Every farmer knows that there are different soil types and textures within most fields and that these variations represent different production capabilities and the need for different management.  Earl Ortlip, the founder of Waconia Manufacturing, along with Dean Fairchild, then the manager of the agronomy department at Cenex, worked with Dick Rust and Pierre Robert at the University of Minnesota to link soils information and other information in a digital format to find a management solution to this variability.  Using aerial photos and soil survey data with computer technology, Ortlip and Fairchild began to develop a system that could apply fertilizer at variable rates on the go.  In 1984, this development became the first six bin fertilizer spreader.

In 1989, the use of global positioning systems (GPS) made the delivery of the fertilizer much more accurate and reliable.  With the use of GPS, Soil Teq needed to develop an on-board controller that could handle the complex operation of the application and the GPS systems.  Through the developments of three different models of controllers, Model 3000, Model 5000 and Model 900, and different types of transfer media, EPROM’s (erasable, programmable, read-only memory cards) to floppy disks, the Falcon controller was developed in 1994.

With the development of a controller that was able to handle complex operations, the next critical issue to address was the issue of mapping.

While the initial maps were created at the Soil Teq offices, from soils maps and aerial photos, and sent back to the customers for application, the development of the Falcon and it’s capabilities of controlling up to 200 rates, enabled the development of a mapping program that would allow the customer to generate their own maps.  In 1994, Soil Teq released SGIS v1.0.  This development enabled the customer to use their own agronomic knowledge and expertise to develop, generate and implement a variable rate application plan.

In 1996, SGIS 2.0 was released and provided a higher level of functionality and flexibility.

The initial developments of SGIS were to use basic data to generate application maps for the equipment controller.  SOILTEQ knew that the future need of SGIS was to manage data as easily as making application maps.  In 2000, SGIS 3.0 was released ado just that, allowing the customer to integrate information with other software to meet specialized needs, such as data analysis tools and business management applications.

SGIS 3 was designed to manage data and work into the future of the agricultural industry worldwide.