius. His time to return home was up.
In January Allison also left us to move onto bigger and better things in the area in which she gained her Master’s Degree – Education using electronic media, the internet etc. Allison’s role here was Customer Services Manager.

We all wish them both a great future and appreciate the time they spent with us. The feedback we’ve had from clients indicates that their efforts here were appreciated.

 

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PAM QA+ -has had the following new features added in the past 3 months:
Seeding / Planting : Default Sow Rates
When recording a Seeding and Planting activity, PAM was defaulting the Sow Rate to the largest Sow Rate recorded for a given Variety. Now is simply uses the last / previous value recorded.

Seeding / Planting : New Seed Dressings
When recording a Seeding and Planting activity you can now record associated Seed Dressing information. To enable the new facility, select the "Soil Moisture and Seed Dressing Data at Planting" checkbox option on the Cropping tab, via the Configuration menu "Customise your PAM program" menu option.
To see all the enhancements and fixes in the PAM suite of programs, please visit www.fairport.com.au. The link to the “Changes” page can be found on the Support page & the Upgrades page.

FarmStar – The Precision farming module in PAM+FarmStar and FarmStar Lite continue to be enhanced. The most recent version of the “Smart Machines” engine has had its contouring system fully overhauled. Also some long awaited features have been added to the PAM Mapping & gpMapper systems.

PAM Mapping & gpMapper –
Auto-Grid and Auto Run Lines – Look for the new Auto Create Grid menu option. Although requested by our precision farming clients in South Africa, the possibilities for these options are endless, including automatically constructing tree or vine rows, soil sample grid points etc.

PAM Mapping & gpMapper – Layer Group Statistics (in gpMapper, coming to PAM soon in release 6.7.8) – When you have the layers listed down the left hand side of the mapping screen, right click on the list and look out for the new “Layer Group Statistics” option. This will display the count or length or area of the combined objects in each layer. 

PAM Mapping & gpMapper – Duplicate Layer - coming to PAM soon in release 6.7.8  – When you have the layers listed down the left hand side of the mapping screen, right click on the list and look out for the new “Duplicate Layer” option. This will create a duplicate of the currently selected layer. 
The Fairport Web Site – recently we changed the Home page on the web site, giving it a bit of a face lift.

We’ve created a special Fairport Club member’s only section for software upgrades. To get to the upgrades page you’ll need to log in using your current email address and a number, known here as the FCM (Fairport Club Membership) Number. To see how this works, click on the Upgrades link on the Home page... The instructions are all there.
The Downloads page has had an overhaul: a new login password system has been set up. Passwords can be obtained (as before) by filling out a form with contact details.

A few other cosmetic changes have been made and there’ll be more changes coming in due course.

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AgIT - NSW & QLD

Ag-IT will be representing Fairport at the Primex Field day in Casino on 17-19 June. Look out for us in Pavillion 2, Site 26.
We will be sending out a request for training form for our Queensland clients soon ... so please keep an eye out for that. All courses will be Farmready subsidised.
Courses are flexible and can be tailored to suit the requirements of the attendees.
 

If you are in need of training for your PAM software, please let us know

.

Paul Olsen
Ag IT | Agricultural Information Systems & Training
Ph/Fax: (07) 3802 1458 | Mobile: 0419 727 086
Email: paul@agit.com.au | Web: www.agit.com.au

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Booth Technology - WA

Online shop is up and running at www.cnis.com.au. There are over 30,000 products available from hardware, software, consumables including cameras to playstations. Order your consumables for printers like toners and in cartridges online and have them freighted directly to you.

Register online and make an order and be in the running to win 1 of 50 Internet Security packages RRP$110.00

I was asked about 1300 number for support calls, as it's a STD for some clients to call us and many support calls can be quite long, please txt me, email me or call and request to call you back if that's the case.

Do you need your PAM records/maps brought up to date? We are providing a service to help you get your records/maps tidied up. Please register interest don@boothtech.com.au

Don Silva
Booth Technology
Phone: 08 93988707
Email: don@boothtech.com.au

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FarmTek Australia VIC - SA - TAS

PAM Training is now a FarmReady approved course.  Full funding for the course plus travel if required is available to approved participants.
To be eligible for the FarmReady Reimbursement Grant, you need to be either a: 

1. primary producer
2. immediate family member of a primary producer
3. member of the management team of a primary production enterprise or
4. Indigenous land manager

Full details about the grant are available at www.farmready.gov.au
 
If you would like to run a course in your region please don’t hesitate to contact me.

To register your interest for a training session in your area please use the online form at www.farmtek.com.au or www.fairport.com.au

.

Joanne Richardson
FarmTek Australia
Ph 0429930770
Email: Joanne@farmtek.com.au

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Until June... Farewell from the Fairport Team