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Fairport News
Historical FTI news articles and PRESS RELEASES
Download the PDF Version of this newsletter - Get PDF Viewer hereDECEMBER 2008
IN THIS ISSUE
| Welcome |
Once again the Fairport team welcomes all our new clients who have joined us in the last three months. Please remember, we are always happy to get feedback from our clients, old and new. So, if you have ideas that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to contact us.
| Rogers Ramblings |
We understand that it must be difficult for some of our clients to keep up their enthusiasm for the rural industry in these times. The climate is constantly playing tricks on us and delivering weirder and weirder weather. Then we have a state of total financial chaos and uncertainty playing tricks on the currency exchange rates. Crazy times indeed. I hear people saying that it has to be agricultures turn for the next boom. Let's hope that's true. I hope you can all enjoy some peace and contentment over the holiday season and perhaps manage to forget some of those things giving you stress.
Here at Fairport we are unanimously looking forward to a break. Some of the crew are taking an extended break around this time, and all of us will be taking off the days between Christmas and January the 5th. We have been under a series of “pumps” for the past year. Some extremely challenging projects have kept us busy all year. We are looking forward to a chance for the dust to settle and for some consolidation in the new year.
Some very positive outcomes of the past year include the establishment of an automated quality assurance system for our main software suite. While perhaps not trapping all subtle glitches, this system is designed to catch the ‘show stoppers'. We have also been constantly streamlining and where possible, automating the way we interact with the PAM Enterprise clients. The spin off from this and almost everything we are doing for these clients benefits all our other clients. I am hoping that these ‘spin offs' will be more prevalent and apparent next year.
Before the end of this year we will hope to have completed the PAM Enterprise Edition “Disconnected Desktop” system. PAM EE DD has been designed to cater for PAM Enterprise clients with poor internet connection speeds. Typically PAM EE clients have all their remote business units connected ‘live' to a head office server. Obviously this type of configuration requires good communication connections. PAM EE DD will enable remote users to operate the program in a standalone mode, but on shut down and start up and synchronization process between the remote computer and the head office server will be performed (in the background). This will mean the head office PAM EE server is kept up to date with the latest events out on the remote business units (stations or farms).
Next year Colin Booth and I will be spending some more time (than usual) in South Australia as we move towards the implementation of PAM AusVit around the world with one of the world's largest wine producers. Amongst all the various benefits of operating PAM AusVit, they are excited at the prospect of the software helping them to get an accurate picture of their costs of production at the block and job level.
In recent months we have noticed an increase in interest in our FarmStar precision farming module. Mikhail, our mapping developer, has been building some wonderful new features into FarmStar including the new interpolation methods: Kriging and a new Fairport “Optimised” (top secret) system which is very fast and every bit as clever as Kriging – especially on sparsely populated data like soil test results. We are also working towards a much closer data exchanging system with on board devices arrangement with Topcon (which used to be called KEE) and ongoing work and refinements with our data exchanging processes with john Deere. The aim is to have all these systems and more useful features in place well before the next season is upon us.
Fairport is now in its 21st year and will officially turn 21 in June next year. We are seriously grateful for all of you who have stood by us over this journey and look forward to striving to help you more and more in the future.
After 5 years of telephone support work, Edward Wiese has moved on. He's doing some bar work at present at “The Royal” in East Perth and hopes to go “North” early next year to get a job in the construction industry to save up for an overseas trip.
Meanwhile William Hey Tow (who is in Mauritius with his family as this newsletter goes to print) has picked up Edward's telephone support role while at the same time taking over the Pocket PC Pocket PAM programming and developing some in-house software for us. Before arriving here, William had some University holidays experience as a telephone support officer for a WA based internet service provider.
Mauritius is also the destination of Michael Barker and his wife (who is also Mauritian) and new baby girl for a short break in early January.
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| PocketPAM News |
In the past month we have finalized work on enhancing the Crop Scouting section of the Pocket PC gpsScout software. A much more user-friendly and useful method of data entry has been developed. PAM AusVit users in particular will find this a vast improvement on the former functionality. It is now much easier to create a lot of observations at the same location. Fairport would like to thank Peter Zadro of Saratoga Holdings (Australia's largest macadamia nut producer) for requesting the improvements and to HAL for funding these developments.
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| Management Zones in PAM |
Other developments funded by HAL and requested by Saratoga Holdings include special catering for post harvest silo management of the nuts and the concept of Management Zones for pest and disease monitoring and nutrient monitoring.
Saratoga have large macadamia orchards which many (10's) of macadamia varieties in each. These orchards are treated as one “paddock” in PAM. While PAM can cope with this style of crop layout, it was not managing it comfortably. As the orchards expand over a range of soil types and topological variation, it was decided that zones within ‘paddocks' would be a neat way to manage these special areas within areas. For Saratoga, the zones are primarily used for recording pest and disease populations and for monitoring soil nutrition. At this stage the enhancements in PAM to cater for these needs are released to Saratoga only, however we see a great opportunity to make them available to all users with PAM + Mapping and especially those of you with PAM + FarmStar and who are already using management zones for variable rate application of fertiliser.
