Farm Works Software® Update Features

The following is a list of some of the major changes that were included in Version 11 - 11.23 of our software, which was released August 29, 2005 - January, 2006. For a list of changes made in prior versions, visit the “ News” section at www.farmworks.com.

Changes to All Programs:

  • Annual Updates. Farm Works Software has implemented an annual update schedule where major updates will be released in late summer or early fall of each year. Once a user purchases a major upgrade, he or she will be able to download minor updates absolutely free from the Internet until the next major update is released. Minor updates are also available on CD for just $12.50, shipping and handling. (v11)
  • Added full support for AgriDNA. AgriDNA may be accessed by going to the “Supplies” box and selecting the “AgriDNA” button. A future release will have a similar button in the “Supplies” tab. Note that you must have at least version 11.1 or higher installed from a CD in order to have this feature (installing version 11.0 from a CD and downloading the Version 11.1 update will not enable this feature). (v11.1)
  • Changed the REI information so it can now handle up to 256 characters of data. (v11.1)
  • Changed the “Operation Maintenance” box so that it lists all harvest operations (past releases only showed harvest operations when Farm Funds was installed). (v11.1)
  • Fixed problems where filters for year, crop, landlord, etc did not properly work. (v11.1)

Changes to Farm Trac Plus & Site Pro:

  • New Landlords Tab. The Field Properties box (which is viewed by right-clicking on a field and selecting Properties or by clicking on a field with the Define Object tool) now has a Landlords tab. Here you can indicate whether a field is Owned, Cash Rented, or Share Cropped. If the field is Share Cropped, you can assign any number of landlords to the field. You can then enter the percentage of each category of inputs (such as Seed, Fertilizer, Insecticides) for which each landlord is responsible. This can also be done for harvested crops and equipment. If you are using Farm Fund$, you can choose to have each category of input billed so that you can easily create a Farm Fund$ invoice for it. (v11)
  • Printing Reports for Landlords. The Field History Report can now be printed for any single landlord so you can have a report of inputs to be billed to an individual landlord. (v11)
  • Farm Fund$ Not Necessary to Assign Costs. If you are using the program without Farm Fund$, you can now assign a cost to equipment and personnel. Equipment costs are each recorded as a cost per charge unit (such as cost per acre or tach hour) and personnel costs are on a per hour basis. These costs will be charged to fields and will be reported on the Field History Report. (v11)
  • Faster Way to Get Maps. The programs now include a direct “Get from the Web” option. You can now right-click anywhere on a map (such as on an intersection of two roads) and select “Get from the Web”. The software will then download, save and display Microsoft Terraserver imagery on your map. In past versions you first had to register a coordinate, go to Calibrate, download the image, save the image, and then reload it. Now this task is conveniently completed with just two clicks of a mouse. (v11)
  • AgriDNA Compatibility. The program now integrates with the AgriDNA inputs database. If you subscribe to this service, you can download supplies, equipment and pests directly into the program. This will save time in setting up items as well as in adding new items when you need them. It will also insure that your project has the most up-to-date chemical information for EPA reporting. (v11)
  • New Pre Harvest Intervals Tab. The Supply Properties box now has a PHI tab where you can enter Pre Harvest Intervals for a chemical. This can be entered on a crop-by-crop basis. (v11)
  • Printing Pesticide Summaries. The program has a new Pesticide Summary Report that includes a list of applicators (with license numbers), total acres covered for any date range, and chemicals used with total quantities. The report may even be tailored for use with some state agencies by adding lines for signatures. (v11)
  • Printing Application Details. The program has a new Application Details Report. This is a customizable report where the user can select what information he or she wants the software to print. The report can include a user definable header, a picture of the field from your map, a legal description, a report date, an operation date and time, a supply rate and quantity, a supply type and formulation, an active ingredient and formulation, target pests, REI Info, PHI Info, notations, equipment used, field conditions, weather conditions, applicator info, and a technically responsible person for the report. (v11)
  • Changed Field History Report for multiple fields with different crops so the summary at the bottom properly reflects the yield per acre for the total acres of fields with each crop. (v11.2)
  • Fixed problem where farming actions that went 100% to landlord did not show up on Field History Report or Enterprise Statement. (v11.2)
  • Fixed problem where Field Reports (in Farm Trac without Farm Funds) always showed 100% of inputs regardless of what the landlord split was. (v11.2)
  • Fixed problem where you would get an error if you clicked on the “Notes” or “Pattern” buttons in the “Farming” box when doing a harvest farming action where at least one of the fields being farmed is marked as “Share Cropped”. (v11.2)
  • Fixed problems in Calibrate where some World files would not automatically calibrate and/or would manually calibrate improperly. (v11.2)
  • Changed Field History & Enterprise Statements so landlord information is date sensitive. (v11.2)
  • Fixed problems where supplies from previous versions did not show up in Site Pro. (v11.2)

Farm Funds:

