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Computer Programs
Farm Management System Computer Program
Guide
Page 2
Tests/Applications Record Keeping System
Version 1.5 -
November 1999
Farm Information Screen •
Field Information Screen •
Soil Test Screen •
Crop Code Menu •
Crop Code Search Menu •
Browse Soil Tests Window •
Search Criteria Screen
Farm Information
Screen
The first screen that you see is the Farm Information screen, as shown
above. It will contain your address and other general information about your farm. You can
enter information for one or more farms (or gardens), giving each a different farm number
of other designation. You can also use a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit to determine
the latitude and longitude of your tested soil, water, fields, etc., and enter this
information to maintain precise locations for your tested materials and fields.
The buttons in the upper right corner are similar to those found on every screen of the
Farm Management program. To select a button, move the arrow cursor to it using your mouse
and click on it with the left mouse button, or, use the <Tab> key to get to it
(which is indicated by an outline around the button) and press the <ENTER> key to
select it, or hold down the Alt key and press the underlined letter in the button to
select it. The four arrow buttons allow you to go to the first record, previous record,
next record, or last record in the active database of the screen. (These have nothing to
do with the four adjacent Add, Edit, Delete, and Exit buttons!) The Add button adds a new
record to the database and allows you to enter information into the screen for that
record. If you change your mind about adding it, use the Delete button to delete that new
record instead of saving it for canceling (See the Save and Cancel button descriptions
below.)
The Edit button allows you to change the information in the currently displayed
record. When you press the Edit button, the record is locked for editing and the
button changes to Save. At the same time, the Exit button changes to Cancel.
To go from field to field, either press the <ENTER> key or the <TAB> key (or
Shift-Tab to go to the previous field), or use your mouse to click on the next field. The
<Tab> key is probably best to use, since it highlights the entire field and replaces
that field's information with what you type into it; whereas, using the mouse may place
you somewhere inside the field to insert or write over from the point instead of at the
beginning of the field. When you are in a text field, you can also use the Left and Right
Arrow keys as well as the <Home> and <End> keys to move around in the field.
After you have made your changes or entered data, click on the Save button to
save your changes (after which the Save button will change back to Edit
and the Cancel button will change back to Exit). If you change your mind
and want to revert back to the original information, you can press the Cancel
button instead of the Save button to restore that information; however, if you
have already pressed the Save button the original information is lost and you
will need to put the original information back in yourself if you want to revert back to
that previous information. You will then be asked to verify that the current phone number
is the phone number needed to identify this farm and link it with it's supporting records.
The Delete button deletes the current record after asking you to confirm the
delete. Once a record has been deleted, it can't be restored unless you enter it back in
by hand. Be aware that if you delete a Farm Management record, you won't be able to get to
any of it's Test or Field records unless you add back another Farm Management record with
the same Phone and Farm/Garden Number. If this happens, you can select the All Tests for
All Farms radio button at the bottom of the screen to get to those tests, which doesn't
try to match the displayed tests to the current Phone and Farm Numbers.
The Exit button exits from the current screen back to the previous screen, or
exits from the Farm Management program back to Windows if you are at the Farm Information
screen. If the record is currently locked for edit, the changes will be saved and the
record unlocked automatically before exiting the screen. This automatic unlocking is also
true for most of the other buttons.
The Print Current button prints the information for the current record. There
are usually several layouts you can select from for the report, as well as an optional
date range to be printed, which is done from a selection menu that is displayed. You will
also be given the opportunity to select a particular printer to use for the report. Two
types of reports can be printed from this screen: (1) Tests and applications, and (2)
field cost summary report. When the report for Tests and applications is
selected, there are two reports printed from the Farm Information screen - the first
report gives all tests conducted for the farm, and the second report gives all of the
applications to the fields on that farm. The field cost summary report displays one report
per field and gives total acreage, cost per acre and cost per field. Each one of these
reports has a preview feature to allow viewing before printing. You may also notice a time
lag of a couple of seconds between when the report has finished being sent to your printer
and when you can continue working in the current screen. Just be patient; the program is
resetting the databases to their original record positions and cleaning up after the
complex reports.
