We talk alot about technology in this episode. From the safety of tuning your equipment to the benefits and potential impacts on fuel consumption and emissions, we cover all the essential questions farmers have when considering performance enhancements for their machinery. Sherie Jones, Site Manager at STEINBAUER, joins us to discuss why the company chooses a 'plug n play' module over engine flash tuning, the ease of installation, and how their products can enhance efficiency without compromising your equipment. We'll also dive into key details such as warranty length, product availability in the USA, pricing, and how to purchase. If you're curious about whether tuning is right for your farm, this episode has the answers you need. Our panelists tackle a wide range of questions surrounding technology in agriculture. They begin by defining technology and assessing the adoption rate within the industry. The discussion covers the types of technology currently in use, how these tools are impacting efficiency and productivity, and what cutting-edge innovations few others are utilizing. We dive into cost and ROI considerations, including equipment upgrades and financial incentives, and explore where technology still needs to improve in agriculture.
And listeners, welcome back to the Farm for Profit podcast. You got Tanner here. Farm for what podcast? Farm for Profit. Oh, it's like you've had a little wine. Oh, we might have. Just a little bit. So are you not joining us today or is it just me? I am not doing it. Well, sorry, I was looking at the text.
Sorry, we weren't planning on doing this. This is an after-hours intro to a very professional show.
But you didn't even introduce yourself. Corey is also joining us on today's show. And we're excited to share with you an episode that we didn't plan on putting out as an episode. It started as a panel discussion at Tech Hub Live, an event about all things technology and the future of what is going to shape agriculture in Des Moines. And I got to host that panel today.
Got to moderate that, and you got to be one of the expert guests.
Yeah, I struggle with the expert part of that. I was a guest on the stage.
I made you sound like an expert.
Okay.
But we had to jump in here and put a little introduction together to let you know that it's not our standard show structure. You will get four guests. You got Corey on the panel, Rachel Fishback, who you've probably met and know as Iowa Farm Mama. We had Scott Henry. son of Steve Henry. Longview Farms. Longview Farms here in Central Iowa. And then we also had Brad coming to us from Continuum Ag.
So a lot of great resources and information there. But wanted to make sure we got this set up for you the right way. Remember, if you've got ideas like this or you need a panel moderated, farmforprofitllc at gmail.com. It's always fun to put these together and felt the content was worth sharing with you as well. So wanted to jump into an episode like this today.
We also are going to start off with a What's Working in Ag segment from one of our really good friends. And she almost feels like family now. Well, she did cook us a meal. It's hard to not call her family. But, yes, we get to talk to Sherry from Steinbauer.
Big shout out to Tech Hub Live for having us as well. That's a great event. We went the last day. For that panel, next year, we're going to go. That was our mistake. For the whole thing. It's in our backyard. Yep. We need to plan it out. It's everything on the cutting edge in technology for ag. I got asked by several people, hey, was that worth it? Because it does cost to go.
And I said, yeah, it probably is. And I wish we would have went the whole time.
Yeah. So that's exciting for us to share this with you. But first, we're going to get into that what's working in ag segment with Sherry. And then we will jump into that panel discussion that came from Tech Hub Live.
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.
We just got a fantastic lunch. What a great surprise. Walk in here and it smells amazing. We let her break in ahead of time because neither one of us were here. It went out perfectly.
Our guard dog was all over us.
I didn't realize you guys had guards here. It's like your neighbor's like, who's this sketchy Australian who's rocking up here? It's fine.
All right. Well, it's time for a What's Working in Ag segment. And it's our pleasure to have Sherry, our friend, back again. We're not friends. Oh. We flew her in just to cook for us.
That's how big we're getting. That's right. She's a personal chef. Took a private flight the other day. We've got a personal chef. Yeah. Manages all the power on the farm, on our workhorses. That's right.
I'm sorry. I didn't include pork in the lunch. That's all right.
Doesn't affect me at all. Nope. I don't own the pigs.
I just get paid to grow them. So what we're going to cover today in this What's Working Tonight segment is a lot of common questions around why Steinbauer works for you on your farm. Obviously, every single one of our families, including Dave's family, have seen the benefits of the product. But we know it's a confusing topic because people can mislabel it often.
They can.
I even still mislabeled it sitting at lunch today.
I mean, it's a slippery slope. Tuning's been around since you could literally take a screwdriver to a mechanical engine and boost the fuel. It's been around for a long time. The difference is there are safe ways to do it and there are stupid ways to do it. And I say stupid in the nicest possible way because it's unfair for the end user, the customer, to know the difference.
And it's like everything else from a pair of shoes to a shirt to a car. There's a lot of fancy marketing that goes behind the sales pitch. At Steinbauer, when we first came here, this is now year 16. Wow, I'm old. I'm so old. Yeah, I am. I'm really old.
Outside of me being although 16 years here in the US, we've been very careful with our marketing that if somebody asks us, you know, what can I do? You know, this is what I use my tractor for. You don't need a Steinbauer. I'm sorry. You're not using it to its full potential. I'm not going to sell you anything. And that's always been our principle.
We like to ask questions and find out how you use your machine. Do you really need the extra power? Is it safe for what you're doing? If I've got some guy with a tractor that's got 9,000 hours and it's got multiple engine issues, I'm not going to sell him a module. You would know that's not a good thing to do. But other people will do that. And this is, I guess, in the U.S. market where I struggle.
is that that, and you know, I grew up on a farm and I like to call it like the gentleman's agreement. That gentleman's agreement of honesty is gone. And it's literally what can I sell you or should I sell my own grandmother to make money? And I really, I don't care if you need it or if it's to your machine's benefit. Right.
So what does the Steinbauer module do and how is it safe compared to other ways on the market that people are trying to get more power?
So we've always – our principle has always been injector duration performance. So we don't want to inject fuel pre or post because that just places an additional load on your fuel system. You don't need that. The fuel system of these modern diesel engines – you know, is delicate. It's a delicate balance. It's like, I like to think of it like a garden hose.
So you have a garden hose with a nice fountain on the end of it. If you're, you know, pushing well water out of there and it's got stuff in it and it's not very efficient, it's going to clog up those little things and you're going to end up with, you know, instead of your nice big fountain of 10 shoots of water, you're going to end up with two. It's out of balance.
And this is how the different, the other technology. So you have a rail pressure if they're just injecting rail and They're doing pre, post and main. So you're injecting fuel the whole time. This is bad. We just want to inject extra fuel. Extra fuel means extra power.
Yes.
You can't get one without the other. I don't care what anyone says. That's how it works. We want to do that just at main injection and just when the engine is under load. And we don't want to turn off any of the safety settings for manufacturers because these are important. You know, your oil pressure, your temperatures, these are things which you need to know about.
I guess this is the difference between, I would call it an us and them thing. We're an engineering company. We look at it from the engineering perspective. What's safe for you and what's safe for your machine? I mean, I don't know, what's a new 8R run at now? Like mid-range 8R? I don't know.
By the time the show airs, it's probably less. I haven't been able to have the funds to go on and look.
You're not getting out of a good new 8R for under $300,000. Right. So why would you risk your $300,000 investment for something which is, yes, it's known, but there's nothing behind it? Right. It maybe works. It maybe doesn't. It switches off things. It doesn't. It's a problem.
So in simple terms, you're just extending that spray of fuel just a little bit longer, the duration of it.
It's literally hundredths of a millisecond.
And you're still utilizing the system, all the safety features that came on the stock system. You're not messing with any of that stuff. You're not raising fuel rail pressure.
You don't want to touch that.
I didn't realize that it isn't always engaging. Like, if it's not under load, your module doesn't say go.
