Yes… welcome to our March Newsletter. We especially welcome those who are
receiving their first Fairport News. The Fairport News has been a regular
quarterly for many years. At least ten… Fairport celebrates its 15th
year in business this year. A lot of water under the bridge!
The Fairport
staff welcomed the opportunity to have the Christmas period off – apologies
to any of you who were inconvenienced by that.
John Wan, who
has been with us for a few years on a part time basis, joined us on a full
time basis at the start of this year. John graduated from
Curtin
University in WA with
honours last year and is working on various development projects.
Three very
short months have past since the last Fairport News. After our short Christmas
break we came back to our new office thinking that perhaps we were in for
a quiet few months with the severe drought conditions gripping the vast percentage
of the country… How wrong we were!
As you will
read in this newsletter, the team has achieved a lot in this short time. You
will read that PAM has some new friends… Let’s start with “DES”
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DES is Fairport’s solution for those of you who want a light weight data entry
system for your PAM cropping data. DES imports data from PAM (just like PocketPAM)
and enables you to enter all your Paddock Activities.
We have made
it especially simple and have used large text and big buttons so you can operate
it with your “elbow”! We were thinking of those people with guidance systems
and controllers in the cabs of their spreader trucks, spray rigs and the like.
DES is FREE
to Fairport Club Members (under most circumstances). You can run DES on any
number of computers. Like PocketPAM, your DES data will merge into the PAM
data via a special desktop application called DES Data Transfer Utilities.
For more information, please check our web site.
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Field REX –
Another PocketPAM program for your handheld computer. Field REX is designed
especially for consultants to perform paddock inspections and then paddock
recommendations while in the field. It can even print the recommendation form
straight out of the handheld computer to a mobile printer using the Infrared
or Bluetooth or Serial Cable communication systems.
For a list
of Palm mobile printers supported by Field REX check out our web site.
To set up lists
for Field REX you need to be a PAM QA+ MultiClient user and you can have as
many clients loaded into Field REX as you like.
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The same functionality exists in the new PAM MultiClient version. Recommendations
can be set up in PAM and printed on to formal recommendation reports. They
can also be transferred to Field REX and printed “on site” at the client’s
farm.
Similarly,
if the recommendations are created in Field REX they can be transferred back
to PAM MultiClient, printed as formal recommendations and even transferred
to a standard (client’s) PAM QA+ system… In the latest version of PAM QA+
you can view the recommendations in a new section on your Paddock Activities
Diary and Paddock Year screens.
Recommendations in PAM
can be “Applied” as actual records. That means the recommended task (imported
from the consultant’s MultiClient system) will pop up in your PAM edit window
for you to insert the actual job data and to make any adjustments to the original
advice. The recommendation record will always remain in the system so you
can reflect on it at any time. You may also re-apply any recommendation. For
example, if a recommendation for a spraying job on a wheat crop was made for
one paddock, you can apply that to any other paddock at any other time in
the future.
Another useful
feature in both PAM’s recommendations system and in Field REX is the notes
template system. Advisers can set up standard recommendation notes and save
them with a recognisable name. Thereafter, any time you want to add those
notes to a recommendation, you simply select the name from a pick list. Multiple
notes templates can be used in the one recommendation.
For more information
and a pre-view of the Field REX (handheld) screens, visit our web site.
REX comes FREE
with the PocketPAM suite of products
for PAM QA+ MutliClient users.
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Finally we have job planning in PAM! Data can be entered in PAM and job plan
reports can be generated. Other reports include a spray order form.
PAM’s plans
can be transferred to PocketPAM. Staff can simply convert those plans to actuals
as the planned events are done. These records will then be transferred back
to PAM and the original plans in PAM will be updated to actuals. DES also
has the same plans to actuals conversion functionality.
Furthermore,
plans made in PocketPAM or DES that are not converted to actuals in the mobile
device are transferred back into PAM as plans… This means that the “boss”
can prepare jobs for his staff on his PocketPAM or DES platform.
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For those who are keen to use PAM as a year or season or crop planning system
we have moved budgeting from its original place (under the Utilities menu)
on to the main tool bar and Data Entry menu. This means that budgeting is
now fully integrated into the main PAM system. Here are some of the features:
· Budgets are set up for
a user defined span of time and you can choose to enter the events on a weekly
or monthly basis.
· Budgeted events can be
converted to actuals as the season unfolds. Of course you will be asked to
give an accurate date for the actual events and you will have the chance to
edit or change any information.
· Budgeted events that are
converted to actuals remain in your budget – so end of season comparisons
can be performed.
· Strategies from past years
can be copied into your budget.
·
There are special new
budget reports to help your whole farm planning and ordering of requirements.
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In response to requests from our Department of Agriculture clients in several
Australian states, we have produced a special new capability in PAM – which
is available on request at a small cost.
On research stations,
work is often categorised into projects. Our new program allows you to report
on the costs associated with specific projects. When using this facility,
the user is asked to choose the project when entering data. That is, each event recorded in PAM is
assigned to a project. At the end of the season, total costs of all farm inputs
for specific projects can be generated. If this functionality interests your
organisation, please contact us or one of our distributors.
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I had the honour of addressing the GRDC advisers update at Dubbo on issues
relating to precision farming. It seems the interest in this subject is rising
again.
I spent an
interesting day in Toowoomba with the Ag-Data crew, discussing the interface
between PAM and Phoenix.
Our excellent
team of distributors working across Australia and internationally
has been very active.
Again, Senwes
in South Africa have been very active
selling plenty of FarmStar programs into the maize growers in the
Free State and
North West Province. We recently
appointed them our exclusive South African distributors. They promise big
things for the rest of the year.
Christo Helm and Bernard
Muller paid us a visit in February for some training, to meet the Fairport
staff and for a general catch up on our developments… and of course their
list of wanted features! .
After they
left us they toured Australia with the team
from KEE Technology visiting centres from Katanning to Dubbo and Birchip to
Roseworthy and a host of places in between. As it was Bernard’s first trip
to Australia, he was fortunate
to see a lot more of Australia than most
Australians get to see in a lifetime.
The team here
continues to pump out lots of quality work for both Fairport and for our contract
clients. Darren and Laurie spend much of their time enhancing and refining
the LIS (Livestock Information System) and LSB (Livestock Budgeting) software
for Australian Agricultural Company. Laurie recently flew to
Brisbane for very fruitful
meetings with the AACo crew.
BRL Hardy Wines
will soon take delivery of their requested developments for the viticultural
specific version of PAM Ultracrop. They included a special payroll data entry
section and yield estimation facilities.
Other work
in progress includes some interfacing with Farmscan’s controller products,
development work for an agromony consultancy in Queensland, hand held
mapping systems for both Palm and Pocket PC and interfacing with Ag-Data’s
Phoenix.
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PAM UltraCrop
Serve- Ag Pty Ltd
Serve-Ag
has recently launched its new web site. www.serve-ag.com.au
Here
comprehensive information on PAM UltraCrop can be found, such
as:
-
Product Information and Pricing
-
Support & Training
-
PAM UltraCrop Upgrades for Support Members.
-
PAM UltraCrop Demonstration Software
-
Information on Local Distributors
Regional
PAM UltraCrop Workshops will be conducted throughout Tasmania
in
the months of April & May. If you are interested in participating in
one
of these Farmbis subsidised workshops, please register your interest
with
Tim Woolley on 03 6427 0800.
www.serve-ag.com.au
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Until June
…
