Get the Big Picture with COMPASS Grower Advanced

Mar 12, 2015

2015 Precision Agriculture Conference Breakout Session

How many tools do you use to manage your operation? From data inputs, accounting and marketing management responsibilities, the number of tools needed to make informed decisions is endless…until now.

A partnership between BASF and Affinity Management wants to help you streamline your business with the launch of an all-in-one mobile farm data management system that allows growers to have complete control of data from farm inputs to accounting. Scheduled to be available in the summer of 2015, Compass Grower Advanced is a central solution for your agriculture business needs.

Andrew Elgersma, Grower Services Manager with BASF, and Trevor McCormick, Business Solutions Manager with Affinity Management explained the tool and provided a live demonstration to attendees at a breakout session at the 2015 Precision Agriculture Conference.

“The tool helps growers by enabling them to make more informed decisions and get valuable reporting on crop, financial, and grain marketing data in one solution,” said Elgersma.

Some features of Compass Grower Advance include data security, mobiles access, real-time report generation, GIS/GPS mapping, crop budgeting and more. The tool collects valuable information from machinery, such as tractors, combines, and sprayers and delivers it to one location.

The tool is based on a secured cloud-based Microsoft system and is compatible with smartphones, tablets, PC and MAC. McCormick demonstrated the tool to the audience while using his iPad. The easy to use tool allows you to manage your information with the ease of drop down menus, as well as customizable features. The tool also allows you to add multiple users and provides you with the option to change permissions for each user, based on their role in your business.

Some other unique features of Compass Grower Advanced include taking photos with your smartphone from the field and uploading them to the tool in real time, as well as an easy to use calculator to help with best processes and blended results.

Get one-to-one online training and ongoing user support from the dedicated Affinity Management support team, located in Ontario.

If you’re interested in Compass Grower Advanced and have questions, including how to get the tool, please contact BASF’s AgSolutions Customer Care: https://agro.basf.ca/basf/agprocan/agsolutions/ASMain.nsf/contactUs?OpenNavigator.

Video: Finding a Balance of Innovation and Regulation - Dr. Peter Facchini

Regulations help markets and industry exist on level playing fields, keeping consumers safe and innovation from going too far. However, incredibly strict regulations can stunt innovation and cause entire industries to wither away. Dr. Peter James Facchini brings his perspective on how existing regulations have slowed the advancement of medical developments within Canada. Given the international concern of opium poppy’s illicit potential, Health Canada must abide by this global policy. But with modern technology pushing the development of many pharmaceuticals to being grown via fermentation, is it time to reconsider the rules?

Dr. Peter James Facchini leads research into the metabolic biochemistry in opium poppy at the University of Calgary. For more than 30 years, his work has contributed to the increased availability of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthetic genes to assist in the creation of morphine for pharmaceutical use. Dr. Facchini completed his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto before completing Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky in 1992 & Université de Montréal in 1995.