Farm4Profit Podcast
Innovative Grain Drying Solutions and Big Equipment Advancements
Mon, 14 Oct 2024
In this episode we talk about two key areas of agricultural equipment advancements. First, we sit down with a representative from Sukup Manufacturing to discuss the latest innovations in grain drying technology. They provide a detailed overview of the different types of grain dryers available, from conventional to tower dryers, and explain how these technologies are optimizing grain handling, improving efficiency, and reducing energy costs for farmers.The second half of the episode features representatives from John Deere, who showcase the new John Deere Gator and discuss recent advancements in the size and capabilities of tractors and tillage tools. The John Deere team explains how larger, more powerful equipment is helping farmers manage bigger fields, increase productivity, and meet the growing demands of modern agriculture. They also share insights into how these innovations are making farming operations more efficient, while ensuring that the equipment is still easy to use and maintain.This episode is packed with practical information and expert insights, giving listeners an inside look at cutting-edge agricultural technology and how it’s shaping the future of farming. Whether you're looking to upgrade your grain handling systems or curious about the latest in tractor and tillage tool advancements, this episode has something for everyone.Don’t forget to like the podcast on all platforms and leave a review where ever you listen!Websitewww.Farm4Profit.comShareable episode linkhttps://intro-to-farm4profit.simplecast.comEmail [email protected] to YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSR8c1BrCjNDDI_Acku5XqwFollow us on TikTokhttps://www.tiktok.com/@farm4profitConnect with us on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/Farm4ProfitLLC/
And listeners, welcome back to the Farm for Profit podcast. We've got a jam-packed episode for you. I wanted to say thank you for being a listener and for reaching out, following us on all social media platforms. Of course, we love it when you go out and leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or even YouTube. Hitting that subscribe button goes a long way for us.
I'm going to keep the introduction short. Remember, if you have suggestions for us, farmforprofitllc at gmail.com. But we've got an episode here that features companies that we had conversations with at trade shows this fall. We start off with Shoe Cup at Farm Progress Show and cap this off with a great conversation with some new John Deere technology at the end. So stay tuned all the way through.
It's going to be exciting to see what you missed at the Farm Progress Show and Husker Harvest. Let's get to it now.
Ladies and gentlemen, farmers, ranchers, and distinguished guests, thank you for listening to the Farm for Profit podcast, where we discuss the latest ideas, methods, trends, and techniques available to help your farm achieve higher levels of farm profitability. Remember, if you aren't farming for profit, you won't be farming for long.
Well, it's time to have another great conversation with some of the leading technology in the grain handling industry. And nonetheless, than one of the most popular men with Sukup that we know, Kerry is back on the podcast. Welcome.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Right. Did I say that correctly? One of the most popular guys within the company.
During harvest, when dryers are running, that could be the case.
Now that John's retired.
Oh, John's retired? I didn't know John retired.
Okay. Kerry, why don't you remind our listeners who you are and what your role is?
Kerry Hartwig, and I'm the dryer sales director here at Sukup. So kind of work between engineering and sales and our service guys on the dryer product line.
Kerry was one of the first representatives that I ever met because you came and spoke at one of the very first Farm for Profit conferences.
Innovator, right? Yes. Yes.
What a great presentation, Dan, and I feel like your message has only gotten better ever since.
Didn't you have to put up one of their grain bins while you were there, if I remember this story, the safety home?
We had the FFA kids come help us put that together, and they all had to leave to go to a sports practice. So the last hour and a half of putting the safety home together was us. Okay, so we're here having an exposure at some of the upgrades that Sucup has done to their already extremely important and reliable equipment. What are we talking about?
Well, on a dryer line specifically, we've got basically everything, every option of dryer that's out there, we make it. Whether that's tower dryers, primarily commercial, the screen dryers are kind of more of the small farm, all heat, dump hot, cool in the bin type of a dryer.
And then the mixed flow dryers, which have really been, you know, soaring in popularity the last five years or so, those have really kind of started taking over what's being ordered and produced.
Corey, did you follow the trend? Are you now running a mixed flow dryer?
We have a mixed flow dryer on our farm. We went up to Sukup last fall, went through, what do you guys call that, dryer school? Yeah. Yeah. And I tell you what, that was really, really helpful because there's so much new technology. No longer is it heat and flow and all that. There's a lot more going into it.
That's really one of the most fun events of the entire year for us because we invite all the new dryer customers to come in to SUCUP. We do the plant tour, but then we spend two, three hours just going through how to run your dryer and then talk about all the different sensors and a lot of it's terminology even.
So we're not talking about that doohickey on the top, you know, it's a specific name and just makes troubleshooting and making things work a lot easier. Can we hit the red button?
I was going to say, I'm guessing there's some newer technology and touchscreens in it as I watch the booths that we've sat at. I see a lot of that. Even you go buy a new truck anymore. I was fortunate enough to do that. And even the Ford dealer said, well, we need an hour to go through the screen to tell you how to program everything.
I'm assuming that's some of the technology for the guys that are afraid of that touchscreen.
Yeah, that's right. I mean, all these dryers are controlled by a touchscreen. It's a 12-inch touchscreen. And then a couple things on that. The remote access app where you can look at your dryer on your cell phone or your tablet or whatever, that's becoming more and more requested. There's less and less people, you know, available just to be the dryer guy.
