Minutes of PARA meeting January 25, 2005
PARA held a meeting on January 25, 2005 at the NRCS office in Great Falls, beginning
at 9:00 a.m.
Present:
Carl & Janice Mattson
Mark & DeImna Heiken
Odin Shipstead
Gary Arnst
Chuck Merja
Tex Crawford
Dick Schock
Bill Wright
A few updates were given which included:
• GIS position at MSU to be filled
• Job Description is out for Dan Long’s replacement
• Havre Research Station receives Bourgault air seeder to use
• Report on VanShelhamer’s grant proposal to set up an ArcView educational
program for MT producers.
o Van requested a letter in support from PARA
o Project includes projects that must be completed by participants by a given
date or else software/hardware is redistributed.
• New site for county weather stations
o http://www.met.utah.edu/droman/states/MT_state_frame.html
o Work is still in progress getting all the stations to show up
• Harvest States (Odin Shipstead) is in conversations to get a Green-Seeker
unit to try out
• UMAC meeting February 3-5, 2005 in Grant Forks, ND. Bruce Wright, Mike
Choriki, Joel Sankey, Rick Lawrence, Christine Sommers-Austin, and perhaps Bob
Romney to attend.
• Plans were discussed to meet one day in February with Dave White in
Bozeman. No definite dates were set.
Phyllis Philipps, NRCS Assistant State Conservationist gave the group a CSP presentation. Following that, discussion was held on the differences between CSP and EQIP and how one that has been in precision ag could qualify for each of these programs. Since the final rules have not been written, the information was very general on the CSP program. Training for Phyllis is the first week in March.
A notice will be sent out when a date for a meeting in Bozeman can be determined.
Meeting adjourned approximately 1:00 p.m.
Janice Mattson
Acting Secretary
Montana State Library in Helena, MT
Tuesday, March 25, 2003
Members present: Wes Henthorne, Chuck Merja, Bob Rumney, Van Shelhammer, Gordon
Decker, Bruce Wright, Jerry Nielsen, Diana Cooksey, Gary Arnst, DeImna Heiken,
Christine Sommers Austin, Frank Dougher, Lisa Rew, Barbara Broberg (Cutbank,
MT – WIFES), Dale Cederberg, Megan Mattson (Oregon State Student), Carl and
Janice Mattson, Steve Raska, Cathy Maynard.
Carl Mattson called the meeting to order.
Sommers-Austin read March’s Annual PARA Meeting minutes and a brief statement
was made about the PARA treasurer’s report.
Bruce Wright gave treasurer’s report. Starting balance was $6,208.23; ending
balance as of March 25, 2003 was $7,351.23. There was a request to send out
another annual dues reminder
New Business: Cathy Maynard gave a presentation on NRIS Program. The NRIS program
started in 1983 as an official state data clearinghouse for government agencies,
businesses, and individuals. She reviewed the three major areas of NRIS: The
National Heritage Program, the Water Information System, and the Geographic
Information System.
Van Shelhammer presented and requested the PARA Group to be participants in
his Graduate student, Danielle Price’s, thesis IFAFS 3-D Visualization Model
Project. The date of the project will be determined once the PARA Group decides
their next monthly meeting. Shelhammer announced the new PARA website reporter/writer;
Joy Lynn Kaufman (a Sophomore in Agricultural Education at MSU). There was a
discussion on her role and responsibilities.
Cathy Maynard led a tour of the NRIS facility and employees. Cathy Maynard gave
a presentation on her PhD research and related information entitled, “Modeling
Rangeland Biomass in Montana” with Landsat imagery.
Old Business: Summer 2003 meetings-conferences-Field Days: Discussed the need
of summer meetings and possibilities of how and when to have these meetings.
Weather Stations: Endusers with UMAC weather stations: Arnst, Mattsons, Merja,
Rumney, ? Decker. End users interested in receiving UMAC weather station: Henthorne,
Wright, Rumney, (Raska is getting a weather station from his county).
Linking to website decisions: first link to Merja’s weather station site, secondly
link to the PARA site, eventually link the weather stations to the NRIS site.
Summer imagery position.
Merja and Arnst announced that they are purchasing another digital camera: 460
infrared (CIR), 2.5 resolution. Sommers Austin and Merja announced the student
candidate for the position, Jamie Ellis, and gave his educational and work background
for the summer.
