FarmWorks 2009 Software Features:
FarmWorks Software works hard to constantly update our software based on feedback we get from our
customers. FarmWorks users are encouraged to take advantage of these programming changes by
subscribing to the FarmWorks “Update Service Plan”. The Update Service Plan allows users to stay up
to date with all of the latest changes to the various programs and includes phone support to help with any
questions you may encounter. These changes are available to subscribers to this plan as the changes
are made. This guarantees that FarmWorks users always have access to the latest features including
access to the latest precision agricultural data and the latest government accounting forms and tax rates.
Update Service Plans are available on an affordable annual basis with an automatic renewal option
available.
Enhancements to All Software:
- Updated Manuals & Tutorials
- FarmWorks has updated detailed manuals that are included with all
updates. These include updated desktop and “Mate” manuals. These
manuals include step-by-step instructions on how to use each program.
- Enhancements in Farm Trac and Site Pro:
- Enhanced Weather Records –Farm Trac and Site Pro include a “Weather” tab where you
can add weather records to a field, a group of fields or all fields. This allows you to enter weather
information that does not relate to field records. Weather information includes Date, High
Temperature, Low Temperature, Precipitation and Humidity.
- Sort fields by crop when entering Jobs –When you enter a job/farming action, after you
click on the “Apply to Fields” button, you now have the option to select fields by crop or farm.
Using the “Sort by Crop” makes it easy to record farming actions/jobs that relate to a group of
fields with the same crop.
- Quick Notations –When manually adding a note to a field, there is a drop-down list for “Quick
Notations”. By using the add/edit option on the drop-down list, you can set up a list of commonly
used notations. This makes it much quicker to add these notations to a field. The program still
allows you to manually type in additional notes (as in previous versions).
- All Field Reports can be sorted by crop –When printing any field level report, there is now
an option to “Filter by Crop”. This allows you to select a crop and get a report that includes all the
fields that had that crop.
- Planned Jobs can now be exported in the FODM/XML format – Planned Jobs can now
be exported in the FODM/XML format and then imported for use in another project. This can
include a prescription map. This makes it easy to exchange planned maps between applicators
and consultants with Site Pro and growers with Farm Trac and Site (or vice versa).
- Support for Crop Insurance Units –You can now right-click on an enterprise in the tree-view
on the left and go to “Properties” and assign a Crop Insurance Unit. This information can be
printed via the “Custom Crop Summary Report”.
- New Supply Category for Manure – There is now a supply category for Manure. This
category can be selected when a new supply is set up. Alternately, you can change an existing
supply by right-clicking on it and selecting “Properties”.
- New Nitrate Vulnerable Zones Report – Fertilizers can now be assigned both an Organic
and Elemental value for Nitrogen. These rates are used on this new report.
- FODM/XML Export includes all supply properties – Jobs can be exported in the
FODM/XML file format. These files can be used to exchange job data between different software
installations. These files now include all supply properties. Which means a user can get a job
with a supply and have all of it’s properties including EPA chemical properties.
- Adding Equipment to an existing job results in recalculation of fuel used – When
you go to Job Properties and add a piece of equipment (that is fuelable), the program will compute
the fuel usage using any burn rate information.
- Ended Enterprise Before Harvest option – You can now right-click on an enterprise and
select Properties and select an option for “Ended Enterprise Before Harvest”. This option is used
when a field enterprise will not have a harvest.
- Enhancements in Farm Site and Site Pro:
- Labels & Text can be displayed at any angle –You can now select the “Text” tool and
right-click on any label or note and select “Custom Angle”. This let’s you enter any angle and the
label or text will be displayed at that angle. This is particularly useful for display labels on roads
and paths that are not horizontal or vertical.
- Support for Boundary Maps with Jobs –When “Reading Job Data” for John Deere,
Trimble, CNH and AutoFarm, there is an option to “Update Field Boundaries”. This will result in
boundaries being imported along with other data such as coverage or yield maps. Support for
other devices will be added in the future.
- Quick Identification of Newly Read Jobs – This feature makes it easy to find the job maps
that have just been imported. Newly read job data (such as yield, planting and soil test maps) will
now have a blue indicator in the “View” column. This indicator is designed to show that the job
maps have not been displayed/viewed. You can click on the header for the “View” column (in the
Job tab) to see all of these jobs at the top of the screen. Once you display a job map, the blue
indicator will be turned off.
- Batch Import and Export of Background Maps – You can now right-click in the tree-view
on the left and select an option to “Batch Export Background Maps”. This will allow you select any
number of background maps and export them as a single file. This file can then be imported by
another FarmWorks user to get the same background maps. This is particularly useful for
exchanging information between crop consultants with Site Pro and growers with Farm Site.
- Support for Ag Leader boundary (.iby) files –When you select “Write Job Data” and
choose the Ag Leader (.msf) file format, the program will create an .iby file for the Ag Leader
Insight. This file includes field boundaries from Farm Site/Site Pro so they will be displayed on the
Insight.
- Support for Precision Planting Data –Farm Site/Site Pro includes reading and writing
Precision Planting files.
- Support for Yara/N-Sensor data –Farm Site/Site Pro includes reading and writing Yara N-
Sensor files.
- Support for Case/New Holland Voyager II files –Farm Site/Site Pro includes reading and
writing Case/New Holland Voyager II files.
- Coordinates can be displayed using different coordinate systems –If you go to the
“File” menu and select “Measurements” there will be an option to select the Coordinate System
that will be used for displaying coordinates (in the status bar, labels, Register Location, and Info
tab)
- Drawing Tools allow manual entry of coordinates – This feature is useful with a
handheld GPS (such as those used for hunting and fishing). When you use a manual drawing
tool (such as when creating lines, polygons or points), you can hold down the “Ctrl” and “C” keys
on the keyboard. The program will then allow you to manually enter GPS coordinates. The
program will create the map from these coordinates.