So being able to check on your dryer from your truck or your combine is a big deal. Be able to make changes, set up permissions so that you can have, you know, certain people just look at it and certain people can look at it and make changes. All that is available.
You've got to have an app. I told Corey the other day my wife got a new Maytag dryer. It tells us when our clothes are done. I don't really know what the value is here. You've got a new Maytag dryer. But we have a dryer, and it has an app, and it tells you when your clothes are done. It doesn't fold them, though. There you go, Corey. Yeah, that's what we need next. That's what we need.
Hang them up, take them to the closet. Yeah. I just want to say. Last fall, not everything went smoothly on our bin site upgrade, and it wasn't Sukup's fault. Oh, we moved some old bins and had taken a crib down, things like that. And so it just got to the point where you just expected a problem, and we're like, all right, now it's time to start the dryer. This could be an issue.
There's a lot of stuff going on. It was the smoothest thing we did all fall. I mean, we had that thing cooking and dialed in in less than a couple hours.
That's awesome. I mean, and, you know, to be honest and fair, I mean, usually it does take a little bit to get a dryer going because there's so much interlocked to it. You know, it's controlling your wet bin and equipment taking grain to your dry bins and different things. So, you know, working with electricians and the dealers and the installers and getting it all interlocked.
Sometimes it does take a day or two to get all worked out the first time you go. But after that, it usually is pretty smooth sailing.
I mean, a big shout out to our electrician. I mean, their bill came in about three times what they said it was going to be. But I think it's worth it because they have stuff, like, if we want to go put in automation and down the road, like, we're ready to go.
Like, it's all ready.
We don't have to worry about it. So they really made that thing run smooth.
What else could you do for automation?
Like we could add a pit, we could add another leg, all that, the blending capabilities, all that kind of stuff. I mean, we have three phase power there and every motor is set up on timers and things like that. So not everything is surging at once. So there's just, it's crazy. You can just keep adding and adding, adding to it.
Well, one of the new things you get to talk about here, Kerry, is you've now got a dryer that is full heat top to bottom.
Yeah, so our mixed flow dryer line, we came out with that in 2015, and they've been a heat with vacuum cool. That's kind of been our twist on the mixed flow dryer of energy recovery. But we do have some customers that that doesn't really fit for. Particularly in the grain, it'd be maybe a little smaller farm size where they want to discharge out of the dryer hot and then cool in the bin.
That means the bins have to be set up with floors and the right amount of airflow for cooling, but it's certainly a lot more economical to wait to dry corn, you know, on a little bit smaller scale. And then we're also finding there's other specialty markets that that fits really, really well for, whether it's rice or some of the nut crops or things like that.
So it really opens some other possibilities for us. Well, if you hear that.
You know we're live. We're going tractor pulling. We're going tractor pulling.
So does that make that dryer more efficient or that's just another option for the producer?
The efficiency of full heat versus heat with vacuum cool we found to be pretty close to the same. But it just depends on the application. To be able to run full heat, we've got to have bins that are able to cool in them. And we're seeing grain bin sizes on farm getting bigger and bigger, and where it's just impossible to push enough air up through those bins to cool it.
And frankly, it takes more management to be able to do that as well. And like I said, the labor availability for doing all that seems to be getting less, not greater. So that's where the heat-cooled dryers, you know, what we started with, they really come in. But that doesn't fit everybody. And that's kind of been our mantra on dryers. We want to have the best product to fit every situation.
And this kind of rounds out that for mixed flow.
So everything has tradeoffs. So I imagine what you're gaining from dumping hot is capacity.
Yeah, you're gaining two things, capacity and then, you know, your grain quality is good because you're cooling it slowly in the bin. And I guess maybe a third thing is budget.
I mean, it's going to be a less expensive dryer because it's just heating and not as tall, I would imagine, because that cooling portion of the mix flow is pretty tall.
No, that's right. You can easily be able to fill one of these with an auger or a double run has been a real popular way to do it.
But I will say we have the cooling on our mix flow and dump into that big 60 foot, 100,000 bushel bin. It was nice having the peace of mind that that went in cool and we probably didn't have any hot spots and things of that nature and it was good quality all the way down the bottom.
That'd be a really big bin to try to cool in. Yeah. It would make me pretty nervous and then you end up with...
the condensation and almost rain from the roof and on the side walls and that can that can you know end up with clumps of grain that end up in your sump and plug in the sump and then you know a lot a lot of thing we like to talk about is safety you know and this stuff too and if we can keep sumps from plugging up then we don't need to get in the bin or make a stupid decision of getting in the bin and that's when accidents happen so
Yeah, that's a big point. And I know our listeners right now are focused even more on their margins and especially the conversations they're going to have with their bankers. And we've been saying on this podcast for a long time that, you know, it seems like tile pays. If you're going to go to your banker, that's a pretty easy conversation.
But it also seems like grain storage and even grain drying capacity is another one that is, I'm going to say, easier to convince your banker to invest in with you.
Unless it was last fall.
Unless it was last fall. There's always an exception, I guess. But yeah, to store it, you've got to be able to dry it on farm. And that's something that's coming up this year a lot, too, with where crop prices are. Guys may be hanging on to grain a little bit longer. And to do that, they might want to think about drying it just a little more as it goes into the bin to be able to do that.
So typically we try to get to around 15%. If you were going to hold longer than a year, what would you recommend?
