Farm4Profit Podcast
Inside the Farm Plan: Corey Talks Growing Season Strategies w/ AgXplore
Mon, 16 Dec 2024
In this episode, Corey gives us an inside look at what goes into planning his farm’s next growing season. Brent and Zach from AgXplore join the conversation, sharing their expert perspectives on optimizing every phase of farming decisions—from crop inputs and soil health to technology adoption and risk management.The discussion explores the challenges Corey faces as he preps his operation and how AgXplore’s innovative products and strategies can provide solutions. Whether you’re a farmer gearing up for spring or just curious about the behind-the-scenes decisions of a modern operation, this episode offers valuable insights into the planning process that ensures success. Want Farm4Profit Merch? Custom order your favorite items today!https://farmfocused.com/farm-4profit/ Don’t forget to like the podcast on all platforms and leave a review where ever you listen! Website: www.Farm4Profit.comShareable episode link: https://intro-to-farm4profit.simplecast.comEmail address: [email protected]/Text: 515.207.9640Subscribe to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSR8c1BrCjNDDI_Acku5XqwFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@farm4profitConnect with us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Farm4ProfitLLC/
This is Brent Diedrich with AgExplore. We're sitting here with Corey and we're trying to pick his brain on what's going through his mind as he goes through this fall and trying to make decisions on his farm and see if there's any solutions that he wants to try for next year.
This is Zach Bingman. I believe the name of the game for all the conversations here was simplicity, but we talked about humics and fulvics and we ended with fungicides.
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.
And listeners, welcome back to the Farm for Profit podcast. You got Tanner here.
Corey's here. And Dave's in the studio as well.
Oh, Dave is here with a little bit of firepower. It's not the tripod today?
No, it's the tripod.
Okay.
What a fun, cold day to be in the studio.
Yeah, but it got hot in here a little bit ago.
I got the fan blowing in the door.
It's crazy. It can be freezing outside, but the sun is an amazing power, right? Like it can come in and greenhouse effect. And just, I was sweating a little bit ago. Maybe it was a little bit of the bourbon.
I'm going to go with the sun. The truth comes out. Listeners, we appreciate you. We always thank you for listening. And this episode is by no means anything different. So continue to share this with your family and friends. Make sure that you tell everybody out there that this is one of your favorite podcasts to listen to and maybe why. Yeah.
Tell them that you like listening to Corey or you like Corey's opinion and maybe Dave's better.
That you learned something.
You have a little bit of fun along the path. We've been getting a couple of good text messages lately. Some really good feedback. We had one that came in asking if we would be able to go more in detail in regards to tax planning.
That would be an extremely boring show, but probably valuable. I am guessing it would be valuable.
But thank you so much for doing that, Corey. It's 515-207-9640 is where I've been getting those text messages. We also got a voicemail the other day that I played for you, and that was an interesting one.
Trying to think which one that was. You played a couple voicemails for me.
That's true. The one that I was thinking of was the one that was talking about ag policy and how that affects.
Oh, and how you advocate.
Yep. How do you advocate for yourself in regards to politics? But that's one thing that we've stayed away from.
We have. And not because we're not into it, but... Just been a policy. That's not saying that we shouldn't or can't have a spinoff show. That is ag policy, right?
Absolutely. But, Dave, it's exciting. People send us guests, suggestions, farmforprofitllc at gmail.com. We're going to be hitting the trade show circuit this winter. So as you think about your holiday plans and what your trade show schedule is going to be, if you want to be on, make sure you reach out and send us a message.
But now it's time to get our minds out of the snow and start planning for next year's crop. Absolutely. It is time for a What's Working in Ag segment, and we know we've had several conversations around this topic, and we know it's going to work for your farm, but I can't wait to introduce you to Logan Chamberlain. She's here representing ADS and going to join us for this conversation today.
Welcome, Logan.
Thank you, Tanner. Thanks for having me on.
First of all, start off by introducing yourself, who you are, what your tie to agriculture is, and then roll right into a little bit about ADS.
Perfect. So my name is Logan Chamberlain. I am the Agriculture Market Manager for Advanced Drainage Systems based out of Hilliard, Ohio. And in addition to working in the water management side of the house, I also farm, grain farmer in Northwest Ohio.
Well, that's exciting. I like when we can relate somebody from the professional world to that of the agricultural world. And now tell us more about ADS.
Yep, absolutely. So a little bit about advanced drainage systems or ADS. So we started in 1966. Right before then, people were doing drainage improvements on their farms a lot of the times right here in the heart of Ohio with clay tile. So very manual, very difficult to install, but folks knew then the importance of kind of managing the water that they had within their field. So
ADS started truly kind of changed the game for drainage as they were the innovators of the corrugated plastic pipe. So now it's very common, right? You see these big tile rolls out in fields, you know exactly what's happening. ADS was proud to be the innovator of that product back in the 60s and to this day will still continue to innovate.
Started in the ag market and really are the name that farmers and contractors can count on for their water management systems.
Now, I find it difficult to think there's a ton of innovation that goes into a plastic pipe, but explain more as to how that really happens.
Yes, absolutely. And I think, you know, that's a common thing, even something that I thought about, right, of it's just pipe. What, you know, what's it matter? And so truly something we're incredibly proud of is that Advanced Range Systems or ADS has now opened a very large state-of-the-art engineering facility. And that's where you kind of can get to see everything come to life, right?
So when you're working within tenths of an inch and you have to have the proper grade in order to truly move water throughout your field and into the proper waterways, that matters. That engineering and the science that goes into creating the right form and fit of a pipe It's critical.
And so that's where a lot of that innovation is coming of not only making the product better and last, but also what the experience of that product is for our contractors and installing it truly into our field.
So why is it, though, important for our listeners to be able to manage their water with that kind of precision?
Yes. So number one, what everyone loves and wants to see at the end of the year is profit. And so truly, right, we know that everything from a good, healthy crop starts within that soil, right? And so you're making decisions on seed and chem and fruit inputs. And this is all about making sure that the ground and your, you know, that incredibly valuable asset is working its hardest for you.
So not only just removing excess water, but having water in the right place at the right time.
Yeah, that is key. And I know we've had conversations, listeners, about how we can maximize profitability using drain tile. But I want to learn about how ADS is really putting that science into their product. You talked about the engineering, but now shed some light on what you're actually doing.
Yes, absolutely. So a lot of it is just, you know, right, how are we getting the right product available for your soil? So it is down to You know, what perforation patterns are we using? Is that fit for your soil CECs? What is going to be able to enable your soil to truly act as the sponge that it is? Right. And it kind of sounds so simple at the end of the day.
And that's what I love about drainage and kind of water management is that it sells itself. Right. You see it once and you know that it's a great solution for your farm, whether you have too much water. Some of our country was in a drought this year. I was affected by that.
um and you know you're able to kind of see over tile lines when things are too dry those crops are growing in a better manner because your roots are getting down deeper they've got a better space structure they're able to get up out of the ground a little bit sooner um and something that we've heard right now right especially as weather is so volatile across the country mother nature is hard to control um our field drainage and having a pattern tile system on your field
is allowing farmers to get into that ground sooner, right? They've got a three-day window and they need to be taking advantage of all of it. And a lot of those times, those fields that they couldn't get into, they're able to within the first year even of installing drainage tile on their field.
Well, right here in Central Iowa, we saw that this year. We had a wet spring and now we've had a wet fall and it is affecting those producers to get in and get their job done. I also see that your product uses recycled material, making it possibly greener.
yes absolutely and that is uh you know something i think we love to tote right a lot of times as a farmer right i wear that cap in addition to my corporate hat uh you hear like sustainability and immediately think like this can't be profitable and i think that there's a great thing to be noted that you can be sustainable and profitable um at the same time using especially starting with drainage management systems so we are one of the largest plastics recyclers in north america
And a part of that engineering center that we do, right, we are taking recycled material from across the country, cleaning and purifying it. Of course, it has to hit certain standards. And then using that within material science to make sure that we're creating a product that not only meets but exceeds every single industry standard necessary for drainage requirements.
