Ag Leader Technology Blog

This video tutorial helps users become familiar with the layout of the SMS Mobile software at startup and see how multiple layers can be set up as references in the field, as well as how to use the tools in the software.

This video tutorial helps users become familiar with the layout of the SMS Mobile software at startup and see how multiple layers can be set up as references in the field, as well as how to use the tools in the software.

Reflecting is a good exercise, so I wanted to start the New Year recapping the new products and features that Ag Leader introduced. As I began to do so, I found myself asking the question, “why do we do what we do?” This made me realize that just as important as what we’ve done is why [...]

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, [...]

Now that the crops are out of the field and fall field work is beginning, it is time for those fortunate enough to have a problem with excess moisture to get in the field and start repairing and laying new tile.  For those of you who have tiled fields in the past, you can likely [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I don’t know about your farm shop, but our shop is in dire need of some organization and cleaning. We have spent the last three months doing everything we can do to keep the planter, strip-till machine, sprayer, semis, trucks, tractors and numerous trailers operating with seed, fertilizer and chemicals. The shop area is vitally [...]

When we were developing SMS Mobile several years ago, we had three main goals in mind.
Ÿ         Make it useful.

Ÿ         Make it easy.
Ÿ         Make it take a few strokes off my golf game.
Well, two of the three goals were implemented more during the development stages than the later, but since the product has been released, we [...]

A common question we get asked is what type of computer hardware do I need to have to use SMS Basic or Advanced, but very seldom do we get asked about the operating system (OS) you should be running. SMS is designed to run on Microsoft OS’s only, so that part is easy, but then [...]

During this time of year, we get a lot of questions from customers concerning how many acres they planted for their FSA reports, how much of a particular product in a tank mix was applied, or what their productivity (acre/hour) was while driving through the field.  This is all information that can be determined by [...]

This is a fun time of year.  A time when we watch the crops grow from a seed to a mature plant. Perhaps only a farmer would call watching a plant grow a fun time!  The growing season is the best time to continue to learn how the complex environment of weather, soil and plants [...]

Now that we are mid-way through the planting season, it would be a good time to read your data into your precision ag desktop software.  This is good for several reasons:

Verify that you have correctly set up your precision ag display.
Verify that the planter is applying the rates that variable-rate prescriptions called for.
Verify the operator [...]

Yeah, I know it’s a dirty trick.  While I try not to watch much TV, I have seen some shows that just before they have the big reveal they go to commercial.  I realized when writing this that I am now a contributing member to this added drama.
As I mentioned yesterday, we have some big [...]

Just like you look at maps and reports to see what your fields are telling you and later make a prescription recipe that will improve your profitability, we collect all of the feature requests and other items you have asked for and we implement them into newer versions of SMS Software.
In SMS Advanced Version 10.0, [...]

Today, we officially released Version 10.0 of SMS Basic and SMS Advanced software and Version 4.0 of SMS Mobile.  Here are a couple sources for complete details of this release.
Blog Post – provides an overview of what’s new, includes a couple of screenshots.
Release Notes – detailed information of items included in the release.
Video – offers [...]

Coming soon, Ag Leader will release of our latest versions of desktop and mobile software:  SMS™ Basic and SMS™ Advanced Version 10.0 (v10.0) and SMS™ Mobile Version 4.0 (v4.0).  I’m sure you are asking yourself, what’s in it for me?  Why should I upgrade from the version I’m running?  Well, I’m confident there are a [...]

Planting season has arrived.  Time to implement all the things you learned last year into your operation for the 2010 growing season.
If there is one thing I learned while growing up on a farm, it’s that a farmer’s job changes every day.  As an owner and/or operator, farmers are tasked with jobs ranging from electrician [...]