And then you probably want to be under 14. And there's very good, like they call it, allowable storage time tables. We've got it in our bin operation manual. I think a lot of the university extension people can get you that too. If you kind of know how long you're going to store it, they do have official recommendations of how low to take it.
So for the guy that doesn't know, why do we go from 15 to 14 or 13 if we're going to hold it longer? What's that do?
Your allowable storage time increases the lower the moisture is of the grain. I think a lot of times you can get away with 15.5 in moisture, so ideally we'd sell every bushel exactly at 15.5 and take no dock. It's hard to manage that exactly. That's why a lot of guys do shoot for the 15 within a year.
But if it's going to be longer than that, the grain may not stay in condition, may start to spoil, even at 15, 15.5 under certain conditions, and that would be the reason to go less.
Everything has trade-offs, Dave, like I said. So you're giving up some weight, which is your bushels, to dry another percent or two, but you're gaining length and time.
you're you're long the market you're hoping the market goes up right right because otherwise you would just been better off selling you want to sell as much water as you can yeah yep gotcha yeah that's the next thing you need to invent is that sprinkler system on the way out of the bin they put water back into it well the guys coming up may may have something for you there too so okay i like that well if our listeners are curious about dryers and dryer technology how best they look up or get in touch with you guys
Well, certainly our website, sukep.com. We have dealer locators on there. If they don't know who their local dealer is, they can put that in and pick which product, whether it's dryers or bins, material handling, and find out who those nearest dealers are. Awesome. Thanks for joining us again. You bet. Thanks for having me.
So here to talk nitrogen stabilizers with a great representative from Corteva, I've got Andrew Luzum here. And welcome back to the podcast. Thank you. Appreciate it. Producers might be cutting back a little bit this fall when it comes to nitrogen plants. What do we have to say about the myths around that being okay, or that's the only way we can save costs?
I mean, I think as we look at around nitrogen being a cost saver, especially in this next year, probably isn't the reality. I think you guys just had Josh Linville on here a couple weeks ago and talked about how nitrogen prices... are staying fairly strong and don't look like they're going to be too bearish here over the next year.
You know, so we want to make sure we're starting with a good nitrogen plan. But we talk four hours using the right rates, the right time, right source of product, you know, in the right place. All of those factors come into effect. You know, I still think that fall nitrogen is going to be one of our most efficient or cost effective methods of getting nitrogen out on the acre this fall.
But using a good proven stabilizer like NSERV is an insurance policy for an expensive investment, right? I still look at a nitrogen investment on a corn acre this year is probably going to be one of our top two expenses, excluding land costs, right? So we still want to make sure we're doing a really good job around nitrogen management.
Yeah, because I know that's going to be running through all of the farmers' minds is maybe I don't spend money on a stabilizer and that's where I'm going to save costs.
It's like an insurance policy, right? If we're not stabilizing nitrogen, it's just prone to loss. You know, we know that 70% of our nitrogen loss basically happens below the soil level. And guys say, okay, I can, you know, cheat 20 pounds or I can exclude the nitrogen stabilizer maybe, you know, use an additional 20 pounds of nitrogen. We like to look at it like cows in a pasture, right?
Cows are really expensive today as well. But if you've got a hole in the fence in your pasture, do you fix the hole in your fence or do you just buy more cows? Right? The reality is we're going to fix that hole in the fence. We're not going to just keep buying more cows. It's really no different when we're talking about nitrogen stabilization.
What a great way to frame that up. If somebody wants to learn more about nitrogen stabilizers, how best do they do that?
Yeah, they should be able to do that through their local retailer to reach out to a local Corteva AgriScience rep. If they don't have success there, please just go to nitrogenstabilizers.com and you'll be able to see everything we've got going.
And Tanner, you just showed up. Where'd you come from? You were recording somewhere else and now you're here. I was. I was.
I was sweating my tail off and you guys are out here in the cool breeze underneath the beautiful John Deere shade.
They hook us up.
I want to know where these shades are going afterwards because we might need one of these at the studio. We can work on that. Got to work on that.
So we're at the John Deere booth. We are. And it's kind of the... Getting towards the end of day two. It's been a huge crowd today. It's a little less humid, but maybe hotter today. And now we get to talk with the game itself. We get to talk with John Deere.
I'm excited because when we did a conversation like this at Commodity Classic, our listeners really loved the relatableness of the actual human beings that are inside the company. that are putting together one of America's greatest products and greatest brands. So welcome to the podcast. We have Michael Porter. You are the go-to market leader for large tractors and tillage. That is correct.
Happy to be here. And then we have Eric Halfman. I said that correctly? Yes, sir. All right. The go-to market manager for gators and utility vehicles.
Yeah, gator utility vehicles.
I love that. Oh, yeah, it's gator utility vehicles. Not and. It's the same thing. I want to know, what is the go-to market leader, manager, any of that title? What does that mean inside of John Deere?
You want to start or you want me to? Sure, I'll start. I just...
Just a little closer with your mic, and then I'll pick you up a little better. Sounds good. Perfect.
So from a go-to-market perspective, we have the fun and exciting opportunity to take what our engineers and our product marketing teams have done from a developmental perspective, a lot of testing, a lot of customer building, customer requirements, and also see what they've improved on. from existing products. We get to help launch those products. That's super fun.
