HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-03-21, Page 42The new wave
Microcomputers bolster farm management skills
The Farm Edition, Week of Mireh 21, 1984 - 11
When farmers gather at the local co-op
these days, they're as likely to be talking bits
and bytes or moderns and memory capability
as they are about feed prices.
Increasingly, farmers are turning to
microcomputers to bolster their farm
management skills and record keeping
counts in the farming operation.
Randy Ross, Ridgetown College of
Agricultural Technology's computer special-
ist, says about 3.5 per cent of Ontario
farmers now own an on farm computer.
As agricultural software or programs
becdme more readily available, Ross expects
that figure to climb. In Alberta, for example,
Ross says eight to 10 per cent of the
' province's farmers are now "online".
Three years ago Ross, who teaches farm
economics , at the college, found he was
getting more and more calls from farmers
wanting the latest information on comput-
ers.
His solution was to start publishing the
Agricultural Microcomputing Newsletter,
which started with 300 people on its mailing
list and now keeps 2,500 farmers posted on
the latest agricultural software and on up-
coming computer seminars.
From a newsletter survey conducted a
year ago, Ross has been able to compile a
profile of the typical farm computer user.
Generally speaking, Ross says, he or she
is from 30 to 45 years old, with at least some
post secondary education but no previous
computer experience. The computer buyer
tends to run a larger farming operation, with
a gross annual income of $100,000 or more,
and is more often a livestock than a cash crop
farmer.
Ross says farmers usually purchase a
computer, either to increase their farm
management skills or to improve the farm
bookkeeping system.
For example, he says, a livestock operator
is raising—breerilgr g—suck;-rcnyght_
purchase something the size of an 1BM-PC
computer, which offers a large disc storage
system, and retails at $7,000 to $8,000.
But another farmer, planning to use his
computer strictly for farm accounting
purposes. could settle for a Commodore 64
model, plus a printer for hard copy retrieval
of accounts, which would cost about $2,000.
"The computers don't do anything that
you couldn't do with a pen and paper, but
they do it faster."
Farmers use their computers to keep
livestock breeding records, production re-
cords, to devise livestock ration programs
and to keep track of basic farm transactions
from buying fertilizer to selling feed corn.
Rossys a farmer can enter his monthly
cash flow figures and then start playing
"what if". In other words, what if corn goes
from $3 to $3.50 a bushel, how does that
affect interest payments or year end income?
"Once everything is set up, you can zip
through these calculations in a real hurry."
A hog farmer raising purebred stock
might want to know quickly which sows were
bred to which boars, with what results in
litter size and weight.
While Ross says the farmer would once
have had to leaf through a "gigantic binder"
to find that information, a computer allows
him to pull out the data in seconds.
The growing popularity of farm computers
is shown by the fact both Ridgetown and
Centralia College of Agricultural Technology
always have waiting lists for their extension
"hands on" computer courses, says Ross.
This recent trend to even more technology
on the farm has prompted a Winnipeg
company, Century Publishing, to offer a
new. 12 lesson home study course on farm
computers.
However, as recently as four years ago,
Ross says, farmers interested in investing in
a computer often found it difficult to find
agricultural software.
All that has changed, and today there are
not only catalogues listing an extensive
selection of farm programs, but two
Canadian companies, FarmPlan of Waterloo
and Homestead Computers of Winnipeg,
specialize in large scale agricultural packag-
es.
Also, computer buyers will soon be able to
take advantage .of reviews coming out on
some of the major farm programs available,
similar to the consumer ratings on the latest
car models.
Alberta Agriculture has just completed a
study rating the different farm accounting
programs, Ross says, and the University of
Guelph has just started a study comparing
the dairy operation programs available in the
province.
Richard and Louise Bolton, beef and cash
crop farmers of R. R. 2 Kerwood, are recent
computer converts. They bought a Radio
Shack Model 4 computer in November, 1983.
Louise, the farm bookkeeper, says they
decided to buy a computer because "we
wanted a better record keeping system than
we had."
They purchased their system for about
$4.,400, which she says is "more expensive
than the game machine type of computer"
and added a printer to get their records out
in hard copy. In purchasing a business type
computer, they sacrificed colour, some
graphics and sound.
Three -wheel vehicles find new uses on farms
Recently, Hully Gully of R. R. #1 Varna,
one of Ontario's largest retailers of 3 -wheel
all terrain vehicles made new inroads into
the uses of these machines. Randy Collins,
general manager of Hully Gully, who once
farmed the property the dealership now
occupies, was quick to see the farming
applications of ATCs.
A neighbour, Bev Hill of Hill & Hill
Farms, required a machine that could be
used on wet fields early in the year, in this
case, for the purpose. of seeding red clover
on wheat. Hully Gully obtained a special
"Herd" seeder, specifically manufactured
or suc ` high flotation 3 -wheel vehicles as
Honda's Big Red ATC.
These-tnits are becoming increasingly"
popular in the farming areas of the United
States, and through 'a Canadian supplier,
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Collins obtained such a machine for Hill &
Hill Farms. ATCs are light and easy to
handle, running only three pounds pressure
in their tires, thereby assuring no soil
compaction.
The seeder itself is electrically powered by
the ATC's charging system, thereby elimin-
ating the need for PTO drive. Fine accurate
adjustments are possible with this compact
seeder, and the benefits of not having to wait
for fields to dry are obvious to farmers.
Hully Gully not only distributes, but
develops equipment for 3 -wheel all terrain
vehicles, and besides this particular seeder,
, also offers sprayers, racks, hitches, trailers,
snow blades and the like for rural and farm
needs. Because of his own farming back-
ground, Collins has established the 3 -wheel-
er locally as a viable farm vehicle.
Now with the introduction of Bill 61, all
terrain vehicles can be operated as a farm
vehicle • on road ways as well as the fields.
Today's farm machinery has becomeso
specialized that an all purpose vehicle such
as an ATC is now becoming more and more
useful on farms to v fill the gaps that
equipment specialization has made. Three-
wheelers are increasingly becoming the
farmer's good right arm as a general utility
vehicle, with capabilities to specialize as he
sees fit at minimal cost.
i ..
Hully Gully is doing more research and
development of ATCJarm equipment and
welcomes input from farmers. They may call
Hully Gully at (519) 262-3318, or write to
Hully Gully, R. R. #1, Varna, Ontario, NOM
2RO.
R.R..1
ed
KINCARDINE, ONTARIO '�
N®® ZQO' AMBERLEY