00:00:00 Maximizing your on-farm technology to get the biggest ROI you can get. That's what we're talking about in this episode 00:00:06 of extreme Ag Cutting the curve. Welcome to extreme Ag Cutting the Curve podcast, where real farmers share real insights 00:00:14 and real results to help you improve your farming operation. And now here's your host, Damien Mason. 00:00:22 Hey there. Welcome to another fantastic episode of Extreme as cutting the curve. I've got lane miles, you know him, he's from down there. 00:00:26 McGee, Arkansas. Just turned 30 years old. Happy Bday to our buddy Lane. Uh, he farms with his father Matt, 00:00:32 one of the founders of Extreme Ag. And we've also got our man, Ryan Steen. Stein Steen. Give it to me Steen Ryan Steen, who's an Iowa Farm kid, 00:00:41 turned into a John Deere guy and he's here with us. We're talking specifically about operations at center. And you probably have this, 00:00:48 if you're an extreme Ag listener, you probably have some kind of data collection management system platform 00:00:54 that you're using in your equipment. But are you maximizing it? You know, before we hit record, I compared it to this, 00:00:59 this phone that's in my hand right here. Uh, an iPhone 15. The new 16 is out. Let's face it. This has more technological capacity than the Apollo program 00:01:08 from NASA did 50 some years ago. I'm not using this thing nearly as fully as I should or could. 00:01:15 Maybe that's you with your farm management system. Before I hit record, I also, I said, lane, what do you call your operations center? 00:01:21 He says, I call it a farm management tool. I said, no. Yeah, there we are. Lane, you are new on this. You were still in college 10 years ago. 00:01:29 You started using operations center and you've been part of the reason it's gotten so fully integrated and implemented into Miles Farms. 00:01:36 Talk to me about the evolution. Uh, well, I mean, I guess it's really started, you know, they, they started trying 00:01:43 to use it right before I got there. And I say trying to use it because when really when everybody started with it, 00:01:48 it was all about yield maps. And that was really everybody's goal was yield maps. Uh, and they were honestly, 00:01:56 I'm not gonna say they were all crap, but they were not all great. Um, because when we may be going through a field and, 00:02:02 and something happened to our yield monitor and well, we ain't stopping for that. Keep going. Nowadays we stop. 00:02:09 If a planter's not recording nowadays we stop a sprayer's not recording. We stop anything we do on our farm, 00:02:18 it, it gets recorded and we know exactly what happened to that field. It gets recorded and put over into other 00:02:25 programs, other spreadsheets. You, it goes, it goes everywhere. It's this, the hub of all data 00:02:32 Yield maps was the first integration. And even people that are older and uh, later adopters of technology understood that 00:02:40 because they know from being in the combine what parts of the field do better than others, et cetera. But it's not just so you can go and brag 00:02:46 and say, oh yeah, the back there in the back 40, we did a hundred, you know, a hundred bushel soybeans. It's for management. And that's the big thing here, right, 00:02:53 Ryan is management. Management management. Yeah, totally. And, and you know, lane hit on it really well. 00:02:59 You think about every seed you put in the ground, every chemical or input that goes onto that field is a cost to the farmer. 00:03:06 Um, you know, regardless of of what size of farm you are, you have to manage that cost that's going down on the acre 00:03:11 and ultimately look back at your yield and ask, was that a good decision? Would I make it again next year? 00:03:17 Do I wanna make it on all my acres? And having a a tool like operations center is all about making that as easy as possible to collect the data 00:03:25 and then also look back and make better decisions for the next year and the next time around. Um, and even, you know, if it's, I want 00:03:34 to just see on a few acres or a certain part of the field, is it worth any example putting fungicide down on corn? 00:03:41 And I can look and just know on what side of the field, what was my yield like relative to where I didn't put it down? 00:03:47 Did it pay, did it not? Just one example, Damien, of kind of how we're looking at operation centers, being that ROI tool 00:03:54 for the farm and what data can do to empower all farmers Lane. Talk to me about what 00:03:58 da what in the evolution. So you've been back on the ranch, uh, eighth, this is your eighth or ninth season, uh, full time, right? 