00:00 How will you use drone technology on your farming operation? We're digging into that with the Miles Brothers from McGee, 00:06 Arkansas, and this episode of Extreme Ag Cutting the Curve. Welcome to extreme Ag Cutting the Curve podcast, 00:12 where real farmers share real insights and real results to help you improve your farming operation. This episode is brought to you by Simon Innovation. 00:21 Protect your crops and maximize yield with a full lineup of innovative precision tools engineered 00:27 to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of your sprayer. Visit simon innovations.com and start getting more ROI out of your sprayer. 00:35 And now here's your host, Damien Mason. Hey there. Welcome to another fantastic episode of extre Ag. 00:41 Cutting the curve. You've seen them, you're talking about them, you pick it up in the farm magazines, the online, uh, 00:48 chatter about drones. They're coming. They're kind of already here, but how are you going to use drone technology on your 00:54 farming operation? The miles guys from McGee, Arkansas, they're not really brothers, I just always say they are. That's father and son Matt and Lane Miles. 01:03 They're, uh, they're gonna be bringing drones into the fold. It's the next wave of technology. 01:09 So I thought, you know what, let's talk about how you're gonna use these, the economics of them, the limitations, the limitations. 01:15 It relates to the, uh, technology, but also to you as the operator. Lots of stuff here, the legalities 01:21 and also where you think this whole thing is gonna go. So the economics to the practicality, et cetera, et cetera. Alright, you're gonna buy a drone. 01:28 You're pretty well bought in on this lane. This is gonna be your baby. You're taking classes. Talk to me. Where does this, how does this fit? 01:36 How do you fit? Uh, well, so far it's been, it's been kind of exciting. Uh, we've, we've played around with them some, you know, uh, 01:47 I've had some people kind of show me some different things. Tell me some different things, how they're using them. 01:52 I see it more going specialty. Uh, the, the just kind of just, I guess kind of comparing it to ground rigs 02:03 or comparing it to, uh, an airway applicator, like a, like a cropped up or airplane or whatever. You can't quite get the acres in a day, 02:11 so I think you're gonna be more kind of, we, we've got a lot of irregular shaped places to where, 02:18 say if an airplane comes in and has to spray, he, he's probably gonna miss it. Um, one of my best friends, the pilot, 02:24 I tell him all the time, I say, ain't no way you're gonna get in there. He's, you know, he basically agrees with me. 02:28 So we, we can take a drone, go in these irregular shaped fields, kill the weeds that normally would grow up, 02:34 or we can't get, you know, maybe be wet, too wet to get in with a sprayer, uh, had that happen here recently. 02:41 So, you know, I think, I think we're gonna take these drones to some of these specialty places to where we can, 02:47 that we've been not necessarily neglecting, but they're harder to get to, harder for us to get to and be able to do it. 02:53 All right. Matt, you just talked about mostly spraying applications, which seems like the most, the most plausible, uh, long-term utilization of a piece of equipment. 03:03 Like this is in the spraying, and you talk about getting to tough to reach spots. That seems like what anybody would tell you. 03:10 Is there anything we'll get to the more of that. Is there anything besides spraying that you're gonna see this thing doing? 03:16 Uh, for the most part, this specific drone that we're looking at is, is for, is for herbicide applications or insecticide applications. 03:25 You know, if you look at one of our irregular fields, especially in rice, you know, that's where you've gotta have pound these residuals because rice 03:33 and grass are so similar. There's, it is a limited herbicide you can put on them. So if you look at some of our fields in the past 03:39 or anyone else's, if it's an irregular field around a tree line, you're gonna have grass, and the grass is gonna take over the rice. 03:46 Uh, there's instances where it's too wet to run a ground rig, you know, now, here in our area is a lot different than your area. 03:54 You know, we have a, we have a airstrip about every five to seven miles, there's a, 03:59 there's a crop duster sitting there ready to take on acres. You get in your area more in the Midwest area 04:04 or more around the metropolitan areas, and there's, there's a 30 as many planes, and the price is normally 20% higher. 04:12 So we've got a situation where, you know, we can go get a plane about any time. You know, the two things that's most 04:19 around here is airplanes and liquor stores. You can find either one churches, you can find any one of those just about on any street corner. And 04:25 By the way, if you are going to go to the field day, that is gonna be held on June 27th in McGee, Arkansas, and it's the first one that Matt and and Lane have put on, 04:34 and they're, they're rolling out all the stops. I would tell you, if you, if you have a hankering for a cigar that's much nicer than a 04:41 Swisher sweet, bring it with you. Because they might have the liquor stores, but they ain't got a place where you can find it. 04:46 You can't, you can't find a cigar that's worth smoking within a hundred miles of McGee. But you are right. 04:52 When I've been at your farm during the summer, it was like the battle of midway. There were so many airplanes going over, I was overwhelmed. 