Phoenix Products
Hi Mark
I think Ian is suffering from a Grazing program addiction – what can we do to fix the problem?
His entries are so far up to date that I fear he is going out to move stock just to get more entries!! He has never been so up to date with his paddock book records – EVER!
He is using it predominately for livestock movements, but also using the COMMENTS to enter any livestock husbandry (dip, drench etc) which we use in the reporting as well. I know it is not designed to record the livestock husbandry, but it does exactly what we want it to do without being too complex.
We have entered the feed demands and rainfall and can see that this will all become more meaningful when we have a bit more historical data.
Thought you might appreciate the feedback.
Thanks for all your help!
Brenda
Ian & Brenda McColl
Umbercollie
Goondiwindi Qld 4390
I think Ian is suffering from a Grazing program addiction – what can we do to fix the problem?
His entries are so far up to date that I fear he is going out to move stock just to get more entries!! He has never been so up to date with his paddock book records – EVER!
He is using it predominately for livestock movements, but also using the COMMENTS to enter any livestock husbandry (dip, drench etc) which we use in the reporting as well. I know it is not designed to record the livestock husbandry, but it does exactly what we want it to do without being too complex.
We have entered the feed demands and rainfall and can see that this will all become more meaningful when we have a bit more historical data.
Thought you might appreciate the feedback.
Thanks for all your help!
Brenda
Ian & Brenda McColl
Umbercollie
Goondiwindi Qld 4390
Subject: A long time ago
Hi,
While reading your latest Newsletter (September) I noticed that Phoenix was first released nearly 23 years ago in 1987, which is a long time ago.
I knew that I had been using Phoenix for quite some time, so decided to do a category search and discovered the following:-
- First started using Phoenix in April 1991 (coming on to 20 years), when the NSW Dept. of Ag. had adopted it for their Farm Cheque programme.
- The first version of Phoenix I bought cost $955 exclusive (yes, before GST was even thought of).
- But first I had to buy a Hard disc drive ($749 exclusive) for my Tandy computer that I was sharing with my teenage son.
How technology has changed since the Tandy. Now I use a laptop that I load into a docking station each morning running two monitors, system connected and backed up to another office computer and running Phoenix Live which is the best thing since sliced bread!!!!!!!!
I thought Phoenix Live was pretty important, not only for online help but for constant backup. But I did not fully appreciate the importance of live backup until just recently when my laptop crashed, as within a few hours I had reinstalled Phoenix on my Office computer with one phone call and an email from AGDATA. Seriously I was more stressed out losing the laptop than I was with Phoenix.
I don’t know how long Mark Leahy has been with AGDATA, but I first met him when the Dept. of Ag. used to run three day Phoenix workshops at Yanco, and as I am now 64 years old and with our children all long gone, his online help and the others at AGDATA is always appreciated.
I’ve been in the Seed Industry for 20 years now and some five years ago I set up a stand-alone company called Superior Seed Co.
I used Glenys Sawers to set up our invoicing system, again using Phoenix and it has been ideal scenario where I have been able to use identical enterprises, categories to those that I am using on the farm so the transition from running one set of books to two was relatively smooth.
The best thing about Phoenix is that AGDATA appears to extensively road test upgrades before releasing. Look at the introduction of GST, we were all freaking out right up to the last minute – but apart from the initial learning period it really was a non-event.
Compare that to another farm planning programme that I used for about five years. It always had problems, and I’m sure in their haste to get it up and running, they never really road tested it sufficiently i.e. simple things like it wasn’t possible to have more than one crop in the same paddock etc! It just only got more complicated when loading in aerial maps, etc and in the end I stopped using it some 15 years ago – I just didn’t need that level of stress for the few benefits I was gaining from it.
Enough of the nostalgia trip,
Ian R. Lea,
Superior Seed Co.
“The Phoenix program has proven for me, reliable and so very easy to use. For many years now it has been an all-round great asset to my business, all with minimal ongoing costs! Thank you AGDATA for a product well made.”
Marg Jones,
Kaimkillembun.