00:04:06 So you helped him maybe dial it in a little bit. Your dad told me three years ago when we started recording stuff together. 00:04:12 When I joined Extreme Ag, he said, it used to be we didn't care about collecting data and information. He's like, I gotta get this harvest done. 00:04:19 A hurricane could be blowing up from the Gulf. We're gonna go out here and we're gonna run. He said, now if we're not, 00:04:24 if we don't have our operation center and all the, all the data collection and management system tied in the combine won't run. 00:04:30 The planter won't run. And you said that same thing. That's how important it's to you. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, uh, number one, I mean, data's 00:04:38 what extreme ags here for. I mean, anything that we're testing on our farms, anything we're, anything we're doing for partners 00:04:47 or whatever, at least for Miles Farms it, it is run through that. I mean, I I don't do, 00:04:53 I really don't do anything without running it through op center. Now I will say if there's a hurricane coming and, 00:04:59 and that's just, that's just part of it. We just gonna be missing some data. But, uh, but no, I mean, I mean really 00:05:05 and truly, I mean, if it's not working, I mean you stop, you're, there's, there's way too many, many other things 00:05:10 that we have invested in our crops more than just what we're gonna get off of it. But these, these tell a story for where we're going 00:05:18 and what we're doing for the years to come. I mean, there's been several things that we've done on our farms that dad's like, Hey, 00:05:24 don't forget we did this on that field. And I'll go look at it and be like, dad, that got us three or four bushels, five bushels. 00:05:30 I mean, I think I went and looked at, you know, one thing that got us like 12. I mean, that's, that's stuff that you, you miss 00:05:37 through the year without recording things. I mean, it, it's, while back dad would say, all right, why are we doing this? 00:05:43 Why are we spending all this money and, and stopping and whatever for, you know, trying to have all this data? I said at some point in time, dad, this is gonna pay. 00:05:54 And I don't know, it's been two or three years ago, he finally is like, it's, it's paying. I mean, this is, it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. 00:06:01 Yeah. I mean, we're finding things from, I mean, go back to just yield maps in general. 00:06:06 It's where, where it all started. We're finding things still today and, and yield maps that, man, that's a drainage issue, man. 00:06:12 That's, that's nematodes gonna run across this field. You know, you can just, you can see the patterns. I mean a varietal, I mean we, we finally, we, 00:06:19 we've gotten within the last four or five years, our planters that are, that are, you know, everybody's getting our data right. 00:06:26 And we're seeing where varieties are good, where varieties are bad. Uh, the biggest struggle is on a, on a bigger operation 00:06:35 is how many people have their hands in operation center. Uh, you know, you've got six or seven tractors running 00:06:42 and everybody's, you know, having to do this, this and that. Well, deer figured it out. 00:06:46 You send plans soon as they pull into it. As soon as they pull into a field, Hey, are you in this field and this 00:06:51 is what you're supposed to be doing? Yes or no? You, the more hands you take off of that, the better your data is, the cleaner it is. 00:06:57 And I'm, and we have, we've come so far just in the last three years. It's unreal. So Ryan was nodding his head, 00:07:04 you've got the farm experience, you work for Deere, uh, your, your system's called operations center. We have, I mean there's other ones out there, obviously. 00:07:12 Uh, lane's pretty dialed into this one. 'cause they, they are, uh, they run your equipment. Um, it, it's, it has a couple of hiccups for them early on, 00:07:21 but it wasn't that there's anything wrong with the system. It was a matter of user. 00:07:23 It's like everything user adoption, right? Yeah, totally. And it's, it's one of the things too within John Deere, we're always coming out 00:07:31 with things to make the tools better. I mean, every, every two months we're rolling out updates to make things that work better 00:07:37 for the operation center, for the farmer too. And I think what Lane was saying, some things that were resonating with we out work plans 00:07:44 that send in the plan out to the machine, machine goes to the field, pops up, you hit go essentially, then you're putting the implement in the ground 00:07:51 and you're off and running and you know, you talked a little bit Damien on like the phone we started out with and getting the most out of the tool, 00:07:58 I think an operation center. And to get to that point, a lot of folks, what can be intimidating the first time coming in is 00:08:04 doing the setup process of where are my fields? I need to input all my fields. I want to go to my products. So what seeds, chemicals, fertilizers, am I using? 