- Skip Confirming Farm/Field Information –This option is now available in the Read Job
Data box. When the option is selected, the program will automatically set up any new fields that
are in the data. The fields will be created based on the name that was recorded in the device. If
there is a boundary with the job, the area for the boundary will be used for the field size (otherwise
the field size will be zero). This is a big time saver when you are reading data for fields that have
not been set up in FarmWorks or when you are reading data for a customer.
- Import Fields without tasks –When this option is selected in the “Read Job Data” box the
program will set up all fields (along with boundaries where applicable) for any field in the data
being imported. If the option is not selected, the program will only import fields (and boundaries)
for fields that have job data (such as yield maps).
- Expanded Buffer Tool –When you edit a field boundary or area layer there is a “Buffer Tool”.
With the Buffer Tool you will select any group of lines on the map. Next you will right-click on the
side of the line where you want the program to create a buffer. Then select “Buffer Polygon” and
enter a distance or area. The program will draw a second line parallel to the first line. This will
create a “buffer” based on the entered size. This line will be in the direction of the area/polygon
where you right-clicked (new).
- Expanded support of exporting Google Earth (.kml) files –Farm Site and Site Pro can
now export any boundary or background map as a .kml file that can be loaded into Google Earth.
- Fields can be setup with zero acres –If you are reading in job data (such as a yield map)
for a customer where you do not know the field size, you can leave the size at zero. This speeds
up the process of reading job data for new fields.
- Exporting Enterprise Boundaries –Farm Site/Site Pro allows you to have different
boundaries each year that relate to where a crop was planted. If you go to the “Attributes” area of
the Map tab, you can select any year (for Enterprises) and right-click and select “Export
Boundaries”. This will allow you to export the boundaries for that year.
- Selection of map from legend –You can now double click on any part of the legend (in the
Map tab) to select areas of the map that have the attribute (from the legend). When you are
working with the boundary layer, you can click on a crop from the legend to select all fields with
that crop. For a yield map, you can click on a range on the legend to select all points that fall
within that range. When you switch to the “Information” tab, you can see information for the
selected points or areas.
- Updated Legend for Line/Path Layers – The Edit Legend box for Line/Path Layers has an
option for Range Count that will result in the total length of the lines in each category being
displayed on the legend. This is very useful for Tile maps.
- Yield Reconciliation –You can now manually enter a total yield (using values from scale
tickets or another source) for a yield map. You will do this by right-clicking on the Job and
selecting “Properties” and entering the values (note that the Scale Ticket button can be used to
enter scale tickets). When you save this information, the program will ask if you “Want to
reconcile the map”. If you say yes, the yield map will be updated so that it reflects the updated
yield amounts. The yield map will maintain the original yield data as well as the newly reconciled
yield data as separate attributes.
- New Information Tab features for Boundary Layer – You can select a group of fields on
the boundary layer and go to the Information Tab and get the Minimum, Maximum, Average and
Total Acres (showing the Mapped, Legal and Tillable acres).
- Expanded Print Map Settings – When you print a map, the program will now default all
settings (such as Layout, Area, Scale and Title settings) to what was previously used.
- Display Options no longer default to showing label descriptions – When adding
labels to a map, the program will default to not showing the label description. Label Descriptions
can be added via the Display Options box.
- Enhancements in Farm Funds:
- Expanded Budget Comparison Report – Budgets will now include comparisons to actual
cash flows for Revenue, Expenses, Asset Purchases, Asset Sales, New Debt, Debt Repayment
and Family Living.
- Cash Flows Statement – Farm Funds now includes a “Cash Flows Statement” that reflects all
cash uses and sources (including Revenue, Expenses, Asset Purchases, Asset Sales, New Debt,
Debt Repayment and Family Living).
- Updated Bill Landlord's box - This box now has an option to "Increase Supply Cost by %"
using a different % for each supply.
- Updated Show Me – The Show Me option that is used in areas such as Other Expenses, Other
Income and Enterprise Allocation now lists years with the most recent year first.
- Updated Vendor Listing in Account Register – The Account Register will no longer list
retired vendors
- Check Memos no longer include “Purchase” – The memo that prints on a check will not
include “Purchase” if the description is blank.
- Bank Reconciliation automatically defaults date – The Bank Reconciliation will now
automatically default the date to a month after the previous reconciliation.
- New option to not print memo’s on checks – The Check Setup box now has an option to
“Never print memos on checks”.
- Enhancements in Site Mate (coming soon):
- Integration with Loup/RDS Yield Monitor – The Loup and RDS Yield Monitors will now
work with Site Mate VRA. Simply hook a GPS receiver and a Loup/RDS Yield Monitor up to a
computer with Site Mate and it will display a color yield map (on-the-go) while logging all data.
This can be used in conjunction with Trac Mate to get harvest field records that are associated
with a yield map.
- New Site Mate Interface – FarmWorks is creating a new “fat finger” interface for Site Mate
which will make it easier to navigate through the program. It will also make it possible to utilize
even more screen area for a map.
- Easier Synchronization – FarmWorks is streamlining the collection and synchronization of
Site Mate data with Farm Site and Site Pro. If you make boundary, soil sampling or scouting
maps (as well as other types of maps), Farm Site Mate will allow you to associate these maps
with a Farm/Field/Crop and Job Type. When you synchronize this data with Farm Site/Site Pro, it
will automatically go to the desired location.
- Support for the new EM38 MK2 – Site Mate VRA can now log data from the newer EM38
units that output the EM38 MK2 data format.
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