As the adoption of site-specific agriculture continues to rapidly increase, SST Software is meeting the challenge of providing quality training over a large, diffused network of growers, consultants, and input suppliers. The SST Software Training Courses are designed to meet the needs of the person who is just beginning to look into adopting precision ag practices as well as those of the seasoned, precision ag veteran. The video tutorials not only guide you through the functionality of SST's suite of software but more importantly educate you on how to extract valuable decision-making information from your data.
New lessons are continually added to the syllabus, so check back often. Just click on any of the links below to get started.
Whether you are new to precision ag or have been collecting years of site-specific data, this overview video will demonstrate how SST's powerful suite of tools will optimize your data collection, planning, and information analysis, resulting in more efficient and effective placement of inputs, timely field scouting, and increased yield.
Collecting field boundaries is the starting point in site-specific farming. These site-specific digital containers will hold your field data from season to season. This video introduces you to the most common methods of collecting a geo-referenced field boundary using SST Summit.
Geo-referenced imagery is unique in that each point of the image has a latitude and longitude associated with it. This allows you to collect spatial data, such as field boundaries, without having to drive the actual field with a GPS receiver. Utilizing geo-referenced imagery allows you to get started immediately, saving a lot of time and money. This tutorial demonstrates how to download geo-referenced imagery and locate your fields for digitizing boundaries.
The Digitizer Tool expediates the acquisition of field boundaries, allowing you to collect field boundaries without leaving your office. Since the digital images are geo-referenced, when you digitize a field boundary using the image, it is practically the same as if you drove around the field using a GPS receiver. The tools incorporated within The Digitizer will be utilized often within SST Summit.
There may be times when you need to calculate a distance while digitizing a field boundary. This tutorial demonstrates how to use the absolute and relative distance tools to calculate measurements and drop reference points
In an effort to reduce field boundary duplication, the Common Field Boundary tools allow a local business to view all of the boundaries associated with its business heirarchy and utilize boundaries within the system before continuing to collect and reduplicate existing boundaries.
The Common Land Unit (CLU) is a unit of agricultural land that is associated with USDA farm programs. Summit has the ability to display regional CLU's and assign them to the Grower/Farm/Field relationship.
The editing tools within The Digitizer allow you to make precise adjustments to the anchor points that define boundaries. This video shares techniques of editing the vertices that make up your field boundary.
Every field has unique features that require adjustments, such as removing uncultivated areas. This video demonstrates how to remove areas such as waterways and ponds that will not be cultivated.
It is often necessary to combine two polygons into one. Some common examples include combining field boundaries, removing uncultivated areas, and merging polygons while digitizing a field boundary. This tutorial will show you how to use the Union Polygons Tool accompanied by various examples.
As you digitize boundaries, there will be fields that share common boundaries. Don't attempt to place a new boundary parallel to the existing one. Instead, allow Summit to automatically snap the common boundaries together. This short tutorial provides some examples of how to use Summit's snapping feature in various digitizing scenarios.
Editing center-pivots with SST Summit is an easy process when using the center-pivot tool found within The Digitizer. This tutorial demonstrates how to digitize center pivots and the surrounding dry acreage.
After digitizing a field boundary, SST Summit will ask you to assign the field to a Grower-Farm-Field relationship. This relationship is established to help you effectively manage, analyze, and move your site-specific data.
If you need to import a field boundary from another precision ag program or data collection device, Summit will allow a standard, non-projected shapefile to be imported into the system. This tutorial shows how to import existing shapefile boundaries and how to assign them to a grower-farm-field relationship.
There are some important rules that apply to updating field boundaries. Understanding the concept of a field's Globally Unique Identifier Number and how it effects the updating process will save you a lot of frustration in the long run.
As more factions of farming have started to collect digital data, the exchange of data has become more complex. SyncNow simplifies the exchange of information between other Summit users who have a particular interest on a specific field.