The Print Selected button prints the information for all records, or for the
subset of records selected through the Search menu. You can also make similar layout and
date range selections as those for Print Current. If you don't see all the
records you expected to see in your report, you may have to go back through the Search
menus and clear the search criteria to print all of the records you expect. Don't forget
that you might also need to go through the child-level Search menus to clear them as well,
such as the Soil Test Search menu, before printing from parent-level screens, such as the
Farm Information screen.
The Search button brings up a Search menu to allow you to specify a value or
range of values for any of the fields in the currently active database. You can select a
field to search, and specify one or more values or ranges of values as the search criteria
for that field. You can then do the same for other fields in the database to narrow your
search further. It will then match and display only those records for which each field
selected matches the search criteria given for that field. On numeric fields, besides just
entering single values, such as 10, you can also enter closed-end ranges, such as 10-20,
as well as open-ended ranges, such as 10-, or -20, to specify just a minimum value or
maximum value. You can save and restore those criteria using a criteria file, so that you
can keep using a specific set of search criteria from session to session without having to
enter the criteria in each time you want to use it. This search criteria file has a .scf
extension.
The Browse button brings up the set of records in the current database in a
grid-like browse window, which you can scroll through horizontally and vertically (using
the scroll bars along the lower and right sides of the browse widow). This allows you to
see multiple records on the same screen without having to go through each one of them
sequentially on the Test, Field, or Application screens. When you are finished looking at
them, press the escape key to exit out of the browse window. In some cases, you can also
select a record (by clicking on one of its fields with the mouse or using the up and down
arrow keys and press the <Enter> key to go directly to that record) and display its
resulting screen. You cannot change any of the values from the browse windows.
Those are the primary buttons you will see on most of the screens. You can get help on
any of the buttons or screen fields by pressing <F1> when that control is selected
(by tabbing to it), or on the current screen by pressing <Shift-F1>. Also, if you
press <Alt-F1>, the"Where Am I" key, you will be shown a list of
information about the current records you are on (farm, field, application, test).
The Farm Information screen also contains the Field ID/Application button to
bring up the Field Screen for information about the fields and applications of materials,
fertilizer and pesticides that you make to those fields. The Soil Test button
displays the Soil Test screen for you to enter soil test data into. There are similar
buttons for Water Tests, Manure Tests (for fertilizer and feed), and Forage/Plant
Tests (for forage and crops). Finally, the Back Up Databases button allows you to
back up your current data to a floppy disk on drives A: or B:, or to another directory. If
needed, this set of files can then be copied directly back to the FarmMgmt directory,
replacing the databases that are currently in that directory, in order to revert back to
the data saved at that time.
You cannot go to the Test records or Field records without first having a Farm
Information record, so, the first thing you need to do it to Add your Farm
Information record with your address, phone number(s), and general information about your
farm. You can either select Farm or Garden fields - differing in that some of the
information and recommendations are entered in acres or in thousand square feet increments
for those measurements. If you have both farms and gardens, just enter two Farm Management
records, specifying Farm for one and Garden for the other (but, note that you need to
enter unique phone numbers for them, as discussed on the next page).
When entering a new farm record and number, the programs asks for confirmation that
this farm's data will be identified by the phone number entered. After answering yes, if
another farm already exists, the program asks for confirmation to convert all existing
records of the original farm to the new farm. Answer "no" unless you would like
all previous records to be connected to this new farm; most users need to answer
"no" to this question. If application and test records appear to be linked to
farms mistakenly, the records were probably linked when a new farm was added.
The 6-character Farm Number (or Garden Number) can be a numeric value or some other
identification that you might want to use to specify distinct farms. You'll also enter
similar identifiers for your 20-character fields and samples. The only requirements are
that they be unique, and that you use the same capitalization and spelling to specify the
same farm or field. The Total Acres and Test Acres tell how large your farm is and how
much of it is being tested. These two values are copied to new Test and Field records as
you add them (although you can change them in those new records), and those acreages are
subsequently used in some screen and report calculations (such as Manure Rate Analysis and
Reg 5 reports).
The Latitude and Longitude entries allow you to maintain precise locations if you have
GPS equipment to show your locations as you collect and use test material. These values
are in degrees, minutes, and seconds, and are stored as ddd.mm.ssss. Whenever a new Test
or Field record is added, these two values are copied to it. They can either be positive
or negative. For North America, the Latitude will be positive (above the equator) and the
Longitude will be negative (west of Greenwich, England). Arkansas is around +36 degrees
latitude and -94 degrees longitude. Later on, we may be able to use these values to plot
maps of materials used and test results, which may lead to better recommendations for soil
amendments in the future.
