800/795-7995; Fax: 770/238-5205

E-mail: info@agris.com;
sales@agris.com

Web site: www.agris.com

What's new: BinSight is an automated bin management system designed to help operations managers improve efficiency in their elevator and terminal facilities and better manage, blend and market bulk commodity products. According to the company, binSight improves binning, blending, reporting and traceability with an electronic bin board, blend calculator, load tracking, scale automation integration and real-time reporting. BinSight enables users to view the bin board on any PC in the organization. Users can create best blend scenarios — without moving any grain — to determine the most profitable options, plus model blends based on actual inventory and blend to target traits without manual calculations.

Recent upgrades: The latest upgrades to the AGRIS V9 business management system include enhanced security options, a simplified installation process, new invoice and commodity quick contract entry screens, and an improved unit train process. Improved invoicing functionality within the Inventory module includes fewer screens, the addition of quick launch buttons for Accounts Receivable/Payments, and the ability to apply credit memos from within invoicing or via a new menu option for automatic application of credit memos.

Created for platform and bulk-weighing scales, the oneWeigh Scale Automation System is designed to improve shipping, receiving and grading operations. The system works with any electronic platform scale, captures data for most accounting systems, improves turnaround times and accuracy in hitting target weights, and can be configured to work with or without an operator. Recent enhancements include the ability to interrupt/resume bulk-weighing orders, print weight certificates from an 80-column printer attached to the bulk-weighing controller, assign document numbers to delivery tickets when using the General Accounting interface, and base commodity discounts on application type.

What's ahead: AGRIS V9 will be designed to improve and enhance agronomy functions such as crop planning, field record keeping, spatial management, formulation, blending, invoicing and reporting. The system will enable retailers to provide crop plan services and comparative financial analyses to growers. Users can capture field boundaries for maps and track and maintain field history to help minimize risk for customers. Numerous price levels can be set up in the system, giving retailers the flexibility to cater to their customers with different kinds of special pricing and schedules. Invoices can be edited and generated directly from the agronomy system. Reports can be custom made or created from standard templates. The ability to integrate with AGRIS back-office and operational systems enables retailers to avoid repetitive data entry and make sure balances and inventory information is in real time. The ability to import soil test results electronically enables retailers to use these results in creating nutrient equations and recommendations. The equation builder feature makes complex recommendations easier to create for more sophisticated nutrient building. Accurate blends can be produced automatically through integration with automatic blenders. The system also interfaces to CDMS for regulatory compliance.

RetailWise is an easy-to-use point-of-sale (POS) system that brings speed and accuracy to retail operations and provides more functionality than traditional POS products do, according to the company. The system includes Touchscreen functionality and bar-code scanning. Its design enables new cashiers to start operating the system in less than 15 minutes. A training mode allows personnel to be educated in using the system by processing actual transactions without altering company data. Sensitive information can be kept secure, system usage can be tracked, and employee access to certain system modules can be restricted with the use of audit trail reports, passwords and user IDs.

515/964-0708; Fax: 515/964-0473

Web site: www.agvisionsoftware.com

What's new: According to the company, the AgVision Fertilizer Manager is a complete solution for formulating, blending, tracking and billing of fertilizer ingredients, products and applications with Field History as a key feature. The program has an optional interface to CDMS for printing required regulatory documentation. AgVision offers an integrated software solution for financial accounting, patron equity, fertilizer and chemical management, general inventory, and grain, tree nut and feed management. AgVision has systems installed in nearly 600 locations in 27 states.

800/237-2367; Fax: 530/743-7150

E-mail: tiffani@cdms.net

Web site: www.cdms.net

What's new: ChemCheck — pesticide recommendation writing software — enables users to write prescription crop protection recommendations that are checked against a manufacturer-approved database. It has been upgraded to provide easier use through the Windows platform, and integration with Famous Software has been completed. Features were upgraded to render customized reports by fieldman, crop, chemical and more. Expense reports can be generated by field or by crop, and the recommendation can now be exported to Excel for data manipulation.

SeedSearch — Internet product reference guide/software — allows users to search a seed company-approved database by crop, traits, characteristics, county and more.

What's ahead: ChemCheck and SeedSearch will be upgraded within the next two years.

770/427-7633; Fax: 770/590-0903

E-mail: sherryd@dbcsmartsoftware.com

Web site: www.dbcsmartsoftware.com

What's new: GrainSmart Version 9.0 is a Windows, integrated, agribusiness and commodity trading management system supporting a broad choice of platforms. It features order logistics and processing, inventory, lot management, cash contracts, tickets, settlement, freight, hedging, Brought-to-Market, formula production, sales analysis and financial management for co-ops and feed/pet food manufacturers. GrainSmart has been upgraded with added order entry/invoicing, formula production, inventory costing, bin management, sales analysis, foreign currency hedging, product cross-application, BOL and customs invoice printing.

What's ahead: Continued enhancement of GrainSmart.

909/793-2853

E-mail: mcrandall@esri.com

Web site: www.esri.com/agriculture

What's new: ArcPad and ArcGIS are mobile and desktop GIS that offer a wide range of use for precision ag. The ArcGIS desktop software and extensions let the user analyze agricultural imagery, geographic data, yield maps, environmental applications and spatial data sets. ArcGIS, ArcIMS and ArcServer are used at the federal, state and production ag level for compliance. The ArcGIS Server and the ArcEngine have recently been released in ArcGIS Version 9.0. ESRI states that agriculture software developers have access to a rich set of GIS functionality so they can deploy powerful agriculture applications to their customers, which will be easy for farm customers to use. The Model Builder is a feature that lets agronomists, farmers and consultants put together scenarios for different projects in the field.

