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Fairport News

Historical FTI news articles and PRESS RELEASES
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September - October 2006

IN THIS ISSUE

» Welcome
» Rogers Ramblings
» PAM News
» PAM AusVit News
» Greenseeker News
» Dealer News
    » FarmTek Australia
    » AgIT
    » Boothtech
» In Closing

Late Again!! Yes, this is history repeating. Last year at the same time we ran short of time to get the September news out in September. So please excuse us again for calling it the September – October Newsletter.

The Fairport team welcomes all our new clients. It is a privilege to have you on board and we hope you will enjoy the relationship with us. Please remember, we are always happy to get feedback from our clients, old and new. We are well aware that without that feedback we would never have made it this far (18.5 years). So, if you have something that we should know about our service or products, please don’t hesitate to tell us.

We are now 3 months into the new financial year. Let’s hope this is one to remember for good reasons.

Early in July the Fairport Team welcomed Colin Booth into our fold as a full time member of staff. Colin has been finding plenty to do in his role as Marketing Director.

As a treat to the team here at Fairport and also for educational purposes, I arranged a day trip to visit the farming operations of one of our highly valued clients. Murray Hall of Hillroy Farms near Brookton WA, kindly obliged to have us descend upon him and his crew for the day. The timing for us was excellent as they were planting the last few hectares of their extensive cropping program.

Murray met us at one of the Brookton watering holes for lunch before taking us to witness and experience some auto-steer boomspraying, some sheep handling and veterinary treatments, a wander through a shearing shed and a ride in a tractor pulling an air seeder and a liquid nitrogen applicator. Murray also showed us lots of other equipment and a tour of his chemical shed.

Needless to say, this was a fantastic experience for the developers and helped to make sense of many things. Murray uses his PAM software very extensively and has given us lots of excellent feedback over many years.

Meanwhile, back in the office Colin manned the fort for that day … As he did for 4 weeks during September while my wife and I were away on a real vacation (no work at all) in Europe.

In August we appointed two new developers, Prathima Chejerla and Gerard van den Berg to help us with our every increasing work load.

Pratima had arrived from New Zealand where she and her husband had studied IT at Massey University. Unfortunately Prathima has since left us as a result of her husband being moved from Perth to Sydney. While she was here for her brief stay she worked on our MAX and MAX Pro software.

Gerard is a South African from Cape Town but has come from the UK where he spent 7 years as a developer working in various industries including a GIS (mapping) software company. Prior to that Gerard worked as a developer in South Africa for 3 years after graduating from the Cape Town Technikon with diplomas in both electronic and mechanical engineering.

Gerard’s hobbies include motor sport, water sports and fitness. To prove this, he rides a push bike a long way to work every day.

Work continues at a frantic pace on our PAM Enterprise system. Our biggest PAM Enterprise client to date (Landcorp in New Zealand) have now trained over 90 of there farm managers and the bulk of those are now using PAM on a daily basis. The training has been conducted by Gavin McEwen of Fairport Farm Systems, New Zealand. The feedback from Landcorp on Gavin’s training has been excellent. He is now a full bottle!

Tasmanian Fairport clients will be very pleased to hear that we (Farmtek Australia and Fairport) have engaged Mike French and his team at Peak Farm Management to look after you and to generate new sales in that state.

Here in South Perth, the development team have been busy enhancing PAM for our corporate clients. A lot of those enhancements will find their way into the standard small business versions of PAM in due course.

Edin Alpahic who started with us last December has recently graduated from Curtin University with distrinction. He was studying on a part time basis through the first half of this year to finish hi IT degree. He has been our “jack of all trades” here. His skills range from maintaining the network servers to building new computer systems to enhancing PAM to adding further enhancements to the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation and Haak Viticulture’s “Vinesite” – web site. This site is used to benchmark wine grape growers production costs and performance.

Other work ‘on the go’ here incudes further work in interfacing with vehicle (tractor / harvested) mounted data collection and control systems. Hopefully we will be making some announcements regarding these developments before the end of this year.

As mentioned earlier, Colin Booth has been busy in his new role here at Fairport. He has travelled to South Australia twice in the past 3 months on PAM AusVit and other viticulture related issues. He visited Hardy Wines, Fosters Wine Estates and Orlando Wyndham (Pernod Ricard Pacific). He also had meetings with Jim Hardie and Bridget Ransome at the CRC for Viticuture and John Harvey at the GWRDC.

Colin has also been to Melbourne to visit Marcus Oldham College, Melbourne Water and Silvan Sprayers.

This month Colin is having a day of discussion and training with the South Australian and Victorian dealers in Adelaide and various other meetings. He is getting to know Adelaide very well!

It is pleasing to see sales picking up in South Africa again. Our clients there have been having a hard time for a couple of years with very bad maize prices followed by a season of very low production. I was told in May at the Nampo Field Days in Bothaville that things are turning around. Good luck to all our clients and friends across the Indian Ocean.

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With six programmers now working on the PAM software suite, you can expect many new features in the near future. The features added over the past few months include:

All PAM Users

Reports: Report Preview Screen: Added Mouse Wheel support.

