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Fairport News

Historical FTI news articles and PRESS RELEASES
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June 2005

IN THIS ISSUE

» Welcome
» Rogers Ramblings
» PAM Enterprise News
» PocketPAM News
» Dealer News
    » Booth Technology
    » FarmTek Australia
    » DrenKo
    » Agbis
» In Closing

Another year half gone! Another very busy six months for the Fairport Team. Welcome to all our new clients and welcome back to all our old clients.
In the last Fairport news we hoped you were in for a good winter. As far as Australia is concerned, little did we know how diametrically opposed the weather would become. Western Australia is enjoying its wettest start in 40 years while the eastern half of the continent has had a disastrous start to winter. Thankfully the rain managed to reach across the land in early June and there are some brighter signs ahead for the whole of Australia.

The Fairport Team is very proud to announce that PAM QA Plus Enterprise Edition was recently chosen as the farm management software solution for Landcorp Farming Limited. Landcorp Farming Limited (www.landcorp.co.nz) is a corporate agribusiness and New Zealand's largest farmer with over 1.5 million stock units of beef cattle, sheep, deer, goats and dairy cows. They operate throughout both the North and South Islands of New Zealand. As a result of this I have had cause to travel to Wellington New Zealand three times in the past 2 months and there are at least two more trips ahead for me and other Fairport team members during July. Fairport has been ably supported by Gavin McEwen of Xenacom in Hamilton NZ in securing this deal. Earlier in the year Gavin flew to Perth (where he once worked as CountrySoft’s National Marketing Manager 1989 – 1991) where we prepared the demonstration data set for the 2 day PAM demonstration in early April which clinched the deal.

In mid-April Laurie Smithdale (Fairport’s Senior Software Engineer) and I flew to Adelaide for a day and drove with Vincent Ball to Nuriootpa to meet Vic Patrick, Grant Yates, Brett Monten and Trina Coxon of Beringer Blass Wines (now Foster’s Wine Estates). Fosters are rolling out the PAM AusVit Enterprise Edition software to their Australia, New Zealand and USA vineyards aver the next two years. Grant recently returned from California where he set up two of the Beringer vineyards with PAM AusVit to get them familiar with the system. We are very excited about working with Fosters over the next few years to help them make the process of rolling out PAM Enterprise as smooth as possible.

In the first week of June I was invited to speak at and attended the CRC for Viticulture Symposium at Mildura by CEO Jim Hardie. This was a great opportunity to catch up with some PAM AusVit clients and some industry leaders. I also saw first hand how dry the east side of Australia was looking.

Serve-Ag (recently known as ARM – Agricultural Resource Management) have acted as Fairport’s Australian national distributor of our PAM Ultracrop and PAM AusVit horticulture and viticulture suites of software for six years. Regrettably they have decided to withdraw from that role as of July 1st 2005. Mick Lehman has led the ARM team for the whole duration and has been ably assisted by Tim Woolley and more recently by Vincent Ball. ARM will remain as the Fairport distributor for Tasmania. Due to Vincent’s excellent credentials and background (21 years in IT and a graduate diploma in Viticulture), we will take over his employment and keep him based in Adelaide as our PAM AusVit and PAM Ultracrop specialist. Vincent will also be available for PAM training courses for PAM QA Plus clients.

The second half of this year will see many new features begin added to PAM versions in both the cropping and livestock sections. We anticipate a solid six months of PAM enhancement.

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The Fairport Team has worked tirelessly this year on PAM Enterprise to make changes requested by some of the early adopters.

We are pleased to announce that Pacific Seeds of Toowoomba have now installed PAM QA Plus Enterprise and we are in the process of migrating their old PAM QA plus data so they can get it up and running as soon as possible. Likewise Fosters Wines Estates have installed the PAM AusVit EE system and are up and running.

Syngenta have a PAM QA Plus Enterprise system installed and hosted in our South Perth offices to house farmer’s PAM data for special Quality Assurance projects. During 2004 a very successful pilot malting barley QA project was carried out for Barrett Burston Malting of Melbourne. Barrett Burston are keen to grow this system and if the drought ever breaks well enough for farmers in Victoria and New South Wales we are expecting big things this year.

The PAM Enterprise versions operate with the Microsoft SQL Server database system and allow for much larger data sets, centralised and combined datasets and virtually unlimited concurrent users.
Enterprise options and pricing are available upon request from Fairport.


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We are now within a few weeks of releasing the all new, eagerly awaited new PocketPAM desktop Utilities software. This will greatly speed up the synchronisation process of the Pocket PC systems and allow synchronisation of data via the Internet for PAM Enterprise users.
The new software features enhanced fail-safe facilities. Archive files of all data sets that are transferred are kept in case they need to be re-submitted to PAM. A comprehensive log of transfer activities is also kept as an audit trail to enable better technical support.

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Booth Technology WA
Booth Technology are running PAM workshops at our Perth Office every 3rd week of the month so why not get up to speed with using your program.
Stephen and Chris have also been busy doing one on one training on farm throughout the state.
The Dowerin Field Day site this year is the same as previous years – No 36 on the oval, call in and find out what the latest is in Agricultural Management Solutions is.
Remember anyone wanting training either on farm or at our offices in Perth please contact Chris, Stephen or Colin on 9383 4443

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FarmTek Australia VIC
Well what a busy finish to the financial year. With the late rains we had plenty of time to squeeze in some extra training courses.