No, and I guess then what most people fail to understand is people think that, oh, I need more power. I just want it now because everyone wants more power. I mean, you both know... You put your button in the seat and throw a piece of equipment on the back. You don't always need more power. Maybe you're moving down the road, going across. Maybe you're doing some light till.
You don't need that power. It's not going to kick in until you hit. And it's machine dependent. It's a little bit different. But around that 60% load is when you really need the more torque. And that's when we come in. And we call it like a ramp. So think of it driving up like an incline. So we want to come in slowly. You don't want to sit there and get that. That is awful.
I've been in machines that do that and it's literally like whiplash. You literally get in and you start and you're like, wow, you don't want to do that. You want it to come in nice and slow and be smooth and deliver power when you really need it. You don't need it before or after. You don't need it moving down the road. You don't need it moving around the farm.
You need it when you're dropping a tool in the ground, pulling a grain cart, or you're harvesting. I mean, some areas of Michigan at the moment, we have corn that's insane. Other areas, not so much. But we've got huge corn. These guys are struggling. You know, they're really struggling.
I'm appreciating the insight. And every time we get to talk, you get to teach us a little bit something new. What are some of the main reasons that we put a module on, right? We want more power, but this also helps us save fuel, right?
Yes. I mean, I don't like to say that anyone saves fuel because I don't know what your dirt is like. I don't know what implement you have on the back, what your crop is like. We look at a net effect. We look at the overall benefit. So for me, it's important that you save overall.
So instead of you being in a field for 10 hours and your butt sitting in a seat for 10 hours, if we can get that done in nine or eight and a half hours, As you know, machines run on hours. So we can save you an hour every day, rough estimate of machine time, engine hours, an hour less you have to sit in the seat, which means an hour less of fuel, an hour less of def consumption.
It's not about people going, I'm going to save you 20% fuel. I saw that at Farm Progress Show last year, and I literally wanted to headbutt the person who was touting it because I don't know what you do. Right. Your land can be flat, and the next farmer, he's on incline. It's completely different. Right.
To me, the fuel savings isn't how I thought it was going to come, or maybe I just wasn't thinking about it good enough, but we put it on our S780 last year, and we just were not getting the capacity that we needed out of it. We were only getting 3,500, 3,700 bushel an hour, and we put that thing on. My fuel consumption went up from 24, 25 gallons an hour to 27 or 28 gallons per hour, but my
productivity went up to 4,500 bushels an hour in corn. And that was getting like five to seven more acres or something like that an hour. So yes, it was saving me fuel, just not by the hour.
Yeah. And that's why we call it a net effect. So we look at the net effect. You have to look at your overall productivity in a day. How many acres can I normally do what speed can I normally harvest at or plant at? So last year I was up in Montana and they were in the new 640, 9R640. We could barely make two mile an hour stock standard out of the gate.
You can't pull a hundred foot planter at two mile an hour. It just doesn't work. And by the time we finished and we did have to do some adjustments because the fields that we were in in Montana were quite unique. There was a lot of long
rolling hills so you had no power and then you were on the decline and then no power and towards the end we were averaging four and a half miles an hour which is where the customer needed to be at they for their efficiency they had to sit between four and a half to 4.8 that's where they needed to sit with that planner on now at two to two and a half on on the decline they couldn't make that they were literally throwing money yep out the window
So I guess that's the difference is that if people look at it just from one perspective, am I going to save fuel here? Well, you're not going to save it just there. You have to calculate everything.
Right. Does it affect all of the DEF and emissions or sensors with that at all?
No, we don't touch that. And I would really, I can't stress how important it is to not touch the emissions system. And one of the main reasons, you know, everyone's like, well, you know, deaths, you know, it's annoying. It's a pain. Yeah, I get all of that. But the minute that you delete emissions, you have taken out a huge chunk of troubleshooting ability for a technician.
You literally cannot diagnose anything that may happen if that system crosses over into the emissions diagnostic, which in the modern diesel engines is literally everything. So now, you know, maybe you have a problem and you're down for half a day. Well, now you're down for three weeks because the technician can't troubleshoot. That's if that technician is even allowed to work on the machine.
I'm not sure what it's like here in Iowa. I know Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, like our direct area around where the office is, most of the dealers now will refuse to work on a machine that's had the emissions deleted. They will just literally put their hands up and go, can't help you, and walk away.
I know a neighbor bought a combine, didn't know it was deleted, went to take it to the local dealership. They wouldn't touch it. They ended up paying to bring it back to stock, and that was a big video.
Whoa. Yeah. You just mentioned Michigan, so that means Steinbauer has a USA location.
Yes. Yeah, we do.
Parts here, dealer network.
Everything's here. So this is year 16 in the U.S. for us. I have been here for all 16 years, normally flying in and out. I'm now permanently here in the U.S., and we're – I'd like to call it BFE Michigan. So we're in that little southwest Michigan corner. But I love it there. We're surrounded by farmers. These are our people. It's great. I get out of bed in the morning and I can look at the beans.
We have beans in our field this year. We don't have many acres, but our local farmer uses our field. And it's nice that we're really connected with the people that we sell to. I have a lot of customers that I can jump in the car and go visit. And we've got corn starting to top out in Michigan now. If I come out of the property and head east, I've got corn topping out.
If I go west, it's literally not even to my waist because it's really all over the shop. But for us, this is nice. Because we've invested in being in the U.S. For us, it's we've got to have skin in the game. That was always our principle. Be here, have skin in the game, have staff on the ground. For us, this is important.
And is it sold through dealership networks, direct?
Both. Both. I mean, if I can say this in the nicest possible way, we're somewhat choosy with the dealers that we work with. So we get a lot of applications. You know, I want to be a Steinbauer dealer. But for us, it's very important that you can actually service the local network. You have to have a good industry reputation. You need to be able to take care of the people that you're selling to.
So we have both. We have great dealerships who look after, you know, areas of farmers. In Iowa, we've got some really great dealers, some long-term dealers. Okay. Joe Bush AgriPay is actually our longest. They did. But Joe Bush AgriPay was actually our second invoice here in the U.S. Really? Yeah. So, you know, and these are great people with a really good reputation.
And so, you know, for us, if I can sell through a dealer, I would prefer that. But if you're in an area that we don't have somebody that can help you, you can also buy direct.
Okay. So is that both options? Yeah. So do you just deliver it to me and I install it or is it hard to install?
I am mechanically retarded, and I can install them. I'm not ashamed to say that because a lot of people were, well, how hard? I'm like, literally, if I can work out how to install it, you are golden.
I will say the pictures that you and Joe Bush sent me was better than the instructions that came with it.
The instructions are just terrible.
So you just need to put those pictures in.
We're in the process of doing that. So in the U.S. market, because primarily what we do is agro-construction machinery, I'd like to say, if I can say this in a nice way, car people are simple.
Yeah.
There is the engine. You lift the hood. Ag is different. Things move around. You need patches. And so we've started here in the U.S. that we actually have been making our own install guides, and we do have a live video install help. So if you need help installing a Steinbau product, you can call the office, and the technical guys will call you back and do a live video call.
I would say it is very easy. The main problems I have is like, okay, where do I – you know, zip tie the module too, just so it's not going to get hot or whatever. Where do I get good clean power? Yeah. And then just, it's two plugs, right? Yeah. It's just two plugs.
On yours, it's two plugs.
Yeah, two plugs on mine, on my combine. Two plugs, then you plug the ones you unplugged back into a little pigtail and you're good to go. It's real easy to take off if you want.