Data Entry: Chemical Applications: When changing the "Water Rate" or the "Total Water" values in the Spray Details section, PAM now tests each Consumable's Default Rate Type (as configured via the Configuration / Consumables list menu), and if the Consumable has been configured with a Default Rate Type of "Rate per Ha" then PAM will calculate a new "Percentage of Water" (Horticulture Users : "Units per 100Ltrs") value, leaving the "Rate per Ha" and "Total Units" values as they were. If the Consumable has been configured with a Default Rate Type of "Percentage of Water" ("Units per 100Ltrs"), then PAM will calculate a new "Total Units " and "Rate per Ha" value.

Data Entry: Cropping: Chemical Activities : New option added to enforce Targets selection when recording or converting to Actuals. To enable this feature, select "Customise your PAM program" from the Configuration menu and then select the "Settings(2)" tab.

Data Entry: Chemical Activity / Inventory Stock On Hand: When recording Actuals, or Converting Plans, Recommendations and Budget records to Actuals, PAM now allows you to specify an "Amount to deduct from Inventory". This value will be used as the quantity to deduct as Useage from Inventory Of Consumable Stock On Hand calculations, instead of the calculated "Total Units" value (Calculated as Rate by Area).
When recording Chemical Activities, PAM will default the "Amount to deduct from Inventory" to the same "Total Units" value, but you may change it. PAM will also use this value as the Total Quantity, when specifying Batch Number information.

Mapping: Map Reports: Machinery events were not showing on the Map Reports unless you had specifically tagged the machine or operation as something other than "Any Operation". Now the machinery map reports uses the event type that was recorded rather than the setting in the Machinery configuration list.

Stocktake: Inventory of Consumables Stock Taker now displays a blank screen until you have selected the Locations and Item Types you require and then select the "Generate" button. Previously all Stock On Hand figures were calculated automatically when the screen was loading.

Cotton Growers

Reports: Annual Crop Summary and Annual Paddock Crop Summary Reports : PAM now displays the Total Yield, Summary Costs and Income values in Bales if a Cotton crop.

Data Import:: Cotton ginning results: A generic file importer has been added to enable you import your ginning results.

Horticulture and Viticulture Users:

Reports: Planned Chemical Spray Worksheet Report : Adjusted report layout for Spot Sprayer records. Planned Chemical Spray Worksheet Report now also displays the last Machine Calibration information eg Gear, Speed, RPM.

Data Entry: Cropping : new Planned Machinery Chemical Spray Activity : Adjusted screen layout for Spot Spraying. PAM now remembers the Total amount of Water used for the Job and includes this figure in the Planned Chemical Spray Worksheet report.

Configuration: Horticulture and Viticulture Users : Machine Spray Calibration records : You can now specify notes for a given Calibration record via the Notes Button.

Reports: Planned Chemical Spray Worksheet Report : Machine/Method Notes and Job Notes were not autosizing correctly if there was more than one line of text.

Configuration: Machine Spray Calibration records : You can now specify custom Vehicle Descriptions.

Reports: Spray Diary QA Report : PAM now lists each Target sprayed for each Chemical. Previously a unique list of all Targets sprayed for all Chemicals was listed. Several other enhancements and fixes were done to this report.

Reports: Machine Spray Calibration records : You can now access the Calibration report directly via the new Report button.

Data Entry: Cropping : When converting a new Planned Machinery Chemical Spray Activity to Actual, PAM now displays the actual Machinery Details data entry screen. Previously PAM was displaying the original Planned Machinery details screen.

Configuration: Machinery / Method Configuration : Sprayer ID field increased from 10 to 30 characters.

Data Entry: Cropping : new Planned Machinery Chemical Spray Activity
When recording a Planned Chemical Activity you can now specify details about the Machine Sprayer before moving onto the Chemical Details screen. To enable this feature, select the "Customise your PAM xxx Program" Configuration menu option, then select the "Settings 2" tab. Under the Chemical Lists and Records checkbox, select "Use Machinery Sprayer Calibration Details for Planned Activities" checkbox.
Please note : If you enable this option, you are required to specify a Growth Stage in the Chemical Details screen before saving the Job.

Livestock

Livestock Diary : Tools Menu : New "Show Costs and Income" option added.

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PAM AusVit sales have continued at a steady pace throughout this year despite the general downturn in the wine industry. PAM AusVit sales have continued at a steady pace throughout this year despite the general downturn in the wine industry. Check the Booth Technology News below for the list of new sales in WA alone!

These days, when you buy a bottle of Australian wine in your local bottle shop, the chances are extremely high that it was produced by a company that uses PAM AusVit.

As well as strong and growing interest from Australia’s leading wine companies, we have recently had an enquiry from one of the top 3 wine companies in Greece.

PAM AusVit was recently written up in the online Wine Business Monthly web site in the USA by Dr. Mark Greenspan of Advanced Viticulture, LLC in California.