We do that with the support of our dealerships, but then, again, also internal publications like our websites and fun stuff like this as well.
So you're literally, you take the item and take it to market. Absolutely.
There you go. Yes.
Well, it is kind of an exciting job.
Yeah.
For sure. So it's fun for us right here in the heartland, the Midwest, the Corn Belt, all the great terms that we use for corn country, the best state in Iowa that grows corn, use a lot of these large tractors and tillage tools. Absolutely. So we got to see the unveiling of the 830 at Commodity Classic. Yep. What else has evolved since we talked then?
Yeah. So we have a lot of... You know, obviously the 830 is still pretty exciting. A lot of customers haven't got to see it. So getting to come here, see it in person, not only have a lot, but also going to go see it at the field demos has been a pretty exciting opportunity. But since then, we've also here at Farm Progress, we're actually launching two new tillage products.
So we're excited to launch our MT series or our minimum till ripper, as well as our new coulter chisel or CC series. So exciting new products for John Deere. Obviously, we started in the tillage and the plow back in the original John Deere. And so excited to keep carrying on that legacy with new tillage products.
They look a little different and take a little more horsepower.
A couple, yeah, yeah, a couple, yeah. So instead of one horse, we have 830, so just a little different.
We did an interview earlier yesterday, and your products got a very large compliment for how smart the tillage tools have gotten because they're creating variable depth tillage scripts. that farmers have been able to put to work because they're identifying where that compaction layer is. And now you can partner it with one of these tools and effectively maximize your pass across the field.
Yeah, absolutely. So TruSet is that kind of technology you're talking about. And TruSet Active, we're kind of taking the next step, is... where dealers can do prescription, customers can do prescriptions, I mean, set it to the machine, and then that machine is going to hold whatever depth they want.
And not only just, you know, guesstimating, if you will, but we actually have sensors on board that are measuring the distance between the bar and the ground at all times, so it knows that if a customer says, I really want that MT series to do exactly 13 inches, it's going to hold 13 inches. And if soil gets really soft and it starts to sink, it'll raise it out of the ground.
Or if something like mud builds up on the tires and it starts to raise out of the ground, it'll lower it down to maintain whatever depth that is.
Well, in tender markets like these today, we have to get very specific to do everything we can to make the most amount of profit that we can. And so every bit of that data and decisions is going to help us just arm us.
I know. I love the interview and the energy that these shows have, the connections that we're able to make, because you don't think about the autonomy and the autonomous ready tillage tools as being something that's important. But that's one of the things that you guys are continuing to push forward is that path towards autonomy.
Yeah, we're on a stair step from kind of a building blocks, if you will, over the last couple of years. I mean, TruSet's a great example. Things like AutoTrac turn automation and AutoPath are great technologies that our customers are embracing. And this tool's kind of taken the next step. So it's autonomy ready.
So what that means is it has all the harnesses and lighting packages and an implement mask for Starfire to enable autonomy when paired with autonomous tractor. And so We're just kind of taking that next step and making it even easier for our customers to adopt it when they're ready. If they're not ready, these are still things that provide a ton of value for those customers.
But then if they decide that I really need an autonomous tractor to help me get through my fall tillage or whatever it may be, it's as simple as hooking it up to their autonomous tractor and away they go.
I'm going to brand it as John Deere infrastructure. So we can't have electric vehicles before we have the infrastructure to support them. We can't have autonomous tractors before we have the infrastructure to support it, and then all the supporting attachments. I think of like a skid steer. A skid steer is nothing without all the attachments. We have to have the attachments that work with that.
So, yeah, you're building the blocks of John Deere infrastructure.
Yep. Tractors don't go tractoring. That's the same thing we always say there. We call it our tech stack, and we're – We're slowly, you know, customers are adopting this technology because they realize it makes a huge impact to their business, makes it easier, makes them more efficient, especially with all the things with labor shortages and teaching, getting everyone up to speed on this tech.
I was just about to say that. Some of the infrastructure is also teaching people. I don't know how to plug in a this or a that. As you guys have incrementally taught people that... hey, this is what GPS is, and then this is how you work a touchscreen, and then this is what WAS is, and this is how to make an AB point. Now we're all up to speed, okay?
Now, how do we take that and put a second receiver here? And then how does that talk with this one? And I mean, I'm just geeking out on all the tech that we can go, but each person is in their own incremental step of learning, if you will.
Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, starting with guidance. And now we don't really want or need the tractor to be on that guidance line. We care about where that implement is, right? Planter, tillage. And so we're taking it to the next step is how can we, you know, some of that low-hanging fruit, to your point, maybe we've addressed those, right, with auto track and all that.
Now it's how exact can we get some of these things. Yeah.
Well, I'm going to come back to more tillage and large tractor talk, but I don't want to leave Eric out. He's talking about GPS and knowing where these tillage tools are, but I'm pretty sure I've seen some guidance mounted on your gator.
I have the first question here. Let me go here, will you? Because I actually heard a question that was asked of the little man running around out here, Jackson, just a Jackson thing right over there. And they said, hey, Jackson, if this wasn't called a gator, what would you call it? Oh. What's your answer for that? If it wasn't a gator, what is it?
I don't know. I don't know that I've prepared an answer, the proper answer for that one.
Yeah, yeah. Check one. Check one.
