The Rural Voice, 1980-03, Page 9frustrated time into trying to work with the
machine.
He said another point is with computer
technology advancing so quickly, software
can be obsolete in a few months. The
Canfarm system however, allows the unit
to be updated monthly.
Mr. Urquhart said it took Canfarm about
six months to work the bugs out of the
progam, but now he is convinced it will
become the key record-keeping system on
farms with over 100 sows. He said since the
Canfarm program operates with the
English language rather than computer
language, his herds man can under-
stand the printouts.
Since data pack lines don't yet extend to
Bruce, Huron and Perth counties from the
Guelph Canfarm office, farmers in these
counties can't adopt the on-farm terminal
CANFARM
Here's what its
computers offer
BY GISELE IRELAND
Since Canfarm has been taken over in
part by the Ontario Federation of Agri-
culture, and has Peter Hannam occupying
the President's chair, certain success is
sure. Farmers want to get on the same
successful bandwagon and make sure their
businesses are operating to their full
potential.
Computers are notoriously impersonal to
get used to, impossible to argue with, but
are great to work with if you know how.
The knowing how is not as complicated as
most want to think. You feed it facts and it
gives back facts nicely documented.
Farming, being as diversified as it is, lends
itself beautifully to the orderly documented
facts that CANFARM supplies. Getting
such facts returned to you is not painful
and CANFARM will show you how.
The CANFARM system uses journal
entries and is basically a one person
bookkeeping chore. You can do your
entries as they occur and mail in the
sheets for processing monthly, or do it
quarterly. They have a program for any
farmer, part-time farmer, or a farmer
with a farm orientated side line. Many
farmers sell produce at the gate or sell
seed corn or other agricultural
commodities.
FARM RITE...This is the basic farmer
program. You get your monthly readout of
system used by Mr. Urqhart.
However, Murray Selves, who runs a 300
sow farrow -to -finish operation near
Fullarton, is using the Canfarm program,
both for his hog pro duction records and
for keeping his financial records and finds
it a valuable service.
Mr. Selves said in the past, his profit or
loss statement was available only once a
year, and usually not until four of five
months after the year ended. This made it
"almost useless as a planning tool," he
said.
Now he mails his financial statements
into Canfarm once a month, and four days
later receives a printout by return mail. The
printout provides him with a 'quick
turnaround" on profit and loss, payroll,
etc. which makes it much more
useful as a "planning and management
tool."
He said he sits down once a week or
every two weeks and transfers the
information from cheque stubs onto the
Canfarm forms. He said his people in the
barns were already collecting much of the
required information before anyway, but
he wasn't putting the information together.
Now the Canfarm computer is doing this
for them. Even if a data line were available
in Mr. Selves' area, he said his record-
keeping isn't sophisticated enough to
warrant an on-farm terminal. Also, he
points out, Canfarm really isn't doing
anything a person can't do manually if he
wants to spend the time. Saving time is
obviously one of the advantages of any
computer-related bookeeping and record-
keeping service on the farm.
Canfarm's key punch operators key in numbers from
farmers' records at the rate of more than 13,000 per
hour. Although errors are rare, each set of figures is
entered twice using a different operator each time to
ensure complete accuracy. Canfarm is a national
company offering farm financial management and
production planning services to farmers.
entries plus a quarterly cash flow state-
ment. You get these main reports once a
year which include a bank account report
and a farm operating statement. These are
invaluable when you have to fill out a
statement for the bank.
This service will cost you $50 for a basic
sign-up and then $160 per year. The sign-
up entails the representative of Canfarm
coming to your farm and putting on
computer records all the information you
want to put in regarding stock, machinery
and feed and bank loans.Frnm then on the
entries are adjusted every month as
you mail in current data.
There are also personnel available to
Dome to your home and do your books for
you once a month or quarterly or whatever
you wish.
THE PROFIT PAC...is the basic Farm
Rite with an additional running inventory
of feed and animals which enables the
farmer to determine exactly how much
it costs to produce a litre of milk or an
THE RURAL VOICE/MARCH 1980 PG. 7