The Rural Voice, 2001-03, Page 48AgriTech
Topics from increased efciency
The planting season will be quick-
ly upon us and the need to locate
information regarding weather pat-
terns, new products or futures mar-
kets can be key to the decision-mak-
ing process for this year's crop selec-
tions.
In an effort to provide a wide vari-
ety of material for surfers from across
the country, the Canadian Farm
Business Management Council has
gone on-line. Created in co-operation
with Agriculture and Agri -Food
Canada, Canada/BC Farm Business
Management Program and the BC
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and
Food, www.farmcentre.com offers
text and audio material from CBC
Radio broadcasts related to farming
issues, free brochure downloads,
ample software order opportunities
and links to valuable sites.
One feature which immediately
caught my attention was the very
localized weather forecast. Not only
were large centres across the country
included in the listings, but so were
smaller communities such as
Goderich, Mount Forest, Tobermory
and Minden. While this precipitation
and temperature information was
very general, further details can be
sought through the Daily Updates
link. Here, satellite forecasts for
regions of Canada, United States and
North and South America can be
viewed. Due to the graphically -
intense animated images, consider-
able time is needed for downloading.
(Patience is a virtue.)
In the Updates
section, surfers can
look at 10 -day pre-
cipitation, tempera-
ture and soil moisture
maps, an interesting
option after the
recent summers of
excessively wet or
dry weather.
There are world crop reports,
futures sources, options from the
CME and CBOT, world news reports
and market pricing from the Ontario
wheat, pork and sheep markets to
name a few.
Though Farm Centre does have its
own explorer (search) engine, it was
not operational when I checked in.
Under the Info Products link, con -
to succession
sumers can order books, videos or
CDs that cover topics such as busi-
ness planning, environmental man-
agement, commodity production,
finance, human resources, marketing
and organic farming.
There are free downloads of print-
ed publications on everything from
education to risk management. Soft-
ware on crop rotation management,
pricing for custom work and leasing
or buying of farm machinery can be
downloaded in two to four minutes.
A directory of software from
around the world, available for pur-
chase, can be found at www.farm-
software.com. Links offers connec-
tions to 14 subcategories for searches
of specific sectors.
From the home page, a different
feature story is offered regularly. The
one I checked out was about farm
succession. A 38 -page brochure on
estate planning, which can be down-
loaded free, is apparently one of the
more popular attractions on the site.
Upcoming seminars on the subject
are also listed.
Farm Centre did have a few draw-
backs and I would recommend
always going backwards to the home
pagz after viewing linked material.
Pages tend to pile up and could be
frustrating. Also, the multiple subdi-
visions of the viewing page often lim-
its the readable area to a three by five
inch screen, meaning printing the
material may be helpful for easier
reading. A fast printer is essential.
If you prefer to listen to the CBC
editorials instead of just reading the
text version, I hope you have the
most recent copy of Real Player. I
was able to check out the rest of the
site while downloading the most cur-
rent update, a process which took the
better part of an hour. Once ready,
the audio did come up fairly quickly.
Unless you are a person who prefers
listening or uses Real Player fre-
quently, I would skip this option.
If you have suggestions about
interesting technologies impacting
the agricultural community or just for
feedback, contact me at
becker@wcl.on.ca or through The
Rural Voice office.°
Site
provides
detailed
weather
info
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44 THE RURAL VOICE
Janice Becker is a computer enthusiast
and journalist living near Walton, ON.