Sommers Austin’s announcements: Webmaster Levy’s website requests were announced:
It was decided that the Mattson’s email address would be used as the temporary,
official PARA website email address. It was decided to edit the already existing
PARA biography form by J. Mattson, Sommers Austin, and others before resending
out. The PARA Group discussed the appropriate salary for present and future
webmasters, The announcement of the request for Sommers Austin/PARA member to
present the group’s activities to the next MSU President’s Advisory Council
in May. Suggestions and input from the PARA Group is requested for the presentation.
Please send to Sommers Austin.
The next monthly PARA meeting will be announced via email from J. Mattson.
The Wheat Building in Great Falls, MT
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Members present: Gordon Decker, Carl and Janice Mattson, Gary Arnst, Robert
Rumney, Dale Cederberg (Moccasin, MT),
Christine Sommers-Austin and Cathy Maynard and Doug Harrison from the NRCS Sommers-Austin
read January’s Annual PARA Meeting minutes and a brief statement was made about
the PARA treasurer’s report.
Welcome by C. Mattson and introductions were made by each individual.
Old Business: PARA website: specific tasks and questions were brought up to
ask Webmaster Levy. Maynard suggested that PARA could link the NRIS website
to our PARA website. Give the NRIS website to Levy.
New Business: Connections with the NRCS: introductions, backgrounds and present
work/projects were presented by Maynard and Harrison: Maynard: works for the
NRCS in Helena; a liaison with the NRIS state library; educational background:
ecology, soils, vegetation, GIS; she is presently doing a PhD under Dr. Lawrence
dealing with rangeland and using Landsat imagery. Harrison: works for the NRCS
in Bozeman; has worked for the NRCS for the past 32 years, started as a soil
scientist in ID, then WY and MT; a state resource person and works with the
National Resources Inventory (NRI). Reasons to Collaborate with the NRCS: PARA
could establish similar methods/practices so they can work together and make
research more robust; NRCS does not have data on specific producer’s land and
their exact management practices. Collaboration Ideas: Maynard (NRCS) could
help producers by georeferencing and analyzing imagery, especially for those
who don’t have time or have the skill, The statement was made by PARA that they
would like to have an ‘information sharing’ relationship with the NRCS, The
offer was made by Maynard to take the PARA group on a tour of the MT NRIS state
library at next month’s PARA meeting.
Presentation by Rumney: Mapping and spraying of weeds on his ranch via a one
manned powered parachute machine, Rumney presented three different ArcView extensions
that the PARA group could use: Projector, X-tools, NadCon.
Old Business Continued: Weather stations: discussions on how to setup a widespread,
viewable weather data system for Montana.
PARA website writer position: the group discussed how to find a candidate to
fulfill the reporter/writing position. It was decided to first ask Shelhamer
again for suggestions on possible MSU students. If there were no interested
or qualified candidates, then we would make connections with the agricultural
communications group at Kansas State for possible candidates.
Planning of the next monthly meeting: Janice stated that she would contact Maynard
to see if there was a possibility of having the next monthly PARA meeting at
NRIS in Helena between the dates of March 21-26 and then confirm a meeting date
via email.
MSU Foundation Building
Bozeman, MT
January 15-16, 2003
Wednesday, January 15 from 1:00-5:00 p.m.: PARA workshop in #221AJM Computer
Lab, MSU-Bozeman Campus facilitated by Dr. Rick Lawrence. Present: Gordon Decker,
Chuck Merja, Gary Arnst, Wes Henthorne, Bruce Wright, Melvin Goffena, Frank
Dougher, and Christine Sommers-Austin
Thursday, January 16 from 8:30 a.m. to ~ 7:00 p.m.: The day began with a continental
breakfast (by Venus Catering) and social time. Dr. Lisa Rew welcomed everyone
and introduced any newer members present. Carl Mattson called the meeting to
order. Janice Mattson read the PARA meeting minutes from the last monthly meeting.
Bruce Wright gave the treasurers report: (year beginning = $3,625.86, year end
= $6,208.23). An announcement was made that PARA annual dues of $100 are to
be paid at this time of the year and given to Bruce Wright. There was a discussion
dealing with the usage of the dues, and alternatives concerning dues membership
status.
