I am trying to step into the family farm, while holding down full time job. Wanting to get more efficient as the time I spend working on the farm is limited and needs to be very productive. However, additions in precision ag are limited to what my budget can allow and my time to educate other users.

My situation:
-30% irrigated (conventional), 70% dryfarm (min-till) in Eastern CO
-Operating SF1 on GS1 in JD8300 (planting/spraying)
-lacking Harvest Doc on JD9860
-No precision ag on Puma 195, JD8970, NH9682, JD9500 (possible future guidance on NH and CIH)
-Possibly 5 operators - Father and brothers willing to learn precision ag with assistance
-90 miles to “knowledgeable” JD dealer, no other Precision ag dealer near
-More price sensitive than brand sensitive

Wanting
-Better ability to create/manage guidance lines
-Ability to communicate crop/field plan to multi-users
-Ability to track/analysis what we do (primarily irrigated)
-Technology that is easy to learn,
-Technology that is expandable to multi-brand, multi-features
-Increase intensity of farm

Was thinking about purchasing software (APEX or AL SMS Basic) to answer guidance line issue and tracking harvest data for 2011 and maybe Edge/1800 or GS2/Integra in 2012.

What is the better bang for my buck? Any suggestions welcome.
-Apex/SMS
-Edge/1800
-Intregra/GS2