  • New Feature to Bill Landlords. The Income & Sales box now has a Bill Landlords button. When you select this button, you can select field operations for any fields that the landlord is assigned to. The program will then fill out the Income & Sales box with the supply sales for the inputs from the operations. This allows you to bill a landlord from a farming operation. (v11)
  • When billing landlords, users may enter a percentage to “Increase Costs by”. This is useful if you want to bill a set percentage above your cost. (v11.1)
  • Changed Landlord Enterprise Statements so equipment will not show up on report unless it is assigned to the landlord in the landlord properties box. (v11.1)
  • Added a filter to the Purchases & Sales Reports so you can display only Landlords and/or 1099 Vendors. (v11.2)
  • Added a filter to the Purchases Report so you can display only the transactions for a certain account. This is useful for 1099s as you can now display just payments to a landlord that went to “Rent Expense” (for example). (v11.2)
  • Added a filter to the Name & Address Report that allows you to filter by Landlords. (v11.2)
  • Added the ability to Edit Vendor Properties and add new vendors from the Income/Sales and Purchases reports. (v11.2)
  • Updated payroll to reflect 2006 Federal Tax & FICA withholding tables. (v11.2)
  • Updated payroll for latest W-2 & W-3 report formats (v11.2)
  • Updated for latest form 1099 & 1096 report formats (v11.2)
  • Fixed problem where templates that had something other than a check number (such as “Debit card”) were getting a check # assigned. (v11.2)
  • The Feed box in Farm Funds now gives you the option of whether or not you want deleted livestock listed.(v11.2)
  • Changed the redisplaying of “Other Expenses” that are allocated to fields so it now lists all enterprises instead of just open enterprises. This caused problems for allocations made to closed enterprises as they would not be listed when you edited the “Other Expense” entry. (v11.2)
  • Changed Market Value for problems where livestock groups sometimes did not show up (after a group went to zero animals and later had animals transferred into it). (v11.2)
  • Fixed problem where the program sometimes did not take into account the maximum wages for FUTA, SUTA and FICA. (v11.2)
  • Fixed bug in the 1099 dialog for Vendors with only two address lines where the City/state/Zip was printed as a second street address line instead of in the City/state/Zip box. (v11.2)
  • Changed Operations Maintenance so it no longer lists entries made in Allocate Inputs (in the past these entries would cause an error if they were selected) (v11.2)

Farm Stock:

  • Three New Animal IDs. Farm Stock now allows you to maintain up to five identifiers for each animal: Animal ID, Alternate ID, Left Ear Tag, Right Ear Tag and Electronic ID. (v11)
  • Easy Switching Between IDs. There is now a Main Animal ID menu where you can select which of the five animal identifiers that you want to use in Farm Stock. You can switch back and forth with this at any time. (v11)
  • Importing Animal Weights. The program now has a Generic Import for reading in animal weights. This import can read any ASCII delimited text file, such as a Comma Separated Value (.csv) file. This is useful for weights as output by most electronic scales. (v11)
  • Importing Other Livestock Data. The software application now has a Generic Import feature for adding a large number of animals in a few easy steps. This import can read any ASCII delimited text file (such as a Comma Separated Value (.csv) file. This can be used to import livestock records that were collected in another livestock program, a spreadsheet application, or a database. The imported data can also be used to update the information on animals (such as importing expected progeny difference (EPD) information). (v11)
  • Longer Names & Other Data. The Species, Location, Group, and Animal Name drop-down menus have been made larger to accommodate names with a large number of characters. (v11)
  • New Search Button. The program has a search button where you can enter part of an Animal ID and the program will find all matching identifiers. (v11)
  • Makes Modifications Easier. Farm Stock now includes the ability to change various characteristics for livestock, including making modifications to Status, Color, Breed, Health Code, Breeding Stock, and Management Code. (v11)
  • Enter Health Records for Multiple Animals. The software also includes the capability of completing multiple health actions at one time. (v11)
  • Converting User Defined Fields. You may also convert User Defined Fields to the various IDs (for users who have maintained the additional IDs in past versions using the User Defined Fields). (v11)
  • Sorting Data for Custom Reports. Custom reports can now be sorted for date and numeric data. (v11)
  • Changing Display of Animal Ages. You also have the option of displaying animal ages in years, days, months, or a combination of days and months and years, by selecting Days View from the File menu. (v11)
  • Removed error messages that would come up when animals were added in Farm Funds and the users selected the option to subsequently add them to Farm Stock. (v11.1)
  • When a template is used in the “Health Records” box, the name of the selected template is displayed at the top. (v11.1)
  • Changed the Feed Conversion Report so users can specify an ending date to be used. (v11.1)
  • Switched the Left and Right Ear Tags to be correct in custom reports. (v11.1)
  • Added “Birth Ease” to the “Add/Edit Animal Properties” box. (v11.1)
  • Added the following new reports: (v11.1)
    • Current Location Report
    • Dam Offspring Report
    • Dam Offspring Detail Report
    • Expected Due Date Report
    • Feed Conversion
    • Feed Conversion by Group
    • Last Service Report
    • Location History By Animal
    • Location History By Location
    • Mother Litter ID
    • Mother Litter ID Wean
    • Mother Mating History
    • Preg Check Worksheet
    • Sire Offspring Report
    • Sire Offspring Detail Report
  • Changed the program so unidentified animals will show up in the sales box. (v11.1)
  • Fixed the comments area where it was displaying the birth comment instead of the wean comment. (v11.1)
  • Farm Stock now allows multiple pictures to be assigned to the same animal in the Setup tab. (v11.2)
  • You can now display pictures for animals in the “Bloodline” tab. (v11.2)
  • Updated the “Pedigree Report” so it can include livestock pictures. (v11.2)
  • All new Health Action area that includes a number of new useful features including the ability to have multiple treatments in the same Health Action (this is in Stock & Stock Mate) (v11.2)
  • Changed custom reports so they can show averages, minimum, maximum & totals. (v11.2)
  • Added a “Premise ID” to locations (Add/Edit – Locations) and added this to reports. (v11.2)
  • Fixed problems where some Custom Reports with User Defined Fields would not print correctly. (v11.2)
  • Fixed weight report to show up in the proper order and the Weight Check dialog now sorts by Animal Name and Columns are auto sized and sorted when it opens up (v11.2)
  • Added a new dialog box to edit templates without adding a health action. (v11.2)
  • Added sorting criteria on the health report(reason, treatment, admin, etc) (v11.2)