New/Old Business: SSToolbox Invoice/discussion: Mattsons, Merja, and Beeman
want to continue another year of SST license, paying $450 each, plus $450 from
MSU. Raska returned his SSToolbox to MSU via Heustis. Sommers-Austin agreed
to contact Dana Waites at SST to ask PARA's questions: can a person reinstate
SST after not being used in the past year(s)?, can Arnst be added to MSU's invoice
in the future? (Answers: Yes. However, there will be an additional cost; and
Yes)
PARA Website Discussion with graduate student Ben Levy: A list of specific,
ideal website tasks was prepared by the PARA group and given to Ben. After a
short review of the list, Ben thought that the tasks were reasonable and agreed
that he would work on the PARA website and could initially devote one day of
the week to work on the website. Chuck Merja would be Ben's major PARA contact.
a discussion was also brought up that it may be necessary to have one person
contact/"bug" PARA members to retrieve material and information from them for
the website. It was brought up (as in the past) if Dr. Van Shelhamer had any
student(s) available to do this type of work with agricultural communications.
It was decided...
LRES PhD candidate, Nicole Wagner, gave her presentation on Variability Concurrent
Sessions: 1. the Maxwell Research Team Meeting and feedback 2. Gordon Decker's
presentation Lunch was provided by Venus Catering. Dr. Van Shelhamer gave an
update on UMAC's EdParc progress relating to number of teachers trained, upcoming
remote sensing workshops, and the status of the UMAC non-profit EdParc that
is being researched.
Old Business/ 1 way and 2 way DirecPCs: A tally was taken of those who received
new UMAC 2-ways in 2002: Merja, Arnst, Henthorne and Mattsons. Those who purchased
their own new 2-ways: Decker and Wright Those who received new 1-ways: Goffena
Those who have an old 1-way: Rumney Those who returned an old 1-way: Merja,
Arnst, Mattsons, Decker, Wright and Goffena. Sommers Austin agreed to contact
UND/Santhosh and ask questions on 1. what do people do with old 1-ways? 2. will
monthly charges for end-users be subsidized again this year? New Business/UMAC
collaborations: Idea: have someone take all-weather data from end-users, synthesize
and publish to website. Nielsen stated that NASA wants proposals that aren't
so practical (because the industry should handle those). Idea: Someone brought
up the idea that we should get a person from NRIS to come to one of our meetings.
Seeking participants to attend the 2003 annual UMAC meetings in UND: a list
was compiled of those who were interested in attending the meetings and general
information was given to them.
Dr. Dan Long: gave his presentation on the USDA/IFAFS 3-D visualization model
project. (Dr.) David White from the NRCS presented an overview of his work and
invited collaboration with PARA group members. (i.e. participation in the state
technical committee) The state technical committee meetings are to take place
Feb. 26 and 27. 1. Meeting with NRCS persons to generate ideas: Merja, Arnst,
Wright, Henthorne 2. Producer and rancher presentations at Holiday Inn: Producer
= Merja and/or Carl Mattson, Rancher = Rumney or Decker New Business/seeking
employee for PARA summer imagery collection: A discussion was held to figure
out a job description for summer imagery collection position and possible ways
to locate/advertise to fill position. (i.e. Doug Weist.) A total of 6-8000 dollars
will be needed for this project.
The proposed next monthly meeting: Wed. Feb 12th 9 a.m. Great Falls, MT *invite
someone from NRCS.
Janice Mattson brought the meeting to order and asked
that we have a quick introduction from each person since there were new people.
Attendees were: Lisa Rew is from Montana State University attended and she is
the Precision Ag Team Leader for the MSU. She has experience in precision ag
from the U.K. and Australia
Dan Keil, Conrad Bill Wright Bruce Wright Will Roehm (new to PARA) Steve Raska
Bob Rumney (new to PARA) DeImna Heiken Janice Mattson Sigurd Hovland (new to
PARA) Bart Stevenson (new to PARA) Chuck Merja
The treasurer’s report from Bruce Wright has our current balance of $2904.46.
Our only expense has been pizza at the meeting at Gordon Decker’s. For those
who haven’t paid their dues they should send $100 for annual PARA dues to Bruce
Wright. The PARA address is: PARA P.O. Box 5326 Bozeman, MT 59717 or Bruce Wright
P.O. Box 664 Belgrade, MT 5971 Bruce’s email: osmose@aol.com
Janice Mattson brought the rain gauges for people who had ordered them. Adding
a layer of transmission fluid will keep the bugs floating on the top.
Steve Raska (with Chuck Merja) has done some research on scanners, but no decisions
have been made as to which one the group wants. There is some difference in
counties as to whether you can take the FSA maps out of the office. The PARA
group will be purchasing the scanner and it will be available for member use.
