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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, YOU,' CAN COUNT ON THESE PIONEER PERFORMANCE LEADERS Pioneer Seed Corn •3859 •3851 °3949 •3950 •3925 •3906 •3975A Pioneer Alfalfa •524 •526 •532 All Verities Available In 90% Alfalfa -10% Timothy 80% Alfalfa - 20% Timothy Pioneer Soybeans 0877 Sila-Bac Silage Innoculant "1177" YOUR PIONEER SALE REPRESENTATIVE IS: Bruce Raynard R. R. 1 LUCKNOW 5283502 Pioneer is a brand name; numbers identify varieties. @Registered trademark licensed to Pioneer HI -Bred Limited Chatham, Ontario 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