But it is, it's the, I can describe what it is. There you go. It's the gateway. It's the foundational piece with integrated technology that unlocks all the value that Michael was talking about from a tillage perspective. And as you see in our booth today, a lot of the other large ag equipment that has been advanced technologies, none of that's possible without driven advanced boundaries.
See, and I would have called it the tax write-off to start off. And I was like, wait a minute, got a little bit more here. And now everybody found the functional use of it. So first, let's maybe buy it over here.
See, that's what my dad used to call me. My initials are TW. The tax write-off.
So all jokes aside, you were getting serious. And the serious point is, as I look at it over there, I even asked, like, what is the marker on the left side of that? And Tanner's like, I don't know. I'm guessing it's for marking boundaries. I mean, you guys have teched this thing out.
So we're trying to make it easy, right? We always try to make things easy with integrated technology. And we also, you know, anybody could boundary map with a tractor. They might do that on a planter pass. But it's really important to be doing it with equipment that's designed to do it, right? Not Corey's Geo Metro. Yeah, that would be the Gator Utility Vehicle.
And this year, it's at Farm Progress, it's a brand new Gator Utility Vehicle. So we've launched our XUV 845 and our XUV 875 gas and diesel. Full-size crossover machine that, with integrated technology... air conditioning on a day like today, or if it was this hot after fall harvest. What a great place to be.
So I think back to the original Gator that I thought like on a golf course and it was like a six-wheeler and it was low to the ground.
We still have two at the farm. They will not die. We have tried killing those things and they won't go away.
Gators live to a long age. Now we're calling it XUV. So what are some upgrades since then for any listeners like independent suspension or where yet?
Yeah, absolutely. So if you think the evolution of a truck, the Gator kind of, you know, is oftentimes compared to a pickup truck. So you think of the evolution of truck from two-wheel drive to four-wheel drive, from non-power steering to power steering, to cabs, even in the evolution of agriculture, all of a sudden we have a cab.
We put a cab on a Gator utility vehicle, a crossover utility vehicle, and now you have air conditioning and heat. It's a portable office for our producers to really get a lot of things done.
Ooh, I like that. Portable office. That's key. I was going towards land management, and even though I joke that it's a tax write-off, I think it's become way more important than that as a tool in the toolbox that was maybe a tool that we used for fun, and now it has become oh so much more important, Tanner. as not a trusted advisor, but a trusted piece.
Well, we did our interview yesterday with Tracy from Easter Seals, who helps farmers with disabilities continue to farm and farming families that have family members with disabilities. And she described the gator as a necessary tool. That's what keeps some of these farmers going, doing what they love to do.
Our customers often tell us they spend more time in that piece of equipment than any other piece of equipment on the farm. So it needs to be right for them.
So if I had to guess, or I'm going to ask you here, I think large farmers, let's say, I'll say 5,000-plus acres, 2,000-plus acres, I'll say that. Okay, do they use it more, or do the guys that are like, I've got a food plot in southern Iowa for hunting use it more? Yes. Okay, that's smart. That's what I thought.
We didn't get to be the go-to market manager for nothing.
Within the walls of John Deere, we say our gator utility vehicles fit within – almost every production system. So if you think of any type of environment, property, like food plot development, land management, it's super important to keep up with the crops that they're growing. Crops like clover or alfalfa to feed a herd for herd management.
And you can utilize a gator utility vehicle to do a lot of that.
I've got a whole new market for you. I take my kid to football practice, and every one of the parents, like every small community now, let you have golf carts drive all over town. And every parent comes up because we don't have bleachers, and they just drive up there and sit on them. I tell my wife, I'm like, why are we sitting in the dirt? We need our own side-by-side or something. There you go.
Tanner needs an upgrade of his golf cart.
I was just sitting ready to say that. I put some turf-friendly tires on there, and I'll just drive that thing around the golf course. I love it. Okay, let's go back to Tillage, and I'm going to figure out how to marry these two together.
That's exciting.
That's a lot of energy that you have to try and top.
I think one of the things that he's, you know, that is absolutely a tool for tillage and our autonomous tillage moving forward. I think we're going to see more customers that are going to embrace that technology because with our autonomous tillage and all this new tech, we're going to need those boundaries. And the best way to get that done is with our new Gaylor lineup.
Yeah, now do any of your tillage tools integrate with the gator lineup?
So working on it, working on it. I think there's a lot of opportunity in the future, you know, especially with autonomous tractor. I think customers have got to figure out ways to get those gators around with them as they're moving them around. So I think we've got some opportunities to collaborate.
They need like a single shank disc gripper to go behind a gator.
Yeah, if you're familiar with a Frontier brand that we have from an implement perspective perspective, many available here for display at Farm Progress. We do have some tillage tools. They already beat me to it.
A lot of hay equipment as well.
Not a unique idea at all.
You can marry these two together in that they both have GPS and make us more accurate and better decision making and hopefully more profitable. How wide? So as a first year farmer myself on the row crop side, anyway, I'm making decisions on how wide of stuff to go and and how new of tech I need. But it also depends a whole lot on the John Deere tractor I have in front of it.
Question I wrote down is how much horsepower? Let's go with width first. How wide are these new tools? And then, how much horsepower does it take?
Yeah, no, great question. So, you know, we have a wide range. So to hopefully answer your future question, we have the right toolage tool and the right width for whatever tractor you have. So we have lots of options. With these new tools specifically, our MT series, we start as narrow, if you want to call that, as our MT5 or a five shank, 30-inch wide tool. Okay.