Yeah, it is. The design for plug and play, it was designed that way. It was designed that it was easy to install and easy to remove. It's just... Unfortunate now as the machines get more complicated, the hardest thing that we have is trying to find a true ground. True ground is sometimes a difficult thing to find. You know, normally you would think alternator ground is a true ground.
Well, no, maybe it's not because it has some voltage running through it. Or battery ground sometimes is not even a true ground. Or the engine block, if it's got, you know, goop and oil and paint, it's got to be right to the block. It can't have a whole lot. You've got to grind it off.
It's not an exact science, but that's literally, I would say, conservatively, about 70% of our technical help calls are literally just power and ground.
That's not bad. You can get figured out.
You can, as long as the customer is aware of power and ground. I've literally done troubleshooting with customers where I've gone through every possible step And then I literally go right back to the start going, okay, so you unpacked the module and the harness. Yes.
Yes.
And you plug the harness in and we did everything. Okay. Where do you have the module mounted? What are the lights doing? What module? So the little black box thing that you got, can you like take a picture and show me?
Oh, the chip.
Yeah.
And that's literally what it is.
And I've had that on more than one occasion where people have literally just plugged in the wiring harness and like, I don't have any extra power. It's not working. that little black box that you need to plug that in works great.
Yep. Yep. That's pretty good. So two more things, cost and is there a warranty on it?
Cost, you know, is it very much? It's, I mean, if you, from a scale, if you look at the difference between horsepower ranges of machinery, I think it's negligible. Um, where we run at an average cost, 2235 to 2480 is pretty much where around 70% of what we sell. So it's, And it's a safe place to be. And people ask, and I get asked a lot, why aren't you cheaper? Why are you so expensive?
Okay, I pay stuff. I pay liability insurance. We're a registered US company. I have liability risk. We have warranty that we stand behind. We actually have a warranty. It's not like you call us and say, well, you know, you can send it in and maybe we'll get back to you. Our turnaround at the moment, we're not fully into harvest yet. It's just kind of on the cusp of starting.
We're at 48 hours turnaround. Wow. So you send a product in to our support guys. Within 48 hours, you have an answer and it's coming back to you. So our warranty is a three-year warranty. But I like to call it – it's kind of like being a vegetarian where you're really flexible, like a flexitarian kind of deal. So we have a flexible warranty deal. I get it.
People will buy stuff in December to run for planting season. We get that. We're not a big corporation that doesn't understand how farming works. I get that people buy stuff before they need to use it. So we're always very conscious and aware of, I'm sorry, a farmer in northern Wisconsin has bought a module for a chopper in December. Well, yes, he needs to spend money before the end of the year.
I know he's not going to run that module or install it for months afterwards. So when customers call us for warranty, we're always understanding as to how they use the machine, where they're located, when they purchased it.
And it's a warranty on the module.
It's a warranty on the module.
Not on the tractor that it's going on.
Not on the tractor it's going on. Unfortunately, no. I mean, I can say in all the time I've been at Steinbauer, I've literally had two engine failures twice. And both of those engine failures were at manufacturer. So literally they came back and were like, well, you had a Steinbauer and it's got to be Steinbauer's fault. And we had an independent engineer go in.
And both of them ended up being a manufacturer error that was known by the manufacturer. It was like a long outstanding issue from a range. One was a Quadtrack. Another one was a John Deere. So two different manufacturers. But we've not had anything that's actually come back at us.
Okay.
Wow.
That's good to know. That's good. So if we do have a listener that wants to order, how best do they go about doing that?
2300400.
How bad is that? I don't even know the number.
I'll put it in the show notes.
You can put it in the show notes. 269-2300400.
I imagine you've got probably a dealership locator on the website. No, we do not. Really?
I am... I'm super protective about my customers and my dealers' privacy. So, I am, you know, we have a lot of customers that send us patches and, you know, hey, put me on the internet. No, I won't do that because that literally, you know, can open them up to questions from either the manufacturer or whatever. So it's, yeah, I'm pretty careful with that. That's why we like people to call in.
And it's also, for us, it's important that when you call in, we ask you questions to make sure you really need a module.
Right.
Because not everyone needs one. You know, we get a lot of customers every day who call in. They don't need one for what they do. Right. You know, I spoke to a guy yesterday who has a 6 Series John Deere on his horse farm, two lift bales of hay.
Yeah.
And he wanted a module. And that was great because he could clearly afford one, but it wasn't essential that he had one. He just, it was never going to turn on. And he's like, yeah, no, but I really need one. I'm like, no, really?
Yeah.
You're just like, what else are you doing? Like, are you, you know, do you have a bucket on the front? Are you moving manure? You know, give me a scenario. And he's like, no, I just move hay for the horses.
See, our co-host Dave got one for his six series John Deere. He did. He actually was probably that guy until he started farming. And now he's trying to pull a 24-foot field finisher. And we thought, maybe you should only have a 16-foot. And he didn't have a problem with it at all. So it did well.
Did it run?
Yeah, it ran well.
I know. I mean, I'm still not sure Dave actually exists. I think he's like a blow-up creature.
He's sitting there in the corner of the room, piece of cardboard.
He doesn't actually exist. He's just like a figment of my imagination.
Oh, that's great. Well, that was good. There was a lot of information in a short amount of time for our listeners. It's always a pleasure having you here. And super special that we got lunch today. Yeah, thanks for lunch. Yeah, but that wraps up a really good segment. Thank you.
It does. I will see you boys at Fun Progress Show. Yes.
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Coming in after your lunch to sit down and listen to a few farmers, some of the best and brightest that Iowa has to offer. It's exciting. My name's Tanner Winterhoff. I'm one of the co-hosts of the Farm for Profit podcast. We've been taking the message of how we can help farmers achieve higher levels of profitability and conveying that in a podcast format for over five years.
And I get the pleasure of hosting your panel today. I do know that the lights are really bright for most of us, but I see everybody in the corner of the rooms too. So thanks for coming in and sitting down. Don't be afraid to ask questions.
The way I like to manage the panels when I get to host them is I've got a couple of questions, but ultimately let's take the conversation the direction that you want to go. And we're gonna rely on the expertise of our panelists to navigate that journey as well. So before we jump into the first question, Let's just go down the line of the panel here.
Why don't you guys introduce yourself and let the audience know what your farming operation and tie to agriculture looks like.
Hi, I'm Corey Hillibeau. I'm also a host of the Farm for Profit podcast, so I don't know how I got sat next to you, Tanner, because I get to see you way too much. But I farm in northern Polk and southern Story County and southern Boone County in Iowa, about 2,500 acres, row crop operation. And we also have wean-to-finish hogs as well. And, yeah, I'm excited to be here.
Yeah, Scott Henry, Longview Farms, and we're a multigenerational family farm, farming in central Iowa as well, Story County, Polk and Boone, in addition to some livestock operations in Iowa and Nebraska. So corn, soybeans, seed corn, as well as pigs and cattle.
I'm Rachel Fischbach. I farm in Washington County, Iowa, with my brother Vince. We farm corn and soybeans. I also do a lot of social media with our farming operations. So Iowa Farm Mama, I am on social media for TikTok and Facebook. And then I also have a people of ag media marketing company doing marketing items for area businesses if they need help.
And Brad McDonald. Brad McDonald, head of farm in Delaware County. And yeah, I'm also COO of Continuum Ag out of Washington, Iowa as well. Just a row crop operation on the home farm. Also have pigs that my dad and brother operate together. If you ever saw the big boars at the Iowa State Fair, we had three of them, three winners.
If so, Big Mac, Big Buck, or Itty Bitty, that came from the McDonald farm. So happy to be here.
