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Fairport Technologies News

Historical FTI news articles and press releases

March 2004

IN THIS ISSUE

» Welcome
» Winners
» PAM Ausvit
» Pastures from Space
» Pasture Watch
» Roger’s Ramblings
» PAM Enhancements
» Dealer News
    » Serve- Ag Pty Ltd
    » Farmtek Australia
    » Rural Systems
    » Drenko Business Support
    » Agbis (NSW & QLD)
    » Maelroan Computers
» In Closing

Welcome to the March Fairport News, especially to those who are receiving their first Fairport News.

Three very short and extremely busy months have past since Christmas. Some of the Fairport staff welcomed the opportunity to have the Christmas period off – apologies to any of you who were inconvenienced by that. The development team (most of it) kept working through the holiday period to try and put a dent in the workload.

As you will read in this newsletter, the team has achieved a lot in this short time. This newsletter is also packed full of news from our distributors…

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Congratulations to our 15th year birthday competition winners last December.

Andrew Roberts-Thomson (Table Cape, TAS) was the winner of a pair of Craftsman R.M.William Boots for this entry:
" My hands may be full with the demands of the season, but with PAM the farm is at my fingertips".

Alec Williams (Coonamble, NSW) was our lucky PAM buyer who also won pair of boots.
And Tony Gerlach (Nuriootpa, SA) has won a year’s subscription to Outback magazine for picking the error in the last newsletter (The error: we had the year wrong on the back page).

Thank you to all who entered.

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We told you about the PAM AusVit program last year. It is finally ready to hit the market. Serve-Ag and the CRC of Viticulture have been very busy getting the marketing materials ready and Fairport has been busy finalising the development and writing a new manual ready for the March 29th release.

According to CRC of Viticulture CEO Dr Jim Hardie, Fairport’s experience in agricultural and horticultural software development and distribution had been the main catalyst for working with the company on a mutual product.

“Managing a vineyard is highly technical, with growers increasingly being accountable for the amount of water use and the impact they are having on the environment, for example, how much chemical input is applied each year,” Dr Hardie said.

“In addition growers are trying to meet certain quality attributes or style characteristics and trying to improve their growing efficiency as a way of increasing profits and remaining sustainable.

“This software product can enhance management procedures, monitor vines and help review overall performance from season to season.”

Dr Hardie said it was highly satisfying for all the researchers and industry collaborators from around Australia to see their viticultural management strategies encapsulated in a software package and being used by industry.

“With Fairport’s well established distribution and sales team, the PAM-AusVit software will be exposed to many more grape growers and we hope more growers will start using this technology as a tool for managing their vineyards.”

Dr Hardie said using the software would be beneficial for winemakers and grape growers to work together in planning the desired quality and flavour outcomes for the season.

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World first satellite technology to assist farmers in achieving improved pasture management is being made available to producers on a commercial basis, following a successful three-year trial in Western Australia.

WA Agriculture Minister Kim Chance announced the commercial service, developed by the Pastures from Space consortium, including the Western Australian Departments of Agriculture and Land Information and CSIRO Livestock Industries, in conjunction with commercial partner Fairport Technologies International.

"This is exciting new technology for pasture monitoring and management, and already WA producers involved with the trial have reported substantial profit improvements, some up to 150 per cent, " Mr Chance said.
" The data provided by the satellite technology assists producers to better understand pasture availability and how their animals respond to changes in pasture supply. It gives them accurate pasture information for individual paddocks on their farms, and makes their feed management decisions much easier," Mr Chance said.

"Fairport is licensed to provide the commercial service, and has developed easy to use Pasture Watch software to assist farmers with the downloading and analysis of their pasture growth rate data.

"Producers can use Pasture Watch for improved grazing management plans, feed budgets, fertiliser management and feeding strategies," the Minister said.

A new version of PAM QA Plus will be released before the end of this month which will have in it a special facility that will enable Pastures from Space subscribers to enrol. This version will also have a comprehensive pasture budgeting and grazing planning system built in. Although the Pastures from Space Data is very helpful in supplying information to this pasture budgeting system, you can use it without having to subscribe to the service.

Subscribers will also get a facility for calculating stocking rates and grazing areas and grazing periods required to obtain certain desired outcomes. For example: What is the stocking rate required to maintain a paddock at a certain Feed On Offer level? Or … How many hectares do I need for 500 wethers that I want to increase in weight at a certain rate?

Areas to be catered for by the Pastures from Space system in 2004 are shown on the maps on this page.