We go all the way up to the biggest, which is our MT11. And basically for every shank that we're talking about on that number, 50 to 60 horsepower is roughly the right number depending on soil conditions and how deep you're going to go. So, again, if you have a... A five shank tool, a 250 horsepower tractor would be about right to be able to pull that.
And then all the way up to our MT-11, we'll start talking about those high 500s to pull some of those wider ones.
So help me with something. As I'm a decision maker, I'm sitting here at Farm Progress Show. You have a new tool, and I love new stuff, but the budget's tight, of course, this year. So my tillage tool works pretty good, but I'm also an auctioneer. John Deere holds its value. I can sell this with that XYZ Auction Company. And I can upgrade your new piece. Why? Why should I? What's the advantage?
Yeah, absolutely. So this MT series for inline ripper, one of the main key takeaways that we heard from customers is we want to make sure that this tool holds up. We're not having to stop in the middle of the year to replace wear parts. We want this to go longer. So that tool is actually twice the lifespan on our wear shins that our previous inline rippers had.
So if a customer was getting two seasons out of the last one before they're replacing versions, this one's going to go four. But also with that is, again, the adoption of some of the technology like TruSet. So again, that customer, maybe with a previous inline ripper, they weren't exactly sure how deep they were always going. Maybe they were varying that as they go through the field.
With this, they're going to be confident that they're holding whatever, 12, 13 inches deep at all times.
Gotcha.
And, again, that makes a consistent tillage pass, which means they're going to have consistent yield across that field, allow water to permeate where it needs to go.
And we learned, too, when you were talking about the large tractors down at Commodity, that there's a lot of new technology involved with the fact that we're going to work on maximizing fuel efficiency. We're taking these larger frame, larger horsepower tractors. You've got them weighted and balanced appropriately to where we're not losing power to the ground.
And it was neat to see some of the demonstrations there as part of your team's roundup. But talk more about how you're putting that technology into making sure we don't lose traction.
Yeah. So we can talk, I guess, on the tractor side. Obviously you talked about balancing the machine, making sure we have those weight splits right, because without the proper weight splits, you're being a lot really inefficient, right? And so with the new high horsepower, for example, you'll notice we move things like the fuel tank into the middle of the tractor versus the back, right?
So previously, as you filled that tank up, you had more weight on the back. As you got lower on fuel, more of that weight shifted to the front. Throughout the whole day, your weight splits were changing and traction and some of that was changing and you were losing efficiency.
So we're thinking about those things when we're balancing these tractors and trying to move the fuel tank to the middle, keep them as perfectly weighted up as we need to. And then we're also looking at what application are we doing and what do we need for ballast? So we're always looking at that.
On the tillage side, I'd say where we're taking this is, okay, what's my outcome that I'm looking for and how deep do I have to go? And if I don't, I can go up a little bit higher, make sure that TruSet's maintaining that depth, and I'll be able to use less fuel use less energy and go faster across that field and get more done.
So they're really working hand in hand to get more done and being as efficient as possible.
I'm going to put you a little on the spot here, but you're good at answering questions. So I'm going to challenge you with a hard one here. All right. I have a coffee group I go to in the morning, and there's a lot of naysayers. Okay. And these old boys are going to say, it works fine the way it is. It's just a new feature you're selling me.
Why in the world, okay, you've given us some whys to make it applicable, but there's got to be some data-driven decisions behind it because I know Deere uses data. So if you're that old boy that's asking you that question, standing right here at the booth, geez, it works just fine. Is there some data you can provide to me that you guys have why you went this direction?
Yeah, so I got two different points we'll start with. If we talk about the tractor and what this new tractor can do, 100 more acres per day. I don't think there's any customer out there who's going to say, I wouldn't want to get 100 more acres of tillage done in a day. And that's what that enabled with the same tillage tools compared to our 640, but allowed them to go wider and faster.
If we start talking about our new CC series, we're saying, what about 50 more acres per day? And that's what that's going to bring over our traditional 2730, getting primary tillage done. We're able to go 7 inches at 7 miles an hour, up to 33 feet wide.
Whoa.
That's a lot of tillage done in one day.
Yeah, it is.
And so for those customers who are racing against Mother Nature, right, freezing in the fall or maybe the planter in the spring, getting 50 to 100 more acres a day done, that's a big deal. That's making sure that that planter is not stopped and that they're getting it all in before Mother Nature says they can't. Got it.
That's really good. Now, I came up with a question because I remembered that there's a, I'm going to call it a law or a rule, that once you get above a certain horsepower, these tractors don't have DEF. Yes. And our audience is already aware of that. But you mentioned that you've got diesel Gators. No DEF. No DEF on it. Now, how do you get away with that? Horsepower.
74 or more, isn't it? Somewhere in there, 74.
So we're in a sweet spot, most certainly, for our Gator utility vehicles and diesel, yes. So just need diesel fuel. Hey, that's good news.
I was afraid. I didn't know what the answer was going to be.
That was a legit trap question. Did I tell you my wife's story? Yes. So she put DEF in the diesel tank. Oh, jeez. of our truck, but she caught it. She realized it. She was distracted by the kids and calls the dealership, and they're like, do not start it. Do not anything. We have the thing towed. I'm outside. I'm like, why is there a tow truck here? What's going on?
