Production systems are becoming increasingly dynamic in the way they are managed and the latest ProductionWise release will improve your paddock management going forward. We are also excited to inform you of a number of recent updates to the system you may have already had a chance to familiarise yourself with.

Paddock Mapping Upgrades

Whether you are adding or removing fences to improve on-farm efficiencies or sowing multiple crops within the same paddock boundary, ProductionWise now provides more precise mapping capabilities along with managing sub-zones within paddocks on a seasonal basis.  

With these added features, ProductionWise allows older paddock configurations to be archived to ensure the paddock management activity history is available for reference when required. On a seasonal basis, farmers are constantly changing the way they manage their paddocks. The process of modifying existing paddocks allows the new configuration to be active in the current season whilst older paddock configurations are archived. Archived paddocks still remain in the system and can be set to Active at any time.  The benefit of this change allows different paddock configurations to be stored whilst allowing the spatial and temporal paddock history to be retained.

How to access these features:

To change the configuration of the paddock boundaries, simply navigate to the Farms page and select ‘Edit Farm’ and click on an existing paddock you would like to modify. By modifying any of the paddock configurations, the old paddock configuration (including paddock history) is archived and the newly created paddock configurations become active in the paddock diary.

Split Paddock: This allows an existing paddock to be split in two using the existing bounds of the mapped paddock. The scenario where this could be used is if a new fence has been added, if multiple crops are planted within the bounds of the paddock or if specific sub-zones are being generated based on visible soil attributes for example.

Zone Paddock: This allows new zones within a paddock to be created. For example, this allows specific areas such as an N rich strip or trial plot clusters to be created within an existing paddock to allow more specific paddock management activities to be recorded.

Merge Paddocks: This allows two or more paddocks to be merged together to generate a new paddock based on the extent of the paddocks being merged. The scenario for this use would be commonly where fences are being removed to make paddocks larger. The original paddocks would be archived allowing the paddock history to be maintained.

Delete Section: This allows the ability to delete a section of a paddock or cookie-cut an area out of an existing paddock is common to remove vegetation stands or dams. This editing feature improves paddock boundary precision for further applications such as NDVI imagery assessment and variable rate prescription generation.

Listing Archived Paddocks: This is a handy option to view paddocks or paddock configurations that share or have shared the same plot of land in previous seasons. This is useful in determining the different configurations the paddock has been in the past to help with the management of planting options going forward especially for seed production. Alternative uses of this feature also allow paddocks no longer under production to be kept within the system without clogging up the paddock diary.

These archived paddocks can be toggled on or off in both the web or the app to only view the paddock history when browsing the paddock diary. To edit details of archived paddocks, they must be made ‘Active’ in the website.

Chemical Inventory Management

Previous releases have integrated the Chem Shed inventory management system to allow chemicals stored on-farm to be managed and tracked as they are used throughout the season. The chem shed allows single or multi-product data entry into the system capturing a range of details such as batch, quantity, container size, value and expiry to allow greater transparency of product availability, where it is stored and to assist with asset management and safe chemical handling and recording.

We have recently added the ability for Chem Shed products to be deleted if necessary. Products that have been incorrectly entered to the chem shed can now be deleted.  Finalising products remains unchanged and still allows inputs to be finished to maintain application history in ProductionWise. To finalise or delete products, click the ‘View Log’ link.

To allow farmers to maintain accurate records for compliance, two additional fields have been included when adding chemicals to the Chem Shed. The fields allow the EPA/HSNO Approval number and the Hazard class of the material to be recorded in line with current guidelines for chemical reporting.

How to access this feature:

The Chem Shed feature can be accessed from the Tools menu. The Chem Shed is also available in the app allowing on-site management of chemicals to be referenced. Keeping track of products and assigning inputs from the chem shed to paddock applications has been easily integrated to allow precise input management to be maintained.

Tutorial Videos

The ProductionWise Team has not only made vast improvements to the system over the last 6 months, we have also generated a number of useful videos to help navigate around certain areas of the system. These tutorial videos will help guide you through different parts of the system and provide you further insight into the functionalities ProductionWise has to offer. These are a work in progress so keep your eye out for new videos as they are generated.

How to access this feature:

Click the link or go to the Help page and select the feature you are wanting to learn more about.

Spraying Operation Upgrades

• Spraying activities that occur over multiple days can now be recorded with an increase in the duration of the activity. Often spraying applications get interrupted by unfavorable weather conditions or machinery failure. This change will allow a single application to be recorded even if it takes a longer time to complete.  
• Spraying operations that have a start time but no end date or time, are displayed as ‘In Progress’ to allow you to see which activities are underway or have been delayed. This logic has also been applied to Grazing operations.