One of the most powerful benefits of SyncNow is the ability to collaborate and share data with other people who have a vested interest in a particular farm or field. As you establish relationships, SyncNow gives you the ability to control access to any and all parts of your data.
After establishing a SyncNow account, you will want to download the soil types for your fields. SyncNow enables you to collect this data within a matter of minutes.
Accurate and organized record keeping is a key component to successful management practices. This tutorial will introduce you to record keeping within Summit and discuss some key terms, such as operations, attributes, and reference data that are commonly used when referring to the various aspects of record keeping.
Background imagery can be helpful in creating field splits, measuring distances, dropping soil test points, and creating management zones. This tutorial shows how to download various image types into the records section.
In order to standardize data collection across your farms and fields, Summit uses picklists for quick and easy data entry. This tutorial introduces how to setup and populate data within the picklists for a specific farming operation.
Before you save an operation or recommendation, Summit will ask some additional questions regarding the crop season, status of completion, and allow you to add unique titles and notes to the operation.
Summit allows you to collect farm and field data from predefined picklists. Working from picklists makes collecting data faster and cleaner than if you were required to manually type the records. These picklists also standardize data collection across your farm, thus allowing you you to generate powerful information reports.
There will be situations where a particular operation will be different at various areas throughout the field. In this tutorial, we will demonstrate how to go about populating sub-field data with field splits and creating sub-field polygons.
As operations are recorded and recommendations are created, changes that inevitably occur. This tutorial demonstrates how to edit a previously saved operation and fulfill a recommendation, thus making it a saved event.
Summit gives you the ability to create single reports or entire map books from field records. Reports range from basic field boundary reports to harvest reports. This tutorial provides an overview of the record reports section.
Depending on the attributes that are associated with a report, additional settings and secondary attribuites can be applied it. This tutorial reviews the report settings and provides examples of how to create valuable yield determing reports.
The appearance of reports can be adjusted in the Report Settings section. This tutorial will demonstrate how to change report colors, logos, and background images.
SST Stratus is the in-field companion program to SST Summit. Stratus runs on a Pocket PC device and is capable of collecting GPS data. This video guides you through the process of installing Stratus from within Summit via Microsoft Active Sync.
Before you head to the field, you will need to load the appropriate fields and operation data. This tutorial walks you through the process of loading the relevant information from Summit to Stratus.
Before you head to the field, you will need to load the appropriate fields and operation data. This tutorial walks you through the process of loading the relevant information from Summit to Stratus.
Before you head to the field, you will need to load the appropriate fields and operation data. This tutorial walks you through the process of loading the relevant information from Summit to Stratus.
Stratus allows you to create grid sampling schemes while collecting site-specific soil samples. Once the grid is created, you will set up a sampling path, and Stratus will then guide you to the specific points.
Maps layers are displayed along with their associated legends. This tutorial guides you through the stacking order of layers, how to move layers, and various ways to display surface data.
Continuing through the maps pane icons, this tutorial demonstrates features such as the measure tool, print selected layer, and other interaction features.
The statistics pane provides statistical and user information for an acitve layer and allows one to view data for a specific location or site-specific data for multiple map layers.
The legend editor controls how maps are spatially displayed according to classifications of numerical and text data. This tutorial steps through the classification settings dealing with unique items, classification methods, and statistical breaks in data.
The appearance of a map depends on the settings of the legend editor color schemes. This tutorial demonstrates how to change and save color ramps, as well as saving an entire legend scheme.
Summit allows you to create a soil sampling scheme before you head to the field. In this tutorial, we will create a sampling scheme across multiple fields and save it for export to SST Stratus.
When you have bagged all of the soil samples along with collecting geo-referenced points for each bag, you need to transfer the points file from Stratus to Summit. Following this, Summit enables you to print out a barcode report to include with your bagged samples that the soils test lab will scan. By including a barcode report, the lab can use SyncNow to match the lab results to your corresponding points file.