There are Comment areas for many of the screens in which you can maintain whatever
additional information you want to, such as values for tests not specified in the Test
screens. This information may also be used in special reports, such as for restricted-use
pesticides, in specifying additional data required in those reports. Note that these
comments aren't printed on multiple database reports, since the report writer can't handle
floating comment fields very easily.
To link this farm's records in all of the databases used for the fields, tests, and
applications, the phone number that you enter into this screen is encoded and placed into
every record in those databases. If you have more than one farm, or if you have both farm
and garden fields, you need to enter different phone numbers in each of the Farm
Information records that you add so that the program can link the proper records together.
This link is not automatically generated, since we may want to combine databases from
around the state to check for trends and do other state-wide analysis at some future date.
The phone number is encoded to protect the identity of individual farmers in the combined
databases, and the other identifying information will be blanked out at that time. If you
happen to change phone numbers, the encoded value is changed in all of the other
databases. Otherwise, it wouldn't know to link the previous records with subsequent
records that you add. Since it gets this global key from your Farm Information record, you
should never delete all of your Farm Information records - keep at least one of them (you
can, however, edit the information in that record, including the phone number, as needed).
Position the desired Farm Information record on the screen using arrow keys. The Field
ID information can now be entered by selecting the Field ID/Application button.
Note how the Garden or Farm number (whichever pertains to this record), acreage, usage,
longitude and latitude numbers are carried forward as defaults to the Field
Description/Application record.
Field Information Screen
The Field Information Screen contains a description of the field and what crop(s) or
forage(s) is/are being grown on it on the date specified. When you plant new crops during
the same growing season, you should probably add a new Field ID record for each planting.
The Animal Waste information is entered for regulatory reporting. There is also permit
and other reporting information entered in on the Restricted Use Pesticide screen (shown
later). Standardized reports for this information will need to be added later on when
those reporting requirements can be defined.
It wasn't possible to place all of the applications and amendments onto one screen, so
they were split up into individual small screens which are displayed in the bottom third
of this Field information screen as they are selected, using the row of buttons along the
bottom. That way, you can still see most, if not all, of the field information as you work
with those individual screens. Even their browse windows are displayed in that bottom area
to leave the field information visible.
Soil Test Screen
The Soil Test screen contains test results for all or a subset of compounds. When a subset
of the tests is entered, the remaining values and their names are greyed, such that the
names are made very light and the values are made invisible. Those values are also
reported as "n/a" (not applicable) on reports containing slots for them.
Up to three Crop Codes can be selected from a pull-down menu for each one. If there are
less than three codes specified, the Recommendations column for the unspecified crop codes
is greyed, as shown above for the third code. These recommendations are from the tests
results you receive back from the lab (and would be in lbs/1000 sq ft for gardens). The
Farm Management program itself does not make recommendations.
The date should probably be that at which the sample was taken, instead of the date
that the test was performed or the date that the results were returned, in order to get
the most accurate picture (which could then be related to weather and other occurrences
that day). The Depth is that at which the soil sample was taken, and is given in inches. A
zero value indicates that this sample was top soil. The remaining values are fairly
self-explanatory.
Crop Code Menu
To select the Crop Code, click on the down arrow attached to the Crop Code field to
display the Crop Code pull-down menu. You can then either scroll up and down in the menu,
using the attached scroll bar along the right side of the menu, and click on the entry
that you want to select (there are several hundred codes in this list), or you can click
on the Search for Crop entry to search for a Crop Code containing a particular string or a
particular sounding word. To use the scroll bar, click on the up and down arrows on the
top and bottom of the bar to move the line one line. To move the thumbpad (the small box
between the arrows), press and hold down your left mouse button after moving the mouse
arrow to its center, and slide it up or down, releasing the mouse button when the thumbpad
is where you want (top, middle, or bottom of list). To erase the entry for the Crop Code,
select the Clear Crop Code entry in the menu.
Note that the Locked for Edit message is displayed above the Comments field, and that the
Edit button (below the Add button) has been changed to a Save button. If you had not
selected the Edit button to lock the record for editing, you would not now be able to
bring up the Crop Code menu (or perform any other editing functions).
