Ag Leader Technology Blog

I’m excited to announce the release of SMS Basic/Advanced Version 11.5 and SMS Mobile Version 5.5 Software today. The software updates include many enhancements and new features to ensure that it works with the market’s latest display firmware, make the software more user-friendly, and the ability to add new layers of information to your data collection.

Earlier this year, we introduced you to several members of the Ag Leader Software Support team (see Part 1 and Part 2 of this series). Today, meet two more members of our team that you may be speaking with when calling Ag Leader.
Adam Walters
Adam started with Ag Leader in May of 2011 as a full-time [...]

With fall upon us, another management decision that may be on your list is whether you are going to soil sample your fields. Soil sampling your fields can help you do several things. The first item that comes to people’s mind is the ability to create variable rate prescriptions based off of the lab results you receive after sampling. Another benefit to soil sampling that may not be quite as obvious is that this provides an extra layer of data for analysis. For example, you can overlay a grain harvest map with a soil sampling map and then compare the soil test value for high and low yielding areas. How much yield difference do you notice between areas that have different soil test results?

As many of us prepare for harvest, the list of tasks seem to increase, ranging from lining up workers, vehicle maintenance, grain handling system maintenance, and… oh yeah, setting up your precision ag equipment! Your precision ag desktop software can be used to export things like Field and Product Names, Boundaries, Guidance Lines, Prescriptions, Crop [...]

We are always looking for ways to offer more SMS trainings in different locations, during varying seasons and even in different training environments. In addition to the classroom and online trainings we’ve been offering for several years, in July we started offering a free Introduction to SMS Webinar. We’ve had great turnouts for these sessions and are proud to announce that starting in September we will begin offering Introduction to SMS Advanced and SMS Mobile Webinars.

On August 9th and 10th, we hosted our first SMS Certified II Training Session at Ag Leader Academy.  We’ve been offering the SMS Certified I class for several years, but with the constant advances in the precision ag industry we recognize the need to provide ongoing education.
The SMS Certified II course focused on the tools [...]

In one of Aaron’s more recent posts, he talked about the value of crop scouting. Scouting your crop will help you identity problem spots in your fields and help you decide if any action should or can be taken to address those areas.  Documenting information collected during scouting will help you after harvest to evaluate why [...]

There is a wealth of knowledge that can be gained from the data you are collecting in the field.   Questions can range from the simple questions of “How many acres did I plant of each hybrid? or “What days was I in the field planting?”, to the more complex ones of “How much of a [...]

Everyone has questions about something and hopefully you have someone to ask or someplace to look to find answers to those questions. We have doctors and nurses for medical questions, agronomists for crop questions, religious leaders for questions on faith, and newspapers and TV for information about current events. What about when it comes to questions about your SMS Software?

Last week, I introduced you to some of our Software Support staff. If you are calling in with questions regarding your SMS Advanced or Mobile Software, you will likely be speaking to one of our full-time support staff members dedicated to our software product line. Today, meet Jessica Ahrens, Luke James and Ethan Smidt.

As Mark Irvin said when he started introducing our readers to the Customer Support staff, it is always nice to know a little about the people you’re speaking with when you call Ag Leader’s Customer Support line. If you are calling in with questions regarding your SMS Advanced or Mobile Software, you will likely be speaking [...]

We are excited to announce the release of SMS Basic/Advanced Version 11.0 and SMS Mobile Version 5.0 Software today. The software updates include many enhancements and new features to ensure that it works with the latest display firmware for several companies, make the software more user-friendly and improve the overall operation. To learn more about these enhancements, please watch the video below.

Farming is full of checklists and tasks to do for the day, week, month or year.  Feed the dog, clean the livestock buildings, clean up equipment before putting it away for the year, fix equipment you’re getting ready to use for the next season, and the list goes on.  Among all of the other items, [...]

As harvest wraps up and you start to read in your yield data, you might also take some time to record some of the other things that you saw while you were out in the field.  This year I’ve seen several soybean fields with SDS (Sudden Death Syndrome), corn fields that lacked nitrogen, fields that had been flooded, and even a few that had some lodging due to winds that we had last week.  Whatever the case may be for your particular farm, you have the ability to add additional documentation in SMS about these areas for future reference.

The fall release of SMS software – SMS Basic/Advanced Version 10.5 and SMS Mobile Version 4.5 – is here!
Before updating your SMS Basic/Advanced software, please remember to make a backup of your software by going to the Services menu and selecting Backup.  After creating the backup, I recommend burning it to a CD/DVD or copying [...]

A couple weeks ago Aaron talked about using SMS Mobile for some extracurricular activities such as hunting, fishing and even golfing.  Before the crop scouting season finishes up and soil sampling starts again, I wanted to talk about how to use the navigation features in SMS Mobile.
In all five operating modes (Boundary, Soil Sampling, Crop [...]

SMS Software offers a great way to organize and manage all of your precision farming data. However, with all of the capabilities and functions offered by SMS Software, you may have some questions about what you can do with your software and how to do it. That’s why Ag Leader offers SMS Trainings – to [...]

In the age of computers and the internet, we have become accustomed to finding out information quickly and easily.  On top of that, computers are becoming faster and have become more affordable for a business or farming operation to purchase.  As your business grows and more people become involved, one of the items you increasingly [...]

Welcome back!  As promised, here are the additional items to consider when purchasing a new computer for use with your precision ag software.  In case you missed the first part of this list, click here.
p>Monitor and Screen Resolution:
SMS Basic/Advanced requires at least a 15” monitor with the ability to display a 1024 x 768 screen [...]

A common question we get on the Support line in regards to setting up and running SMS Basic/Advanced is “what kind of computer should I get?”  With that said, I thought I would outline some key items to consider on your next computer purchase that you’re using to run precision ag software.
Operating System:
Like most other [...]