So a pretty cool thing that we can keep, you know, plastic out of landfills. I think over last year was over 500 billion pounds that we kept out of a landfill and put back to better use on our agricultural ground.
Wow. 500 billion pounds.
Million. Million. Sorry. 500 million.
That's still a large amount of plastic. And to think that farmers can invest in this to make their farm or business more profitable while saving the planet.
Yes, absolutely. We are doing our part.
Yeah, I think you guys need a t-shirt about that. So now tell us what's on the forefront for next year. What's coming down the pipe to say for ADS in 2025?
I love a good pun. That's a great one, by the way, Tanner. So really kind of what's coming down the pipe is thinking about more than just the true drainage system. What else can we be adding in? I think across the country, there is a push from a conservation manner and standpoint. And we know that there's a lot of work and research going into what more can we be doing as farmers, right?
And so that's coming from our water control structures that we work with. We will make recommendations on when and how those can be utilized in your fields. to hold back water when you need to, or kind of be able to adjust those levels. Another thing is lift stations, right?
There's a lot of parts of this country that they don't have the gravity or an outlet to be able to say, you know, maybe I can't tile because I don't have anywhere for this water to go. And so the other things, right, a big component is a lift station in the event that you need a different outlet or something. being able to use a lift station and then enable drainage water management on your farm.
So that's a big one. They are getting more and more popular, especially as people see them work and see the rewards and see the benefits. And so that's kind of full steam ahead for us in the coming year.
So now does ADS attend farm shows or events that our listeners could attend this winter and spring seasons to learn more about it firsthand?
Yes, we absolutely do. So one of our biggest shows that we will be at this year is NACAID. So it's the North American Conservation Drainage Expo in Indianapolis. So we will be there in January and honestly showing off all of our innovations. So a lift station will be on display as well as our automated maxi trailer.
So that is a much safer delivery to the farm field and some of the other great innovations that we have coming out to make life easier for our farmers and contractors. So all of that will be on display. And then, of course, a lot of regional shows as well, such as National Farm Machinery Show, etc.,
That's great. I know our listeners will be out and about, so it'll be good for them to look you up. But if they can't make it to a show, how can they learn more about ADS?
Yes, absolutely. So you can find us online at adspipe.com backslash agriculture. And then, of course, if you want to get in touch with your local sales rep, I think we've got the absolute best in the game on team here at ADS. But you can find your local ag rep in your state as well through that website.
Awesome. Well, you heard it there, listeners. That's Logan Chamberlain from ADS, and she just shared a bit of knowledge with you. Thanks for joining us on the podcast.
Thanks so much for having us, Tanner.
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got repeat guests, Zach and Brent, here on the podcast. And before we dive into anything of why you guys are here, let's just get the whole overview, who you are, what do you do with AgX, and go from there. Brent, you want to start? Yeah, I'll start.
Zach's been here already. Brent Diedrich, I'm our Director of Sales and CRO. I've been with AgX for six years, and my responsibility is just to oversee and support our sales staff.
Yeah, my name's Zach. Not as cool a title as Brent. What is your title? There's a lot of different things that you could throw in there. We'll stick with the easy one, which is Sales Acceleration Leader. And it's not even easy. I don't even know what to explain about it. A little bit of everything, right? Yeah, a little bit of everything.
Sales acceleration leader. That's like what I should call Corey. He should be the guest acceleration leader, and his job is to make them go faster?
Talk faster?
You can do that on Spotify. You can go in a lot of different directions. One and a half X. How do you say that word, concierge? Concierge? Concierge. You are the content concierge. That's what you are.
Say that again, Dave. Concierge. What's the definition? Rachel, what's the definition of concierge?
He's the guy that makes sure all the partners. He's the guy that direct connects to all the partners. You're the concierge.
You make sure things are good. Dave, how do you spell concierge?
There's a G in there.
Okay. How do you spell Corey?
With an E. With an E. Okay.
I'm excited because, like I said, we've gotten the privilege to meet these folks and had a lot of conversations. I don't know if our audience truly has gotten to meet Zach. Definitely not in the way that we have, but also just the fact that we've gotten to know more about the AgX brand. And we'll obviously talk about that a little bit in today's show.
But we're more importantly considering the conversation that a lot of our listeners are going through right now as we plan for next year's crop. So that's the basis of what we're going to talk about today. And kind of explore that. And Corey, I would appreciate it if you would help lead us through that. Yep.
Because you're going through this and Dave's also kind of following your lead and discussion at the same time. So what is your farm kind of dealing with right now, Corey?
So to go through that, I kind of need to back up and say how my farm operates a little bit and how Dave's farm operates because he's a first-year grower. Well, actually, you're planting for your second season. So no longer are you a first-year grower. That's right.
So to preface that a little bit, I made Dave go all through the co-op last year, even though I have a sprayer and we cash and carry our own chemicals and things like that. I wanted Dave to get that retail experience and know why, because I wasn't going to be able to provide as much clarity as a retail agronomist would, right?
So you have to go through a little bit of the pain before you can come and get the easy way with me or something like that. I don't know. Maybe it's not right, but I thought you worked with a good agronomist. Yeah.
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So my farm, we've been cash and carry. We have sprayed all of our crops since I was coming up. That was one of the first things I did on the farm that meant more than just a 40-20, you know, tearing down trees, you know. It was sitting in the 7800 back in the early 2000s when aphids come in, and Dad put me in the 7800 pulling a hardy sprayer, you know, like 60 or 80-foot boom, and boom.
That was my first experience with it, and stay off the rose, right? So cash and carry, we like to do all of our planning, budgeting, and purchasing of all the inputs that we can, either late December or early January, depending tax-wise. We really like to know where our costs are going to be because we are a numbers-driven business, and we're farm-for-profit podcasts, right?
So we need to know that instead of making a decision that's based off emotion in season. So that's what we're getting into. It's middle of December right now. Dad has typically done this. He is a guy that likes to sit in the office and will be in there for what seems like weeks, right? Doing all the research on this stuff. And he's stepping back from that.
So it is my brother and I's opportunity to do that. I've always had a hand in it and know it well. I probably won't be as thorough as my dad was. So I would like to go through what I'm going to do and where AgExplore could insert themselves. I just don't know that we should just jump in and just start talking products, though.
No, and I don't want to do that. And I also know that there's knowledge in this room because of their backgrounds that even as you talk through what your farm is going to do, there could be places to insert themselves that isn't even a product-related piece of value.
So, Corey, to make decisions on your farm for next year, I'm looking at what we did last year and how the product was last year. And then we make decisions on how we can change on your farm. What is something you want to change next year in your decision-making?
I'm going to say it's in my decision-making and it's no specific product or placement of product or anything like that that I have a goal to change. It's I am looking for simplicity. Okay. And let's see. A lot of times you can go simple and maybe not as effective. I want effective and simple, right? You want all the things. I want all of it. But us as farmers... We don't take less on our plate.
It seems like we're the plumber, we're the marketer, we're the electrician, we're the grain hauler, we're everything, right? We're trying to be a jack-of-all-trades. And what I've tried to do on our farm, and the podcast has helped me see this, is we only have so many hours in a day. And our time is our most precious thing. Asset, not the money in the bank account. That helps.
You can buy time with money, but we need the time. And as the podcast pulls me this way and seed sales pull me this way and farming is my main job is still pulling me harder because as I said, my dad's stepping back. Family's in there somewhere too because 11 years, right? Right, 11 years with my wife and my kids are wanting to go to Disney and travel and all this stuff. We need time, right?
So I want... I want to surround myself with a great team of people that are smart, and I want to make things more simple. Dad, I'm not saying that you did things wrong in this aspect, but he had the time to sit there and research and pinch pennies and save. I remember in mid-2000s, we were saving $18,000. just by not buying our chemicals from the co-op, from our local retailer.
And we like to work with our co-op, right? It's not to cut them out and not do business locally. It's just we're not paying for their service because we're knowledgeable. We all went to college at Iowa State University, and we have the ability to educate ourselves. So... I'm not going to sit in the office and pinch pennies like that.