DeImna Heiken and Chuck Merja gave a summary of the imagery to be acquired from
airplanes this spring. Steve Raska, Gary Arnst, Mattson’s, Chuck Merja, and
Triangle Ag-Services will own the cameras, filters and lenses. Dan Long, from
Northern Experiment Station will be taking photos for the more intensive experiments
of resolution, multiple cameras and elevation changes. Taylor Aviation will
be making 13 missions, two in April, and nine in May and June and two in August
over the main group. MSU will supply money for most of the flight time, but
if we exceed four farms for the 13 flights then farmers will have to pay. Photos
for growers not in the main group will be $20 per photo plus flight time. The
cost for flight time will depend on whether the grower is close to the flight
line for the group. If the grower is on the flight line, the cost for additional
flight time will probably be minimal. The plane costs $120/hour. For people
completely off the flight time photos can be taken, but they will have to pay
the complete cost of the flight time. The general consensus was that more resolution
was more important than the hassle in ‘stitching’ the photos. If we can get
a zoom lens (17mm to 35mm) then we will adjust resolution with the lens and
not by flying different elevations. Cody Benkleman at Positive Systems called
Chuck Merja, and has been helpful with the cameras and sent a Request for Proposal
from NASA and USDA to Chuck. They have software called Dyne to ‘stitch’ together
photos. Bob Rumney suggested using ArcView to ‘stitch’ photos also. Field markers
can be 2 meter X 2 meter blue tarps; preferably there will be 15 control points
per photo.
There was discussion of a PARA field day. The PARA field day could be piggy
backed with Triangle Ag-Services’ field days, experiment station field days
or a canola field day at Keils’. The field day at Keils’ would need to be coordinated
with MSU. Janice suggested that we have a conference call to confirm which choice
we want. There was discussion of doing the conference over the computer and
decided to let Chris arrange the conference call. April 18 at 9:00 pm, will
be the date for Carl Mattson, Steve Raska, Bruce Wright, Chuck Merja, DeImna
Heiken, Gary Arnst and Mike Choriki. The next conference call or meeting will
be scheduled at that time.
Janice said that there is an individual north of Havre that needs assistance
in determining soil types for seeding CRP.
Dan Keil and Steve Raska discussed their experiences with their variable rate
fertilizer applications that they did based on Veris zones acquired by Mike
Choriki and Tracy Beeman. Dan Keil used a Flexicoil airseeder and Steve Raska
used his Concord. While their experiences had some learning, both reported that
it worked well overall. Bob Rumney shared some of the work he’s done on his
ranch using DEMs from the web and ArcView with 3D Analyst. He has also collected
weed data extensively and will be tracking those patches from year to year.
He emphasized that it wasn’t terribly difficult to do the computer work. Chuck
Merja suggested that PARA, as a learning group, work with other groups in sharing
our knowledge. He and Bill Wright suggested that we work with NRCS and other
groups or agencies in our areas. Chuck used an example of research that he is
doing with kids to look at changes in the Sun River. Bob Rumney also brought
up the difficulty in getting new people involved because ArcView is expensive
for the casual user. Bart brought up the NASA imagery that is taken that is
excellent resolution that we don’t have access to.
The meeting concluded at noon.
Sincerely, DeImna Heiken, Secretary
The meeting of March 17, 1999 was called to order at 9:30 AM
by President Carl Mattson at the Wheat Building in Great Falls. The minutes
of February 17 were read and approved. The financial report was given, and all
agreed that the dues are to be $100 annually (US funds). Attending were Chuck
Merja, Carl Mattson, Janice Mattson, Tom Maclay, Dan Keil, Gary Arnst, DeImna
Heiken, Steve Raska, Bruce Wright, Odin Shipstead, and Chris Erlien.
New Business Janice had trouble accessing the web site. We agreed to each post
something under the general discussion heading to see if any problems occur.
Randy Johnson from the Montana Grain Growers Association (MGGA) joined us and
explained how the MGGA views its relationship with industry. The MGGA feels
that industry is a strong partner. The Grain Growers have associate memberships
that have no voting power. Five industry representatives sit on the MGGA board,
and they are also non-voting. The biggest concern that the MGGA has had is the
fine line between industry being an asset and industries trying to use the MGGA
for it own ends. MGGA treats any input by associates as advertising. Associates
finance the MGGA to a large degree. Randy also talked about the Mud Duck, a
large model airplane that will be used for aerial photography. The Mud Duck
weighs 12.5 pounds, which is about 1/3 the weight on would expect of a plane
its size. It has a wingspan of about 8 feet, and is about 5 feet long. Its weight
distribution is about 1/3 material, 1/3 paint, and 1/3 engine, Randy said. The
engine is a four-stroke design, and puts out 2.5 horsepower. It should fly between
15 and 20 mph with no wind.