She wanted to handle it herself. She did, and it was expensive. Not a worry on his gator or our high horse. It can be bad.
That's exciting. I know that this is only the tip of the iceberg when you talk about where the future of agriculture is headed. In both of your divisions, do you have any directions that you can share with us as to what's coming down the pipeline?
You want to start or you want me to? You go first. Yeah, so I think some of the stuff we're showing at Farm Progress, we've talked a lot about autonomy, right? So our customers have gotten to see now our autonomous tillage solution, but we've been pretty vocal on the fact that we're going to have an entirely autonomous corn and soy production system by 2030. 2030, yeah.
So when you look at your watch right now and you say that's not that far away, we have a lot of really cool things in the pipeline around autonomy and making things easier and adding efficiency to the farms over the next five to six years. That's going to happen fast.
Yep. Yeah, I can't wait to be a part of that launch. Yeah, absolutely. But think of this, Tanner. How many seasons does the average farmer get? We did it once. It's like 33. 33 seasons that you're the decision-maker operator. So six years, what is that, a third?
If you're that old boy we had lunch with today, that poor son of his is not getting 30 seasons to make decisions.
No, he's not. He's not. So just be thinking ahead for what is coming. That's why we're revealing this now. But I have a crystal ball that says that I think equipment might get smaller because we've maxed the capacity of the roads. We've maxed the capacity, weight limits, et cetera.
So as we become autonomous, do we just have more farms and they're all tilling at the same time and they're all harvesting at the same time? So we need smaller size because we're not so much worried about time and efficiency. As you guys are going autonomy, is it still just as big?
I'd say it's both. I mean, it's what does customer have instead of having to go buy all this new equipment, we're really working on making autonomy work on the equipment they already have today. So we're adding things with our performance or our precision upgrades group to add this to older technology. So instead of them having to go buy a lot of new equipment or different equipment,
we're going to make it work on the things they already have on their farm. And so for some customers, maybe that is bigger for other customers. Maybe it fits for them where they have a lot of smaller fields and they go smaller and more of them, whatever, whatever works for those customers. We're not picky. We just want to make sure that they have the right product for them.
I like that approach, but Eric, I want to know what's coming down the pipeline.
So, so I think when you look at Gator utility vehicles, most certainly in the new models, uh, the integrated technology is that, is that step in that direction? Um, We know there's a ton of boundaries to be mapped yet, driven map to unlock value.
We haven't talked about sprayers, but I've talked to a ton of customers this week about the amount of time they save when a sprayer pulls in a field when a boundary is in that field. I mean, it's amazing. And then technology that's on that sprayer, like ExactApply, the value they get out of that is certainly unlocked.
I know at the last show we were at, you guys had a newer program that's more of a lease program for some of that technology that some of maybe the older farmers didn't have that can move. And it can move from my tractor to maybe even, well, it's a lease program. So I could just get another one and just do it as a cost per acre or cost of doing business and then upgrade the gator that we have.
with another monitor, another whatever, to map that as well. Now, you're talking about brand new, but I might already have one myself. That's still in play, right? We can still buy monitors, buy globes, buy et cetera for our current.
Absolutely. Or what I'd really like you to do is get a Green Star integrated gator, brand new gator, and bring your monitor display from your your other equipment and carry it in, bring it into the gator and utilize that. So it kind of can go both ways.
It does work, yeah. You guys are working good with the old and the new to bridge that gap.
Do you remember that Snapchat that Corey sent us this spring to where he said that he had gone and mapped his boundaries? Of course, he uses a geotracker. We're going to have to get him a gator. Because he said that he actually hit the highline pole with the planter.
I said metro, didn't I? Geo-metro. He's a geo-tracker. How dare you? I know. We're going to get a lot of flack for that. No, it's all right. I'm going to make a meme of him in a geo-metro.
So as he's doing this and filming the snapchat when the sprayer goes through the field, he goes, I didn't adjust that boundary yet. And he was waiting for the boom to hit it. Boom, break away, and just comes back into it. But that's where the accuracy matters.
Yes, definitely.
Because even if he tried, it still wasn't 100% accurate.
Well, and one of the things I learned is I had some of the technology, but I didn't have the modem. So I didn't have the modem that would automatically sync into my tractor. I was still thumb sticking it, you know. And so that's come a long ways as we think of where there's cell phone signal, where there is satellites, et cetera, that we have. I know immediately the juice is worth the squeeze.
Just pay for it. Upgrade. Upgrade. Of course, and that was part of that new program too, that lease program. You get the modem with it. I ended up buying another one.
So I got two questions left in the interview, one about deer and then one about perspective. So in both of your teams and the advancements you're putting together, what are they doing to make everything more user-friendly?
Yeah, I think from a gator utility perspective, the amount of time that we spend with customers and development I think is really important. Spending time... And letting them use equipment. We certainly do our own R&D, spend a lot of investment dollars in R&D, but customers are a part of our R&D as well.
So that's huge because as soon as we launch a product, our customers are going to tell us what we missed, right? So let's get our customers engaged in that process so we don't miss, right? Or we might still miss, let's be honest, but we can't put everything that customers want. There's things that we need to do. But, you know, I think that's a really valid point.