00:08:14 You know, what um, equipment am I farming with? And doing that initial setup work is kind of a one-time pain point 00:08:21 with a little bit of maintenance year to year. But once that's set up, man, everything rolls from there to set up plans to get that automation in the field. 00:08:29 And that's really about, you know, how many times Lane before you had plans set up with somebody stuck at the side of the field, didn't know which button to hit, didn't know 00:08:38 what variety it was, which guidance line pressed. And it's just trying to eliminate that, that hiccup that can cause time stuck at the 00:08:46 field not getting the job done. Lane. Talk to me about setting it up. Um, you were probably integral in this 00:08:52 because it was new technology, uh, when you came back and a little intimidating and you got, uh, you got hired hands, you got a lot of, 00:09:00 like you said, you got a lot to manage. What was the tell for the person that's right now thinking, yeah, I need to do a better job of this 00:09:05 because we call this maximizing your farm management technology tools. Let's talk about your setup, 00:09:10 planning and analyzing your data. Tell 'em about how you set it up. How, how do you, tell me how you use it, 00:09:14 how you set it up and how you use it. So setup is setups. The, I'm gonna say number one 00:09:18 most important thing that we do. Uh, and it, and it's not just in knowing, okay, I'm here over here on the back 40. 00:09:25 It's whether or not you're over here on the back 40 and you spelled it with a capital B or a lowercase B, because that's two different fields in op center. 00:09:33 Everything's got, when you, when you go set, set up your farm, and this is where plans come in and help so much more. 00:09:40 And you're setting up your client, your farm, your field for every, every farm, every field. 00:09:45 Then you're setting up your products, your varieties, yada, yada, yada. All all the, all the, the stuff 00:09:49 that you're gonna do to your farm. Used to when you did that and you were like, everybody was going to the field, well 00:09:58 just say variety one and variety two. There was only a difference in a 46 some odd bean and a 47 some odd bean. 00:10:07 You know, if, if the guy that comes in there puts in the 47, well then, then he, he goes 00:10:13 and plants the field, man, did I plant four seven here? Did I plant the four six here? That's where plan comes in. Plan takes all of the stuff that you see it 00:10:21 through all winter and do, and you and you and you really get it dialed in, get it organized, and then you send plans out and then it can't be messed up. 00:10:30 The only way it can be messed up is if, if you messed it up, sending it to 'em. Uh, and You're doing that like at your do, 00:10:37 you're sitting in your office right now, you're doing that at a computer in January. Yes, absolutely. Right. 00:10:43 And it gets rid all the user error that you can get rid of and set up is, is, is, is your whole, is your whole 00:10:50 base of all your data. Okay. So the stuff you're doing here and no, well, for you, you guys start early 00:10:55 'cause you finished early down there. So you might be in November, December in your office and saying, okay, over there at the Miller farm, 00:11:03 the Miller Farm has, you know, this many acres in two different places and we did this and we did this. 00:11:09 Then you're looking at last year's collection of information. Last year we planted soybeans in it 00:11:15 and we did this, this, this, and this. Here's our yield, here's the thing. And then you say, and now this year the rotations to go 00:11:20 to corn and I, you type in what your plan is, what you're going to plant, all those kinds of things. All the whole nine yards, man, you can put, 00:11:28 you can put your whole crop plant in there. And that's actually getting better than it was used to. You'd put your whole crop plant in there 00:11:34 and give you a pie chart or whatever, everything it looked like. And that's about all I knew about it. 00:11:37 Now, on your homepage, it's got, it's got how many total acres you got. It's got how many acres of corn you're gonna, you know, 00:11:45 that you put in there, beans, cotton, rice, whatever. And it gives you a, it gives you an updated percentage of how far you got through all of those. 