At times, the situation may arise where the barcode report was not included in the box of samples and the lab results are returned as one file. When this happens, you will need to match the specific lab results with the corresponding points. This tutorial demonstrates how to match the geo-referenced points that span across multiple fields to their specific lab result.
When your soils test lab results are ready, you will need to match them to the geo-referenced point files for each field. This tutorial guides you through the process of setting up an automated import format for your specific soils lab.
After the soils lab results are matched with the corresponding geo-referenced points file, we will be able to use FarmRite to create nutrient surface maps. This tutorial takes you through the process of placing an order on FarmRite for specific nutrients and viewing the results within the Maps section.
Following the creation of nutrient surface maps, FarmRite will apply your specified agronomy in order to create nutrient recommendation maps. Since numerous products can be used to satisfy a field's nutrient requirements, the Product Editor is where specific products are associated to corresponding nutrients. From these settings, SST Summit will create product maps that satsify the requirements of the nutrient recommendation maps. This tutorial demonstrates how to set up products via the Product Editor within SST Summit.
When the busy season hits, SST Software understands that every minute counts. When thousands of acres across numerous fields are needing fertility and product recommendations, a few less button clicks per field can end up saving a lot of time. The Auto Create feature in the Product Editor allows for the automatic creation of product recommendations once a fertility recommendation is received from FarmRite. The Create Empty Recs feature allows for the creation of an empty recommendation for fields that do not require a specific nutrient recommendation for that season. This vital part of record keeping includes the empty recommendation surface map in the growers map book, proving that an application was not erroneously overlooked. This tutorial demonstrates the use of both the Auto Create and Create Empty Recs features within SST Summit.
After you have processed fertility data through FarmRite and SST Summit has created the product recommendation maps, you will export the rec maps to the product applicator. This tutorial demonstrates how to export product recommendations for a single or multi-bin applicator.
Summit allows you to export product recommendations via Slingshot to Raven's controllers, such as the Raven ViperPro. This tutorial will demonstrate how to setup a Slingshot Access Key within Summit and export a product rec to a Raven controller.
Summit allows you to create a tank mix recommendation of varying product and export it to an applicator. This tutorial demonstrates how to create a tank mix with three different products within the Records section and export the recommendation to a controller.
Summit's Logistics Tool helps to effectively organize, manage, and dispatch many application requests across multiple farms and fields. This tutorial will guide you through setting up users who will submit dispatch requests and managers who will release the files for application.
Dispatch requests can be sent from product applications that were created from FarmRite nutrient surfaces or from assignments on multiple fields within Summit. This tutorial will guide you through the process sending dispatch requests for product apps derived from FarmRite/Summit recommendations.
This tutorial will guide you through the process of creating and sending non-FarmRite dispatch requests for multiple fields, such as often used in aerial applications.
The Logistics Manager is where the dispatch manager can easily view and release product applications as they come due. This tutorial will show how to query application files, release files for dispatch, and send them to the applicator.
Fields can be geographically divided into units that are referred to as management zones. This introductory tutorial defines the concept of a management zone as it is used within SST's software.
Management zones can be created by adding splits to the field boundary or by using an existing map layer as a template. This tutorial demonstrates how to create a management zone using the split polygon tool and generate a zone from an existing theme, such as soil types.
Management Zones Scenario Tutorials
The following tutorials will demonstrate a start-to-finish scenario of creating a planting recommendation based on soil types managment zones and then exporting the planting rec to a controller.
In precision ag, we seek to find the most efficient use of inputs to maximize our output. The plans section within Summit allows us to prepare for the upcoming crop by creating multiple scenarios that compare quantity with cost inputs. These plans can then be converted into recommendations and fulfilled operations.
Pre-populated operations allow you to create "what if" scenarios on your fields in order to determine the most beneficial plan of action. In this tutorial, we will take an initial look at how pre-populated operations functions with Summit.
The process for creating a pre-populated operation is similar to creating a new operation in the record section. In this tutorial, we will pre-populate some planting operations.
Input cost data allows us to measure the economic impact of our management decisions. This tutorial demonstrates how to set up cost groups for the various categories within our operations.