What's ahead: The ESRI software is always under development, and more features and functions are continuously added to the GIS software to make it more powerful and easier to use.

800/225-2848; Fax: 260/488-3737

E-mail: farmwork@farmworks.com

Web Site: www.farmworks.com

What's new: Farm Works has released major upgrades to its in-field solutions for GPS mapping and field record keeping (Farm Trac Mate and Site Mate) as well as to its desktop programs (Farm Trac+, Farm Site and Farm Site Professional). The new releases make it easy for users to collect information in the field and bring it into the office for report generation. Work orders can be created in the desktop software that indicate what is to be done on each field and when. These work orders can be printed or synchronized to a PDA or laptop with the Farm Works “Mate” programs (Trac Mate and Site Mate). Work orders can be completed in the field to collect field records, including hours worked, quantities and rates of supplies used and filed, and weather conditions. When the PDA is hooked to GPS, the area covered and quantity of each supply used will be computed automatically. Because the Trac Mate and Site Mate can be used in conjunction with Guide Mate (from Raven Industries), the same PDA can be used for guidance when mapping and record keeping are occurring. The same set of “Mate” programs will work with growers who are using the Farm Works suite of grower packages (Farm Trac+, Farm Site and Farm Funds) as well as for custom applicators and retailers who are using Farm Site Professional on the desktop.

What's ahead: In the coming year, Farm Works plans to add an “analysis” module to its desktop software to allow users to do more analysis of their precision agriculture data. This module will also feature a VRA prescription generation tool that will be easy for even the novice computer user to understand.

217/753-8424; Fax: 217/753-8426

Web site: www.mid-tech.com

What's new: Midwest Technologies develops and distributes Fieldware mapping software for precision agriculture and fertilizer/chemical application. Fieldware consists of a system of software running on the company's in-cab console, the Legacy 6000, and office computer software, called Fieldware Tools. The in-field module of Fieldware enables users to record fertilizer, seed and chemical applications and to generate field maps. The desktop component allows a user to view these application records and create formal application reports that include all chemical and applicator information and maps of the application.

What's ahead: The in-field component of Fieldware is constantly being enhanced with new features. In the fall of 2004 the company will add automatic boom shutoff capabilities to the package. Also, Fieldware Tools will be enhanced to add prescription map generation for variable-rate applications. The prescription can then be loaded into the field computer to perform the application.

877/327-6447; Fax: 970/484-9960

E-mail: info@farmgis.com

Web site: www.farmgis.com

What's new: FarmHMS is stand-alone yield data processing software that handles yield formats for consultants handling many years of grower data. FarmHMS creates a swath element that represents the true swath width in the field and automatically calculates and corrects for errors such as mass flow transport delay, antenna offset and speed.

MapCalc Professional is a stand-alone spatial and statistical analysis program designed to allow users to create prescriptions, NDVI, Green Index, Profit/Loss, normalization of multiple years of data and drainage map layers through the use of grid-based map analysis. FarmHMS Version 2.1, Build 26, addresses recent changes in the John Deere GreenStar Yield (GSY) format and added processing functionality for John Deere GreenStar Doc (GSC) and Case New Holland Voyager (VYG) formats. MapCalc Professional Version 2.0, Build 38, added functionality for accessing ESRI (SHP) file formats upon import and export.

What's ahead: Red Hen Farming Systems will continue to maintain and enhance the FarmHMS and MapCalc products as it works toward a new generation of software that incorporates all the features of popular existing products.

800/752-7912; Fax: 217/774-2204

E-mail: sales@ssinews.com

Web site: www.agvance.net

What's new: SSI is both a software developer and distributor. Products include Agvance Accounting (1,3), Agvance Blending (1,3), Agvance Planning (2), Agvance Mapping (2), Agvance Propane (1), Agvance Patronage (1), Agvance Motor Fuel (1) and Agvance Grain (1). Agvance Version 4.0 was released this past winter, along with enhancements to all modules in the Agvance line. The most significant change was the transition to a larger enterprise database. The 4.0 version uses Microsoft's SQL Server as the underlying database, which provides better performance and security when operating with a high number of users. SQL Server also provides better scalability and includes core support for SML and other Web standards. Other new features include improved tools for tracking seed bookings, a new “quick invoice” option for retail point-of-sale purchases, and motor fuel reporting.

Version 4.1 was released in the summer of 2004, along with several new enhancements to all Agvance modules. The most significant addition in Version 4.1 was the development of a grain module, now an integrated component within Agvance products. Other features include a new tool to set up and manage complicated discount programs (for products such as seed) and a streamlined function for multisite companies to perform intercompany transfers between locations. Agvance 4.1 also includes an Export to Web feature that allows growers to access their invoice and payment history along with any grain activity, including scale tickets, contracts and commodity status.

What's ahead: Agvance 4.2 will be released in 2005. All of the Agvance modules are upgraded annually and will continue to evolve as new technology and customer input drive future development.

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