I'm going to surround myself with a guy like maybe price a few people and go, that's who works with me best. Maybe they're not the cheapest. They provide me the most value. Let's go. So that's what I'm looking for. Simple. Got it. But not cheap. Simple is not, what is it? Cheap is not cool. Cool is not cheap. Something like that.
Is that what that's like?
I don't know.
I don't know. I'm pretty cheap.
Tanner is very cheap.
And I'm cool.
And you've come a long ways of finding that necessarily the cheapest thing isn't always the best quality of product. So there is some mixture in there of obviously we're below cost of production in a lot of production agriculture. But going to the cheapest thing necessarily isn't.
Well, I think moving forward, back to your dad, saving $18,000, we only can make so much product. So when we try to make more money, we have a couple ways to do that. Make more product, which I think we're there where we're making it. It might be reduced on the other side or become more efficient. So that's where your dad was becoming more efficient with the things that he could control.
So, Bran, as you think about the conversation we're about to have with Corey, I want to know what qualifies you to be able to provide the perspective. We know your story and where you have experience, and you've talked to growers across the U.S., but let our listeners know a little bit.
Yeah, so actually it's kind of cool sitting here from a manufacturing standpoint, you know, because I spent most of my time, first dozen years of my career in ag retail. Yeah. All the way from operations where I started before I even graduated college in a rig, in a spray rig, to scouting, to starting a sales territory, to working with key accounts, and then
managing as well on the grain side and on the agronomy side. So it's kind of neat from my perspective hearing this, you know, and seeing what you guys value as well. And, you know, as I travel across the country too, one of the big things that a lot of people are wondering and wanting to hear about is cost production, right?
ROI, we're running tight times, you know, commodities are down a little bit and the best way to, you know, to up your ROI on your acres is to grow more bushels. Right. And that's the number one thing to drive your costs down. So, but it has to make sense too, at the same point, right. It has to, it has to fit within your budget.
It has to make, um, economical sense or, um, you know, in your case, make it a simpler, you know, whether it's from a retail standpoint for limiting skew numbers or from a farmer standpoint, from an operational to make it fast, simple and effective.
Yeah. And I just want to preface again, I'm not trying to shit. Retails, like the local co-op is very valuable to people. There's a lot of people that don't own the spray rig that need that agronomist. That's not what your advice was to me. No, it was. It was. I told you to go with it because I wanted you to learn, right? There is a value to their service. I'm just saying we own a sprayer.
It's like get two fungicides, right? That's exactly it. One of the best ROIs on the farm is only... Is two fungicides. Is... Is owning a sprayer, is putting in tile, is owning a grain bin. Like there's simple things that like, okay, yes, I can easily pencil that. The banker will give me a loan for that tomorrow. Right. But if you don't own one, then yes, there. Very valuable. Don't get me wrong.
I use the co-op for fertilizer. I use the co-op for grain marketing and things of that nature.
So you've mentioned simplicity. What does that look like in a plant nutrition aspect for you?
Right. And so we shook things up probably in the last five years where we went – Typical Midwest farm, especially right here in Central Iowa, was either a fall or spring anhydrous application of nitrogen. And they would put it all up front. Maybe, just maybe, you would get a side dress, but not normally.
And it would be a dry map and a potash application that is either a removal or a removal plus, you know, type application. Works, right? Yeah. We know that. That's like the basics, right? When you're going to basketball camp, learning how to dribble and jump stop, not travel. That's the basics. But in the last five years, we've went to strip till.
Not for the... I call myself... What do I call myself? Not a real strip tiller. Like...
the the fancy strip tillers kind of the wish version put their yeah i'm the wish version of strip till the fancy strip tillers put put their nose up at me because i'm not doing like a dry fertilizer or a liquid fertilizer in furrow i'm doing it for the logistics farming is like to me is a big logistics game and it's to i'm killing two birds with one stone i'm putting my my some of my nitrogen on my base layer and i'm making my uh soil my my seed bed in the soil
So I'm eliminating the field cultivator and a nitrogen pass in the spring. So when I go through in the fall, Ready to plant, hopefully, as long as everything goes good. So that's changed things up to where I tried some liquid in the furrow, kind of gone away from that because that's gotten to be a logistical nightmare as well.
Too many things going on at once to where we're still putting on dry fertilizer. So that's kind of how our nutrition looks like. Planter, I am doing a – so nitrogen-wise, putting 100 to 140 units on. with anhydrous planter 2x2x2 I'm doing a mixture of 32 and ATS to get some sulfur
and some more nitrogen, and then we do have Y-drops that were coming in, try to push that to V10, V15, a late-season application. I like that pass. We really don't necessarily need those units usually, but if we know it was a wet year like this last year, we kind of know that we lost some nitrogen that we can actually call late-season audible and do that.
So what is 2x2x2?
You haven't seen Tony Reed's TikTok?
I didn't. I still didn't understand it. All right.
Here we go. I'm going to do it for the camera here. Here's your soil surface and your planter is coming through and planting the seed two to two and a half inches deep. We're talking corn here.
Okay.
Right? So your seed's right here. But we're talking soil surface. You're two inches over. And two inches down. So really, you're right next to the seed. Now, two by two by two would be on both sides of the seed. Ah. I thought Dave was a second-year farmer. Shouldn't you know this, Dave? Come on. Right.
All in the first year. All in the first year.
And so you have basically, well, there's several ways, but the two main ways that you can apply fertilizer with your planter, Dave, is you can do in-furrow, which would be like on or under the seed. Correct. In the furrow where the seed's going right here would be... Right around there. We've got to be really careful because there's certain different loads of salt.
There's certain products that you don't want on seed because seed can be messed up. So that's where you put your high-load fertilizers like nitrogen, whatever. You're getting it away from the seed but still in that region.
You know how they always have seed coating? Why don't they just coat it in fertilizer?
We can talk about that. So on the nitrogen management side of things, Brent, what nitrogen management recommendation would you give Corey with what he's bringing to our attention here?
I mean, there's a couple different options, you know, knowing how Corey farms, especially in his Y-drop situation or, you know, in your 2x2 as well. I mean, in your starter, I think you're doing a great job with that. Um, you know, we look at nitrogen Zach called it management for a reason. Um, you know, I think as an industry, we've had some, some tools available to us.
I've done a great job that, um, don't exactly manage it, you know, and that's something we want to be very cognizant about, about how we talk about our technology as a way to keep that ammonium, keep that nitrate in the, in the root zone where that plant can access it more available. Um, so especially with you guys split applying, which is great.
Um, we have, we have some products available, you know, in our portfolio that we like to offer to people too, that to help keep that nitrogen there, that help with some of that loss. Um, especially when you have those, those weather events in the, in the season.
So. You're talking in every application, right? I'm doing a try to do a fall. This year will be fall and spring and hydrous. And then we're doing some 28 or 32 UANs. And that would be with the planter and with Y-drops. So you're talking both applications there? You can, yes.
You absolutely can manage them both applications. Especially since you're treating the unit nitrogen on those. You can be cost effective and manage multiple passes versus traditionally treating the soil. So you need a certain amount of product there to be effective.
When you guys are looking at nitrogen management products, if you guys are looking for those, or if you're looking for stabilizers, either one, what sticks out to you guys of wrong things and right things? What goes right when you're using these nitrogen stabilizers or management, and what goes wrong?
We have used nitrogen stabilizers. Gosh, it was a while ago, right? So you can probably...
know what product it was um you know injected on an anhydrous bar um that was just a pain in the button itself right is the injection process working it's a very uh corrosive product um so you're constantly rebuilding pumps every year um just something else right it's not in the tank simplicity that's not simple um so that that would be my downfall of my experience with it.
And that's, I think we've used some stuff in the UAN in the past. Seemed pretty easy. Just mixed in there. Had no complaints over that.
So you guys talked about management. Let's talk about managing money. Corey's told me it's cheaper to put anhydrous on in the fall than to split it up. But to keep nitrogen in my soil, we're thinking of splitting it up and putting multiple passes. Any advice for a grower?
that is trying to be cognizant of money because, man, I'd like to go with what seems to be proven and a little bit more cost effective, but to go the other way.
