by Ted Hartzel

     If you like the feel of a farm field under your feet but also like the feel of your mind leading your fingers over the keyboard in a hunt for just the right computer application, you might want to consider what Ted Macy is doing these days.
     Macy, an ASAE member, has wedded these two loves into one job. The native Indiana farm boy and Purdue University graduate is president of his own small company, MapShots Inc., which provides data-sharing software programs to link growers with big agriculture companies, including Pioneer Hi-Bred and Deere & Company.
     "Our approach has been that we want to build software that enhances the relationship between growers and the people they do business with," Macy says. "Our focus has been on making data sharing between the two very painless."

Ted Macy, president of MapShots Inc., provides data-sharing software programs to link growers and agriculture companies.

     Macy said the big companies essentially provide MapShots the funding it needs to do research and development, with the understanding that some of those creations will be the property of the big companies, and some Macy and his firm will be free to market to growers.
     The firm's software focuses on conventional grain production but also deals a bit with truck crops and specialty crops. "We have one product that we sell directly to growers," Macy says. "We are just releasing a bigger-brother product to fertilizer dealers and crop consultants.
     "Our software provides the framework for total crop production management," says Macy, 48, who got his master's degree in 1980 in agricultural mechanization, which he says is the equivalent to an agricultural systems management degree today.
     Macy and the others in his company get out to meet farmers and work on data collection. They keep abreast of farm technology and new machinery in addition to their office work on computers.
     He likes this "mix of activity" and likes the human side of the agriculture industry as well.
     "In general, the people that we're dealing with in this industry are a lot more honest ... they're more willing to partner with you, work toward a product or goal - something that they can afford, yet [they] have a recognition that you need to put food on the table as well. It's not a cutthroat business. You build good, loyal relationships."
     The company's software, called EASi suite, essentially does two things for farmers. One, it keeps them out of trouble by tracking the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and machines accurately enough to satisfy the Environmental Protection Agency and the USDA, which can be finicky about documentation, Macy says. Secondly, the software goes beyond government reporting by homing in on what can be far more satisfying for a farmer - building a better crop next year. Macy gave an example of how a Midwestern farmer might use one of his company's products. A device on the farmer's combine continuously monitors the yield that the combine is harvesting and logs it onto a data card. By putting the card in a computer that is programmed with MapShots software, the farmer could get a map showing precisely where the yields are good and where they are poor. That mapping could come from a global positioning satellite (GPS). He has been working with GPS technology since 1988.
     What advice would Macy give for high school students considering a career like his?
     "They really need to take some time to learn computer programming," he says. "We recommend that with a passion, whether they think they actually want to program down the road or not."
     He said he actually learned programming while studying for his master's degree. "There is a level of discipline and a kind of thought process that you go through when you do computer programming that has applications across a variety of fields. The particular computer programming "syntax" is not as important as the self-disciplined, logical and methodical approach to problem solving it breeds," he says. "For instance, someone schooled in computer programming would approach a home remodeling job with an 'If this, then that' approach."