00:11:52 Those all those. And how far you got across your whole acreage. It's, uh, I mean, like I said, it's come a long ways. 00:11:58 Okay, so you're doing all that. So then it, when, when one of your hired guys drive pulls into the Miller Farm in 00:12:04 March, uh, does he have to do something? Does he have to type in there what he is doing? Or do you just do that because you know where everything is? 00:12:12 He used to, now he doesn't now he just, now it literally just pops up. I mean, it's a notification. 00:12:17 Every boundary that you cross, it pops up and says this, this is what you're doing. And you go, okay. 00:12:24 And that's it. And, and then you're collecting what's happening behind the tractor. Every pass, all 00:12:28 The behind the scenes comes to my computer and it, it's not like if they go put something in there wrong, I can't go change it and make it right. 00:12:38 I mean, but it takes just a little more time that I have to do again on the back end 00:12:41 that I could have done on front end. Mr. Steen, John Deere likes to say that Operation center helps realize the full farm value. 00:12:49 Uh, what's that mean? Yeah, I think we either talk full farm value. It's, I spend kind of 00:12:56 where we kick things off talking about ROII spend money on my equipment. Did it do the job that I paid for that equipment to do, 00:13:03 send money on my seed? Same question. My chemical, same question. So when we talk about realizing full value, it's, 00:13:10 you gotta be able to measure it. And Operation Center is a tool to be able to measure it and then also be able to execute the job. 00:13:17 So we talk about it, it's not that operation center inherently by logging in will save a certain amount of money, 00:13:24 but it provides that scorecard for you to do things on your farm and actually know what you did year over year 00:13:31 and how did it matter to you and your farmer, regardless of the size or the crop that you're farming 00:13:38 Lane. Uh, one of the, one of the deals here is, and you're, you're of the generation that is absolutely always connected. 00:13:44 You've always been connected, frankly, right? I mean, you were, you just talked about your fourth grade teacher. 00:13:49 So by the time you're in grade school, you started being, we had phones, we had really good phones, 00:13:53 we had really good, uh, you know, technology, whatever. The wifi still sucks in D****e County, Arkansas. But aside from that, they've got, 00:14:02 they've got the technology, dha, I should say. There you go. You've got this everywhere. So when you're out running around 00:14:10 and you're not at that office and you're, it's go time, are you monitoring everything on your phone? Okay. Right there. So what do you see? 00:14:16 I look at it all the time where my tractor's at, what they're doing, acres per hour, uh, the whole nine yards. 00:14:24 I mean, it's all right there. So you've got on your phone, you know that if there's six tractors out, two of 'em are attached 00:14:31 to, uh, planters. One of 'em is on a piece of tillage equipment. One of 'em is, I don't know, hauling, uh, a trailer full of, 00:14:36 uh, supply, you know, all of that. You're watching all of that and real time. Absolutely. Okay. And, 00:14:42 and used to, you'd have to, you know, call and say, Hey man, how far you made it across that field, or where are you at? 00:14:48 Or did you, did you go here? Did you go see it? Now you can see everywhere that tractor went all day long. Yeah. It's just a trail of green lines everywhere. Yeah. 00:14:56 Uh, gimme some real life examples about, um, the realization, uh, at the farm where you were raised Ryan and you still got your family as involved 00:15:04 and not the realization that oh my, how'd we not, how'd we not have this before? How did we, how, how, you know, 00:15:12 it's the old thing when everything I've bought out here around my farm property, someone says, you'll wonder how you got by without it beforehand. 00:15:18 I'm kind of there on a lot of things. Yeah. Bale forks, by the way, bail forks on the front end of a tractor. 00:15:23 So I don't have to do a lot of heavy lifting. I always think, God, if we'd have had these when I was a kid, 00:15:28 I might not need hip surgery anyway. You know? And I, I think this is one of the, the areas that sticks out. 00:15:34 I grew up on a fa a smaller family farm in Eastern Iowa. And some of the things that came out during it were things 00:15:40 that you'd expect to hear about on a larger farm. Like, why is that tractor sitting around idling? It's been Eileen for 29 minutes. 