And I need to preface this. You've got to be careful with that word, too. You probably need to slide this way for the camera. Oh, you're on that camera. Okay. I need to preface this as well, right? I made a recommendation of anhydrous is the cheapest form per pound of nitrogen. Okay. Right? Yeah.
You did split it up and put... You had a base of anhydrous last fall, and you did some with your pre-emergent herbicide, UAN. Right? So you split it up kind of, right? You didn't do any in-season. Nope. What we found out was when Dave... was disking doing a little tillage spring in March. We got back from commodity classic and he's like, I gotta go. I gotta do something.
People are out in the field. All the BTOs are going. I gotta go. I gotta do something. I'm like, all right, yeah, get your disc out there. Whatever. We'll start what, you know, you gotta, you gotta scratch that itch. Uh, we found, and we were in a drought. We had, it had not rain coming out of winter. We had a little bit of snow, not much. It was muck four inches down. Right.
I'm like, Ooh, we're, we're wet sitting wet when it's dry. Uh, And then we had a really wet spring. And then we come to late July, and we're firing. And when I'm talking firing, we're firing yellow up the plant almost to the ear leaf. And I'm like, we lost nitrogen, Dave. This ain't good. I like anhydrous, but I think our mild winter hurt us. Yeah. And so it's – I told Dave to go away from –
My typical plan because of his field that sits, I mean, that's why it's field by field basis, right? Like it's sitting in a river. Correct.
But there's listeners in the same boat as me.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that sat, and I think we lost nitrogen because it sat saturated.
And there are times that the nitrogen market can swing and it. It could be a cheaper application window in the spring versus the fall. Just every year is going to be different when you manage the plan. And that's key that you guys help people manage the decisions.
So is this a case? I didn't recommend a stabilizer. I recommended a management change. Is that something that I should have done or should I have recommended a stabilizer?
So I'll speak from experience. My number one thing always is split applying. We sell the management tools and I've seen them work and they're phenomenal. Just like you said, it's a case-by-case basis and every year and I've been around a lot of stuff where guys are put all up in the fall or large chunks of it at one time and it worked out great.
But as you guys know, the chemistry and the soil get very complicated. And once that nitrogen converts and is negatively charged, you can lose it, especially in a saturated situation. And that's where a nitrate tool like we would do a management tool would work. But first and foremost, I think just to mitigate your risk, I know it's another pass and it does have a cost going across that field.
But that nitrate needs to be there when that crop needs that demand of it. And that's most importantly, you don't ever want that thing starving or having a bad day, right? So that's the number one tool at least to do it twice, which sounds like a lot of you guys are doing anyways. And then on top of that, my next step would be to manage it with some sort of nitro management aid. Right.
And the naysayers would always say, well, why wouldn't I take that money and just put 10 more pounds on?
And I love that question. And I, you know, and as you understand that when you, when you think about ammonium and positively charged, being able to be held by your soils and you guys have awesome soils here, you know, you guys got high organic matter, darker soils, great CCs.
But a lot of guys that have lighter soils that don't have those bonding sites or their base saturations are full where they're not able to hold that. That's where, you know, a management tool would work to hold that. But Whether you put a little bit on or a lot of it, it doesn't really matter to me. You still have that chance for loss.
In the days when it was a little bit cheaper, when those commodities were a little cheaper and you could add that extra, I still think timing is everything in these crops, whether that's nitrogen, sulfur, whatever. When that crop needs it, it needs to be there.
It's really hard to throw it up there and expect it to be there two, three months down the road and hope that that plant has access to that when it needs it. Just to take that risk off the table and split apply it, that's what I see as the biggest benefit.
I'm going to ask this. I think I know the question, but I want to go down to your elementary level, Dave, for some people. We put a stabilizer on an anhydrous or on a UAN. It is working because it is keeping it in a form that is not leachable.
So traditional stabilizers, whether you're talking nitropyrin, DCD product, that's the bacteria side, that is there to slow down the conversion from ammonium to nitrate. So to keep that in that positively charged ammonium form where it can be held by stopping the bacteria, killing the bacteria, and keeping it in that form longer. So that's how it traditionally works.
It does what it does, and it slows down that leaching and allows it to stay in that positive form. Ours works a little bit different. We actually have bonding sites where it allows that ammonium to attach to, does not impede with your soil biology, actually works with your soil biology. And as it breaks down, it becomes a food source.
But what that does is actually just create the parking space for that ammonium to hold on to. So it keeps it higher in that root zone so the plant can access it throughout the season and just works in a different way. So it's just a different way of thinking about it. Again, those tools that worked for us for many, many years have been a great option.
This is just a different way to think about managing the drought.
So then does your product need to be able to park on the soil itself?
No, so it's its own... Yeah, the polymer itself that works within this product actually holds on to the ammonium. And actually, it's a negative charge and has some sites as well that can hold on and slows down the nitrate as well.
So you're not changing the form or holding the form.
No, not stopping the conversion at all.
But the other stuff that is holding the form, it's still in a form that the plant can use.
Absolutely, yep. Okay. Yep, just a different process. Okay. So...
Brent, what makes our nitrogen management portfolio so unique in terms as far as our technologies in it.
So the XN technology, which is ours, which is what I'm talking about on that, you know, create no sites. The other cool thing from an operational standpoint, you know, you had mentioned the corrosiveness and the smell and some of those things that come along with some of those products. This is kind of unique that you do treat the unit of nitrogen.
So again, cost effective, doesn't have those qualities along with them. They're very soil friendly and equipment friendly. So, you know, your pumps, your seals, your equipment, those are great. And like I said, it allows you to manage the crop all the way through. We're not a, I don't believe in a silver bullet or one single product that's going to turn around and, you know, change the world.
It's about managing a crop from start to finish. I mean, this is just one of those tools along the way that we need to be doing.
And correct me if I'm wrong. We say it corrodes as much as water, right?
Yes. Yep. It's no blacker. It's not corrosive at all.
Man, you sounded like an attorney there. You were, like, asking the man on the witness stand, like, is this really the right answer?
Like, where were you on December 3rd? I've got the questions. I don't have the answers. What product is this called?
So, like, in your urea or your UAN, it would be, like, a container of ants. So that would be above and below ground. So we'll have that MBPT for above ground for volatility protection, which is an industry standard. And the X on the below ground is what's unique to us, to AgX. We also have a product there for Enzone GL, for anhydrous, for gas and liquid.
And that would just go in the anhydrous tank?
So you can do it either way. So it's kind of cool. You can do it just like you would a traditional and you put it inside the tank. Or if you have, you know, a Sidekick Raven system or something on your toolbar where it doesn't ever have to touch it, you can absolutely do that as well.
But you just won't have to rebuild the pump.
Correct. Absolutely, yeah. So guys that own their own equipment really appreciate that, obviously, especially when it's yours, right?
Yeah.
You're not renting it out.
I mean, we took the dang thing off because we didn't want to be tempted to use it anymore because it was such a pain in the butt. Yeah. You made me choke on that area.
Not to derail us at all, tell me if we're going off pace. You said that bacteria can sometimes hinder that stabilizer product. But some people are putting microbiologics and bacteria on the field. Is it, being a pharmacist here, is using two drugs together bad? I mean, if we use... If we're using microbiologics and we're using a stabilizer, is that bad together?
So that's a great question. That's where you've got to be very cautious. That's why I really like our product on that. It is soil biology friendly. It is micro friendly. Some other products, especially these guys that are invested into biology and microorganisms, things like that, put it in there. You've got to be careful putting some pesticides out there because you can counteract that.
Right.
Okay. So you're spending money on one thing and you turn around and I know what you're trying to do on the nitrogen side, but it can actually impede on some of this money you've spent as well and kill some things you probably don't want to.
And that was the other reason we took that off. It's like, we're talking about all these microbiologicals and all that. Like, why would we put something that is negative against them? Yeah.