That's clever. Big Mac from McDonald Farms? Yeah, that was the first one. You guys certainly know how to pick the names.
We let the FFA chapter pick the last one, so Itty Bitty was from the Delaware County. Do you have one going down this year? Was that? Do you have one going down this year? No, nothing this year, but yeah.
As you can see, the panel is diverse, and yet we all farm right here in Iowa. So this will be an interesting way to go about understanding how technology is woven into the operations of the folks here on the stage. And then also, Corey and I will share a perspective of the interviews that we've done on the podcast.
We talk to over 100 people every single year and get perspective on what technology looks like there too. But Scott, why don't we start with you? And I want to know to you, what does technology mean? What is technology?
Yeah, for us, Technology is a path towards better insights on our farm with the hope that that will drive better decision making and for profit, to your point there, Tanner. But we've truly tried to adopt and be at the cutting edge as much as we can, especially as we start dealing more and more with multiple enterprises and being in Nebraska as well, having the ability to monitor things remotely
to track things accurately, and then ultimately to see incremental change occur because of those decisions. We hope to be better farmers and better stewards by doing so.
What about you, Corey? What's technology to you?
Yeah.
Rachel, you might have a little different take on what technology means to you, especially with your tie to people of act.
Well, I think technology is growing with the times and keeping farming current with all of other industries that are out there, especially with social media and telling our stories via video.
I like that. And Brad? We've gotten to connect, obviously, through your role at Continuum Ag. So explain what technology means to Continuum Ag.
Well, yeah, I mean, even just from all perspectives, I'm an economist by education, so the definition of the economy would be the allocation of limited resources. To me, technology is the enhancement of that allocation. So in layman's terms, getting more with less is really how I view technology. And when it comes specifically to Continuum Ag,
We're helping farmers improve their profitability through improved soil health and have a lot of new mechanisms to help with that through technology to just enhance that profitability to Scott's point is to basically help farmers get more from less.
Yeah, I like that a lot. And remember, too, if you're sitting in here and you're taking this panel in. We do have two mics that are stationed in the walkways. I will do my best to turn around and check the mic out over my right hand shoulder. I'll rely on Corey to help notice somebody standing there.
But if you have a question, just stand up and we will make sure that we get your question addressed here on this panel. But as we now think about this, Brad, I'll let you start off. When you look at the operations that you work with and the farms that you manage, How's that adoption of technology come? Is it quick? Has it been done over time? What do you see?
Yeah, you can run the gamut. I mean, agriculture, I think, has a bad reputation of being late to the game when it comes to technology. And I think in a lot of ways that can be warranted, but oftentimes isn't warranted at the same time. I think of our friends on the coast. The hot item is autonomous vehicles, self-driving vehicles. We've been driving self-driving tractors for over a decade, right?
So in some ways, we are very advanced. But in others, I think that we definitely can be looking for what's the next thing. And some are better than others, right? And so you're always going to have those early adopters, people who are late to the party. I think you're going to see that in every industry, but agriculture in general.
I think is very advanced when it comes to looking for the future, almost by necessity, you know, if you're not growing, you're kind of dying. And that's the way of agriculture, unfortunately. And the people who are those early adopters are the ones that are going to keep growing.
And Scott, I know you alluded to it a little bit earlier about how your farm covers a vast area, a larger territory. So the adoption of technology for your operations probably been a little bit different than others.
Yeah. So we've, You could go back all the way to the first yield monitor in the cab and do that, but one of the most impactful times for us is we got on a kick to try and figure out how to do aquaponics or aeroponics and trying to say, Oh, can we get closer to the consumer, try and drive more revenue?
And so we, we piloted this project where we were raising microgreens and I watched this system that the company was using literally grab data. They had to change it to every hour because they were running out of storage when they were collecting it every minute and it was updating their algorithm in order to then increase production,
influence taste and the flavor piece of it, manage all of the inputs going into it. And they were literally capturing data points every hour for these. And when you think about what we've done traditionally in our industries, you get 40 shots at this in the average farmer life cycle, and you make a change on a crop year basis.
And so to make 40 large scale changes or have 40 chances at it compared to some of the data that this group was collecting every hour really changed our mindset of, are we going to embrace the technology and data that comes not from an agronomist in all cases, but instead from a computer or a report that spit out that didn't even have a human touch to it?
And how much trust do we want to put into that? And so for us, that was a really big philosophical change that's helped us stay more open to to the changes that are coming or the products and services that you all are trying to develop and being willing to open the farm gate, so to speak, because I know that that is oftentimes one of your biggest hurdles to getting off the ground.
Yeah, I know, Rachel, you've gotten to travel to a lot of different trade shows and gotten to see ag specific technology on display. But you also do a good job of observing the way those attendees take in the booths and interact with people. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Yeah. So, I mean, traveling, especially with you guys, you know, seeing the different ag shows out there, there's so much technology in ag that we sitting here in Iowa do not even realize is happening in California or Texas.
And until you see it firsthand, whether it's in person or video, you don't even know some of those crops have those capabilities or the equipment going with them to do that type of work. And I almost wonder, it's not necessarily that we're behind the eight ball as far as technology goes in agriculture.
I almost feel sometimes the general public puts farmers in a category that we should be stuck in the 1950s in that farming world where, you know, I like to use the analogy of all the other industries, whether it's medical or the equipment or the different things in our homes, our vehicles, have all evolved throughout the decades, but everyone wants farming to stay in the 1950s era.
And we have so many different people like yourselves, the professionals out there doing the technology behind all of our GPSing, our equipment that we have running. So, yeah, I think just telling our story that, hey, it's OK for ag to evolve with all the other technology in the world also goes with kind of telling your story and showcasing it to clients.
And that is something that you do very well in your business. And we got to have an interview with a gal that built a mini home the other day. And she took a one of the last refrigerators that was made before World War Two, before they converted that line to making props for airplanes. And she redid that refrigerator.
And it's fascinating the amount of electricity that fridge uses versus the current size mini fridge. It was a smaller one is identical. So even though technology is advanced in the appliance world, that refrigerator is just as efficient. It's just one example of outside of agriculture. Things may look like they're progressing even faster. And in some areas they are.
And that was a small tidbit that we got out of one of our guests. But Corey, I want you to start off the answer as we go down the line for a question about what do you think you use on your farm in the forms of technology or the latest in technology that is being used differently than other farmers?
I mean, everyone can talk about the technology of like GPS and steering. That's been around for quite a while now. I think some of the biggest tech that really helps our farm helps take the emotion out of the decisions. Farming is so in motion. Markets and what fertilizer to put on. And there's a lot of different companies that are trying to get your dollar.
And when you can actually sit there and go, yeah, it's a clear decision that it should be this. So we utilize some companies that use technology for us to make sure that we're putting on the right fungicide, the right fertilizer mix, the right seed. And that really helps. We've even got into artificial intelligence into grain marketing.
Chicago Board of Trade trades with computers, 99% of it pretty much. And now we're trying to combat that with AI. So I think that's what sets some of the stuff we do apart.
What about you, Scott? I think what's unique for us is somewhat similar. It's more around the financial tools and taking the insights or data from the CAB. and converting that into what decisions are we making in the management and planning process.
And so whether it be data tools and software that helps inform our grain marketing decisions, like you mentioned, Corey, or looking at for us, again, trying to figure out how can we manage our costs and the input decisions in light of low CI grain and in light of additional potential revenue opportunities
And so, again, I think that the equipment manufacturers have done a great job of creating a base load for us to be able to grab data from. But then where we truly are trying to find that next set of insights or what to be somewhat unique is to then translate that. into better financial decision making.