Here are some excerpts from Mark’s article:

“PAM AusVit is a very comprehensive vineyard management system. The software is well organized and has a highly polished user interface. The package includes a farm planning utility with full budgeting support.”

“PAM AusVit is the only software package evaluated that has some expert system functionality. It can be used to generate fertilizer recommendations per a built-in model and can be used to model pest and disease pressure. Overall, this is a very comprehensive software suite.”
… Thanks Mark

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Greenseeker News

 

The Greenseeker products have been taken up by quite a few research bodies around Australia and some farmers over the past few months.

Mark Branson of Stockport South Australia held a Greenseeker awareness field day on his farm recently. This was attended by researchers from the Oklahoma State University, Grant Yates of Southern Precision Sprayers, the SA Greenseeker dealer and many interested farmers.

We have had good feedback from these organisations about the ease of use and cost effectiveness compared with the satellite and airborne methods of calculation NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetative Index)

The NDVI is commonly used to measure plant health and crop vigour. and can be used in conjunction with other agronomic references to index basic nutrient response, crop condition, yield potential, stress, pest and disease impact in a quantitative objective manner.

The application of Nitrogen during the growing season to reach the potential yield of the crop is one of the main reasons the Greenseeker is used. This can either be done by getting the reading and then calculating the optimum fertiliser rate and follow up with the application or with the RT200 this can be done in one pass if the Greenseeker is connected to a compatible (CAN) Variable Rate Applicator.

The Oklahoma State University has a Nitrogen Rate Calculator for working out application rates to reach maximum potential yield with algorithms being updated on a regular basis
Visit: http://www.soiltesting.okstate.edu/SBNRC/SBNRC.php. There is also quite a bit of good reading on the site with regard to Nitrogen application.

With the costs of fertilisers, fuel and crop protection materials spiralling upwards, the timing has never been more critical to get the right amount in the right place at the right time. Why not contact us to get one of our distributors to talk to you about the Greenseeker systems.

FarmTek Australia VIC - SA - TAS

If was great to catch up with so many clients at the Henty Field Days in September and last week at Elmore.

For all our clients in Tasmania, we are very excited to welcome Mike French and his team from Peak Farm Management as PAM dealers

Based in Launceston Mike and his team will be able to provide local advice and training throughout Tasmania.

Hopefully Mike and his team will be in full swing with the PAM range of Software by the end of October.

FarmBis funding is available for 1:1 on farm training for all Victoria farmers – courses from $250.00 incl.

The Training request is still on-line at www.farmtek.com.au or www.fairport.com.au so please keep the request coming in to assist us in scheduling training in your area.

Until December.

Joanne Richardson
Farmtek Australia
~ 1300 553 446
www.farmtek.com.au

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AgIT - NSW & QLD

Ag IT PAM QA Plus training has been assessed as eligible for FarmBis support in Queensland.

FarmBis is a jointly funded initiative of the Australian and Queensland government.

Paul will be travelling QLD over the next few weeks carrying out on farm training through out Queensland, including some of the more remote areas. So if you would like to brush up on your PAM QA Plus skills, or would like to be sure that you are making the most of your investment in the software, NOW is the time.
To arrange training, please call Ag IT on 1800 658 998, or fill out the online form at www.agit.com.au/training.

We all hope that you will make good use of the improved cotton bale import utility. No more do you need to wade through a stack of bale information on paper, simply import it ALL into PAM QA Plus in a matter of minutes, from your Gin(s), Classer(s) and/or merchant(s)!!! You can find a help note on the PAM QA Plus cotton bale import utility and the new bale information report on the Ag IT support web page: www.agit.com.au/support.

Green Seeker is a new technology for farmers and we are having great interest shown in what it can do for today’s farmers, read more about the Green Seeker hard ware on the Fairport site (www.fairport.com.au) or the Ag IT site (www.agit.com.au).

Since the price drop in the GIS mapping software from Fairport we have also seen a great uptake in people using the software for farm management. Take advantage your self and download a trial version today.

All the best for the upcoming season and look forward to seeing you in PAM QA Plus training.

Regards,
Paul Olsen
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Ag IT
2-8 Serengetti Drive
MUNRUBEN QLD 4125
Ph/Fax: (07) 3802 1458
Mobile: 0419 727 086
Sales & Support: 1800 658 998
email: paul@agit.com.au
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Booth Technology - WA

Our monthly PAM workshops are running the last week of each month so why not take the time to learn how to get more out of your PAM software.

We have also got a few more vineyards taken up PAM Ausvit in the last couple of months including Churchview Estate, Stella Bella, Chalice Bridge, Watershed Wines and Voyager Estate. It is good to see that PAM Ausvit is becoming the standard software for vineyards as well as broadacre farming.

Despite the season in the wheatbelt there has still been quite a bit of interest in PAM and computer upgrades for that region.

Remember Ben & Stephen are always available for one on one training either in our office or on farm. Just ring us on (08) 93834443 to book a time

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The Fairport Team wishes all our clients well for the spring months
Until December 2006…
Farewell from Roger Wiese and the Fairport Team