HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-03-17, Page 24FARM
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A4. FARMING '93, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 1993.
Computers saves money, not time says farmer
Continued from page A3
Mr. Linton to look at purchasing a
home computer.
It was in 1984 that he took the
plunge and purchased a Radio
Shack computer with 32 K of
RAM. By today's standards, the
computer is almost obsolete, but it
provided Mr. Linton with the
means to educate himself about
computers and begin managing his
business via custom swine comput-
er packages.
Three computers and thousands
of dollars later, Mr. Linton is corn-
pletely dependent on his 386, 2 MB
RAM computer.
He uses it to prepare financial
statements, calculate income tax
figures, keep track of breeding, far-
rowing, weaning and production
data of his swine herd, calculate
feed conversions and prepare pro-
fessional-looking documents.
Though he's spent over $10,000
in computer hardware over the
years, he has no qualms about the
cost.
"Compare the cost of a computer
to a tractor and it's nothing," he
says. ''I know the computer has
paid for itself niany times since."
These days he's not so concerned
with the latest hardware as he is in
software.
"Instead of worrying about the
computer, I buy new programs."
Currently, he uses FMS Account-
ing for his financial records;
PigCHAMP and Supersow for
swine production programs and
Lotus and Quattropro for spread-
sheets.
The swine programs sort and file
all his swine production data which
Mr. Linton regularly prints out and
hangs in the farm in front of each
sow's pen.
With the data at eye-view, deci-
sions on culling, breeding and ship-
ping are quickly and easily made.
"I'd be lost with my sow produc-
tion records," he admits. Before, he
used a sow wheel or marked down
due dates on a calendar and if he
needed information on litters, he'd
have to search through his files.
Now, it's there at a touch of a but-
ton.
He's convinced his easy-to-read,
computerized financial statements
have impressed bankers to the point
where he was able to wrangle a
lower interest rate on loans.
His advice to farmers interested
in purchasing a computer system is
to firstly know what you need a
computer for and secondly, be pre-
pared to spend long hours in front
of the computer screen learning to
use programs and inputting data.
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(Poles & Planks) Record book updating
While a soon-to-be-farrowing sow looks on, David Linton of Lin-dell Farms near Blyth updates
his record-book which is comprised of computer print-outs containing information on his
pregnant sows. Reading from a birthing record on the wall, Mr. Linton up-dates his
computerized records by hand to later input the data into his computer. Mr. Linton uses his
computer to manage his swine herd.
Program increases yields,
benefits environment
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DEPARTMENT
Continued from page A3
planter and input according to
potential.
Though Mr. Shillinglaw is still in
the inputting stage of the program
at his 800-acre farm, he says there's
a big potential for profit. "One
American farmer who used this
system had a net increase of $13.65
per acre," he revealed.
However, the initial cost of the
program and equipment, which
costs a minimum of $10,000,
makes it a significant investment.
But Mr. Shillinglaw says, if you
had 1000 acres and increased profit
by $13.65 per acre, you'd have the
program paid off in one year.
Moreover, since setting up the
program may take a year to record
soil samples and yields, the invest-
ment is stretched out over a period
of time.
'Culligan
REAL ESTATE LTD
Gary
Walden
Sales
Representative
482-7675
Farm, Rural &
Residential Property
\_Clinton Office 482-34001
As well, increased profit isn't the
only advantage of the program, he
says. "The spin-off is that farmers
aren't over-applying nutrients so it
benefits the environment."
He predicts this new technology
will become invaluable to other
agricultural businesses such as
drainage manufacturers who could
use the technology to pinpoint
exactly where drains are located in
fields.
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