05:00 And, but that now you're, you're bringing up that thing. Drones will take over some of the role of manned aircraft, 05:08 but there's certain things that drones even five, 10 years down the road, I don't think it's, it's mostly gonna be capacity, broad acre stuff. 05:18 I just don't think that even, I'm sure that somebody never thought a combine would be able to do what it does now when they first, uh, you know, had a 05:26 combine being pulled by a team of horses. But I don't see drones in our lifetime being able to fully replace manned aircraft. 05:34 Is that kind of accurate? Yeah. They're gonna have to get a lot bigger and a lot, uh, more sophisticated. 05:43 Yeah. And I say this all the time, every time I say, this is not gonna happen, you know, there's no way this will work on my farm. 05:50 And automatically we end up getting it and it works. But, you know, I had a, I had a airplane owner call me the other day day, 05:57 and he said, I know that y'all been, you know, playing with a drone. What do you, where do you think it's going? 06:02 And I said, well, I can promise you it's not gonna put you out of business. I said, now, by the time me 06:07 and you retire, if they come out with some big autonomous, you know, it'd be more like a manless aircraft type deal 06:13 that buy time. You know, they advertise these drones that you can get this many acres an hour. Boy, that sounds cool. You can get 50 acres an hour 06:22 with a T 40, but they're not counting load time, taxi time, mix time, and two 06:28 or three people there trying to run it with a generator. You know, that's, that's spraying time, 06:33 not total time. So, Big picture, I think ultimately big picture, we will, there'll be a swarm of them. 06:41 Uh, they'll just come and come and land on the top of a tanker and, and it'll be, get their own loads 06:48 and there might be three dozen of them and it'll look like a little swarm. It'll be like something out of a sci-fi movie. 06:54 I think that day is coming to make up for some of the limitation. Um, I, I don't know if we're there yet. 07:00 Legally, and that's where I guess I wanna go to. What does it take licensing and legal? Uh, lane, you're looking into this. 07:07 Uh, so there's two, two different sections you gotta have. And, and, and I don't remember the numbers off the top 07:14 of my head on what section. I know one of 'em was like parked 1 0 7 of them was like one 30 something. 07:19 Anyways, basically it is, one of 'em is a miniaturized pilot's license. Uh, it's getting a pilot's license without, 07:29 without being a fly, be able to fly a plane. Um, the, but it's really, really close. Um, the other one is basically a custom applicator's license 07:40 by ear, and it's all through F-F-A-F-A-A. I get that mixed up a lot. FFA is the thing you did in high school where you pledged, 07:49 uh, you pledged yourself to, you know, uh, all the stuff. And then FAA is the one 07:54 that oversees the regulations on aircraft. Um, they are, you Weren't even in FFA were you? No, our, and, and that's one our, 08:04 we have a great community. We do, we do do not have a huge F-F-F-F-A. It's definitely getting better. We 08:13 made a donation to it, by the way. Yeah. Um, anyways, long story short, it, it takes some time. I'm gonna say you could probably do it all 08:21 within a couple of months. Uh, just a few tests and one of 'em harder than the other one. The other one's pretty easy. 08:28 So the thing is on, on FAA stuff, I get different, uh, email notices. North American Ag Aviation Association has been 08:35 a speaking client of mine. And so I keep up, in fact, I had them on my business of Agriculture podcast. We talked about some of this stuff. 08:43 If you, if you don't know what you're doing, flying a crop duster, you can kill yourself. Even if you do know what you're doing, 08:48 flying a crop duster, you could kill yourself. It's dangerous work. Uh, if you don't know what you're doing, operating a drone, 08:55 it ain't gonna kill yourself, but you might kill somebody else. Isn't that kind of the danger? 08:59 So I, when I went, I sat through a drone class, um, not long ago. And, and it's always funny to say, Hey, you can pull, 09:08 you can put your kid up on that drone, let 'em pick it up. Well, I watched the video where they picked the kid up 09:13 and it nearly, it, it, that it, that thing just started shaking and it fell and it nearly hit the kid. 09:18 And I watched another one where a guy for some reason took it off on a highway and it got loose of him 09:23 and a big truck hit it and killed the big truck. So they, they can definitely kill somebody. But you gotta, you know, you, 09:30 you play smart with what you got. So it, as long as you're not acting like an idiot, you're Okay. Well, and something else that, that, that I want 09:37 to add into that, not just the regulations, but insurance. Yeah. I mean, right now, 09:43 farm bureau insurance will not touch 'em. Right. You know, who are we gonna get to insure these? Not only are you insuring a, you know, a $40,000 piece 09:54 of plastic Yeah. But you're also having to insure the liability of, of the truck driver plus, uh, uh, you know, liability 10:02 of spraying somebody else's crop. So you've got a lot of insurance problems there. I Didn't know that about insurance. 10:07 That's an interesting side point that the person listening to this is thinking, okay, I hadn't thought of that. 10:12 So that's why we're doing kind of the behind the scenes, uh, on the drone thing. Alright. 