How do I set up a Commodity in AgStudio

Overview:

Setting up a commodity in AgStudio is an integral part of anything dealing with harvest data, and all information tied to it.  With the Commodity Editor, a user can define the units, adjustments and USDA crop use.

Commodities go under the assumption that a crop can grow several commodities.  i.e. Crop=Corn with Commodities=Corn Grain or Silage.

Most of the functions of the Commodity Editor apply to other Setup Editors in AgStudio.

Requirements:

• Access to AgStudio
• Grower with Farms and Fields
• Suggested to have Crops set up in the Crop Editor before creating Commodities.
• To add a New Commodity you will need to have Admin access to the Entire Company database.

Process:

Note:   Commodities are Domain and Year specific.  Meaning Commodities may be available to some growers and years, and not in other growers or years.  It is also suggested to create a commodity FIRST at the highest domain (Company or Entire Database), then add the setup commodity in a later step to the grower.

1. Access a valid grower for which you would like to add a commodity.
2. Select Setup > Commodities
3. In the Domain drop-down select the highest access level preferred.  In the Year drop-down select the year to add the Commodity.  NOTE:  All crop years copied from this crop year will contain this commodity when it's created.         
4. If you see the desired commodity, then you just need to add the Commodity to the Grower (please go to Step #9).  If you don't see the desired commodity, select Add.
5. This should bring up a commodity list of all common commodities in your database, if you see the correct commodity, select it from the list and click OK (if there are multiple commodities you'd like to add, you can use the ctrl+click method to select multiple commodities to add at one time).  Commodity is added to that domain list and proceed to Step #9 to add to Grower.
6. If Commodity is NOT listed and your domain is the Entire Database, you should be able to select "New Product."  This will bring up the Properties editor.  **NOTE:  Only users with Admin access can "create" a new commodity not listed in the system.
7. In the Properties editor, please enter all vital information to the commodity (listed with red "x"s.) 
   • Name - Desired name of the Commodity
   • Product Lot - same as Name, or if slightly different the name can be altered for special purposes.
   • Crop associated with that Commodity (what crop was planted to produce this commodity).
   • Inventory Unit - how the commodity was harvested
   • Market Unit - how the commodity was sold
   • Market Conversion- Used to convert the units from inventory to Market.  i.e.  Corn is harvested in pounds (inventory) and sold as bushels (Market).  The standard conversion is 56 pounds/bushel (market conversion).  
   • Adjustment Method.  Select the Method in the drop-down, and the adjustment value.   AgStudio will adjust the data in reports to the adjustment value.  Selecting the Shrink box will use these setting in reports to adjust the yield data to the desired value.
8. Once all information needed for the Commodity is added, click OK and that commodity will then be added to the commodity add list.  Select the new commodity and click OK to add that new commodity to that domain.
9. Once the commodity is added to the commodity editor, you may select the Grower in the Domain drop-down.                         
10. The commodity that is wanted for the selected Grower should now be available.  Select it from the list and Click OK. (You may use the ctrl+click method to add multiple commodities at one time).
11. The commodity will now be available when creating cropzones.  If there is only one commodity for a crop, once that crop is selected, the commodity should default to that one since there is no other commodity linked to the crop.  If there are multiple commodities, you will need to select the correct commodity.

Related Articles:

Setting up a Crop

Adding a Cropzone