Bill
Primary tabs
History
- Member for
- 11 years 5 months
Contributions
Stream of Forum Topics
| In 50 characters or less... | Posted by | Post date | Last comment | Number of Comments | # of Comments new to you | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Urban/Rural Farm Hack Chicago 2015 | Bill | Friday, February 27, 2015 - 5:03pm | Friday, February 27, 2015 - 5:03pm | 0 | |
 |
Cool Crop Planning Tool! | Bill | Friday, June 13, 2014 - 9:53am | Friday, June 13, 2014 - 9:53am | 0 | |
 |
One-Time Price Variations | Bill | Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 5:07pm | Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 5:07pm | 0 | |
|
|
Labor Cost Calculator | Bill | Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 5:05pm | Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 5:05pm | 0 | |
|
|
Paper Records Templates | Bill | Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 4:57pm | Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 4:57pm | 0 | |
|
|
Which Crops / Varieties To Track? | Bill | Monday, April 7, 2014 - 12:37pm | Monday, April 7, 2014 - 12:37pm | 0 | |
|
|
Updated platform, added example data | Bill | Friday, March 28, 2014 - 1:32pm | Monday, March 31, 2014 - 10:47am | 2 | |
|
|
Pictures/Diagrams? | Bill | Wednesday, March 5, 2014 - 2:20pm | Monday, April 7, 2014 - 5:57pm | 1 | |
 |
Pulley System | Bill | Wednesday, March 5, 2014 - 2:14pm | Wednesday, March 5, 2014 - 2:14pm | 0 | |
|
|
How does it work? | Bill | Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - 8:50am | Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 9:22am | 2 |
Good Evening Johan,
I am happy to hear that this tool looks useful to you. The good news is that the "English" system of measurement is not really built in to the tool; some things include labels with "/ft," for example, but there is no conversion being done and you could just imagine that it says "/m" or "Row Meters." In other words, the units will not affect the calculations. You can use any units you like, as long as you do it consistently.
The same idea applies to the currency; the "$" symbol is built in to the spreadsheet, but you can use the tool as if that symbol stood for kronor.
As for the names of the crops, those are always entered by the user (you). If you sign up for the tool, you will receive a blank copy, and you can use any crop names you want. They don't even have to be any natural language; you could use a secret code if you wanted to.
All of that aside, if you try the tool and think you will use it, I can work with you to change the units and the currency in your copy. It will not change the function of the tool, but maybe it will make things easier for you and your team.
Best, Bill
That's some pretty cool stuff. I'll be keeping an eye out for updates!
Somehow I just found this thread. Are you all still out there? I've continued developing and testing my tool, and I recently had a really good conversation with Todd Jones about his project on the planning side of things. I'd love to talk to anyone who's still thinking about / working on these things.
I like this. Maybe we should talk about collaborating: see my project at http://farmhack.net/tools/record-keeping-profitability-analysis-tool We could geek out on spreadsheets.
That looks like a good way to do it. If you want to see the newest version, there is a link on the tool page. Also, it's https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Bv4dCQZ7b4RdUZq0SyUMJK8x52l5Eq1LzSp-DIJOdQI/edit?usp=sharing Setting up a Google Form here seems like a good way to go, and maybe I can write a script to create copies for beta testers. I'll look into that. In the meantime, if you like what you see on the Farm Hack demo copy of the tool, I can send you your own copy.
Yes, I am interested in a translation.
Good to know; thanks.
Mike!
That sounds excellent. I've known for a while that this thing really should be a database, but I like the accessibility of Google Drive and I don't know how to achieve the same thing in a database without having to worry about having it hosted on somebody's server somewhere. I also want to keep it free. It sounds like you have some ideas about how to make it work, though.
I'm definitely on board with creating a better user interface; I've been toying with the idea of creating a linked Google Form, but that sounds a bit clunky to me. I have a friend who is a mobile app developer, and I've been meaning to try to get him involved, too. This thing really won't be anything until there's a mobile app for doing data entry from the fields.
Brainstorming sounds great. When's good for you?
Bill
Dorn,
Sorry I never got back to you. The Open Office and Excel versions are now both obsolete. The current version is Google Sheets. I have a working copy that I can share, but there is a newer version in the works. Anyway, here is version 0.2: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ar4Ct8viQWP7dG94VURNbERTeFRpNXphRTZRbjJnbXc&usp=sharing I haven't made detailed instructions yet, but the description above is still accurate. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Bill
Hi Mary,
I sent you an e-mail, but I think it may have ended up in your spam folder. I would definitely be interested in working with you. If you are still interested, e-mail me at bladdcawthorne@glynwood.org.
Bill
Where do we start?
Daniel,
Great pictures; it looks like it's well under way. One thing I can't quite see is how it is actually rolled up and down. Do you just have a person at either end and roll it up like a rug, or are you thinking about something with ropes and pulleys, for example?
Bill
I looked at your Crop Planning Software a while back, and looked interesting. However, I didn't spend the time to really learn it and enter any meaningful data. I've also been messing around with AgSquared, but I think I broke it by trying to do something too complicated.
Anyway, I would be interested in potentially working together. Feel free to e-mail me at bladdcawthorne@glynwood.org.
I think we could run a line into the analog input through a resistor, and run the Arduino off the fence charger itself. Would you be interested in collaborating on this? I think it would be extremely useful for those farmers doing rotational grazing, especially with escape-prone animals such as goats.
I'm not sure how what you are describing would work with the record keeping tool. Perhaps I could send you a copy and see what you think. Do you have MS Excel 2007 or later for Windows? Or Open Office?
RJ:
I've finished converting the tool to Open Office format, and I'm sending it to your e-mail address now.
Well, Open Office seems to have problems with some of the functions I used, so that's going to take a little more work to resolve. It's also not as pretty as the way I had it formatted in Excel, but I guess that's okay. Hopefully I'll have it ready to go in the next few days.
Hmm, yeah, I thought about Open Office as a possible platform, but I haven't really looked into it yet. I'm going to install it and see if everything works correctly, in which case I'll send the file on.
Hey, I think I just sent you a message about a different project I'm doing. Was that you?
Anyway, the boss says it's okay to share our real data, so I'll just have to make sure everything's in order before I send the file. Do you have a recent version of Excel for Windows to view it with? Also, can I have an e-mail address to send it to?
-Bill
Hi RJ,
Right now what I'm working with is built around our farm's data, or at least includes some approximations of real data for testing. I just asked permission to share that, so we'll see. Meanwhile, I'm working on making a blank template with protected formulas for other people to use, but I keep making changes to the original and that's slowing me down. Either way, I'll try to have something pretty soon that you can look at. The biggest thing missing right now is how to handle materials costs. Anyway, you'll see what I mean. I'll be in touch.
That should be doable. What's your farm called, and where are you? So far the most functional version of the tool I have is one built around some of our data in MS Excel. I am in the process of turning that into a blank template, but the thing keeps evolving and that slows me down. Do you have a recent version of Excel? I'm also working on modifying it to work in Google Sheets; that way it will not require expensive MS software and it will be cloud-based. The features of Sheets are somewhat limited, though, so that conversion is slow going, too.