Expanded Operation Details – App

• Improved viewing of inputs on saved templates allows additional information of the input details and options to modify the dates prior to applying the templates
• Improved viewing capability to expand information associated with operations in the paddock diary such as inputs, biotic stresses for observations, NDVI imagery, images taken whilst scouting and comments

        

Bug Fixes

• Share activity – fixed issue with incorrect calculation of total area required of jobs to be done
• Observation saving biotic stresses – fixed issue stopping biotic stresses to be saved
• Adding inputs to operations – fixed issue not allowing multiple inputs to be entered in the same workflow
• Fixed bug that stopped the farm map from rendering in the app
• App Farm map – Go to paddock now takes you to the paddock diary for the selected paddock
• Fixed issue in the app for Chem Shed that stopped alpha-numeric batch numbers to be recorded
• Custom products can now be entered to the Chem Shed using the app
• Fixed issue that stopped the search function of inputs in the product lists
• Other bug fixes and site optimisations

 

Latest Release – Version 4.7

We are pleased to announce several recent updates to ProductionWise over the last month.? Some of these features you may have already had the opportunity to use and thanks to those who have provided feedback which has allowed the Team to fine tune some of the new features.

WEB

Record Your Rainfall

• Record your own rainfall for multiple locations across your farming enterprise
• Import previous years rainfall using the template for rapid data entry
• Compare current year rainfall totals with previous years rainfall
• View your rainfall in the Calendar view to help reference rainfall with paddock management activities

Spraying Operation Upgrades

• Weather observations allow avg. and max. wind details including comments
• Include details of the spray situation for improved recording and timing of your spray activities
• Allows start and stop times to be recorded for around the clock spray activities
• Improved ability to export weather observations captured for spraying activities
• Operation area allows 20% buffer for overspray situations (applicable to all operations)

Grazing Operation Upgrades

• Inclusion of a new field to capture?Livestock Units (LSU) based on stock class selected
• This will enable future reports to be generated and paddock grazing pressures to be assessed

Reporting Updates

NEW – Paddock Rotation Reports

• View paddock rotation history and highlight crop sequences to assist with planning rotations.
• Customisable colors to highlight specific crops and export to PDF for further reference
• Accessed from the Reports menu

NEW – Chemical Group Reports

• Highlight the chemical groups and the frequency of applications on your paddocks to determine resistance susceptibility and future paddock management strategies.
• Customisable colors to highlight specific crops and export to PDF for further reference
• Accessed from the Reports menu

APP

NEW – Grain Storage Management in the App

• Manage grain transfers, aeration and grain quality inspections
• Be diligent with recording storage cleaning and pesticide applications
• Simple adjustments and resetting silo tonnages
• Finalise/part deliver to existing contracts (must be setup in webpage)
• Record cash sales for grain parcels leaving the property

NEW – Record Rainfall in the App

• Record your rainfall when out in the field (online or offline)
• View your year to date (YTD) and growing season (GSR) totals
• Compare the current year with previous rainfall totals
• Note: Rainfall sites need to be setup in website first

 

Website and App Bug Fixes:

• Spraying operation ? adding/editing the time of a weather observation now syncs with website
• Growing window now defaults to the current growing year
• Grower can now generate and view PDF farm plans through the app
• User interface issues with Internet Explorer
• Fixed issue with date cycling when editing planned spraying operation
• Spraying operation weather observations ordered by date/time ascending
• Fixed spraying operation end time validation prompt

We are pleased to announce the latest release Version 4.5 of developments for ProductionWise.
A number of these latest features/improvements have been based on feedback from many of the growers and trusted advisers.

