Forage Screen




















The Forage screen has an attached Forage/Plant Test record for its Source Test identification. This is also a dual purpose screen, where you can specify forage for grazing and the amount scattered for a particular number of animals over a given number of days, or you can specify forage that you are harvesting and the amount harvested from a particular number of acres. When the Harvest radio button is chosen, the field containing the number of animals is changed to a field containing the number of acres (you will probably leave the Days field blank for harvest forage).

Like the Plant/Crop Analysis screen, you can also specify up to three weeds prevalent in this forage. This information may be used to select your herbicide for future crops on this field, and may give you an indication of a possibility to examine if you are having problems with your livestock or milk production in conjunction with this field.

Bales Conversion Menu





















If you don't know the tonnage that you are feeding or harvesting, you can get an estimate of this amount by entering in the number of bales in the Tons field, then clicking on the Tons button in the Forage screen. This brings up the Bales Conversion menu, as shown above, from which you can select the type of hay and size of bales you are using from a grid of weights, enter the percentage loss that you expect , and get an estimated tonnage based on this information. Click on the horizontal bar between the % loss and the Tons fields to see the final tone amount from the information that you have entered.

You can also enter the number of bales and the weight per bale directly into this screen if you don't see a description of the type and size of bales that you are using. When the calculation has been completed, click on the Accept button to copy that amount into the Tons field of the Forage screen, or click on the Cancel button to ignore the results and leave the Tons field as it was.

Farm Information Print Menu























When you click on the Print Current or Print Selected buttons in the Farm Information screen, you will then be able to pick and choose among the Tests and Applications that you want included in the two reports. The first report printed lists the Test results and the second report printed lists the Applications to the Fields. This second report is the same report that you can print from the Field Information screen. You can either print the test and applications reports, or the field and farm costs report.

To exclude any of the results, click on the box to the left of the result descriptions in this menu so that they don't have an X in them. (The X in the box indicates that this result will be included in the report.) If you click on the Select All button, all of the results will be selected for printed. Clicking on the Clear All removes all of the results, and you will have to select the ones you want individually.

You can also enter in a date range (mm/dd/yy), or just a starting or ending date, to print a report for a particular date period, or from or up to a particular date. To exclude your name and address from the reports, click on the Exclude Identification box. As with all reports, a print preview allows on-screen viewing before actually printing the report. If the report doesn't need to be printed, at the printer selection box, press Cancel.

Soil Test Print Menu






















When printing reports from one of the Test screens using Print Current for this test or Print Selected for all tests, you can select reports that look like what you see on the screen, or with the fields for each test in a column to get up to three tests on a page, or in a format that you would see if you received that report from the testing lab. At this time, only the Soil Test Lab report is available for the third option (please let CES know of other tests that you want printed out).

Before selecting the Report Type, you can have the test results printed on individual pages for each test by clicking on the Single Test per Page check box. Otherwise, multiple tests for the Screen and Column reports by be placed on the same printed page. To exclude your name and address from the report(s), click on the Exclude Identification box.

Field Information Print Menu






















 

The printing options from the Field Information screen using Print Current or Print Selected are similar to those from the Farm Information Screen, except that only the Applications report is printed. Again, you can select the Application categories that you want included in the report, as well as a date range or date boundary. In addition to the Applications report, you can also produce reports for federal and state restricted use pesticide applications and state Reg 5 animal waste applications (for which you will probably want to specify a date range). If the box is checked to include the Field Cost Summary, it will be printed immediately after the other reports.

After filling in any of these print menus, a print preview screen is displayed, showing the report on the screen. Then the Windows Print menu will be displayed so you can select the printer that you want to print on. If you need multiple copies, you can also specify the number of copies in the Windows Print menu. You'll have to specify this twice from the Farm Information screen, since two reports will be printed and since the Windows Print menu is brought up each time for the two reports. If the reports don't need to be printed, select Cancel from the Windows Print menu.

Back Up Databases Menu























The Back Up Databases function copies all of your farm, field, tests, and applications data, along with the supporting databases, if desired, to a floppy disk on drive A: or drive B:, or to another directory that you entered. No compression is performed on this data, so if you need to restore it, you can just use the Windows File Manager or the DOS Copy command to select and copy all of those files in that data set back into your FarmMgmt directory, replacing the files currently in that directory (don't just copy some of them - the links between the database records would probably be off if you didn't restore the entire set). Even though the databases are saved at the beginning of the program, you should still back up your data on floppies periodically to guard against disk crashes or other problems that may corrupt those saved data bases as well, along with keeping historical files should you not wish to leave all of your previous season's or year's information in the current databases.

If you have suggestions for any other reports, or if you have any additional comments or suggestions for the Farm Management program, please contact Becky Bridges at the Cooperative Extension Service at (501) 671-2000.