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Well, I would say on two levels. I've got my brother on camera. We talk about our farming on social media a lot. And then my brother and I have only been farming our family ground a couple of years, but it's with older equipment. So retrofitting older equipment with the GPS, the Delta Force, the seed farmers, the different things. So we're really trying to utilize technology.
things that work for our operation that way.
And Brad. Yeah, so I'll lump data into technology there as far as what I try to do is I try to take the emotion out of farming. I think that that sometimes can be a barrier and let the data speak for itself. One thing that I've tried that I never thought I would try in a million years is this whole regen thing, putting cover crops and doing no-till on my own ground. And the first year I did it,
My grandparents were still alive and they saw me planting into a green cover crop and they looked like they were about to have a heart attack because I'm planting into a weedy field. But I think that you just got to try these different things and let the data speak for it.
Whether that's right for your operation or not, try to remove the heart attack you're planting into a weedy field and see what the data tells you. Turns out that we ended up having record yield that year on those fields, not necessarily because of the cover crop, but at least we proved that the cover crop didn't hurt the farm through the data.
So now I can participate in a low CI grain that we also do at Continuum Ag because I'm not afraid to try these different things. And so I guess it's just an evolution. And yeah, I love that point as far as if we have 40 shots at this, You want to get your best at bad every year, right? And I think you just have to be open-minded to do that.
Our third co-host would have loved your answer because he says data is the currency of everything. And he puts a word at the end of it. Internet, live, business, absolutely. Hey, thanks for doing that. Well, we will. I feel like the first person to ask a question needs a prize, and I didn't bring one. But why don't you go ahead and start?
I'll take a cash prize if you want to open up your wallet.
Smart. Very smart.
You must be a farmer.
Well, it's actually, I got up before you started talking about regenerative practices because you're hitting on data and taking the emotions out of decisions, which is one of the greatest tools that technology provides. But the drawback of it is technology has provided information in the here and now and makes us look forward to what worked this year, what did we like, what didn't we like,
and doesn't maybe help us look at trends over time because that's just not the way we've been programmed to look at technology. And it takes multiple years for some of that regenerative trends to see, and oftentimes in the first three years, we could have a yield drag effect. So both as technology users and farmers, how would you recommend balancing that? How do you balance those two things?
And how do you see us being able to overcome that hurdle in the future so that we can really have the dual benefits?
So I like that question. I think I'm going to try to phrase it effectively, so you have to let me know if I don't. But how are you involving regenerative practices and the potential adoption of other regenerative ideas into your farming operation with the idea that there may be data and trends that fall behind in identifying if it's working or not for your farm.
So Brad, why don't we start right back with you?
Yeah, I mean, we talk to farmers that ask that same question every single day. Literally, that is the number one thing preventing farmers from trying these things. It's not just the emotional, but also, well, what about my yield this year? And they understand that there can be that yield drag in the first three years.
Fortunately, we live in a time now where, financially at least, we have a lot of things available to overcome those yield drags, particularly low CI at this point. So what we try to do is just let's let's put pencil to paper here and actually look at what does this look like financially for your operation.
So when I did this cover crop in 2022, I put pencil to paper and I found out that, OK, I'm going to apply for an equip program. If that doesn't work out, I'll do a state cost share program to help pay for my cover crop seed.
and also I'm going to sign up for this carbon program that pays $25 an acre, I found out that I could afford a yield drag of about 25 bushels and still come out breakeven, compared to if I was just doing normal conventional practices. So in my mind, now I'm just, again, letting the data kind of drive the decision here.
I thought, you know what, I could probably survive putting out a cover crop and trying no-till, and I think that I can do better than 25 bushel yield drag. I think I can do that. And so I think every farmer's just got to go through that process and that journey, whatever that looks like to them, and we help farmers do that every single day.
But yeah, I mean, since it is such an emotional thing to try this region, we really try to point to the potential, Like, hey, yeah, there is risk, but farming is risk. Whether you do or you don't, you are taking a risk every single time you're putting seed in the ground.
So now let's look to what the potential could be if you were to implement these practices, the improvement of soil health, and then also now participating in these brand new markets to increase revenue at the same time. And oftentimes when we kind of walk through that journey, farmers tend to end up seeing the white, I guess, if you want to call it that, and being willing to try it.
That's correct. I did chuckle to myself during that when you said you put pencil to paper and we are in a tech Adoption. And here I am also using pen and paper. What a great representation. But I also want you to identify, maybe for some in the audience that don't know, you've mentioned CI a couple of times. Can you identify what that is?
Yeah, so CI, carbon intensity, basically means your carbon footprint. So whether you want it or not, no matter where you're at politically, every single farmer has a carbon intensity score associated with their crop. And really what it comes down to is there's now this brand new revenue stream.
I guess it would be in the form of tax credits through biodiesel or ethanol where they can get tax credits from the U.S. government if they can lower their carbon footprint. So think of from an ethanol plant standpoint. I've got a carbon footprint and most of that is made up from the corn that's going through my facility.
So us as farmers can help the ethanol industry lower their CI score by producing a low CI grain. How do we do that? Cover crops, no-till, and manure instead of synthetics. If you do those three things, that's the trifecta to lower your score. And now I'm providing a brand new value to the ethanol industry that I should be compensated for.
So at the end of the day, it's all tied to what is your actual score of the practices that you're implementing on your farm. In my case, I mentioned I signed up for a carbon program, a carbon credit program that paid $25 per acre. That same exact crop, when I tie a CI score to it, would have been providing over $450 per acre to the ethanol industry.
So if I was able to sell my corn that year to the ethanol industry, I would be providing this brand new value to the ethanol industry. And yeah, maybe I'm not going to get $450 per acre, but even if I get half of that, that's way more than anything else that I would have been able to sign up for. So it's just this brand new thing.
starting in 2025, that you can score your 2024 crop going into the 2025 season, that the ethanol industry would hopefully be able to pay farmers based on your CI score.
I don't think he answered your question, though. I think at the end of the day, when you think about, like, you guys are all trying to serve farmers in the ag community, right? You're building technology, you're I don't know if I shouldn't swear, but don't be afraid to make a critical decision as to is this a farm that we can get on with a chance to actually succeed.
As a farmer, as a new adopter of what you're trying to introduce to us, if I tell you that I'm interested in technology or I'm wanting to be on the cutting edge of it, but in reality I'm not actually going to let the data change what I'm doing, then you're not, you're wasting your time and your money.
And I think that a lot of farmers, they like to say that, but at the end of the day, when the solutions provider spits out a number or a product or a practice that goes against 40 years or three generations of ingrained traditional thinking, right? I call it the old McDonald farm. You had a much nicer way to describe it as a 1950s, but you know, I think that there needs to be a level of calling.
You can't call your customers out, right? But at the same time, you can choose who you want to bring an innovation to to test and making sure that you truly understand when they say they're objective and when they say that they're going to let data drive decisions, well, what if that means you need to change the relationship with the guy that sells you seed? Are you willing to do that?
I love Rick Hallbaker. He sells me great John Deere equipment. John Deere has been a foundational element to our business. But does that mean that every single piece of equipment on my farm is green? No. And so I think that I do. I think that you have to be willing to help poke and prod and encourage some farmers that when they are testing your products, are you actually willing to switch?
Because if not, we need to keep moving on and allocate resources elsewhere.
I appreciate that other direction of an answer too. And Corey, I want to see if you can pull from the interviews and the relationships that we've built through the podcast as to how you've witnessed folks adopting more regenerative practices and using data to do that.
We've interviewed a lot of people that have adopted that. And the CI score thing is very interesting because it's not for sure yet, right? So it's in the law.
