Grad Grabs Job of Choice

Odin Shipstead connecting GPS equipment during a GPS field day near Fife, Montana.

07/19/99 Fife, Mont. - If the American Dream is working at a job you love and living where you want, Odin Shipstead has his dream.

The Scobey native and 1998 Montana State University graduate nabbed a job with Triangle Ag-Services, a Fort Benton company building on the growth of services that use Global Positioning System satellites and other technologies.

For Shipstead, the dream began when his college advisor, Van Shelhamer, set up a meeting between Shipstead and Jerry Nielsen, a soil scientist who was researching uses of GPS before the satellites were all in place.

"Jerry lined me up in a summer job at Carl and Janice Mattson's place, and I got to know DeImna Heiken there," said Shipstead. Heiken is manager of Triangle Ag-Services.

Shipstead said wanted to stay in Montana. He began a master's degree program at MSU, but when a job opened with TAS, he thought he should grab it.

"It's a good situation both ways. I can still do my masters. It will just take a little longer," said Shipstead. He said he will probably take an MSU class over the internet this winter in preparation for doing a thesis or master's project.

"Agriculture today really needs to take steps forward using technology. The technology is here already. It's just a matter of getting people to understand it. . . At $2.50 per bushel for wheat, you can't be putting the inputs into a crop that you used to. With GPS, we can save producers input costs and make them money that way."

Shipstead said much of the GPS-related work TAS does for producers involves installing yield monitors, collecting and mapping yield data for them, mapping weeds and creating yield maps to estimate fertilizer needs, or using GPS to map fields from land that had been in the Conservation Reserve Program. The company also is investigating the use of remote sensing to predict fertilizer and other needs. In addition, TAS does crop consulting, helps with pesticide and other record keeping, and creates maps based on existing Farm Services Agency maps.

Odin Shipstead setting up a weed mapping system on an ATV.

Wild oat map created using GPS.

Send questions or comments to Carol Flaherty, MSU Communications Services, Bozeman, MT 59717 or to Jerry Nielsen and Flaherty with this link: carolf@montana.edu.

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