Latest Release Items

• Calendar view of paddock activities (web)
  • Viewing paddock activities and upcoming plans just got a whole lot easier with the calendar
  • View any?activities entered into the paddock diary such as actuals, plans, recos or observations
  • Enter new activities from the calendar easily
  • To access, go to the FARMS or PADDOCKS page and click Calendar (Top Right)
• Share operations with contractors or farm workers (web & app)
  • Growers and advisers can now share paddock activities as jobs to complete with 3rd parties such as contractors and farm workers
  • Recipients can?receive a job without having a ProductionWise account?that also allows?additional information to be provided upon completion of the job
  • Pricing information can be editable, read only or hidden for privacy
  • Receive an email notification once the job has been completed
  • To access, go to PADDOCKS and for the?selected?activity, click Share
• Custom variety/inputs can now be?entered on the run?(web & app)
  • Quickly and easily, growers and advisers can now add products that don?t appear in the provided input or crop variety lists
  • Improves your efficiency?to continue with farm planning, creating a recommendation or data entry without lost time
  • Adding Inputs – From the inputs page, select ‘Custom’ and?enter the name of the new input
  • Adding Variety – From a Sowing Operation, when selecting Variety, select Other from Add New Variety option
• Production Summary Reporting?(web)
  • Designed to help you?provide accurate information for the AIMI survey
  • Provides a summary?view the current status of your paddocks production capacity and value using budgeted yield and price
  • Paddock summary of recent harvests assessing budgeted yield, price and revenue compared with actual values recorded at harvest time
  • Summary of planned sowing and/or planted sowing intentions to determine production potential and estimate of crop value
  • To access, go to REPORTS page and select?Production Summary
• Contract Summary Reporting (web)
  • Designed to help you?provide?accurate information for the AIMI survey
  • Provides an overview of grain contracts recorded in the system
  • Assists?you in determining your current grain contract obligations and grain position
  • To access, go to REPORTS page and select Contract Summary
• Make comments with style?(web & app)
  • Comments for any operation can now be made with basic styling such as bold, italics, underlines and bullet/numbered points
  • This?provides more flexibility when formatting notes and comments to activities
• ProductionWise NZ has had a face lift?(web)
  • You will notice ProductionWise NZ has changed its look to?conform to the FAR?branding
• Help us communicate effectively with you?(web)
  • Ability to receive system email and SMS notifications when we push information to you
  • You can?select the types of notifications you want to receive from ProductionWise
  • To update these settings, go to?ACCOUNT SETTINGS and Change Details
• Benchmarking tool update?(web)
  • Updated average column to show a weighted average?- incorporating paddock area size in?calculation
  • Added Total column to provide sum of?each component queried
  • To access, go to the?TOOLS menu?and select Benchmarking page

Enhancements/Fixes

• Images attached to observations are now stored as low-res thumbnails to improve sync speed and reducing the overall application size stored on your device
• Bug fixed where exporting input lists through Custom Report was causing errors
• Bug?fixed where Recommendation reports were intermittently being sent to the third party set up in the Report settings page
• Bug fixed where Grain Storage reset?was not?clearing the crop type from that storage
• Plus numerous site optimisations and improvements

The ProductionWise software development team has been working hard in recent months to bring you the latest ProductionWise mobile App update. A key long term goal for our team is to build all of the Web based features of ProductionWise into the app and this release is the latest in an going effort of scheduled improvements in our development pipeline.

Many of the improvements that we build into our system come from valuable user feedback, it?s a critical way for us to identify system improvements and we always consider it when it comes through.

The latest version 1.7 update includes many enhancements for advisers, and improving their ability to interact with their connected growers. A summary of these include:

Improvements to the Adviser App

• Create or edit activities in grower paddock diaries.
• Approve/deny planned and recommended operations for their connected growers.
• Apply templates to growers? paddock diaries.
• View the location of observations on a map.
• Select from a list of default and/or remembered costs for operations.
• Select favourites when adding inputs to operations.
• Reuse saved comments when creating operations in their grower’s diary
• Sync submitted recommendation reports for offline viewing.
• Change the operation area of recommended operations.

General Enhancements & Bug Fixes

• Added filtering by activity types in the diary for Growers and Advisers.
• Further improvements to the sync and operational speeds.
• Draft recommendation creation speed is vastly improved.
• Bug fix for Advisers when viewing a sowing operation.
• My favourite products are now synced with the website.
• Adviser account syncing improvements for large accounts.
• Photo syncing to the website has been enhanced.

The update is now available from the Apple App Store and Google Play.

GrainGrowers and FAR are pleased to announce ProductionWise App version 1.5.1

Grower App Improvements

• New action page after selecting a farm to simplify app navigation
• Action page provides access to diary, recommendations, farm plans and the farm map
• Recommendation PDFs saved to the app can be viewed offline whilst in the paddock
• Farm Plan PDFs can be viewed from the app
• When adding operations to the diary you can use your templates saved on the website
• Added support for growers who have multiple adviser connections
• Grain harvests can now capture grain price like the website

Fixes & Improvements

• Improved templates so they calculate growing windows correctly
• Improved templates handling of grazing operations

The update is now available from the Apple App Store and Google Play