So by law, it is. Because we're waiting for... We are waiting for guidelines from the USDA recommending to the IRS on how do they actually facilitate it. So by law, it starts, the clock starts Jan 1, 2025, by law. So then the question is, how the heck are these ethanol plants actually going to get tax credits? Yep. And that has not been defined yet. Yep.
So after getting that out of the way. Yeah. Doing some of these regenerative practices, we need a lot of tools that we don't have on our current farm, right? We need a way to put these cover crops in. We need ways to split our nitrogen applications up and our fertilizer applications up. We need to be able to variable rate, and we need to know and gather all that.
And that's just everything in ag, from soil sampling to drones. And we've taken a lot of drone people in for... doing all of that, spreading the cover crop seed, going and flying on nitrogen. Especially this year, we've had so much rain here in central Iowa. A lot of our nitrogen has been washed away. I wanted to comment on Scott's deal a little bit earlier.
If we did the same thing as farmers that our grandpa did or our great grandpa, I mean, we'd still be farming with horses and plows. And guess what? We're going to get swallowed up. That's just not going to be able to happen. So we as farmers need to be able to adopt this technology. We can be cautiously optimistic.
We don't have to jump in whole hog, but I would say we've talked to a lot of people on the podcast about take 20 acres and try it. Put cover crop in. Do the whole gamut just so you can tell yourself. One thing I've learned from talking to everyone, there is not one right way or one whole wrong way to farm. There are so many ways to get to the same outcome, but if we can do it more efficiently...
Let's do it. I appreciate that answer. And I think you're going to lead into a really good next question, but I want to see out of everybody sitting in the audience, would you raise your hand if you are a farmer? Okay. So just a couple, how many of you have a family member that farms? Okay. So there's a lot, there's a very close tie to agriculture sitting in this room.
How many of you don't have any tie to agriculture except for knowing this panel was happening? That's good. We didn't see very many hands. I appreciate that. So I'll just go right back to you, Corey. As we look at the emerging technologies, the items that we know exist are already in the works to help advance certain parts of agriculture.
What are you most excited about that you know is coming soon?
I really like the sprayer technology that's coming out, the sea and spray type stuff. I have not adopted it on our farm yet. I do think that could be... Look, we're in a very tight margin. We are producing commodities. So anything that can save us money on an input, yes, technology is expensive.
But if you have the tools to implement that and actually know your numbers, if you know your numbers, use things like Harvest Profit and things like that, know your numbers, go for it.
So see and spray technology, that's technology that allows you to save on chemical use because it only sprays when it sees something.
Right.
Correct.
Yeah. So it'll only seize the weed, sprays it. And then you could put a residual product. You could have a whole separate tank that's spraying a residual product, you know, over the whole acre. And then you could save, I mean, some of these costs are getting a 50, 60, $70 an acre. You know, if you can cut that in half, that helps out a lot.
One technology I'm really excited about that really probably doesn't, I can't tie it back to paying any money, but TerraClear, they have a drone that goes up and maps all your rocks. We have a lot of rocks from the glaciers that come down and gives you the most efficient path to go pick them up. It takes like a eight hour job and takes it down into a one and a half hour job.
So I guess that would be the money saving. That, if you want to run one through the combine and have to spend $30,000 on it, it's not very good. What about you, Scott?
You know, I think that in general, the answer is anything that helps us do more with less, but that's too vague. The The biggest thing I think that we're excited about is continuing to look at autonomy in the sense of how can it truly translate to doing more with less people. It's harder and harder to replace labor. And as much as I love our H2A guys,
it'd be a lot easier just not to deal with the government anymore than I already do. And so I think that there's efficiencies that can be gained through the autonomous technologies that are coming. And I also think that those innovations are being seen and felt and adopted by existing people already on our farm. And so it's not just me that's trying to figure it out.
It's kind of the breadth of the industry. I think there's a lot of technologies, frankly, that really get me excited. I think at the end of the day, though, what's going to be most impactful will be what can help us manage the labor problem that we're having or what's going to unlock additional revenue for the crops that we have.
Do you have an autonomy right now?
So we've just beta test versions of different things, whether it be the John Deere or some of the other equipment folks that we're using.
And Rachel, how about you? What technology have you seen that you're most excited about?
Well, I really like the spraying drones. I think that is a very interesting way of getting to our crops without damaging them. And then not just in row crop farming, but the different technology being used in livestock barns, the robots, the counting, the different things. for farmers to be able to check on their iPhones to make sure everything is okay for their livestock and barns.
That has come a long way in the past five, six, 10 years, so.
Okay, Brad, why don't you round out that question?
Yeah, I just used drones for the first time this year. So got the fungicide on with drones and that was pretty cool. But I... I will say this, I'll add the caveat, I probably sound like this regen hawk, but at Continuum, I'm probably the biggest skeptic when it comes to regen farming.
The technology that I'm most excited for is getting to reduce my nitrogen application, because now I'm getting to that year three, four, five, that I should be able to see that organic end picking up, and so I should be able to reduce my nitrogen.
I don't know if that's implementation of technology that you're looking for, but I'm really looking forward to pulling back on my end costs by utilizing that.
I want to elaborate on what you said earlier, Scott, about how you don't have all of the same color of equipment, even though you enjoy working with the dealer that provides you John Deere equipment. But you also mentioned that. there may be a different way that companies should approach the relationships they build with farmers themselves.
So as you think about what that future relationship should look like with a farmer, I'll let you start off. How do you think companies could best get farmers to try a new product?
Yeah, I think the first and foremost starts with, are you talking to the right person? I mean, are you talking to the decision maker? You know, I went, I went to school with a lot of guys that sell a lot of stuff now. And for the first five years back farming, I wasn't the decision maker ultimately, right? And so, you know, it's kind of flipped now.
We have non-family members running every aspect of our business. So all of our managers at every location is a non-family member. And so are you going to have the most success telling me how great your new DeKalb number is? Like, well, that's awesome, you know, but talk to Wes. And so just identifying the right person to start building that relationship with is a big component of it.
You can obviously utilize, you know, key stakeholders to drive influence on that. But I know for a fact that, you know, for a period of time when my brother was the purchaser for us. He didn't really care for me being treated as Steve Henry's son. I'm managing the $5 million budget for our farm this year. And so give me the respect that I deserve there.
And so I think that's the biggest thing is, again, just identifying that you're actually making the right finding the right door into what you're trying to get done.
So Brad at Continuum Ag, you guys are delivering a message that's new to a lot of different producers. How have you successfully connected with those that are early adopters?
Honestly, you have to identify who are the people who are actually open-minded to doing these new things. But then also, we're not trying to upset the apple cart here by necessarily going directly to the farmer and saying, hey, you should be doing this. We actually work with a dealer network that is working with the farmer.
So we have trusted people as dealers who know the vision of what we're trying to do, and they have a farmer network that they can then have that confident conversation with all of their network, basically, to be an advocate on our behalf, right?
So I feel like a lot of the guys who are just trying to go in and disrupt and just go and say, you know what, the old system is old, don't use it, go right to the farmer, you're not going to have very good success. And we've seen a lot of companies... try and fail pretty massively when it comes to that approach, you don't want to disrupt that. You want to still have those farmer relationships.
They're there for a reason. Utilize that. Utilize those relationships because if you are able to get those dealers and people on your side as champions, they're the ones who are going to be the most effective at carrying that message to the farm gate.
Yeah, and Rachel, as you've got an inside path to what influencers are being used as, can you shed light on how that could help approach the farmer or get product into a farmer's hand?