The enhancements are as follows:
- New polygon area types called “Management Zones” are created and linked to paddocks.
- When pest and disease data or soil and tissue test data is entered, a Zone pick list is provided and Zones are displayed on the map for selection when areas are being selected using the Map.
- Map reports divide paddocks up into the zones.
If you are interested in seeing these enhancements or something similar in PAM QA+, PAM UltraCrop or PAM AusVit, please let us know.
[top]
| Colin's Column |
Well another action packed year has passed and next year looks like being another very busy one.
As Roger mentioned there has been quite a bit of work going on in the Farmstar area and I have been working closely with Mikhail and client testers fine tuning and debugging. We are part way through the total revamp and have released a version that has some of the new features that we have finished and tested. The best new features are still being finalised and should be out early in the New Year. These features will put Farmstar at the front of the pack in terms of its power and ease of use. I will be at the SPAA Precision Ag Expo in Keith on the 13th February and should have most of these features on display for those that will be attending. I am also hoping to be able to run some Farmstar training days in March at various locations around Australia. Let me know if you are interested in attending one of them.
I have also been working with Dr Roger Mandel from Curtin University who is designing some training courses for farmers to increase the understanding and uptake of Precision Agriculture. Roger is also doing some beta testing on the new features as he designs the training course, the feedback we have been getting from him and the people he is working with is that the new Farmstar in very powerful and intuitive.
Next year will see quite a few PAM Enterprise systems installed as well. Many of the organisations I have been talking to are planning to roll out the applications this year, most of them upgrading from single PAM systems spread over multiple properties to the centralised data that PAM Enterprise offers. They see the value of having all the information in one location and being able to do detailed reports across all the different Business Units. It saves money in time and makes money by being able to make good decisions in a timely manner.
I have enjoyed meeting many of our clients in the past and look forward to seeing more of you all next year at various Shows, Field Days, Expo's and training days.
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| Fairport Club & Support News |
As you know, Fairport Club membership entitles you to free software upgrades and telephone support via the Fairport toll free number (1800 500 195). You may not know that this Fairport Newsletter is available in PDF with funky graphics and cartoons, check it out: PDF Newsletter
Please note that the office will not be staffed on December 19 th or between December 24 th and January 2 nd . Registration/unlock requests received during this time will be dealt with at our earliest convenience. The telephones, including the 1800 support number, will only be checked part-time over this holiday period. Please leave a message or send us an email to receive support upon our return.
The office will be back to regular hours on Monday the 5 th of January. Please see the dealer news for alternative local support and unlocking.
[top]
| Dealer News |
We would like to take this opportunity to thank those who have supported Ag IT in 2008. It has been great to work with you and we certainly do hope that we have provided a worthwhile service to you all.
Fairport have great things lined up for the PAM software for 2009 and I am sure that you will be pleased with the improvements.
AG IT will be on light staff for the Christmas/New Year period but we will still be available. So if you need support, please leave a message or email us and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
All the best for 2009 and we look forward to hearing from you soon.
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[top]
A very Merry Christmas to all and Best Wishes for the coming New Year.
Our new contact details are:
Physical: 3 Calgary St, Southern River WA 6110
Mail: PO Box 4320, Canning Vale East WA 6155
Phone: 08 93988707
Fax: 08 93988705
Mobile: 0412360608
Email: don@boothtech.com.auThank you for your continued support.
Warmest Regards
Don Silva B App Science (Computing)
Booth Technology[top]
FarmTek Australia VIC - SA - TAS
We wish all our clients a great Christmas and happy harvest. Let's hope the New Year brings the return to some good seasons.
We will be attending the Wimmera Field Days at Horsham VIC in March with Paul Drendal from Drenko Business Support as well, for the first time attending the South East Fields at Lucindale SA in March with Greg Dearman from Farm Business Systems.
During both of these events we will be running some Farmstar Information days. Details will be announced closer to the events. There has been significant development with FARMSTAR for more information follow the link http://www.fairport.com.au/FarmStar/ .
We are planning a trip to Launceston, Tasmania in February to run some on-farm training. Please use the online training request to register your interest at:
http://www.fairport.com.au/forms/training.asp
Please contact me via email: Joanne@farmtek.com.au if you would like any further information on the specials or PAM training.
All the best for Christmas and I look forward to meeting with you in the New Year.
Joanne Richardson
FarmTek Australia
Ph 1300 553 446
Email: Joanne@farmtek.com.au[top]
| In Closing |
Season's Greetings to all our clients, business partners and associates from all of us at Fairport. We hope you all have a happy, safe and peaceful Christmas and that 2009 brings you great joy, prosperous times, and many terrific memories.
Australian Jingle Bells
Dashing through the bush,
in a rusty Holden Ute,
Kicking up the dust,
esky in the boot,
Kelpie by my side,
singing Christmas songs,
It's Summer time and I am in
my singlet, shorts and thongs
Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells,
jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia
on a scorching summer's day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Christmas time is beaut!
Oh what fun it is to ride
in a rusty Holden Ute.(Colin Buchanan)
Until March 2009… Farewell from the Fairport Team
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Copyright © 2008
FTI |