One of the country's largest swine integrators joined forces with a software company to develop swine-specific modules for environmental management. That system is now available to others.

When Tim Laatsch began work as director of Environmental Services for The Maschhoffs back in June 2003, administrative staff at company headquarters in Carlyle, IL, was wrestling with management of environmental issues for company-owned and contract farms.

“The struggle to manage outsourced services prompted us to bring those services in-house, at which time we surveyed the marketplace and came to the realization that a fully integrated software solution for nutrient planning did not exist,” Laatsch explains. The company needed a customized product to address their growing demands for nutrient management plans and management of environmental records associated specifically with pork production.

In 2004, The Maschhoffs began their long journey to define and refine a comprehensive software product that would meet all those needs, working with what Laatsch calls “one of the nation's premiere agricultural software developers,” Synergiance, Inc. of De Witt, IA.

Three years later, the 120,000-sow Maschhoff system and the software developer have fine-tuned a program that provides site-specific plans for all of the company's grower farms. “It meets our goals to get the right manure application rates to the right fields at the right times,” says Nathan Hasheider, nutrient management specialist for The Maschhoffs.

In doing so, Laatsch assures that the family-owned hog business will easily accomplish a second major goal — having all of their farms complete a comprehensive nutrient management plan (CNMP) that will adhere to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) extended deadline of February 2009.

Software Program

“We now have a product that we think might have universal application,” adds Laatsch. The enterprise-level software is geared toward swine integrators, consultants and cooperatives that need to manage environmental information for multiple farms and clients.

He points out that unlike other software programs on the market, the Synergiance program is aimed at addressing the needs of multiple clients, “basically enabling you to track data on multiple farms in one system.”

The SQL database program is built in Microsoft format and is constructed in a very modular architecture, meaning it retains flexibility to integrate with other Microsoft products. Its seamless characteristics will enable The Maschhoffs to eventually integrate the software into all of the company's production and accounting data systems across the United States, Laatsch notes.

He stresses that while the platform for the computer program was designed for The Maschhoffs, it is now being made available commercially. Company staff may play a role in agronomic technical consultation and training, but will not be involved in actually selling the product. Laatsch is a USDA-certified Technical Service Provider (TSP) for development of nutrient management plans.

Synergiance has launched a new Web site to take the swine software product to the marketplace: www.geo-nmp.com. The product will be sold as Geo-NMP Enterprise Edition.

Software Application

Laatsch says one of the key elements of the software is its relationship to spatial information. Its embedded spatial editor, spatial data storage system and automated map report engine are able to store sensitive elements such as waterlines, utility lines, pipelines and field boundaries. The spatial information can be migrated to computers' on-board manure application equipment to avoid any sensitive areas and meet state setback regulations. The software simplifies storing thousands of files on grower farms to connect the right data to the right farm.

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