Yeah, just by utilizing some of the people on social media to talk about your product or showcase your product, they're going to show your product to a completely different audience in some situations. You know, we have people that follow us that have nothing to do with ag or some that watch you because of the similarities that you have in the ag business.
I just want to ask you a question about the cover crop. So my brother and I have tried doing no-till, but our soils just work better because my brother is an engineer by trade and he loves doing some of these things. Have you noticed a success rate higher in certain soil types? Because we struggled in some of our things.
So we definitely see differences, right? You're going to have different yield drags on different soil types going through that process, depending on what your soil is like. That said, we have yet to come across a farmer that just completely failed and abandoned ship when it comes to let's try what you're comfortable with first, get your toe in the water, and then build from there.
So a lot of time, I like to say strip-till is the gateway drug. Let's start there. And if you're not comfortable with all of your acres, try some of your acres. And then build that confidence and then move on from there. If you go whole hog and fail the first year, that's the fastest way to never try again, right?
And so I strongly recommend we meet the farmer where they're at with the comfortability because there is that emotional part of it, right? And so we want to meet them where they're at, what they're comfortable with, and then build upon that year after year.
That's good. Corey, to wrap up the question prior to that, how do they successfully sell to you?
I was going to echo what Brad said about definitely finding the early adopters, which we are on our farm. We do highly value the technology. We highly value being able to see it before it comes out because we like to give that feedback. Like, hey, we like this. We don't like this. So having that relationship. Ag is a relationship business. Hardly ever is it someone that
I don't know that comes and asks me to do something. It's usually someone that already has a relationship. So I would say establish that relationship with them would be the best. And that's how I work. Maybe some people, other people would work differently.
Well, and can I just expand on that? So, you know, Corey, the Farm Talk friends, the people that are talking about different products on social media, like we feel that we all trust each other. We're friends on a personal level, but... they're not afraid to give their personal opinion or experience with a product.
Correct. Yeah, I would say that's true. And on the social media side, there's probably different people for different products, right? This person might promote a GPS technology, and this person might promote lowering your CI technology a lot better. So you've got to know your avenues there. Do your research, and talk to someone that's on it. If you're not an expert in that game... Talk to Tanner.
He knows. Talk to Rachel. She knows.
Yeah. Just to echo in that, I think you're you're both right. It goes the communication route. So much of this is a relationship built industry. And I don't think that's anything new to the group that's out here. And we appreciate the fact that you do invest in employees that can connect.
the farm level meet you where you need to be identify the appropriate person that's going to call those shots which is really good but i want to know from you guys and i'll let whoever wants to go first on this one do where's technology lacking right now where is the biggest area of need for improvement in agriculture i think i think any time that if you want to have success you have to have alignment right and so i think
if you have solutions that can help us continue to find ways to better improve what we do and connect with the consumer or whatever the revenue, the premium that we're trying to collect. And so to me, I think that's where we focus so much on trying to find ways to reduce costs, which is great. That's part of things we can actually control.
But ultimately, there still seems to be this disconnect between what we produce and what we do versus what the consumer or the end user ultimately thinks.
And so if you can deliver solutions that help, again, create alignment through the process, I think that's why you're seeing the farming community rally around, whether it be carbon intensity scores or certain practices and products that help us reduce reliance upon
synthetics that are out there it's again it's because it's a story that helps our bottom line it helps mother nature and it makes the consumer feel good and and so that again is an area of where it's it's maybe a different answer to your question tanner but philosophically we're trying to really focus our operation is if we can simplify things on the farm. And so that's first and foremost.
And so if you can bring us a solution that allows us to simplify and optimize and then be aligned, ultimately those are kind of the buckets that we've really tried to focus on.
What about you, Corey? Where do you feel technology is lacking?
I think there's a lot of great technology, but there's a lot that gets really into the weeds as far as user experience. It's hard to run
lot of new stuff because it hasn't been polished it might be new but I think a lot of people need to look at like what John Deere has done to their whole John Deere ops system they've made everything interconnected you don't you can even connect to your different color tractors and know exactly between different operators you can know this operator seems to use two more gallons of fuel per hour why you know what's going on and maybe that's a coaching opportunity so I just think that user experience and ease
It's got to be there because this stuff's expensive. And if we get too much, I mean, we're not going to be making money. We're here to farm for profit, right? So make sure it's worth it and make sure it's easy to use.
That's right. UX is a big deal. That's one of those tech terms I stole from the program. But it is. It's going to be important, especially when you're bombarded by a lot of different companies trying to get your attention at the same time. It's typically a very short decision-making window for operations to implement something new before the next growing season.
But Brad, as you think about where you can see advancements in technology, where's the hole that we need filled?
Yeah, so agriculture overall, I guess I'll describe what I think the problem is and then how technology might be able to help with that. It has a problem with narrative more than anything that I'm seeing. So I went to college with a bunch of city folk, ended up living with city folk. And I was viewed with the last name McDonald as either an angel or a devil. That's how I like to call it.
They either thought of me as an 1800 old McDonald farmer, right? A wholesome person going out there with a pitchfork. And they love that story. Or they saw Monsanto and I'm spraying everything with chemicals and I'm killing their kids. Right. So and it's real. It's a real perception problem.
And so I think that it really comes down to providing that visibility and letting people know, hey, we don't farm like we did in the 1800s, obviously. But we're also not trying to kill your kids by spraying chemicals. And so it's really important, I think, for the industry overall to adapt traceability and just be open about what our practices are and why we're doing them.
I think that can help go a long way with the change in perception of the American farmer.
And just a reminder, we do have two mics set up if you've got additional questions for the panelists to jump right up. But Rachel, if you want to finish out that question on where you're excited to see technology come in and fill in.
Yeah, so I definitely agree with the whole perception thing. You know, everyone wants their everyday life, whether it be medical, you know, the products that they use in their home to be advancing with technology, but they have that persona of an American farmer. You know, that
just explaining our processes and how we raise corn, soybeans, pigs, cattle, whatever our products are here in Iowa or across the United States to not, to showcase the A, B, and Cs of why we're doing it and the technology behind it is not scary. So yeah.
I guess something that I would be concerned about or want to be on the forefront is touching on what Corey said, the technology that you're introducing making sure it works with multiple different brands of equipment. The one thing that is scary to me is I have children that want to farm and the price of equipment has gone up so drastically over the past five years.
You know, people needing to go to used equipment, making sure that you can explain why your product works with used equipment if it's something that goes into tractors or combines. It doesn't have to be showcased with brand new items all the time because It's really hard for people to afford a lot of the brand new equipment out there today.
That's a great observation because we know through a lot of the partners we have through Farm for Profit that there's a lot of performance upgrade kits available. Rather than having to replace an entire machine, you can just increase the effectiveness of that machine. On your farm, Scott, have you taken advantage of the pucks? Yeah.
Going back to what I said earlier, part of what our goal the last several years has been to simplify things. So we kicked everybody off the farm that didn't integrate in with John Deere MyOps. It's a harsh reality that exists, and I don't need to put John Deere and Lena Kahn's site. Sorry, Adam.
But the element for what we're trying to do is the people that are available to run the equipment and the operators that we have in there, we're asking them to do a lot. We're entrusting them with a lot of dollars. And so the less distractions and the less processes that they have to do in the cab in the field matters to us. And so we've tried to simplify their life.
And so we had five monitors in a cab five years ago when I was, when I was planting and we're back down to one. And, Are we leaving some juice in the orange? Probably, but what we found is that last 5%, oftentimes that squeeze isn't worth the juice. And so we've made a decision on our farm to outsource that to John Deere and let those innovations come to us.