And honestly, I think it comes down to education. I don't think anybody does it on purpose. Told you I don't want to spend money. That far down the rail. Oh, no, I just bought all the money. It didn't matter where you parked your car.
I was telling you you were off the rails. Since that makes sense. So we kind of covered your tillage application in the fall and that you do strip-till and that you apply. your anhydrous with your strip-toe bar. Your goal is to be able to come in and plant on those strips right away in the spring.
And we do know that your nitrogen is split applied and it's a fairly fluid decision that your farm makes. Um, thank you for telling Dave what two by two by two was. So we all are on the same page there. It's eight. I think two by two by two times two times.
Oh, that's the science equation. Yeah.
Yeah. Tell us Corey, tell us more about your planner then.
Okay. Yeah. I mean, I would like to go, I, what I kind of want to do, and I've wrote this down as I want to go through a typical Midwest farm. What, and then what I do is, And I would like to know where Ag X can insert itself. So actually before, sometimes before the planter would roll, maybe after is actually pre-emergent herbicide.
So we talked about, we're not going to talk about seed decisions because clearly you only buy seed from big Creek seed.
Well, not after this morning's meeting. That is not the case. No.
Did they not buy your breakfast? Is that what this is?
No.
Okay.
Anyway, so yes, let's go before the planter, say we're going out there putting some pre-emergent herbicides down. Is there something that we should be doing? I've seen a lot of things like with humics or some nutritionals along with the ride. Is that something where AgX could help?
Um, absolutely. We have, we have options for that. Um, to be honest, on the most part on our organic acids, on humics and fulvics, um, maybe in that next step we'll talk about, um, do a lot more in furrow when we're doing it and talk about our starters. Um, on our pre-emerge side, you know, we talk about, we always talk about them in five phases that we talk about. So foundation.
Maybe it would be a burndown. I should say, I should say burndown too. There's a lot of no tillers and we actually have gotten into that on the strip till side, throwing in some 240 or whatever, because we're not getting rid of the early weeds with tillage. So
Yeah, and you're never going to hurt throwing a humic or fulvic out there, especially when it comes down to any sort of herbicide application.
Why is that? What does humic and fulvic do?
Yeah. So organic acid, right? Carbon sources. So plants, natural backbone is a carbon, right? So it just, it takes it up. So it helps drive that, um, that chemistry you're trying to do helps metabolize quicker, drive in that plant and get a better kill to it. Um, same thing we use it in foliars, right?
Just drive that whatever NPK micro package you're trying to do is get it in that plant as soon as possible, get it in there metabolizing, um, and get it up to the growing points and work where we want it to. So it's same thing. Even when we talk about for weed kill, I think it's probably a really important thing. Um, it's probably been a big topic as I've traveled to is weed pressure. Right.
And I think that comes down to guys understanding when I, when I think about a pre-emerge or when I think about herbicide application, um, First thing that comes to mind is adjuvants, water pH, coverage, all that stuff's very, very important. And just like anything else, you want to start with a blank slate, right?
You want to start with great, get rid of the weeds, get it going, and start a great bed and start for your crop.
Before we get too much further, Brent, you teased it a little bit. What is five phases?
So we kind of look at 5 phases, you know, talked about managing a crop from start to finish. So we have our foundation phase and we always kind of think of that one as our Our combine to planter. So what we're doing, you know, as soon as we leave the combine the last year, and that's fall burn down, that's fall fertilizer, that's, you know, residue management, those things.
Then we come right up into, you know, our establishment phase. We'll go into our architect phase. We go into our reproductive, and we go into our maturity phase. So that's, the establishment will be from a seedling coming right out of the ground, how we manage it and get a good start with it.
architecture would be the vegetative stage with you know that herbicide pass and and being able to manipulate the yield at that time in a crop obviously reproductive you guys know is going through reproductive time frame and how we can protect that crop and preserve as much yield as we can and maturity would be that that last stage trying to bring it home so cory for guys that are like me that don't have liquid on a planter at what point do we do this
We're going to get into that. We're going to get into that. I mean, is that everything on the pre-emerge and burn down side?
Well, to an extent, the question we ask everybody, especially when we start going down the five phases rabbit hole, is when do you guys believe the next season starts? And this is not rhetorical. I want you guys to answer that. It's right now.
I mean... As soon as you make an input purchase for the next season is when the season starts. Growing season, like physiologically growing a plant, goes when soils warm up and you're actually doing applications for 2025. It might be March. It might be April.
See, I think I was making decisions when we realized that we were losing nitrogen last year. When we realized that, I was already trying to take corrective actions of how do we fix that from drain tile to do we do different decisions for anhydrous? So the decision-making process for 2025 actually started for me before we even harvested the blooming corn.
Yeah, 100%. We made input purchases for next year before the combine.
We'd already started talking seed decisions. That's our belief is that when the combine hits the field, that's next season right there.
What do we call that, accrual?
technically a cruel we're a cruel agronomy yeah this is 25 but we're still dealing with 24 over here yeah yeah and you can deal with 26 and i mean you can go as far as i mean it's all about management so now this is going to get really drawn out if we don't just stay pointed so planter a lot of planters do not have a liquid infra or two by two by two or two by two system so let's talk just a bare planter we're planting seeds
Is there something that AgExplorer can help me with just planting my seeds?
There is. There is. And if we get into the planter thing, there's a lot of questions I'd ask you to which way I'd guide you. But we do have a really unique product with the GrowPak AI, which would be our planter box treatment. So it's the only dry product that we carry. And that's a great option.
They're thinking about guys for soybeans that don't have starter on it or corn or weed or anything else that maybe guys don't want to slow down logistically for that don't have a starter or don't want to place it on there. This will be a great option. It is a, um, a clay and talc based product. So it's great for lubrication.
A lot of guys already doing it anyways, we're using some sort of eflow or talc or graphite blend. So it does that it accomplishes that piece of it, but it also has a micronutrient package to it and some technology with it as well. So economically, not only are you getting that benefit, but you're also getting a lubrication technology.
How much technology can you put in a powder?
It is funny. You get quite a bit in there. So in this product, we have a micronutrient package that supports that small seedling. It's not enough to fix any deficiency by any stretch. It's just there to get that seedling up and going. But the cool thing is it does have Bradyrhizobia in there. So for the inoculant piece, it does have mycorrhizae in there, and it has trichoderma in there.
Then on our technology side, we actually have an, we have a, what we call our inception intake, which would be like a mobility product in there. So once that plant takes it up, it helps it mobilize inside of it quicker and also has a carbon source in there as well. So it's kind of a catch-all, very effective product for the grower to use. Very simple to use.
You don't need any special equipment for it. And again, you just treat it like you would if anybody else was putting any graphite or talc on there.
You got to put graphite or talc on your seed right for flowability. Yep. Um, a lot of guys do an 80, 20 blend or whatever. And so this is just something that you're putting it on there. You might as well have some goodies.
I'm probably anomaly there. Cause I bet you 90% of our listeners slash growers, uh, they, they're, they're as big or bigger in equipment than you.
Yeah.
So they, they're probably going to have the, so now you go Corey's way, then you're putting it two by two by two. Is there any, something else that Corey can do? Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Get out of the checklist.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. When I have those conversations, you know, those are things I'd want to know about Corey specifically. You know, I always ask would be, you know, what is your CEC? What do your pHs look like? You know, some of the practices he's already used, and he's shared some of it with us for make the best recommendation. Kind of understand your soils.
We have a couple of products that fit very well in that Infero or in that Infero. a two by two situation. So I'd like to know a little more about, you know, that situation, particularly to make a recommendation.
And I have in furrow on my planter. Haven't used it the last two years because it's not simple. And I chose to put my eggs into the two by two basket, right? I felt like I got more value. It was easier. I knew how many units of nitrogen I was getting my sulfur felt like even when I was using some starters in furrow, that if I had a deficiency, it was always sulfur visually in the plant. Right.
So I decided, and what we were doing before I did the two by two was we were doing most of our sulfur with our side dress application. Well, we pushed that too late into the season. We weren't getting it in time.
Yep. And that is the only way to get that, too, if you're trying to push that sulfur.