Crop Code Search Menu
If you don't know the exact wording or spelling for a particular Crop Code, you can use
the Crop Code Search menu to list all entries containing a particular word. If you select
the Soundex Search check box, it will perform a search for all entries that sound like the
word that you enter (which takes a few seconds longer), but you may get unexpected entries
or not see what you want. For example, if you enter barlie and use the Soundex
Search, it will find all entries with barley in them. Without the Soundex Search,
nothing would match against barlie if that's what had been entered.
To perform the search, enter the word you are looking for, check the Soundex Search box if
you want to use that option, and click on the Search button. You can then scroll through
the resulting list and double click (click the left mouse button twice quickly) on the
entry that you want to select it and copy it to the Crop Code field, or single click on it
and click on the Select button to select and copy it. If you don't find what you want, you
can perform other searches, or click on the Cancel button to get out of the Search menu.
Browse Soil Tests Window
If you want to see several Soil Tests quickly on the same screen, you can select the
Browse button on the Soil Test screen to display a grid-like view of the tests, where each
field is in its own column, and each record is in its own row. Use the scroll bars on the
right and bottom sides of the Browse window to scroll down and across. Note that you
cannot make any changes to the data from a browse window, even if you had locked the
record for editing before you clicked on the Browse button.
If you see a record that you want to go to, click on one of its fields using the mouse,
or use the arrow keys to move to it, and then press the enter key. This will close the
Browse window and bring up the selected record in the Soil Test screen. Otherwise, press
the ESCape key to close the Browse window and display the original Soil Test record.
All of the other Test and Application screens have similar Browse buttons and windows,
differing only in the data displayed by them.
Search Criteria Screen
To find records in the active database that contain particular values, press the Search
button to get to the Search Criteria screen. From this screen, click on the Field that you
want to search on (the ST prefix here means Soil Test), then type in the value to search
for in the Search text entry field. When you click on the Field, it automatically
positions you to the Search field, so you can just begin typing the value immediately.
You can either search for a particular value, or, if it is a numeric value, a
particular range of values. For a range, enter the minimum value, followed by a dash,
followed by the maximum value, such as 10-20. You can also leave off the minimum or
maximum value to provide an open-ended range, such as 10- or -20. If the field can only
contain certain values and you don't put in a proper value, you will be informed of the
proper values for that field. Note that capitalization is significant.
To delete one of the search criteria values or ranges, click on it in the Field
Criteria list and press the Delete key. To delete all of the search criteria for
a particular field, click on the field in the Select Field list, then click on the Clear
List button. To delete all of the search criteria for all of the fields, click on the
Clear All button.
As you select and enter additional criteria, and Active Search Criteria string is
constructed and a search is performed, indicating how many records Match this current
criteria string. If this count ever approaches zero, you may want to add additional
criteria for one of the fields you are searching on, or remove criteria and possible, add
modified criteria back to get records that match.
The Restore Active button copies the Active Search Criteria into the Field
Criteria and Select Field criteria counts. This allows you to get back to a search where
matching was successful, since the Active Search Criteria string it not updated if adding
a criteria would cause the Match count to go to zero. (The previous search criteria will
be reissued if there are not matching records for the current search criteria.)
When you've finished with the criteria, click on the Search button to get back
to the Soil Test screen and display only those records matching the criteria, or click on
the Clear button to clear the search and allow all records to be displayed. Where
there is an active Search filter, the Search button will contain a count of the
matching records found when the search was performed (which is not updated if records are
added or deleted). Be careful about adding records when a Search filter is active. If you
scroll through the database, you may not see the record that you just added if it doesn't
match that filter.
If you want to save the Search criteria to a file, click on the Criteria File
button to specify the file (with a .scf extension) to save it to. Subsequent criteria can
also be saved to this file by clicking on the Save Criteria button. To restore
one of the Search criteria that you have saved, click on the Restore Criteria
button to bring up a list of saved criteria strings that you can then select from.
Note: You can't use the Criteria File buttons or bring up help on the Search Criteria
Screen when you have reached this screen via the Soil Test screen (or there Test screens)
when called from any of the Field Application screens. There is a limit in FoxPro which
would cause your program to crash when too many screens are nested like that. (FarmMgmt
detects this and prevents those screens from coming up.) Sorry about that - there's
nothing that I can do to change that nesting limit.
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