Randy was asked his opinion on the progress of the legislature in moving ag
friendly legislation. He said that not much was happening. HB 238, the commission
bill to oversee Vision 2005 was stuck because it was seen as creating another
bureaucracy. HB 252, the research funding bill was tabled by the subcommittee.
A.J. Bussan did get a grant. The group agreed that the best day for the field
day was as early as possible in July. We also discussed putting on a presentation
at the MGGA convention on precision ag.
The first ASST Minute was held. DeImna had lost themes and had problems with
metadata files. Chuck crashed his computer when he tried to load ESRI and EPA
data for the Sun River drainage. He got around the problem by loading the data
into Arcview. He brought the maps to show us.
Carbon sequestration was a topic again. Jim Concilla's name was mentioned. Carbon
sequestration suggests a move toward no-till farming. We pondered how we might
be able to capitalize on this, and what it might be worth. Sequestration issues
may cause subsidies to be funded differently. The government has been asking
questions about how much people would want to be paid to be no-till. Discussion
revolves around pollution credit trading. Concilla put a value on the carbon
available from stubble and priced it against the value of gasoline. Pollution
credits may be valuable in the future, so don't sell short. Carbon stays in
the field if the plant uses oxygen and releases carbon dioxide. If you are mapping
yield across a field, you should get varying credit across that field. We decided
to keep our eyes open for articles that might help.
DeImna reported on her trip to England. RDS has a new yield monitor this year.
14 different countries were represented, with the most participants being from
industry. She went to the Ag show, and returned with lots of literature to show
us.
Chris Erlien gave us some background on Paul Reep. He started Milestone Technology,
Inc. Carl presented a letter he had drafted to Paul to see if we could get hold
of protein sensors for testing. The letter was reviewed; a few changes were
made, with a finalized letter to send as the result.
A roundtable discussion was held on the question of what each of us plan to
do with precision technology this year. We are to each write up our intentions
and email or post them to the web site. The following is a list of each member's
priorities:
Bruce Wright: Mapping protein and comparing with yield data
Chuck Merja: Protein is #1 priority Plans to work more with Gordon Decker and
the NDVI maps along with PAW (Plant Available Water and crop yield predictions)
Imagery would be very valuable to compare with the NDVI maps
Tracy Beeman: Mapping Protein Will continue learning about the Veris and its
correlation to other variables.
Tom Maclay: Plans to keep a diary of his steps towards Precision Ag Wants to
develop some veris maps Dan Kiel: Will continue to map his yields Will work
with varieties Wants to develop some veris maps
Mike Choriki: Continue on building field boundaries Has plans to work with Dean
Folkvold on matching soil depth to root depth
DeImna Heiken: Will spend time working with Dale Schuler's data that has been
acquired in the Monsanto trials, use SST to run correlations on the data. Has
agreed to help AJ from MSU develop plans for a field day.
Steve Raska: Use model airplane to acquire aerial information about fields.
Has a SF field on which he wants to obtain some veris data. If good imagery
is available, it would be good to compare the imagery with the aerial photographs
Steve will be acquiring with the plane
Carl & Janice Mattson: Collect yield and protein data to correlate with each
other. Mike and Tracy will map a 2 section with the veris and develop some management
zones to vary some nitrogen for spring 1999 planting. Become more proficient
with SSToolbox in all facets of the software Would like to make use of imagery
and compare it to the management zones that the veris will be providing.
The meeting of February 17, 1999 was held at the WHEAT building
in Great Falls and was called to order at 9:16 AM by President Carl Mattson.
Attending the meeting were Dan Long, Gary Arnst, Dan Keil, Steve Raska, Chuck
Merja, Carl Mattson, Janice Mattson, Chris Erlien, Tom Maclay, Tracy Beeman,
Mike Choriki, DeImna Heiken, Dale Schuler, Ed Bumgarner, Odin Shipstead, and
Bruce Wright. The minutes of the meeting on January 13 were reviewed. Those
attending the meeting introduced themselves. A discussion of pending ag legislation
followed. Old Business The P.A.R.A. web site needs articles, information, biographies
of some of the members, etc. Send relevant material to pol@montana.edu Dan Long
gave a presentation on nitrogen rate field trials, and two different ways to
conduct nitrogen systems field trials. Dan provided some results of his earlier
work on the relationship between nitrogen and protein, and urged us to gather
data on protein in our fields. We would like to get a chance to do some testing
on a protein sensor. Correspondence Mike Choriki was asked if he would attend
a site-specific range management workshop that Jerry Nielsen at MSU is putting
on. Mike said he would. SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education)
is offering some grants to producers who are investigating sustainable practices
or concepts. It was agreed upon that we should check into these grants. Janice
Mattson will do so. New Business Topics for the next meeting were considered.