00:15:47 You pull up your phone, look. Well, the hired help was having issues with, um, the auger not working at a grain bin site. 00:15:54 Okay. Weren't able to make the phone, wasn't making the phone call. But right away you are on operation center, you're looking, 00:16:00 you have that question, you can see that something's going on. Um, even some things that were really small, Damien, 00:16:05 that might not seem like a big deal, but turn out to be over the course of a busy season, like harvest we're at now, is you my brother, 00:16:12 his wife's looking to bring their kid out to ride along in the combine. Yeah. Where is that combine at? Yeah. 00:16:17 What side of the field is it? How soon will it be there? And just watching those things in action. 00:16:21 Uh, those might seem like smaller things, but over time that those are the things that start to stack up over the course of a season, 00:16:29 um, and really matter. And then another maybe more farming practical one is you're trying to figure out your harvest plan. 00:16:36 Where are we gonna start? At what field? Um, it's going back to what's my earliest variety of corn? All right. Which is the first field we planted. 00:16:43 What are my planting dates? Mm-Hmm. I don't have to remember anymore. I can hop on Operation Center, know where they're at, 00:16:48 and I've made my harvest plan out from the, from the office. I don't have to drive to the fields. 00:16:53 Well, you're supposed to have a, a little notepad from the seed corn company in the glove compartment of your farm truck. 00:17:00 I guess you didn't know that, Ryan. That's how you, It's, it's, a's You're write in there that the mil, the Miller farm got planted on May 3rd. 00:17:06 You, that's how you do that. And everybody has a farm like the Miller Farm or something that's named after a person who's, 00:17:12 who's no longer farming been, Who's been dead for 80 years. Yeah, correct. Uh, the ice 00:17:18 43rd, 10, 10 years. The Eisenhower property up the road, and I'm not sure there's been a living Eisenhower since at 00:17:24 least the 1970s. Okay. Um, operation Center. It's cool to know where the combine is so I can take my grandson out for a ride. 00:17:34 It's cool to know where the help is. I know that you and Matt like to sort of, uh, be big brother and watch where your helper, your, your employees are, so 00:17:41 that if they're jacking around too much, you get after 'em. I got all that. But what about decisions? 00:17:45 How does this help you? How has it helped you make better decisions to grab that three 00:17:49 bushels that you're talking about? Lane, Man, that's, that's from the time we, we get done picking the last dog of cotton 00:17:58 to planting the first seed. Man. Those, those decisions are being made every day. I mean, we're literally looking at, at anything that we do. 00:18:06 You know, any, you know, it's all recorded. So, Hey, where was this? How'd it do, how did it compare to this? 00:18:11 What's the last, when we did that three years ago? Did it, is it still working? Things that we, we've, we've been as, as, 00:18:19 as a whole farm practice that made us the bushels five years ago. Are they still working? You know? 00:18:25 So you have your test of not if you're gonna add something, but if what you've been doing, is it still working? 00:18:32 Do you need, do you need to toss that, toss that idea. Try something different. Are you losing money on that versus making money 00:18:38 where you thought you were making money? I mean, those, those are to say, when do I use that? Those are everyday decisions. 00:18:45 Integration. So you said you look at stuff on your phone, presumably you and your old man have 00:18:50 access to see everything. The guy that's hired hand, if I'm down there just working for you as a hired hand, I don't have access to, 00:18:57 I don't know where everything is. Do I? Most, most likely you do here. Okay. 00:19:01 I've got, I know I can name off the top of my head. I've got four guys that have op center logged into their phone right now. 00:19:08 And then, So they, I it's that, it's that used on us. Okay. Now, and they're not making year end decisions on 00:19:14 what hybrid to change to or fertility plans, but they know everything's going on. They're making their day to day decisions. 00:19:20 When I sent, when, you know, when we leave, just say in the middle of June, and they're, they just day-to-day decisions of, Hey, I need 00:19:28 to get me a tractor to go hook a, hook a bush hog up. Where's the tractor at? I mean, they, they, they literally are making same decisions. 