New Wheat Canopy Assessment Tool (CAT) App for iPhone users

A new Canopy Assessment Tool (CAT) App specifically for the iPhone has just been launched by BASF for the 2011 season. The mobile version will accompany and replicate the online CAT (see www.pgrplus.basf.com) launched last year. It can be downloaded with immediate effect from iTunes.

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• The possibility to process photos immediately in the field for an instant crop report.
• Ability to email crop photos and report at the touch of a button
• A GPS mapping function which plots the location of crop assessments on a google map, built into the Apps
• Save function - ability to store photos and reports
• Possibility to process other photographs either captured by the iPhone previously or sent via email & accessed by the iPhone
• Simple and fast interface

Field Test
This is BASF's second App and compliments the oilseed rape GAI tool released last month. We tried this latest one in the field. It is easy to use and there are some neat features to the App. Tapping on the Info Centre icon gives you access to a run down on how to use the App as well as instant phone access to the technical line - just tapping on this button starts the call. The lodging risk report is good too. But make sure you know the variety of wheat in the field before taking the photo; once you have taken the photo you have to enter the field name, date, growth stage (GS30 or 31), variety, expected yield and county before it will process the photo to give you the GAI. However, if you find out afterwards that it wasn't the variety you thought you can't go back and edit the data. This doesn't make any difference to the GAI calculations but the lodging risk report is based on the variety name entered at the time of calculation.