Eric, you just made me interject one little thing here, and that is for you listeners of Farm for Profit, when he said R&D, we have an episode coming up that you're going to want to listen to on R&D. Just a teaser here. Keep listening. I'll take the $5 for bringing that up.
Who said it was $5?
Here's a warm water for you. Here's a warm water. Yeah, if you checked out that 845R in the display area over there, you would have seen the boundary mapping aid, but then you would have also seen a tow bar. So we've got some prototype stuff that we're talking about. We're at this show. We're talking to customers, getting feedback from them. Hey, what do you like? Where should this go? Right.
Do you see this? Clearly where Mike was just talking about autonomous tillage. Awesome. May still need a person to be checking in on that stuff around. Yep. Yep.
So getting it from field to field.
Yeah. It all, it all pieces together. That's great.
I think on my side, very similar. We listen to customers. Customer focus groups are a huge part of our development in all of these. And we also do things like how can we reduce the amount of time, you know, kind of a test or a trial. How do we reduce the amount of time it takes from a customer when they pull into the field to get that tillage tool operating and running?
And so a lot of that is pre-planning some of this work. You know, operations center, you talked about it, sending that stuff wirelessly, having things where we, you know, auto field detection. They pull in the field. imports all those guidance lines and boundaries. And with something like prescription tiller, it's going to import exactly what depth we want.
All that customer really has to do is hit the auto track resume button and they're going to get in that field.
And Tanner, for you and a lot of our other listeners, you know, you work with your father-in-law and of course they might set it up and then you might have a hired hand. And that hired hand or that son, brother-in-law, daughter, et cetera, they sit in it and maybe they didn't do the mapping originally, but maybe there's another team member who is the oversight on this or the overwatch.
And so, yeah, time. Yeah, exactly.
And I think, you know, things like AutoPath, if you've heard that, you were guidance path planning. It makes a lot of this a lot easier for our customers. But at the end of the day, it's the customers telling us, when they get to the field, get me working as fast as possible. And so every day we have engineers and people that are working on how do we make that happen.
Gotcha. The industry really deserves for things to be easy and for what we put in from an effort perspective to make things comfortable. Comfortable on them physically, but then also professionally.
comfortable on their minds so at the end of the day you're ready you're ready to spend time with family and the next day ready to ready to start farming again I know that's a key because I've been in other competitors machines as well including side by sides the the fact that the comfort is a major factor a major focus is it definitely shows through but our time here has been great just to get a little glimpse into these two areas of John Deere and one of the things that we also like to do for our listeners is let them know that they're not
the only ones that struggle with something. And one of the questions we get asked a lot is how we juggle our work and personal lives, and that includes podcasting and farming and running a business and our families. So I want to know from you guys, how do you juggle work and personal life? If you need a second, I just want to remind our listeners that we did.
We talked here with Michael from Large Tractors and Tillage. We talked with Eric from the Gator Utility Vehicles. We learned a lot about...
what's coming down the pipeline and what's here and offered today the technology is fascinating and we we on the podcast we normally get to talk about all the big cool equipment that's out there i think this one was a really fun one and for you listeners that are looking out there uh your gator might be a couple years old you guys got to check this thing out i'm just telling you i know everybody's thinking big tractors big money look at this gator we've learned through that i wrote down a lot of different things on here but i remembered the tech stack comment the fact that
It is continuing to build upon and get better as we move through this. They're following and building off of that foundation, using vehicles like the Gator as a gateway into some of the exciting things that are going forward. And neither one of these guys have to deal with death. I like that. Just had to put that out there again.
But they do have to deal with a family. So answer the question. What do you got?
All right. I'll start. It's the Gateway Gator. Maybe it's the Gateway Gator. There you go. So calendar. Got to live by your calendar, right? I live my life with a calendar. And before I take the next vacation, I have the next vacation scheduled. Oh, cool. And that is with family, right? That's not my alone time. Workations, yeah. Married over 20 years with two kids. Well, it must be working.
Try to prioritize that. I've always tried to do that. It's tough. It's not easy for any of us to juggle that. I'm not a good vacationer, but that could be something I could use. My son is a senior in high school, so he's finishing his high school career off this year. And I tell him, work hard. So you can play hard. Yep. And the only way you can play hard is if you work hard. Awesome.
That's good. That's great. Good luck keeping up with that one.
Yeah. Right. Yeah. No, that's a good question. I think for me, I think the first part of it goes into you got to love what you do. So there's a lot of days where, you know, I enjoy what I do, which makes it a lot easier. So that's the first part. But then I think he's right. Spending time with family is probably the biggest one.
I'm lucky to have a wife who deals with me and all my Travel and woes and a dog and but more importantly a kid on the way So it's definitely changed.
Yeah changed my opinions on some of that But I work on spending time as much as we can and then when we are not working is Shut the phone off on the weekends and enjoy the time you have and not worrying about what the next week's gonna bring Yeah, we've intentionally not used the word balance. Yeah Balance is it's skewed maybe sometimes but I'd say the good news too is a
I bleed green, so for me, I love getting up and getting to talk to customers and dealers and all that. So it makes it a lot easier than what probably a lot of people have to deal with in their work. So that makes it a lot easier too. Very good.
Gentlemen, thank you so much for hanging out with us. If our listeners have questions, what's the best way for them to start getting answers? Local John Deere dealer is the best place to start and Deere.com. Awesome. Thank you again. Thank you guys for having us. Nice.