Right. So for people listening, we've talked about this a little bit in the past, too. But sulfur is not naturally there anymore just because of the sulfur acid rain, right? Hashtag bring back acid rain.
I was getting ready to make all kinds of jokes. I was like, I don't need to be blasted over the internet for that.
Freaking death. Yeah.
Death? Are you deaf?
Diesel exhaust fluid? Oh, yeah. Okay. I didn't know it meant like death. Are you deaf? Where is this going? Not D-E-A-F.
That's what I said. Are you deaf? Did you not hear the man? All right. So what kind of product? Are we talking nutritionals? Are we talking something that's going to help things stick around? Are we talking biologicals? What are we looking at?
So most of the things we have are going to be additive to what you're already doing with your starter. Most of our things are technology-driven. So in that two-by-two situation for you,
weed out brock i would recommend called upward which is kind of cool it's a blend of um again humic and pulvic acid so you get that multiple different benefits for that feed soil biology you get those cc bonding sites for your positive ions you get the hydrophilic so it helps draw moisture and pull up nutrients in the soil
We have some sugar and carbon sources in that product to help feed that again, help that system. Then we actually have another product in there that mixes in there, which is called Prevent NXT, which is just a phosphorus solubilizing product. So again, not knowing your pHs, but a lot of guys have problems with pHs or phosphorus tie-up.
A lot of guys have a lot of phosphorus in their soils that they just can't access, right? There again, talk about managing your... your bottom line on your farm, a lot of you guys have stuff that there are products out there that help release that or at least protect that from tie up depending on your pH and things.
So what that does is keep that available for that plant to be able to access it in hydrogen form.
So I feel like myself, you, I'm in Illinois and you're in Ohio, big upward, but what about adrenaline?
So that would be, and I would recommend that product if you had it on seed. That's built a little bit different, technology directly driven if you're going to put it on seed.
So it's like a seed treatment or like in-furrow?
No, maybe on seed herb, like in-furrow.
Okay.
Yeah, if you're going directly on seed. So again, the benefit on a two-by-two and especially what you're doing with the mixture you have, I would recommend an upward product. With those sites, the on-seed piece is more of a vitamin package directly if you're using a low-salt starter ortho product. That's where that benefit is on that.
What does date night with you look like? What was that word?
Hemophobic?
I don't even know.
I was going to ask you. Are you wanting to know? Are you trying to ask him? Not at all. I can't imagine somebody sitting there like, wow, this guy knows a lot. I don't know.
i was gonna say when when the the big words come out it's you say them confidently enough everybody's gonna gunny's good at that gunny says things that i can't even pronounce is that in the dictionary right how do you spell that and then he comes back and he says yeah it's like taking your cart back to the cart corral at walmart because it's really important to make sure that it's always in the right place at the right time you're like
Why didn't you say that to begin with?
It's like the first word we started out with was simplicity. Why didn't you start with that, Gunny?
A couple things in common that I've heard is this humic and fulvic of we always need a food source. I will say we have moved to that of always having a quart or two of a humic source with our 2x2x2, with our Y-drops, just to have that. We felt like we've seen consistent results with that. We are a big... uh, data driven farm.
Uh, like I said at lunch today that we have a third party company that sets up all of our trials and we throw a lot of trials in on them and make their life a living hell, but analyze like they don't have a skin in the game of, uh, I don't care if this product works or doesn't.
And when you can take the emotion out of that decision and you can see this works four out of five times, this ROI is 3.4 times to one. Because that is one thing I also want to, the stigma in ag of fungicide. Well, that's an ROI. It paid for itself. No, that costs you money if it just paid for itself, right? Because no one's valuing their dang time and the application to go do it.
That thing needs to at least be two, if not three X of what you paid for that product as a farmer. Like I said in the beginning, I need it simple and my time is worth more than ever. Yep. If I'm just doing this to pay myself back, you're losing money. You're losing money, right? So, all right. In-furrow and two-by-two, that's what we got for that.
Our next thing that we would do is a post-emergence pass on corn or beans, right? So we all need to go spray some herbicide unless you're organic. Obviously, that's a trip across the field. Are we doing something there? Is there something that can help our herbicides? And then there is their nutritional... Or technology. I hear technology. I think of little computer chips and this stuff.
Or a drone.
Yeah. Yeah, so I think that goes to what we're really proud of at AgX is the reasons why product. So at that time frame, we talk about corn, for example, right? We all know during that B3 to B4. five timeframe, that's when ovule development's happening, right? You can actually affect yield at that point. You can trick that plant and they think it's the healthiest plant in the world.
If you can add another two kernels on that ear, potentially, to fill that out, that's where your yield comes from. So at that time, we're very specific on a corn crop that we want that application at V3, V5 timeframe. From a nutritional standpoint and from a plant growth regulator standpoint,
pgr standpoint as well where you can influence that and get that plant up and going and especially when you're spraying herbicide you know that that plant has to express its genes right it can slow it down stall it out it's also metabolize that chemistry at that point too so anything to help that thing get up and going help that thing flush that through get a better weed kill and keep that crop moving there's a great opportunity at that point to influence yield
There's only a few times I feel like in a crop understanding like what's going on during specific crop times, you can really influence yield. You can never go backwards. So you got to capture and got to take advantage of those times when you can. And that's one of them. I feel like in a corn crop and soybeans the same way you're going across that field and those things stun out and stall out.
And that's a, that's an option and a way that you can get that thing moving and keep it going as well.
So I got to throw you the softball here because your agronomist avoided it too. You're talking about stress on the plants and nutritionals and all that. But like you guys have in your portfolio things that help herbicides work better that are every farmer, every agronomist knows that we need a crop oil or we need an MSO or we need this or that. Like, right. So. Yep.
Just talk about that a little bit.
Yeah, it's funny, especially coming on the retail side. Poor chemistry guys sometimes got, you know, always the blame on it. And a lot of times when you did the research, you know, certain herbicides are calling for an oil, a heavy AMS load, whatever it is. And then your water, your pH in your water makes a big difference. Those are there to help performance.
You're going out there to spend a lot of money on chemistries. You really need to look at investing, making sure you're using the right herbicide, whether that's into a plant, you've got oil-loving or water-loving pathways, depending on what that chemistry is trying to do. Those are designed for helping that chemistry get in there and helping getting that active in there and doing its job.
So, I know it's not super sexy to sit here and talk about adjuvants and surfactants. They're super necessary and they do a great job. And the guys that use it and are using it to the label, that's where we see better performance. And we all know there's a lot of resistance out there. We've had a lot of hard times killing some weeds, you know. What's that mean, using it to the label?
So every, you know, different herbicides, fungicides, insecticides call for different... I always tell people, make sure you read your label. Okay. There's so many generics out there, so many different active percentages.
If you would have done this, Dave, with your fungicide, you would have doubled and applied.
Your applicator would have doubled. I hired people to do it. Right, yeah. But depending on what you're spraying, you know... reading the label on what it calls for. Some, again, are for the crop oil. Some are MSO, some are AMS, whatever that is, NISs. They require certain actives of a surfactant to perform at the best level.
So you had a bunch of college kids come out. Do you think you do a better job doing it yourself than... Than a bunch of college kids?
Yeah. College kids what?
That came out and sprayed.
For your fungicide or for your herbicide?
Both, both.
Did you have them hand spray?
No. Well, I'm going to say even though the – I'm just saying if it's attention to detail, yeah.
Even though the college kid was maybe doing the application or the younger guy was doing it. Oh, somebody else did the – The co-op is usually doing a program, right, that has – and they have to have their commercial pesticides applicator's license. They have to read the labels. It's a big deal. You have to stay on label. You cannot go double apply –
a herbicide, because there's only so much that you can put on at one time and through the season. So when you go through your applicator's license, you learn all that. The bigger deal is... you mentioned earlier is weeds and the pressures that are increasing and the resistance that is increasing to like, uh, weeds that we cannot kill. And so a lot of this is driven by what did you have packaged?