For a closer look at these maps, go to
www.pasturesfromspace.csiro.au/map/pgr_mapservice.asp

Or visit:
www.fairport.com.au/pasturewatch

The CSIRO are hoping to have Pastures from Space coverage over much more of the grazing areas of Australia (and New Zealand) in the years ahead.

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Powerful Data, Simple Software

Pasture Watch™ is a simple program that Fairport has developed and enhanced over the past year. Last year 60 WA farmers used Pasture Watch 1.0 to automatically download their paddock by paddock pasture growth rate data on a weekly basis.

This year, Pasture Watch is available to Pastures from Space subscribers. For those with PAM, this program will perform the task of downloading the PGR data weekly and it is also the place where we have the put the green feed planner/calculator (mentioned earlier) which was originally developed by the WA Department of Agriculture.

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The year to date has been extremely busy and the pressure doesn’t look like easing for a while either.

A few weeks ago I was invited to attend the South Australian Nuffield Scholars get together in North Adelaide and stayed (with my wife, Marina) with Brendon (Nuffield Chairman) and Robyn Smart at their lovely home on their vineyard (Peeralilla View) near Victor Harbour.

Brendon Smart at “Peeralilla” SA

On March 22nd I spent a day in Adelaide with the CRCV team discussing the future directions of Viti$ys (a CRCV initiative) with other CRCV software groups and on the 23rd I met up with a good number of our Fairport dealers for some updates and training on Pasture Watch and FarmStar.

The PAM – Phoenix integration has been undergoing final testing now for some time. Both Agdata and Fairport will soon (within the next month or two) announce the release of versions of our software that cater for the long awaited PAM-Phoenix integration.

It is very pleasing to hear how impressed the New Zealand farmers are with PAM. I am extremely grateful to Hugh Ritchie and his staff for putting in so much time showing off their PAM and Pocket PAM programs to all comers. Hugh was even recently the subject of a TV documentary in which he gave PAM a good “plug”.

Jarrad, Yann and Gavin of Xenacom in Hamilton NZ are putting in a huge effort to get PAM’s good name spread in their market. We are expecting big things from there over the next year or so. They have already appointed several very enthusiastic agents and the appointment of Jarrad as a full time PAM product champion is very encouraging. Joanne Richardson of our Farmtek division recently went to NZ to help them out with manning the stand at a Dairy Expo and to do some training.
Christo Helm and his team at Senwes in South Africa continue to make good levels of sales to farmers in the maize belt (Free State and North West Province).

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Since the December newsletter, the following enhancements have been added to the PAM suite of software.
• Recommendations: A concise version of the recommendations report for Chemicals which only page breaks on a change of farm. All chemical recommendations entered on one day are displayed on a page. This is only available from the Paddock Activities Diary screen as it is Date based.
• Budgets: The following reports have been made "dual purpose" catering for both budgeted data and actual records: All Gross Margin Reports (Paddock & Crop), All Chemical, Fertiliser, Machinery, Manual Tasks, Irrigation & Sundries reports, Crop Yields and Areas Summary report
• Data Entry: Total Cost Column in the Machinery data entry panel. Handy for verifying that costs/hour or costs/litre have worked correctly
• Inventory: Inventory reports: Purchase Prices and Total Costs are now optional extras.
• Inventory: Stock On Hand Reports : New option "exclude Items no longer in stock from report?" which will hide items that you have been marked as being "totally consumed".
• Individual Animal Records: Added facility to allow new animals to be created when importing Breedplan EBVs.
• Individual Animal Records: Animal's sex can now be edited from the Group Edit Details screen.
• Individual Animal Records: You can now record a partial mob movement when using IAR.
• Individual Animal Records: In the Individual Animal Weights and Traits Browser you can now save your trait and weight selections on the input screen. You can now also save the columns and their order when exporting to a CSV file via the IAR Browser.
• Livestock Reports: Grazing Days Table report. You can now leave in or removed paddocks that were not grazed in the chosen time period.

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PAM UltraCrop
Serve- Ag Pty Ltd

To cope with the increasing market for PAM UltraCrop, and soon to be released PAM AusVit management systems, Serve-Ag has recently added Vincent Ball to its national team. Vincent will be working within Serve-Ag’s ARM (Agricultural Resource Management) group, based out of Adelaide, and brings with him years of experience within the IT Industry and Viticulture. Vincent’s newly appointed position, (Manager – Software Sales & Support) will be focused around national market development of PAM UltraCrop and the new PAM AusVit (due for release 29 March). Vincent is married with 2 children and he also runs a small vineyard at McLaren Vale. We welcome Vincent to Serve-Ag and we look forward to him becoming an integral part of the Serve-Ag team.

