Not rendering correctly? View this email as a web page here.

FarmSMART                  September 2019
Deer Reflection
Seasonal Reflections.

Harvest is off to a slow start in much of the Midwest.  So while you're waiting for crops to mature or for a truck to load we invite you to reflect and learn from last month's Ag Software Success Summit.  All presentations are now online and ready for viewing on you phone, tablet or PC on the updated Conference website, which even includes a form to pre-register for next year's Summit, August 17-20, 2020.

Also in this month's newsletter:

                             SDG



Videos from the 2019 Ag Software Success Summit

MASA Cropped

Last month we reported on and linked to the Ag Software Success Summit keynote presentation:  "The Converence of FinTech and AgTech" by Pat Christie from Conservis and Christ Olson from Rabo AgriFinance.

We also covered the introduction of MASA, the Mutual Agricultural Software Alliance through a panel discussion by some of its founders.

This month we'll cover the remaining Conference presentations and activities on Day One (Tuesday, August 20th).

Many-Many Baby Steps

What are the prerequisites for success and predictors of failure in a farm information system?  The "That's Many Baby Steps" video answers these questions and more.


Corn-Soy COP classroom cropped vertically 2018 Corn-Soy COP small

Corn and Soybean Cost of Production Benchmarks by John McNutt, LattaHarris and Moe Russell, Russell Consulting Group report the following:

  • "Labor and machinery variances are just awesome."
  • "Even though machinery costs have effectively doubled since 2010 they are more profitable (because of precision farming technology)."
  • "We're constantly studying (economic) depreciation."
  •  “You can’t manage what you don’t see.”
  • "What amazes me is the variability of the data.  The outliers on the bottom side in most cases don’t know what their data is or if they have it they don’t analyze it and look at it.  You’d think in the last 20 years we would have gotten more sophisticated about knowing where we’re at and headed, but but we still have a long, long way to go."

Click here to watch the Cost of Production Benchmarks video.

Martin MASA Preview

Dr. Martin Traviolia previews development plans for FBS/MASA software.

Celeberation Belle narrow
Flag
Celebraton Belle dinner

Scenes from the Mississippi Dinner/Networking Cruise at the conclusion of Ag Software Success Summit, Day One.

Next month we'll feature Day Two Breakout Sessions.  Click here for a "sneak peek" of all videos on the Summit web page.


Q&A: Valuing Returned Inputs

Q.  I had a return of some chemicals that I didn’t use; however the credit they gave is different from the unit price in FBS.

A. If your credit amount ($/unit) is not the same as your average inventory value it will create a lot of issues.

Sarah 2019

Sarah Dixon,FBS Support Coordinator

1. Run a Crop Inputs Inventory Report for that product through the current date and note the unit price of the ending inventory.  In the example below Deadline Bullets is valued at a $1.5788 unit price which is a weighted average of $1.74 beginning inventory and purchases at $1.43.

Deadline before return

2. Record a Deposit, Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable.  Enter the vendor's applied credit value as Total Amount. On the first line select your "linked" chemical purchase account and record a negative quantity and negative dollar value using the ending inventory unit price. Enter the dollar variance between the applied credit amount and the linked account amount in an unlinked chemical expense account.

Deadline return

Below is the Crop Inputs Inventory Report after recording the return.  Note that the ending inventory unit is still $1.5788 and there are no red or yellow-colored warning message. 

Deadline after return

Q.  Could I have just backed out the inventory at the value of the last purchase?
A.  Yes, but only if there are no applications recorded between the purchase and return dates and the quantity of the return does not exceed the quantity of the purchase.

Another alternative is to "back-date" the return to any time between the original purchase and the application.  However, you still need to be careful to use the correct ending unit price for any "linked" account.

 

 


 

 


Schedule  Demo