A "SST Minute" was suggested to review our progress on SSToolbox. We could also
bring any magazine articles or other interesting items we run across to share
at the meeting. Another idea for next month is to contact Paul Reep and inform
him of our intention of doing field trials. We are positioned to be able to
do protein testing if protein sensors become available. A discussion about Dale
Schuler's farm was conducted. We looked at some of the results of some testing
that Monsanto had done. Dale had nitrogen maps, organic matter maps, and potassium
maps, done on Farm Works software. We talked about how to proceed from the information
he had, and about different seeding options and controllers. A.J. Bussan is
putting on a field day in July to demonstrate weed mapping and other topics.
The field day will be held at the Raska farm. A.J. would like P.A.R.A. to co-sponsor
this event to broaden the scope. He would like an endorsement and a list of
acceptable dates on which to hold the event. We agreed to do so and will work
with A.J. We will get ahold of Perry Miller from MSU and ask about precision
ag benefits for rotational crops. Carl Mattson reported on several different
functions that he had attended. At a Climate Change and Agriculture meeting
in Washington D. C., Carl got to hear the preconceptions that the PhD's and
beaurocrats had about farmers. Evidently they look at farmer's gross revenues,
and can't understand why those farmers are reluctant to adopt new technologies.
Another hot topic was carbon sequestration, the concept of trading pollution
credits between industry and agriculture. Carl attended a producer meeting in
Scottsdale, Arizona. He said that pessimism was the rule among all agriculture
sectors, with the exception of the dairy people. There is a widespread concern
over the concentration of markets. Carl also attended a meeting of the Association
of Wheat Growers in Nashville. A lengthy discussion was held on whether or not
we want industry involvement in P.A.R.A. A round table approach was used where
each person present gave his or her opinion. The overwhelming result was that
the input and involvement of industry was very much wanted, and from academia
as well. If problems do arise, they can be dealt with. We decided to ask Jerry
Nielsen if he would sit on our board of directors. Chris Erlien agreed to ask
him for us.
The meeting of January 13, 1999 was called to order at 6:38 by President Carl Mattson. The minutes of the meetings of November 17 and December 4 were reviewed. Attending the meeting was Dan Long, Gary Arnst, Dan Keil, Steve Raska, Chuck Merja, Carl Mattson, Janice Mattson, Chris Erlien, Jerry Nielsen, Tom Maclay, Tracy Beeman, DeImna Heiken, and Bruce Wright. Old Business The idea of a project was discussed. General Mills was suggested as a possible source, since they are into niche markets. End producer quality is now being measured in other ways than how farmers presently judge their wheat. We need to market ourselves as producers capable of producing a smaller quantity specific crop. We can do so by asking our contacts, and keeping our ears open. We talked about setting up a test using a common procedure, so we would all be working from the same point. Areas to test might be nitrogen or wild oats. It was thought that this year we could develop a field and get some layers. We would also like to get a chance to do some testing on a protein sensor. New Business A Board of Directors was elected for the following year. The board consists of Carl Mattson, Mike Choriki, Bruce Wright, Steve Raska, and Gary Arnst. The idea of changing the name of the organization was considered. Some suggestions for a new name included AParamont@, APARA-Mont@, and AParana@. Para has a Web page. The address is http://clay.msu.montana.edu/para At this site we can correspond electronically, post the minutes of past meetings, the by-laws, and host a chat room. The dues structure was reviewed. The dues are $100.00 per year per farm. There was a question of what members would receive for their dues. An exclusive portion of the Website was mentioned. Membership is open to anyone interested in precision farming. The third Wednesday of the month was chosen for the day of our meetings. It is possible that the meetings might rotate around to different member=s farms. The next meeting will be at the WHEAT Building in Great Falls on February 17, 1999, at 9:00AM. Possible topics are: projects, processing yield maps, and statistics. Dan Long might have something on basic summary statistics. We will also discuss SSToolbox, and work on planning a field trial. In the March meeting we will spend half our time on yield maps. We also might get someone with SST experience to talk. The meeting was adjourned at 8:19PM.