Like the chemistry can only go so far, but if it can't get into the plant, right. Cause if your pH of your water is wrong, If it didn't burn through the leaf cuticle like it should. And I'm going to tell you what, from the seed industry, we don't have a new technology coming for seven or eight years. So we're stuck with Enlist. And if you still do dicamba and then you got drift issues there.
So like we're stuck here. So we better start getting some effectiveness right now.
Especially if you're going to spray your own stuff and you guys know what you want to spray, not all chemistries are built the same, right? Some of the generics, they don't have quite the surfactant load in there, and you can really help those out by adding a surfactant. So I think it's just important. We battle pigweed now at this point.
We've had ragweed and mare's tail issues throughout the years, and it's just something we don't want to battle, like you said, the next seven years.
Yeah, that waterhemp up here is getting ridiculous. Yeah. And there's nothing more frustrating than when you sprayed something and it doesn't die.
Yeah.
Do it again. Yeah.
And then it might not even work. No, you might be just stunting it. Right.
Okay. So jumping on now, we did our post-emergence herbicide. Now we're probably looking at on the corn side of a side dress application. So usually we're looking at nitrogen. Last year I actually did some potassium because I missed a couple dry applications because it got so dang wet. I was planning to do early and. So what are we looking at there? I'm guessing humic and fulvic again.
What time frame are you talking about?
I mean, so our farm would be V10 to V15, but I would say people would start side dressing with a normal side dress coulter bar right around the time of herbicide or right after.
Yeah, usually pretty early, you know, and then at that point. same thing. That's, that's a great time to address your sulfur needs. Um, that's a great time to add organic acid in there, um, on the side dress piece of it. And then obviously you can, you can manage that, that, that pass as well.
Um, as we, as we get later in the season, we're looking at that, you know, if you guys are running your Y drops again, can manage that piece of it. Sulfur, boron, those are obviously very, um, very tough elements to hold in the soil. They're negatively charged. The soil struggles to hold those. Anytime you get a rain, you get, you, have a chance of losing that.
So, um, there's a couple of elements, you know, sulfur, boron, potassium as well, that are just really efficient to do foliar. And that those are some timeframes going into that reproductive timeframe that, that, uh, we see a big benefit with.
That's corn and soybeans. What about wheat, canola? Um, I said typical corn and soybeans. I know. I'm just curious. Do they, do they do products like that?
They have a lot of products. Yeah, we do. So, you know, we get canola as we go up North, um, in our territory quite a bit. Um, And then wheat, obviously quite a bit across the country. We do some in Ohio and stuff like that. But, yeah, I mean, along the same lines, understand those demand curves of those nutrients. But sulfur is huge on wheat, for example.
You know, sulfur and nitrogen split applying. And then potassium boron late season to fill out those grain for help with that test weight. Huge opportunity. Fundraise as well, obviously.
Do you think that every in-season nitrogen application should have some sulfur in it?
Um, depending on somebody's program.
Cause don't they kind of go hand in hand a little bit?
They do. So you need that, you need that ratio, right. To metabolize. Um, and that's where I usually like to ask somebody about their program, but normally, yes, if you're split applying, you could really benefit from small amounts every time you're going across that field. Honestly, you at least need a, the ratio, you know, you, you probably need a 10 to one ratio at the minimum.
So yes, we always like to tell people, you don't always have to spend more money on your sulfur. You can take that money, reallocate that and just spread it out. And we seem to see better benefit. So you don't always got to add another product to the mix.
So if you're ATS, for example, I have no idea how much ATS you run at one time, but if you pulled $5 out application and just added it in a full year application or add it next time you go across at Y drops, I see a bigger benefit from managing it multiple passes than I do on one big chunk. So you don't spend more money, just different management practices.
Right. I would agree. Yeah. And that's why we're doing, we're splitting it up, you know? So I've even, I didn't even say it at the beginning. I've even started playing around with AMS as a dry product before planting. Um,
There's some guys that run them before soybeans and 100, 150 pounds of AMS in front of soybeans on dry. See a big benefit to that. We forget about soybeans.
Soybeans need nitrogen too. They only produce about 60% of their nitrogen that they actually need from nodulation.
Some of the biggest benefits that we've seen from applying manure is that ahead of soybeans. You can see it to the line in the field to where it's applied or not, and it's a difference.
Yeah.
I love the manure play on... So you're talking cattle, I'm assuming. On both sides. I'm talking hogs. I like to put it in front of corn, right? Get some nitrogen and the micros and P and K, sulfur. But then I don't have to apply because I got such a heavy load on the next year for beans.
And my beans behind that is... I bet next year, too, that stuff starts breaking down.
Yeah, because it's not all available the first year. So that's been our go-to for our manure acres, but obviously not everyone has manure. I wish I could have it on every acre, but that's the good stuff. So, all right, we just side-dressed. Now we're kind of sitting around. I mean, you could go do a nutritional, but most farms would probably be looking at a fungicide and insecticide on corn.
maybe just fungicide, and then a couple weeks later, maybe some fungicide, insecticide on soybeans. So where do you fall in helping there?
So big believer in fungicides. Don't sell them. I've sold them in the past, obviously. I'm just seeing them work. Big plant health person, keep that thing going. Insecticides as well when they're needed. You know, from our standpoint and our portfolio, we would have our late season PGR. So we have a late season PGR designed specifically for that reproductive timeframe.
And we like to pair that with, that's onward max, but we like to pair that with our fungicide pass directly at that timing. When that, you know, it always turns off hot and dry. It always becomes very stressful during reproductive timeframe. We started aborting pods. We start, you know, um, plant stressing out, producing, um, stress hormones, and it just starts going into protective mode.
So anything we do to drive that stress down and keep that plant producing and shoving all that work so hard all year to produce that crop, to take all those nutrients and start shoving it in the grain. So we can, you know, maximize that benefit. That's what we usually like to do with that timeframe.
Yep. Seems like there can be a lot of stress there. And sometimes we get a benefit out of fungicide, even though there's not a disease presence, it seems like. And I think it's a stress thing. Would it not be that?
Oh, 100%. Yeah, I believe in that. Again, there's so much going on at that time frame. There's a lot of plant health benefits of that, even when there isn't disease presence.
Do you know what PGR is, Dave? I don't. I know we talked about it last time. Not the bar. It's a good beer. Yeah.
That's where you ride the bull.
Yeah. I would like to do, I don't even want to dive into PGRs today. I want to do a show on PGRs this coming because I feel like that word gets thrown around a lot. I think we said this last time we were together, Zach. And there's some that do completely separate things. Yeah.
I think you're right. They get lumped in together and they're hormones that do completely different things.
For the generic farmer that's just trying to be simple like myself out there. I'm not trying to be NCGA, you know. I would like to dive into that sometime because I'm not doubting that there's a value. I just want to understand it and where it could work on my phone. Are you saying your Walmart brand?
What are we getting at?
Wish.
Wish, wish, wish.
I'm trying to do things simple. Look, I love the high-yield guys. It's cool. We learn a lot from them, but also it's not practical when you're trying to do things simply and grow –
farms under cost of production or grow crops under cost of production on thousands of acres so what you're saying is stay tuned for the pgr yes okay because we would never be done we would not be done today big topic we would not be done today and i have a sneaking suspicion gunny would need to be here for that yes as well so all right so we got that late season nutritionals
Going back to the high-yield guys, they all would. I've heard them say. Going back to the Helobo farms, right? Yeah. Helobo farms. Usually, once I do Funderside, I'm done. I'm done for the year. I've sat in the sprayer long enough. But the high-yield guys go, no, you've got to do another pass.
Or two. Yeah. There are some bushels that you can maximize and capitalize on. It is really hard. Everybody's burnt out and tired and didn't want to make that extra pass. I've seen a lot. We've worked with soybeans over the last few years and making that R4, R5, guys willing to do that. On a nutritional side, you can really pack on some test weight and and add some weight.
And that's what we get paid on, right, is we haul weight. So potassium and boron are two big ones there. It's all for as well. But if you can add some potassium, add some weight inside that, fill those soybeans or corn kernels out, you can add some test weight and add some bushels to your bottom line. We've been playing with that for the last few years and seen tremendous results.
