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Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version. If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, Click here for options. New Resources for Updating Undergraduate Technical SkillsPublished by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org Citation: Paper number 058008, 2005 ASAE Annual Meeting . (doi: 10.13031/2013.19673) @2005Authors: Robert M. Peart, Author W. David Shoup Keywords: Simulation, management, linear programming, scheduling, reliability, geographic information systems, global positioning systems, precision agriculture, equipment capacity, crop losses, machinery fixed costs, agricultural systems management, expert systems, queueing theory, artificial intelligence Our undergraduates need to be more skillful with readily-available computer tools to be able to handle problems in the real world. Technologies such as precision agriculture, expert systems, project scheduling, and simulation have been around for a few years, but more widespread use of such tools can improve efficiency and profitability in many agricultural processes. Agricultural Systems Management students can improve their skills with several of these problems through the use of computer programs and data on a CD that are included with a new book by the authors, Agricultural Systems Management, CRC Press, Boca Rotan, FL. Problems for which data and programs are available include: a) an optimizing program for selecting an array of the 8 least-cost machinery sets for selected acreages of maize and soybean in Illinois; b) color visuals on the CD for precision agriculture that help show the basics of Geographic Information Systems and Global Positioning Systems; c) crop simulation with a small spreadsheet that shows how a crop simulator can be used, and how it works; d) a spreadsheet simulator, CROPPLAN, that accounts for machinery capacity, daily weather, crop variety (maize or soybean), and starting date to simulate field operations as well as the daily crop development and yield, so that different planting dates, machine capacities, etc., may be compared. Other chapters cover reliability of systems, waiting lines that cause a waste of resources due to non-productive waiting, linear programming for optimum use of resources, project scheduling, fixed and variable costs, and a simplified method of understanding and writing expert systems using HTML statements for Web pages. (Download PDF) (Export to EndNotes)
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