If you have collected geo-referenced planting data, you can easily import the data into Summit and display the various aspects of the data within the Maps section. Site-specific planting data, when coupled with yield data, allows for the creation of powerful information reports at the end of the season. This video takes you through the steps of importing as-applied planting data.
Harvest is complete, and you have a new batch of yield files. It is now time to start extracting valuable information from your yield data that will tell the cause and effect story of what is happening throughout your field. This tutorial takes you through the initial steps of importing the original yield data files into SST Summit.
At times, you may find yourself in the situation where you have yield data but no corresponding field boundary. Although this is not ideal, SST Summit provides a way to create a field boundary by using yield data as a reference. This tutorial guides you through the process of utilizing the digitize option when importing yield data.
As you bring in large amounts of yield data, the holding tank allows you to hold yield data until it is ready to be associated with a field boundary. This tutorial acquaints you with the basic process of using the holding tank as you import yield data.
Once the yield data has been imported and is diplayed in the maps view, it will need to be cleansed of outliers and bogus data. This tutorial walks you through managing adjustments within the Yield Editor and tweaking the classification settings within the Legend Editor.
Throughout the season, site-specific data has been collected as farming operations have occured. It is now time to start generating valuable reports that will correlate the yield data to specific zones and events. This tutorial walks you through the process of creating a set of yield reports using Reports within SST Summit.
FarmRite is a sophisticated data management and processing service that quickly and efficiently provides high-quality information products that you and your customers can use to make more profitable management decisions. This video demonstrates how FarmRite overcomes data processing constraints, thus allowing your operation to process more acres in less time while maintaining the highest of standards.
Most of the the site-specific data that is collected throughout the season will simply show a spatial snapshot of what is happening at that point in time. However, FarmRite's powerful multi-temporal analysis tools allow you to produce maps and reports that show spatial trends over time. This tutorial introduces you to some of the popular multi-temporal tools that are available within FarmRite.
FarmRite mapbooks can be generated throughout the growing season as specific operations are brought to completion or at the end of the season so as to include all recorded activities and operations. These mapbooks serve both in record keeping and as valuable information reports.
Once you have placed an order with FarmRite, the FarmRite Dashboard allows you to check on the status of the order. The FarmRite Dashboard even allows you to watch the individual tasks within your order being processed in real-time.
Once you have placed an order with FarmRite, the FarmRite Dashboard allows you to check on the status of the order. The FarmRite Dashboard even allows you to watch the individual tasks within your order being processed in real-time.
SST Analytics allows you to view the data processing and precision ag services that are occuring within your organization. By enabling you to observe the Who? What? When? and Where? throughout each level of your organization's hierarchy, you will be better able to make internal management decisions.
As your precision ag needs grow and evolve, you will want to make changes to your agronomy, mapbooks, and FarmRite setup. This video explains the role that your FarmRite administrator will play in order to make FarmRite changes a quick and easy process.
FarmRite gives you the ability to limit surface maps to pre-defined geography. Fertility and recommendation maps can be created using management zones that occur within a larger field boundary.
Recommendation maps will often be made using pre-defined management zones, especially within center-pivot fields. This tutorial guides you through the process of merging nutrient recommendations from different management zones and then applying a product recommendation to the merged nutrient rec zones before exporting to an application controller.
The 'No Source Data' message is given when FarmRite requires additional data to complete an ordered task. These videos walk through the most common scenarios for why this message may occur. Part one looks at the message in relation to fertility results.
Part two of the 'No Source Data' message looks at a scenario where a recommendation was never fulfilled as a real life application. This video also covers the possibility that the season associated with the data does not correspond to the season of the order.
FarmRite will notify you when duplicate data sets appear that can be used for processing a specific task. This video demonstrates a scenario of how duplicate data can be created and the steps to correct the duplication. At times, duplicate data will be expected and your FarmRite administrator can work with you to establish rules for how duplicate data should be treated for your orders.