Farm Stock Mate:

  • RFID Tag Support. Farm Stock Mate can now work with RFID tag readers from IDology and Ytex. Farm Works Software will be add support for additional tag readers as we get requests from our users. (v11)
  • Entering Data for Groups. You can now enter feed and health data, take notes, and add animal actions for entire groups of animals. (v11)
  • Multiple Health Actions. This Mate program also includes the ability to complete multiple health actions at one time. (v11)

Farm Site Mate:

  • Adds Color to Your Current Position. Farm Site Mate now allows you to select a color to be used for your current position. (v11)
  • Displays Length of Path. This Mate software now displays the length of a path as it is being mapped. (v11)
  • Displays Full-Screen. You can now tap on the Navigation Tool to display it full screen, with the map in the small area on the left. (v11)
  • New Measurement Tool. The program also has a Measure Tool you can use to tap and drag anywhere on a map to get the distance between the two positions. (v11)
  • Displays Points or Paths. Site Mate now has an option to display VRA coverage maps as either points or paths. When displayed as a path, it will be easy to see skips in the fields. When displayed as points, you can use a legend to see the actual applied rate. The program will log all data as points regardless of which option is used. (v11)
  • More Accurate Maps. Site Mate also has a front-to-back offset in the GPS Setup box. This will be useful in increasing the accuracy of coverage maps. (v11)
  • Added exports for Ag Leader Basic and Ag Leader Advanced yield data formats. This makes it possible to export yield data in either of these text formats so the yield data can be imported into other mapping packages as yield data. (v11.1)
  • The program now includes GPS Time as an attribute for yield data. (v11.1)
  • Changed the Quick Yield Import so it will default to the crop from the yield file (when this crop also exists in the Farm Works project that is being use). (v11.1)
  • Changed Ag Leader As Applied and Site Verification import so that markers are supported. (v11.1)
  • Updated Quick Yield import tools to fix problems with some John Deere and Ag Leader Insight yield data. (v11.1)
  • The Quick Yield Import can now read multiple RDS & Loup yield files at the same time. (v11.2)
  • Added an “RDS Yield Card Setup” option to the Export box. This allows you to format a yield card with field names, crops and other information from Farm Trac & Site. (v11.2)
  • Added an option to the Quick Yield Import for reading Claas & Caterpillar Lexion .aft and .inp files. (v11.2)
  • Added options to export yield data in the "Ag Leader Basic” and “Ag Leader Advanced” formats that are supported by most mapping packages.  These exports were added to make it easier to transfer yield data between different software packages. (v11.2)
  • Added attributes for flow and distance traveled for Lexion Yield data. (v11.2)
  • Fixed problems reading in some Ag Leader As Applied files. (v11.2)

Guide Mate:

  • All-New Look. Guide Mate now has an all-new interface that makes it easier to use. The new interface is tied in with Trac Mate and Site Mate so it is easy to flip between a guidance screen and the map screen as well as a field records screen. (v11)
  • Gets You Working Faster. The program now allows for quick start guidance where a user only needs to select a guidance pattern and swath width. (v11)
  • Compatible with More Platforms. Guide Mate can work on laptop computers, as well as handheld computing devices with the Microsoft Mobile, Pocket PC, and Windows CE. (v11)
  • Light Bar on Map Tab and Guidance Tab. Guide Mate can display an on-screen light bar on the Map tab as well as in the Guidance tab. (v11)
  • Warning of Approaching Headlands. The program includes a customizable countdown feature when approaching headlands. This can include audible alerts. (v11)
  • Easier to Make Out Approaching Contours. The program allows you to select a look-ahead distance and steering needle size. This is particularly useful in Contour mode to see upcoming contours. (v11)