With the grape harvest well underway throughout the country we expect that there will be plenty of interest in the PAM Ultracrop annual reports once people enter their harvest data. And for all the vineyard managers who don't have a management system as powerful as PAM we hope their interest will be piqued as the word spreads of new PAM AusVit system. All current Fairport Club and Serve-Ag Software Support Service members who have PAM Ultracrop (Viticulture-Specific) will be able to upgrade to the new system after its release. Current users of the CRCV AusVit system will have very favourable upgrade offers to PAM AusVit made to them at release too. All this activity is expected to swell the numbers of PAM system users, so we are gearing up to be on-the road again to provide users training and support, and to work with them to incorporate mapping features for those who take that option too.

Of course we remain committed to continuing to expand the numbers and to support the horticulture users with PAM Ultracrop.

We will be participating in the Twelfth Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference to be held in Melbourne, 24-29 July 2004, where we will be involved in the Workshop Program and Trade Exhibition.

If you are attending the exhibition, please call in at the CRCV stand where we will make you very welcome.

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Farmtek Australia

With harvest over and the holiday season gone we are now back in full swing. I have just returned from a week in New Zealand where I met up with our new distributors, Xenacom, who are about to embark on the dairy market with PAM QA+. Luckily we stayed north of the huge floods. They did put a bit of a dampener on the attendance to the Dairy Expo but we still got lots of positive feedback from farmers.

This month FarmTek and Drenko Business Support attended the Wimmera Field Days. It was great to meet so many PAM users.
PocketPAM has been the “flavour of the month” lately. A lot of farmers are starting to realise the benefits of inputting their farm data on the run, keeping records up to date and not spending evenings in front of the computer.

Do you require software training? Fill out a request form on-line at www.farmtek.com.au.

We are running group training in S.A. during April and hope to schedule some more after Easter. We have also scheduled training for Victoria, during April-May so keep a look out for those. To ensure you are not left out of any training session in either Victoria or South Australia, please fill out the form on our Farmtek web site.

PAM Training Sessions in South Australia Learn how to get the most out of PAM. Configure production costs, inventory, budgeting, mapping and reporting Clare TAFE - Friday the 2nd of April, 9am - 4pm 155 Main North Road, Clare Naracoorte TAFE - Monday the 5th of April, 9am – 4pm 19 Gordon Street, Naracoorte Murray Bridge TAFE- Tuesday the 6th of April, 9am - 4pm Swanport Road, Murray Bridge PAM training courses Only $60 ! Limited Space Enrol Now! To register, contact Kirsty Smith on (08) 8842 6600 or kirsty.smith@mi.tafe.sa.edu.au

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Rural Systems

Training days ahead for Eyre Peninsula PAM users!
Lock, Kimba and Cummins, March 29. 30. April 1.
Farmbis funded.
For more details call:
08 86891188, or www.ruralsystems.com.au

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Drenko Business Support - Horsham Victoria

With the harvest now into full swing in the Mallee and the Wimmera, it will be a very busy time for all growers over the coming weeks. Early reports are suggesting that yields will be at least average or above in most areas, which is a dramatic turnaround from the disappointment of last season. On the downside, we have seen commodity prices easing, due to the strength of the Aussie dollar, which is starting to take a bit of the cream off the cake.
Quite a number of growers have expressed interest in getting their PAM data files 'geared up' so that they can get the most out of the program for next season. With this in mind, we have been starting to allocate some one-on-one visits with growers after the harvest period, to ensure that their data files are configured and set up properly, and to also receive some refresher training, on various functions within PAM. If you are in a similar position, please feel free to call and arrange a suitable time to catch up in the New Year.
With the new office now up and running in Horsham, you are more than welcome to drop in for a chat, and discuss any issues that you may be having with PAM. Computers have now been acquired, and with a fully furbished training room now available, we hope to be able to launch some classroom training in the new year, which will cover all functions within PAM. Course details and dates will be advised closer to the time.
We will also be in attendance at Wimmera Machinery Field Days on March 2, 3 & 4, so feel free to call in to the 'air-conditioned' Allan Heard Pavilion and have a chat. Joanne will be in attendance, so it will be a good opportunity catch up and discuss any issues that you have. Who knows, we might even be able to find you a cool drink!
We wish all the best for Christmas and New Year, and hope that all of your yields exceed your expectations, and that your yield maps show plenty of purple areas!
Paul Drendel
Certified MYOB Consultant
DrenKo Business Support
13 Darlot Street, Horsham, 3400
P: 03-5382 3409
F: 03-5382 3176
M: 0427-DRENKO

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Agbis (NSW & QLD)

Matt and his team have been extremely busy since the holiday period, making several trips into Queensland for training and marketing.