We are still continuing to schedule Fairport Training. The following venues have been confirmed:
Moree NSW – July 25-26
Emeral QLD – August 3-4
In the pipeline
Cootamundra NSW – August
Mansfield VIC – September

To register interest for a training session in your area use the online form at www.farmtek.com.au or www.fairport.com.au This will assist us in scheduling training in your area.

September will see the start of the field day season. We will be at:
Henty Machinery Field Days 21-23 September
Yorke Peninsula Field Days 27-29 September.

So please drop in and say hello.
.
Joanne Richardson
FarmTek Australia
~ 1300 553 446
www.farmtek.com.au

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DrenKo Victoria

Get the most out of your PAM software

Do you need help to gain the knowledge and skills required to unlock everything that this powerful farm management software can do? We understand your farming business and what type of management information you need to get, to make critical decisions. With extensive experience in primary production, business software solutions and workplace training & assessment, we will be able to give you the technical edge that will help you get on top of your information systems.

PAM Classroom Training – Learning how the program works

Our range of classroom courses, from 3 hours to 2 days (12 hours), allows you the comfort of learning PAM in the best possible way – personal and structured, not self paced. The courses are designed to be ‘hands on’, where participants are guided through using PAM in a realistic farm business situation; from set up, through to entering data for a season and end of year reporting.

Our courses are suitable for all people working in any farming business that uses PAM. Our class sizes are small, guaranteeing personal attention to each student, which means queries relating to individual businesses are usually able to be discussed and addressed. Comprehensive course manuals are provided which you will find a useful reference tool, after training has been completed. Over the page you will find our course contents.

Please select the course that best suits your diary from our “Course Dates” schedule, then fill in and fax your Registration Form to reserve your place(s).

PAM Business Solutions and Support

A range of solutions can be provided, from initial set up and configuration of the program, through to management reporting, data integrity checking, and even data entry services for those that would prefer to stay out in the field, rather than in the office. Support plans can include periodic on site visits, and various levels of telephone support.

Course Dates & Costs
Farm Management with PAM (Cropping) 2 Days (12 hours) $440.00 (GST Inc)
Horsham Jul 25 + Jul 26
Horsham Aug 22 + Aug 23
Horsham Sep 27 + Sep 28

Farm Management with PAM (Livestock) 1 Day (8 hours) $275.00 (GST Inc)
Dates & locations to be announced…….

Farm Management with PAM (Mapping) 1/2 Day (4 hours) $165.00 (GST Inc)
Dates & locations to be announced…….

Farm Management with PAM (Pocket Pam) (3 hours) $132.00 (GST inc) Dates & locations to be announced…….

Eligible participants will be entitled to a 50% FarmBis Subsidy

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Agbis NSW & QLD

It’s RAINING……..as I am putting this newsletter together and hopefully by the time our PAM clients receive it, it will still be raining in most regions throughout New South Wales and Queensland. Agbis has had a busy three months assisting with training of new and old PAM clients, keeping our Agents up-to-date with any upgrades or changes and of course Sales.

Joanne from FARMTEK in Victoria will also be offering PAM Training in Moree and Emerald. Following are dates and an outline of what will be offered.

Moree
Monday 25 July 2005 PAM QA Plus Training
Tuesday 26 July 2005 Mapping training ½ day
(run through of FarmStar between 12:30 – 2pm) for those who are interested

Emerald
Wednesday 3 Aug 2005 PAM QA Plus Training
Thursday 4 Aug 2005 Mapping training ½ day
(run through of FarmStar between 12:30 – 2pm) for those who are interested

If you would like to attend, please contact Joanne Richardson, Farmtek Australia, Mobile: 0429 930 770
Office: 1300 553 446 for a Registraion Form.

Our Agents throughout New South Wales and Queensland can assist with any PAM queries or problems – listed below are there contact details:

Orana Region Communications is located in Dubbo, NSW
Brett McCarthy can be contacted on 0418 840 000 Email orcomms@bigpond.com
James Niemeyer can be contacted on 0428 856 555 Email nims@aapt.net.au

John and Lisa Minogue are located at Barmedman in Southern NSW
John and Lisa can be contacted on 02 6976 3023 or 0428 763 023
Emailto: office@agandgeneralconsulting.com.au

Dorothy Barton and her team at Leading Edge in Griffith, NSW
Dorothy can be contacted on 02 6964 1611 Emailto: admin@clickstartit.com.au

Andrew Rice of Ivey ATP is located in Parkes, NSW
Andrew can be contacted on 02 6845 1611 Emailto: andrew@iveyatp.com

Sarah Hall located in Toowoomba QLD
Sarah can be contacted on 0417 620 611 Emailto: sarah@agbis.com

Graham Spackman, Ed Windley and Kylie Borchardt of Spackman Mackay Consulting P/L, located in Emerald, QLD
They can be contacted on – Office: 07 4982 0958 Graham Spackman – 0407 156 306
Ed Windley – 0418 820 958 Emailto: spackman@tpg.com.au

Lucy House located in Rockhampton, QLD
Lucy can be contacted on 0428 876 364 Emailto: lucy@agbis.com

Mick Alexander located in Yeppon, QLD
Mick can be contacted on 0438 395 255 Emailto: malexander@rcs.au.com

Tony Crowley located in far North Queensland at Walkerston.
Tony can be contacted on 0409 475 317 Emailto: tcrowley@mcs.net.au

And of course Matt Meehan can be contacted on 0407 729 936 or 02 6772 9200 or our visit Website www.agbis.com.au

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The Fairport Team wishes all our clients well for the winter
Until June 2005 … Farewell from Roger Wiese and the Fairport Team