Yolonda Youngs and James W. Bauder
Why did I think that somehow that title would get some readers’ attention? Certainly not the amount of attention I got last week after suggesting, tongue-in-cheek, that clear cutting was the most improved way to conserve water. Boy, did I get some nasty mail after that one. So, this week I decided to offer something to redeem myself.
At 10 miles to the gallon, it takes only 300 gallons of fuel to drive 3000 miles. At 1 AgNote per week, it takes only five years and nine months to write 300+ AgNotes. Assuming 1 hour per note, that works out to 7.5 forty hour weeks of writing, 8 hours per day. Keeping track of all those AgNotes has been no easy task. For several years I used Quik-Finder, a software program on my computer and it worked just fine. Then the file started getting too big and people were asking for too many copies. We were putting the notes on the web and about once every eight weeks we would have to go back in and reorganize. But, not any more.
Thanks to the creative ideas of Will Lanier, the support of Marty Dues, the funding of the MSU Extension Service, and the technical skills of the MSU Information Technology Center (ITC), and Bridger Systems we now have all those notes saved, stored, sorted, organized, and print-format accessible on the web. Go to http://AGNOTES.org and bookmark that page. From now on when you get an Agronomy Question, that might be one of your favorite spots to go look for an answer.
It’s pretty easy - we think it’s real easy - to use, with all the tools and options - less bells and whistles. Not much into the bells and whistles if we can make it work without. We’ve even built in a shopping cart option and a keyword search engine.
When you get to the home page, here’s what you’ll find: three options for searching, those being - keyword, category, and AgNote number. You can use the old method of categories, where you scroll through the alphabetized list of topics, picking out the titles you want. But, what’s more fun and easier now is to enter the keyword list you are looking for. Just click on the search option and a list of AgNotes with those key words will appear in front of you.
I worked through a couple examples. Here’s what they looked like. The search list contains fifty four keywords to select from to aid a search through issues of AgNotes. For my first search, I choose the keywords legumes and proteins. I then clicked on the green View all matches button at the top of the search page. This search resulted in six AgNotes that discussed the key words that I picked - legumes and proteins. The AgNotes were listed by title, date published, and their relevancy rating (best match to least likely match). The first three titles produced by my search included Is Clover an Alternative/Acceptable Crop for Montana?, Green Manures and Alternative Crops: Alternatives to Fallow, and Strategies for Diversifying Crop Rotations in Water Limited Regions. For a shorter search, I went back to the search keywords list and clicked on the green 1st match button. Using this option, the entire text of the article Is Clover an Alternative/Acceptable Crop for Montana? appeared on my screen.
Say that I wanted to change the keywords involved in my search. A simple click back to the Search Page revealed the complete list of keywords that I selected from for my last search. I clicked on the green Reset button and all of the checked boxes cleared. Now I could start an entirely new keyword search. This time around, I chose to search for AgNotes that discussed No Till and Erosion. Clicking on the View all Matches button, the search produced fourteen articles that matched my keywords. The first four articles listed (in descending order of relevancy) were Plowing Snow Ridges Not the Best Option, Give Thought to No Till Farming and Residue, Conservation Reserve Program: Issues and Options Tillage Options After CRP, and Convince Me to Try No Till. If I preferred abbreviated search results, I could go to the search page and click on the 1st match button. The article Plowing Snow Ridges Not the Best Option appears in full text on my screen.
Categories: Using AgNotes Search
Date: 2001