Agbis can assist with on-site training.
Training areas covered include:
• Setting up / configuration
• Cropping
• Livestock (Individual Animal Recording)
• Cotton specific issues
• Wool
• Mapping
• Viticulture
• Horticulture/Perennial Crops
• Precision Mapping
• PocketPAM

In addition, Agbis offers Group Training and we will keep you posted regarding future training sessions.

Proposed Field Day attendance for 2004 – Turf Producers Australia Conference, Australian Cotton Trade Show, AgQuip, AgShow and Henty Field Days.

Michael Meehan commenced working with Agbis in January. Michael will be providing on-farm training to PAM users as well as assisting Greg Baker at Group Training sessions.

Sarah Hall has moved to Toowoomba and will be providing training and support for PAM users in South Eastern Queensland.

Greg Baker is currently traveling to Southern NSW every two weeks so if you are located in Southern NSW and require assistance, do not hesitate to contact Greg on 0417 256 398.

For training and support contact Agbis at:
PO Box 1184, Armidale NSW 2350
Tel: 0267729200
Fax: 0267729212
Mob: 0407729936
Email: matt@agbis.com
Website: www.agbis.com

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Maelroan Computers

The season here has started out with very hot humid weather and the rain, and the consequent growth of weeds.

The Wagin Woolorama Field Days were very good for us. Thank you to those who called in. We shared our site with a new business that does aerial photography from an unmanned aeroplane and helicopter. If points are marked on the ground these photos can be digitised and imported into PAM quite easily. Videos are also available.

We have a busy schedule ahead of us until the end of April, so if you would like training, it will pay to book soon. Bookings can be made as far ahead as you wish. For example, bookings are already in for July.

There has been enquiry about QA audit requirements - what details need to be in PAM records to comply, etc. If you fall into this category, please call, email or fax your queries and I can help you “get it right”. Remember I am also a qualified SQF QA Consultant so I can help you in this area.

We will be attending the Balingup Small Farm Field Day on 24th April this year. We won’t be hard to find, as we will have the coach there with the PAM flag flying.

In recent times we have heard some possibly unrealistic sales pitch being given about the data you can download from the programmes in “onboard” equipment. For example, guidance systems and spray controllers. In our experience to date, these onboard systems do not give you all the information required for QA. PAM can import the data from some of the systems (if it is there). I have now spoken to a number of the manufacturers, some of whom have approached me for clarification, and our suggestion is that farmers start asking more questions about what really is there. This will support our quest for better data capture. No one wants to have to enter data twice today. Alternatively, you could use Fairport’s free “DES” (Data Entry System) if the onboard system is able to run Windows software. For more information on the free DES software, visit the Fairport website. DES is similar in functionality to PocketPAM Crop Dairy and is guaranteed to exchange data with PAM!

Farm QA Issues
At the FMI (QA) Meeting in Perth on 8th March it was announced that the 30 day rule for audit was to be enforced. This means that if you do not have your audit within 30 days of your anniversary date, you will lose your certification. For more information please call either myself or your auditor.

Maelroan Contact details:– phone 0428 910 122,
fax 0890767042,
email Maelroan@bigpond.com Web: www.Maelroan.com.au.
Please don’t be afraid to ask what you consider to be the “silly” question. That question is often the key to your record keeping
… Liz Alford

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Drenko Business Support News – Wimmera Vic

It was good to meet a lot of the PAM users over the Wimmera Machinery Field Days. There certainly seems to be a lot of enquiry for some structured training, so Joanne and I are developing some classroom training sessions to offer PAM users over the next few months. We will give you as much support and training as we can, to ensure that you get the most out of your programs. It was encouraging to see the number of people enquiring about the software after hearing positive reports from existing users.

The Palm/Ipaq/PocketPAM deal that we offered at the Field Days proved to be very popular. If people are still interested in this offer, please call, and we will see if we can put a similar package together for anyone who missed out. Now is a good time to ensure that you have all of your 2004 season records up to date, and put together your budgets for the whole season; please feel free to give us a call if you require any assistance in these areas.
… Paul Drendel
Tel: 03 5382 3409
Fax: 03 5382 3176
Mob: 0427 373 656
Email:drenko@bigpond.com

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For those of you in the winter rainfall areas and in other areas, we wish you good and timely rains…

We hope subscribers to Pastures from Space and those who cross grade from AusVit to PAM AusVit are well satisfied with your decisions.

We look forward to the exciting months ahead… Good luck to you all …

until June...