00:19:36 They don't have to call me. Yeah, right. They know exactly where they're at. They know what it's hooked to too. 00:19:41 Integration between other stuff. So it's kind of cool now that I know where every tractor is at Mile Farm, 00:19:47 or I know where the combine's sitting. I got all that. Ryan, what about, um, utilizing all this 00:19:52 information, how does it help me make money? I got loan decisions. I got it on the tractor. We're sitting for 29 minutes. Okay, that's fine. 00:19:58 Those are incremental, not being mean, but a tractor burning diesel for 29 minutes. If the difference in my year end is that 29 minutes 00:20:05 of a tractor idling, I'm probably gonna go broke no matter what. Get me there on data 00:20:10 and technology tools that make me money. How? Yeah. So you think about the data and making money, and I think Lane gave some great examples on finding 00:20:19 that incremental three bushels, incremental five bushels that are out there. Totally. One of the, the main places to look for in data. 00:20:26 Um, another area comes into the purchasing. One that we haven't hit on is purchasing decisions when it comes to equipment. 00:20:32 Okay. Right. And you start thinking about hitting some of your optimal planting windows. And if you were, if you were sold a piece of equipment 00:20:39 that promised an increase in productivity, and that's the reason that you bought it, because that's gonna add dollars and cents to your farm. 00:20:46 You're getting the job done in the window that you need to. Yep. Operation Center provides that ability to look back 00:20:51 and say, you know, I made a major investment in my farm in equipment and I can actually see, did I get 00:20:58 what I was sold that I would get? Whether it's bushels, throughput on a planter, if acres planted per, 00:21:04 or sorry, bushels, throughput on a combine, um, acres planted with your planter in a day. Did I get what I was sold to get on the farm? 00:21:11 And I can actually go back and operation centers that proof point of yes, I got what I intended to. 00:21:18 And ultimately that's part of that return on investment conversation is making sure that the sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars 00:21:27 that can get spent on a single purchase of equipment are paying dividends back to the customer. Mm-Hmm. And if they're gonna make that decision again, 00:21:34 I've got a proof point that I got what I was sold. Got it. Um, the sustainability programs, there's, there's companies that we work with, uh, like ter. 00:21:45 Um, there are other, uh, programs out there. Do I need to have this kind of information to get into a sustainability program? 00:21:52 Absolutely. I may, may, I'm not trying to cut you off Ryan, but Absolutely no, Go for it. Yeah. 00:21:58 So go ahead. Uh, we, we just for an instance last year, um, they were, they were trying to hit a deadline and it was like the 1st of November. 00:22:08 They were needing rice acres. We need X amount of rice acres in Arkansas. Well, they didn't have the time in the two week span. 00:22:15 They were trying to hit all these acres. So they were trying to find farmers that had a good ops center account that all you had 00:22:22 to do was go hit about 10 buttons, answer a few questions, boom. Made like 26, 20 $8 an acre. You 00:22:31 Made 26, 20 $8 an acre for providing information to a sus to a buyer of sustainability with his carbon 00:22:37 or whatever the thing was. And it was, did you have to demonstrate reduction of nutrient application or what was the 10 buttons 00:22:45 that uh, you had to give them? I gave 'em everything I did to those rice fields. 'cause it was all recorded. My nitrogen was 00:22:52 recorded, whatever wasn't done by air. Those were the few questions I had to answer. But everything that got recorded on these fuels 00:22:58 was everything that they needed. It wasn't, it wasn't one of those biggest extravagant programs Yep. 00:23:03 That, you know, was, was so in detail. It was just enough that it was like, all right, I need this information. I was like, I got it. 00:23:10 Yeah. Sim you got a similar story there, Ryan. No, this, uh, blade took the words outta the mouth. It's that ease of providing the information 00:23:19 that those programs are looking for. And when it's already recorded and you're already finding the other value in the data, 00:23:24 it sure makes it very simple to get that information in folks' hands. I, I've been of the predictive, uh, that we're going to all 00:23:32 of us, whether we want to or not, are gonna be in a sustainability program five to 10 years from now because there's 00:23:37 so much pressure environmentally then there's the nutrient usage, then there's also the economics of it that, you know, 00:23:42 if you're cutting back on applications and using it more wisely, but also you're saving the money. It's not a secret. We're kind of heading into a down, uh, 00:23:49 down downtrend in the farm economy. So I think that, uh, here's the best question. You talking about ROI did my sustainability program 00:23:57 that he just got for $26 an hour more than justify the cost of the operation center. 