It's just getting somebody to go across there, right?
It does seem like if I could go back 10 years – It was so much driven by how many kernels are on that ear of corn, right? We need to have plants and we need to have ears and consistency in kernels is what we're talking about. I've gotten some pretty dang, some of my best yields on stuff that I, if you kernel counted, it was like, ah, it's going to be average. Yeah.
And then all of a sudden it's 50 bushels over that. Well, and then you look at the depth of the kernel and all that. We had the right end of the season between rainfall, products that were out there, mineralization. So I do think there's a spot for that late-season nutrition to really pack the pounds on, get some test weight out there. So, yeah, I would agree.
How many passes have you made now? Five? Well, you're pre-
Post-emergence, side dress, fungicide is my four. Yeah. Okay. Four with a sprayer, right? And if you want to count planting, I guess.
And strip-till.
And strip-till.
So six.
Right.
Okay.
Yeah. You don't want to start getting into how many products we spray during bean application like the tender sprayer.
Well, I think if we wanted to make this podcast last longer, we start the test weight debate. But we'll save that for the PGR conversation and just make that like a four-hour Rogan-esque podcast.
Right. So, yes, I think we did a good job of not really diving into just products. I just wanted to go through where... You guys could insert yourself on my farm because I'm coming into a decision season, a purchasing season of what I'm going to do on my farm for next year. So thank you for doing that. I think AgExplorer is going to be a tremendous partner and value because.
I think you would tell me when I don't need a product. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Right? Like, you don't just want to sell me a product. Anyone can do that. Like I said, I need partners to make my life simpler. It's not necessarily I need to use simpler products or whatever. I just need someone to help me out.
Yep. That's what we're here for. We're here for solution-based selling. It's different for everybody. It fits in your system.
Cool. Do you want to highlight at all what we're going to be looking at with... These guys in 25 to look forward to?
Yeah, we get to go to Commodity Classic. First big feature in 2025 is going to be the Commodity Classic event. We get to go have a lot of fun in Denver. It should be absolutely miserable outside, so why not come in and hang out with us inside? As far as that goes, that's there at the first part of March. But the content only starts from there. Really great experts.
The fun part will be is if you come to the booth, not only are we going to do interviews, but us being there to do interviews means that their team of experts is going to be there. So selfishly come and ask them the questions. Tell them how your planter is set up. Tell them what your soils are like. You know, come in and
and hang out at the booth there but then we get into the growing season and it'll be fun to to put their products to work because we're you know our intent with this partnership is is we're we're using it right alongside you as a listener um this isn't a new partnership to us this is a relationship that's been built for quite a while we dated here for we were in the dating stage for a while before jumping into this relationship are we are we
engaged or married now i don't know we go on the fourth base actually i think the way the cool kids say it is is we were just talking we were in the talking stage you know now we're we're dating yep you're moving in yeah we got to wait and no movies and blankets in the basement you cannot have any blankets in the basement anybody else's parents say that Yeah.
Mine was don't shut the door.
I don't believe Dave had a girl over at the house to have blankets in the state. In the basement.
So commodity, right? My only new. Commodity is the kickoff of really great access to experts, to people that are fluent and understand what's going on, as well as growers that have experience with the products. And then during the growing season, being able to hang out with almost our own private agronomy team. It's going to be neat.
We got to hang out and meet the Iowa reps, as well as we've pretty much been introduced to half the staff. And I expect by the end of Commodity Classic, we're going to know almost everybody in AgX. So we could probably run it, Corey, run the business ourselves.
Yeah, you guys might as well. Yeah, well, and we're going to have drones there. We're going to have our director of agronomy, CEO, VP, you name it. We want all the experts there. That way we can be challenged on questions and be able to answer them for you.
That's the goal. We want to provide the challenging type questioning. You know, today it was you as the attorney and the witness stand, but ultimately... the position of putting that together. And then when we get to harvest, right, we've, we've got Mr. Third party analytics here. We, you know, we hope to be able to provide clarity on results. Every growing year is going to be different.
We've got Dave soils that are different than Corey soils that are different than our family's farm and our soil. So it'll be a big full on approach of they aren't going away. We're going to make sure that we get the quality information to put it all out together. So looking forward to it. First time we've done anything like this with a partner, full on, full season.
Let's come in and put some experts at the disposal of our listeners. And that's the point. If you've got a question, they're your team too. Through us, that's why they're here. So reach out to us or reach out to them and let them know that you're curious.
Yep. I'm just excited because I've said this in other shows and back channels of talking with Zach, but I sold proprietary products and nutritional products in 2010 for a competing company. And these guys were a huge thorn in my side then. So they've been around, and I think that gives so much validity. It's not one of these companies that have just popped up over the last five years.
You see that web chart of people in this space, and that's a lot. It's a lot. So I love that you guys have the boring adjuvants to go along with the cool technology. So I'm excited. I think it's going to be pretty cool. Got a cool story.
You guys have had our sign up behind you quite a bit. And I'm sure there's a lot of people that have wondered what that sign is. So to maybe some a couple questions here. One, what are you guys looking forward to on partnering with us? Like, I would hope to get all three of your guys's answers.
I want to figure out what the damn X is for. Because I think it should be like X marks the spot. And I sound totally like Dave right now. X marks the spot. This is where the buried treasure is. This is the magic bullet. I know we're not going to find that.
But how cool would that be to be able to have enough conversations and provide enough perspective that it's referred to as a place to go to get your answer? We're not saying X marks the spot is one product. We're saying X marks the spot as in here's someone that's going to help you find your solution. I like it. I'm curious more about the story side.
Now, I don't get to play on the agronomic side as much as these two do. I don't make those decisions. For me, it's more about what is the company all about? And we get little bits and bits every time we chat with you guys. So to me, that's my answer. You've never been able to find that spot, have you? No, I was not allowed to have blankets.
I was hoping to learn by the end what all this technology is, because we keep using the word technology. Well, there's technology in this, okay? And every time I want to ask a question, well, stop, hold on. What does it do? What does it do? And tell me why it's good. So hopefully through the process of the partnership, we can answer that for all the listeners, is not just another product, but...
Hey, there's technology in it. I keep hearing this word. That's great. Does the technology make me money? We're farm for profit. I need to be profitable. So I want to correlate the profit to the technology.
Are you also saying stay tuned?
Stay tuned.
I'm excited to bring you guys to people. uh, everyone that we've talked to of, and in your, your, even your employees of like, why, why, why ag X, why ag explore? And it's, it's the people. And we saw that when we came down to Missouri and met with you guys, it's the relationship. I'm talking earlier, people buy from people, right? Everyone's probably got a good product here or there. Uh,
I just love the relationship that we've established already and that we're going to develop going through the next year and hopefully years to come. So, like, we need to get a dog together to see how everybody... I was going to say, have you stated a VRBO with Corey yet?
Maybe a cat. Maybe not.
No, if you want a cat, this relationship's okay.
I don't want a cat, but they're easy to take care of. Nope.
And also, on top of that, I'm excited for the education.
Yeah. So it's not just about pushing, push, push, push. It's about why, and I'm excited for that.
That's good. Well, listeners, we appreciate you hanging out with us. This is our sneak peek into things that Corey, because he knows everything, is... Clearly, if you listen to that episode, you don't know that. It was our take on...
what is going through his mind right now as he's thinking about making decisions for the next crop year and what better for us to be able to share this opportunity with, with a new partner. So hopefully you're able to grab, you know, some keywords or some conversations that you can have with the experts in your team.
Or if you don't have those experts, you understand that we may have introduced you to a couple of that, that would be able to provide you some answers or point you in the right direction.
So this is episode one of tailgate talks with Corey. Okay.
Oh, great. We need a tailgate for you to sit on. We need to get an old Ford tailgate.
Oh, man, right there.
Yeah, right down off the wall. Just pop it right down there. Good. So time to wrap it up. Let's do it. All right, listeners, until next time, have a good one.
Remember, if you aren't farming for profit, you won't be farming for long.