And I use John Deere as an example because that's the main power unit provider to our farm. If we were red, we would have the same philosophy. And so now we've actually kind of gone the opposite way. And what we're finding is, one, they do a pretty good job. And if you can bolt in and flow through that, there is enough
APIs or whatever that allow us to still get those insights through some of the different platforms that are desktop-based back in the office ultimately. That's been a decision we made several years ago now.
I was going to say one of the unique things about your farm, Corey, in didn't want to say that because it's not as unique as it is. The farming population is aging. So there's a lot of things that you've done to the equipment on your operation to help with your aging dad to make him be able to farm for a longer period of time.
Yeah, just going down to our combine, just putting a different set of stairs on it a couple years ago. It's literally stairs, not a ladder. He's had a lot of surgeries, which pretty low tech, right? It's just steel and welding and paint. But to me, that was a technology that was a $2,000 investment that allowed him to keep going.
And he's a great operator, just doesn't have a lot of physical work left in him. And then on the spraying side of things, it's really easy to fill our sprayers now with five, six different products, nutritional products, all that kind of stuff. When that used to take forever, up and down off the trailer, big bags of stuff. And we've got spray systems that we can fill in four minutes and
Works really well.
And what people love on social media is your claw.
Oh, yeah. The claw. The rock box in the front has a hydraulic arm that will pick up rocks. I have a vendetta against rocks, apparently. But they do. They cause a lot of damage, and there's a lot of them out there.
You used to go right on the front of the 40-20 with your grandpa and take a couple kids, and you'd go out after you planted and run up and down every dang pass with the planter and try to pick up rocks. No, we don't have to do that anymore.
I think it's fun for us on the podcast front to get access to a lot of different individuals that want to promote a product, want to share their story, and it doesn't always make its way all the way to our listeners. But that doesn't mean it doesn't get that message, the opportunity to be spread.
But as you sit up here on this panel, I want you to start thinking about where you think the future of technology and agriculture is going. I'm not talking about next year. I want to know 10 years out. I want you to start dreaming about what you think 10 years out looks like. But I want to talk to the audience here again.
As you sit here at the end of your day, at the end of this conference, how many of you are walking away with something that might turn into a new idea for agriculture? Why don't you raise your hands? Did anything spark a potential new idea? So we got just a couple. Did any of you sit here and learn about something in one of the presentations that you didn't know about before you sat here?
in that room. How many of you are gonna walk out of this with something that you plan to instrument or put in and implement on your farm or in your business right now?
Yeah, so that's amazing that we can come to an event like this and that hope stays the future of ag and tech conferences to where we can continue to socialize and build a network to get ideas that might help us do something a little bit better. But hopefully I stalled just long enough for you guys to put together your vision of what you think the future of ag looks like.
And Rachel, you get to go first.
I get to go first?
You get to go first.
This is my first time today I get to go first. Thanks, Tanner.
The hardest question. You get to go first.
I really think making a presence online, social media, is going to just become increasingly more because farmers are going to either continue to grow in size per acre or be smaller farmers. And telling your story just to help put a positive word out there about how farmers do things on their farm is going to be huge.
Brett? Yeah, I'll come at it with a continue mag perspective here. I think that the reason why ethanol, I mentioned as far as low CIs, has to go through ethanol because that's how the law is written. That's where the tax credits are going. It's only available to ethanol.
I like to think that the reason why ethanol is the only one is because they had the best lobbyists when they were making the law. So it just so happened that they were able to get it in. Ten years from now, I think everything's going to have a CI score. I think you're going to have low CI pork chops in the grocery store. I think you're going to have low CI steaks. I'm going to
I'll bet that that's going to be the new organic, if you want to call it that. So you're going to see this new demand for low carbon everything. And all these claims of saying we've got to be carbon neutral or carbon negative or whatever the hot thing is at the moment. But that's where I think this is going. The puck is that everything, not just ethanol, is going to have a CI score attached to it.
I feel like Corey and Scott should arm wrestle for who has to go last. He'd beat you? Oh, okay. So Scott, you get to go next. He's forfeiting. Go right ahead.
I think that you can't forget that these are commodities that we all grow, especially here in Iowa, right? And so we all took Econ 101 back in school, and how much money should we make raising a commodity, right? Yeah. Zero dollars. It's supply and demand. It's very simple economics.
And so the only way that you're going to make more than that is to do something specialized or to do something better than the other guy, right? And so in my mind, the people that are going to be farming in 10 years are going to be those that took advantage of the technologies that allowed them to accomplish that. And so whether it involves
capturing data and insights in order to create a premium for the commodities that we're growing, or it could be a new crop, right? Who knows? You look at covercress and some of these other potential crops that we could overwinter in Iowa as a cover crop, or similar to like the corn, wheat, bean double crop rotation in the south.
And so I think that you're going to see technologies that allow that to happen, and then you're also going to see the technologies on the other side that allow the operators or the operations to do that with much more autonomy. And the concern I have is that what we'll save in labor, are we gonna give back in tech fees or the cost of the equipment?
And is there actual efficiency gained on the cost side? Maybe there is operationally, but I don't, I sound like a pessimist, I apologize, but I, I don't see a future where we slow down the pace of consolidation in row crop agriculture. I do think that there will be opportunities to market and monetize different paths in that.
But ultimately, again, looking at the audience in the room today, what you guys are trying to do, if you're building something to support a farm 10 years from now, I just think we've got to look and accept the reality of the industry that we're in and where we're going to be is probably less of us and the ones that are here are larger. And so how can you be relevant to them?
Good luck with your answer, Corey.
And if you're going to stay small, you're going to have to get specialized. Right. You're going to have to get a real niche deal there. But I think diversification, I think autonomy is coming. One thing, and I don't think it has much to do with tech, but we interviewed a farm yesterday from Canada. They farm 42,000 acres, a lot of acres.
And they said something that I didn't think they would say, and they said they are willing to hire. They are actually looking at acres as units, and they want to hire rock stars is what they said. I think most farmers have pushed back on the consolidation or wanting to get bigger. Because they don't want to hire. Most, most don't want to be, they want to sit in the tractor and farm.
They don't want to sit back and, and I think Longview has, has gone against that and they've done really well at hiring and, and, and expanding that way. Like you said, you're not the one in the tractor anymore and, uh, I think it might come in the form of a different labor pool. You might be hiring more techie people to run your swarms of autonomous tractors, small autonomous tractors.
So I think we're going to have to get used to it as farmers if we want to stay relevant. So maybe it's a technology in the HR department or managing people.
Yeah, I'm glad that you all shared your perspective and the answers that you did that it It might look like a swarm of robots in the future and it may be larger sized operations and we may be dealing with more social connections and the same thing about how we're going to continue to move the regenerative message forward. So thank you all for being a panelist and putting up with me.
And I do thank the one individual that found my jokes funny on this side of the room as this goes. But my summary of what we talked about up here is technology for us as panelists needs to be able to help us direct the narrative and tell our story. It needs to be able to help remove emotion.
It needs to be able to help us increase productivity, save time, reduce costs, and it needs to come with a positive user experience. I think is ultimately what I grabbed from you as panelists. So again, thank you everybody for being a part of the panel. Thank you for hanging out with us and thank you for coming to the event. I get to be taxed with the reminder that you need to take your survey.
Your survey is in your event app. Please do that. That's also how you get access to presentations. So if you are in the app, please stop out there and take that survey. The event organizers also say thank you for you coming. They also wanted me to say thank you to the key sponsors and members that have made this possible. So just a reminder, you can come back same place, same time next year.
Another great event will take place. But one last time, thank you to everybody for being here.
Remember if you aren't farming for profit, you won't be farming for long.
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