00:24:04 Yeah. Especially 'cause the cost of operation center is $0. So when we think about, when we think about like places 00:24:09 where you could make money really fast and it's opened to everybody, we probably should have started with this one, Damien, but the punchline of all 00:24:15 of this is operation center from a, from like why should somebody think about using it? If you're, if you're thinking about it is it's a $0 tool. 00:24:22 And if you're a farming with John Deere equipment, it's $0. If you want to, if you have a mixed fleet, it's $0. 00:24:29 Uh, you know, there's, the data can still be housed there, access there by the grower to make decisions off of. 00:24:35 And that's a, a free platform to go out and use. Okay. So it's free. And also this data, then I can share it with sustainability companies. 00:24:41 I can share, share it with even, uh, another manufacturer, uh, product. You can share it with any, if the, 00:24:47 the farmer has the control of their data and if they wanna share it with their agronomist, the sustainability program, uh, lane has folks 00:24:54 that are not looking at all this data probably, but have access to some equipment because Lane and those and his dad have the ability to choose who gets to see 00:25:04 what on that farm and have control in that space. So it's, it's completely up to the grower on who they wanna share and how they wanna 00:25:12 Share it. Got it. So the big benefit here is, is that this comes with if I'm my own John Deere equipment, this comes with it. 00:25:18 If I don't own John Deere equipment, but I say I want to use your system because I just heard Lane brag it up 00:25:23 and I have another, uh, manufacturer of tractor, can I use your stuff? Totally. You gotta plug, 00:25:28 if you're not using a John Deere displays, you, you'll have to plug a USB stick into your 00:25:34 what non John Deere display and you can upload it. Um, all the things Lane talked about that were like work plans 00:25:40 and sending the data out wirelessly and maybe monitoring. It's not free. It's not free. If I'm, 00:25:43 if I'm driving a different manufacturer tractor, I've gotta pay for your stuff. Uh, no. Okay. Nope. Not at all. It's free no matter what. 00:25:49 Unless you want to connect it. 'cause John Deere equipment will come with a modem. Yep. That's the ability to talk to the internet. Yep. 00:25:55 Um, that's something that if you don't have John Deere, if it's not on your John Deere equipment, you would've to pay for, or if you're in a non John Deere 00:26:01 equipment, you need to pay for Monthly subscription. No sir. That is a one time cost installed. You're probably less than a thousand dollars. 00:26:08 Okay. So once I get it installed, it's either free if it comes to your stuff or it's, I pay a little bit to get the install, 00:26:13 uh, on somebody else's. And then there's no monthly Subscription. No monthly. Yep. That right there is is what will spoil you. 00:26:20 This is the one that's connected to the modem. 'cause I bought a 46, 30 old thousand gallon sprayer that I do my wide drops with 00:26:27 and that's the only piece of equipment that I couldn't remotely send to and get sent from data. But I put me mtg in that bad voice. Okay. 00:26:36 I was gonna ask Yes. I dunno what that means. So what whatcha talking about? What's the m pg that's The, that's the modem to where it connect talks 00:26:42 to the internet and I can send things to and he can send things to me. Yep. And you're saying it's only on a sprayer 00:26:48 and you wouldn't have it on everything now, don't you? No, I got it on everything. That's the one thing I didn't have it on. 00:26:52 Oh, okay. So now you do have it on everything. All right. Absolutely. 'cause your 46, 30 be like a 2007 00:26:57 or 2008 probably model year machine, something like that. This weren't sold at that time. Yeah. 00:27:03 So if I've got a 10 or 12-year-old or five or 8-year-old machine, uh, there's, there's gonna be a few, uh, upgrades technology wise, 00:27:11 but that works. Okay. Alright. You got, there's 44 forties out there that are running them to 00:27:15 Got it. Alright. Think like a farmer. You both are. What do I need? What's the la the thing that we didn't ask that, 00:27:21 that a farmer needs to know about maximizing your farm management technology tools. And we're talking about technology. It's where we're going. 