During this two-day training, I was humbly reminded of the tremendous time and effort it takes to teach a college level precision technology course. Teaching students to understand technology while simultaneously helping them to look beyond features and understand real-life uses is a difficult task. For that, we thank these educators who work towards this end.

This training was beneficial for everyone. With a wide range of educators who are focused on teaching technology, we were all able to gain a better perspective of the purposes of technology in the classroom.

The educators also shared many stories about their students, who become a crucial part of helping technology grow in agriculture. We talked about the many possibilities this education holds for their students’ future careers: agronomists using precision technology, dealers selling precision technology, managers at technology companies, sales representatives or farmers using the technology.

In all five operating modes (Boundary, Soil Sampling, Crop Scouting, Coverage Logging and General Logging) found in SMS Mobile as well as the Dataset Viewer (which allows you to view information without accidently modifying the data), you can navigate to a manually entered location or object.  Either select the icons in the toolbar along the bottom or go to Menu – General and choose Navigate to Manual Location or Navigate to Mapped Layer Objects.  These tools allow you to navigate to desired points to perform needed tasks, such as fix tile line, pick up rocks, etc.

For those of you looking for easy ways to find the latitude and longitude of a location without actually walking to it, you can get them from resources like Google Maps.  Using SMS Mobile, as you drive toward the point, you will be told items such as direction to travel, time until arrival based on current speed and distance to point.

Soil Sampling Mode and Crop Scouting Mode each have their own specific navigation tools as well, Take Samples and Start Scouting, respectively; both of which can be found on the toolbar or under the Menu list.  When using Take Samples or Start Scouting you have the ability to drop new sample points/scouting zones for areas of the field that you decide that you want to take samples/scout but hadn’t anticipated earlier.  In addition to that, you will automatically be prompted to fill in values for these GPS locations, such as Sample ID for Soil Sampling or items like number of pests in a location and plant population for Crop Scouting.

In more recent versions of SMS Mobile, we’ve implemented Navigation View. Navigation View allows you to easily see the direction needed to travel in order to drive to a selected location.  Once you arrive at the selected location/object, the screen will change and tell you to stop driving.

Navigation View: Starting navigation to desired point.

Navigation View: 253.5 feet away from desired location.

Navigation View: Stop! Arrived at desired location.

For those of you that are interested in using the Navigation View on a larger screen, you will have the option to use SMS Mobile PC this fall.  The new installation option allows you to install SMS Mobile on a portable computer running a desktop operating system.

Ag Leader recently announced several additional full-day trainings throughout the month of August. Trainings are held in Ames, IA and other locations in the Midwest. All of these trainings will help you better understand your SMS software and explain how to get answers out of the data you collect. Trainings are conducted by Ag Leader’s SMS Software Support team and can help you better understand your software and answer any questions you may have. In addition to the full-day training sessions, web-based trainings are available throughout the year.

If you’re interested in attending an SMS training, you can view the training schedule here. To register, call 515-232-5363 ext. 1. The class size for SMS trainings is limited, so call today and plan to attend a training to help you get the most out of your SMS Software.

I told you that story to exemplify how one person who knows the area, and is used to certain landmarks, can forget that others may need a more precise description.  The tree I was given directions to had fallen down the previous winter.  However, if he had showed me on a satellite image of the field and surrounding roads and landmarks, I would have seen there was an acreage across the road from where he wanted to refill.  Recently, at the same coop, they have started giving a $1 off per acre of the application charge if the grower provides a map with a boundary and satellite image of the field.  Hmm…do you suppose more trees have fallen down in recent years? :)

Below is a video that walks you through downloading satellite imagery automatically for your fields within SMS.  There is a wide range of uses for them, and their benefits are virtually endless.

One of the ways to get around this is to setup a computer network at your place of business.  This allows you to link multiple computers so they can easily share information and at the same time do it securely.  A simplified example might be a checklist for each employee that anyone can access from any computer on the network.

Projects in SMS Advanced software. Click to enlarge image.

One of the features of SMS Advanced is the ability to use computer networks to share information between different computers.  Many service providers (i.e. co-ops, consultants) that use SMS Advanced will set up a server as a data storage location.  They will then install SMS Advanced on each person’s computer who needs access to the data.  SMS Advanced has the ability to create multiple Projects (think of it like a folder for your filing cabinet) to keep each customer’s information separate.  While only one person can be in a particular Project at a time, once they close the Project, anyone else who looks at that information will be able to automatically see all of the updates and changes the previous person made.

Another feature of SMS Advanced is Project Check In/Check Out, which can be found by going to File - Projects.  This allows you to copy the information from the server to a laptop or a local computer in your office.  This allows users to download Projects to their remote computer and take information to the field to read in new files and make additional changes.  While a Project is checked out, others on the network will not be able to access it.  Once the Project is checked back in, other users will be able to see new information that was read in or any changes that were made.

Curious about networks?  Let us know if you have additional questions.

SMS Support Specialist dual monitor setup.

Monitor and Screen Resolution:

SMS Basic/Advanced requires at least a 15” monitor with the ability to display a 1024 x 768 screen resolution or higher.  Monitors purchased over the last couple years should have no problem meeting this requirement.

If you spend a lot of time analyzing data in your precision ag software or just want more viewing area, I would suggest updating your screen to a 17” screen or larger with full HD 1080P or higher resolution.  For those of you that like to multi-task, you might even consider getting a computer that supports working with dual displays. I’m currently using dual 22” wide-screen monitors at work to do support and testing and I like it much more than the 15” laptop screen that I use at home.

CD/DVD/Blu-ray Burner:

As with any record keeping system, it’s important to make backups of your information. Your precision farming information should not be treated differently.  Burning backups to a CD (up to 700 MB) or DVD (up to 8.5 GB) is a very cheap way to ensure your data’s safety.  For those of you that need more capacity, consider purchasing a Blu-ray burner (up to 50GB).  Making a backup of your precision ag software data and saving it to your computer’s hard-drive is simply not enough.  I’ve heard of hard-drives crashing, computers getting viruses, basement offices flooding, laptops being stepped on, and even where a computer was thrown half-way across the room!!  You depend so much on the information that you’ve spent time collecting in the field, organizing and analyzing it – it would be a shame to have to redo it or worse, lose it altogether.

Card Reader:

Card readers are what you use to transfer the data from many precision ag displays into your precision farming desktop software.  If you have an Ag Leader Edge display, you will need a card reader that can read Compact Flash (CF) cards.  If you are running an Ag Leader INTEGRA display, you do not need a card reader as the INTERA uses a USB stick which can be inserted into any empty USB port on your computer.

Additional add-on’s worth considering:

• Bluetooth module
• Built-in WiFi card – b/g/n support
• Gigabit Ethernet connection/card

Hopefully you now feel more informed before purchasing your next computer.  If you have additional questions on computers, I would recommend working with your computer provider to find out more about the different options that you have.  Good luck!