00:27:29 I mean, uh, the, the ship, the, the train's left the station. Right. Uh, if you're, if you're opposed to this, uh, you, 00:27:36 you're this train left the station technology's here. So now what, what do I need to know that we Didn't a taxi and get to the train? 00:27:43 Yeah, just, I mean all, all seriousness is the, it's probably at a, the one of the top five things that ever happened this farm. 00:27:50 One of the best top five things we've done. I mean, just as far as keeping you organized, keeping your data straight, uh, 00:27:57 just like I said, day-to-day use. I mean, I, I use it every single day, several times a day. Even on like a Sunday when nobody's working. 00:28:05 And by the way, when somebody's working, let's go to the John Deere guy. Um, if I am, uh, a person, me and Matt Miles' age 00:28:11 and I'm not quite as, uh, shifty and nifty when it comes to the, the new, uh, technology. Pretty good support on this. 00:28:18 Yeah, totally sealer support. And there's also help files that if you just wanna do it, you go to operation center deer.com, 00:28:24 it's create an account, it's all free. There's help files and you can walk through it. You can click around, there's YouTube support pages. 00:28:31 There's a whole host of if you're do it yourself, farmer and you just wanna try it, just go do it. 00:28:36 There's, there's no cost. And I don't know if there's a better time both from the train leaving the station, but then also just from a time 00:28:43 of year that we're in, in the, in North America, it's usually a fairly good time to start doing your next year's planning. 00:28:50 Um, yeah. And taking that step. His name is Ryan Stein. He's the go-to market management for operations center. And that's what we've been talking about. 00:28:58 But in general specifically, that's the tool that we've been talking about. 'cause that's what Mr. Uh, lane Miles uses. 00:29:03 We're talking about maximizing your farm management technology tools. Uh, again, the trains left the station. 00:29:07 Uh, you better what lane say you better get yourself in a cab and trace and track down that train 00:29:12 because if you're behind on technology, this is where things are going. And I think we found out a few good things there. 00:29:17 There's three, there's three to five bushels to be gained. There's more, uh, efficient use of the machinery. 00:29:21 Uh, and there's obviously the, just from a management standpoint of what the heck's going on in your farming operation. 00:29:27 So Ryan, thanks for being here. Yeah, you bet. Thanks guys for having me. Blaine, always good. Absolutely great time. Thanks 00:29:36 For being here. Till next time, I'm Dam Mason. This is extreme ag cutting the curve. I want you to also know this. 00:29:41 There are literally hundreds and hundreds of videos just like this@theextremeag.farm website. 00:29:46 I've had hundreds of podcasts. We've done videos and the field with people like Lane, his father, Matt and Kevin and Chad and Kelly and Lee 00:29:54 and Temple and All, and Johnny Rell, all of these guys. We've got a webinar every month that you are can attend. You can also share this 00:30:03 with somebody that can benefit from it. You also can come to our field days. That's right. We did a field day at every one of the farms this year. 00:30:08 So you know what Extreme Ag Farm is the place to go. We'd love you to be here. If you wanna become a member, it's just $750 a year. 00:30:14 We have a special going right now. You get 18 months of the price at 12 and you'll get access to these guys. 00:30:19 And for more direct information and special offers, plus the year-end data. It's a really, really cool thing. 00:30:24 Last thing I wanna remind you, John Deere, one of our business partners here, we're doing a four part series. 00:30:29 So if you've enjoyed this, check out the other ones. We're talking about Operation Center, we're talking about autonomy, we're talking about 00:30:34 C and spray technology. Talking about some other cool stuff. Actually, I just forgot my fourth topic, 00:30:38 but it doesn't matter because you know what, you'll be able to find it really, really good stuff that we're doing here 00:30:43 with John Deere. Check it out. Extreme ag.farm. That's a wrap for this episode of Cutting the Curve. Make sure to check out Extreme ag.farm 00:30:51 for more great content to help you squeeze more profit out 00:30:55.405 --> 00:30:56.645