10:16 It'll be harder to get the insurance than it is to get the licensing. Yeah. Ensuring the, the, the device. It's 40,000 bucks. Okay? 10:24 That's not the end of the world. But if you take the device, and like you said, you, you kill somebody driving, uh, 10:29 down the highway next to your field, that you've got a lot more than $40,000 to wrestle. Where do you get insured if Sergeant Bureau doesn't do it? 10:38 And they're the biggest rural insurer probably in the country, aren't they? Uh, who does? 10:43 No. That's what I told my agency the other day. I said, y'all gotta figure this out. And he said, right now, touch 'em. 10:49 And I said, well, it's coming. You know, when there's five people in, in the state with a, with a spray drone, it's not a big deal. 10:56 But when there's 500 people, you know, it's going to be a big deal. There's companies out there, the companies 11:01 that sell the drones, a manufacturer, the drones have got some insurance packages that you can, you can get with, but it's a lot different. 11:09 That's one of the number one things after the, the, the license of flight, I would say is check and make sure you can get a good quality insurance. 11:17 You know, on your drone, One of the things that, uh, you hear about, uh, is the utilization. 11:23 So you're, you're toying around with this. You're looking at it, where are you most confident You're gonna use it for spraying? 11:30 You think you might, you might end up getting six smaller ones than this, than a, than a big one and use them for spraying. 11:37 I don't know. Or maybe it'll be a company that just does that. Where, where are you, where are you right now? 11:42 Where do you think you're gonna be one year from now in using this technology at Miles Farms? Uh, I think a year from now we'll have a little better, 11:51 better handle on what it can do, how much it can do, how fast it can do it. I would like to say that it'll be a little more around us. 12:00 I still don't think it's going to, it's not gonna replace our sprayers and it's not gonna replace a aerial applicators here, uh, 12:06 here, um, on, on our farm. I think I still, I still believe it's, it's specialty. It's, so you can also get like little spreaders. 12:16 So just say an area in a rice field that stays wet. You, we couldn't get planted. We can go spread it. Yep. And, and be able to plant a little rice seed. 12:24 I, I just think, I think for the next couple of years, it's gonna stay specialty. Do I think in 10 years we could have five 12:32 or six of 'em swarming? I mean, I'm not gonna say it's not a poss, you know, it's not a possibility. 12:39 Uh, I know that what dealings I've had with 'em so far. You, you've gotta have a, you, you, you better be on your horse. 12:47 You better be prepared for what you're doing. And it, it operating one's hard enough. Did Drake send you that, that off Instagram? I don't know. 12:57 There was a guy, there was a guy on Instagram post I seen where a guy was, was swarming about six or seven of them. 13:03 Right. And that sounds cool, but you're gonna need major charging power and you're gonna need major labor, you know, there. 13:12 And so, but now you take someone like Kevin Matthews or Chad Anderson and you know, Chad's got a field that surrounds Amazon on one side, Polaris on the other, 13:21 and a neighborhood on the other. He can't hire an airplane. Right. Kevin can hire a plane. They could hire helicopters. Yeah. 13:28 But you take even temple around Chesapeake Bay, you can't get helicopters anymore. So that's where they're gonna have to really shine. Mm-Hmm. 13:36 Is in these metropolitan areas. And then you're gonna have everybody on their balcony of their condo looking at this, you know, thing flying 13:44 by 'em, wondering if the government's trying to take them out. There's gonna be a lot of, there's a lot 13:50 of baby steps gotta be taken. Yeah. But I agree with you, the suburban settings, the odd irregular fields, all that kind of stuff. 13:56 But it's interesting. We've been, we've been seeing this for, it was four years ago when I spoke 14:01 for the North American Ag Aviation Association, and that's when I got introduced to this drone thing that's been four years ago. 14:09 And we're still not, they're, they're not ubiquitous. They're not everywhere. So, you know, four years ago we were talking 14:16 about this technology's coming. Well, it seems like it's still coming. Right? I don't think we're a lot further ahead than we than. 14:22 All right. Um, I wanna ask you about the economics. I wanna talk about the evolution on your farming operation. Um, um, before we do that, we gotta give a little, uh, 14:30 word here for our friends at Nature's Nature's awesome company. They, uh, are a business partner here for us at Extreme Ag. 14:36 Uh, Tommy Roach gets really excited, geeking out. He talks a little bit too much about potassium. But you know what? That's all right. 14:42 That's what agronomists do. Um, if you, uh, are an extreme ag member, you might know about Nature's 14:47 because they paid for the last two years, they paid your admittance to the Commodity Classic. We did big panels there. Matt was in the booth. 14:54 We talked about all kinds of stuff. We make it really fun. So, uh, if you're not familiar with Nature's, 14:58 basically it's products that can help you spoonfeed your crop at times of period influ, uh, influence influential times 15:05 with the crop where you can actually, you know, make a difference. So we're talking about stress control. 15:08 We're talking about spoon feeding nutrients right when you need it. And also an ability to, let's face it, save a little bit 15:15 of money, which you're gonna need to do in 2024 with crop com prices being where they are. So go to natures.com, we're talking about stress relief, 15:22 we're talking about fertility, and we're talking about feeding the plant, not just feeding the soil and making you more money. 15:28 Go to natures.com to learn more. Okay. Um, so the evolution, it seems like we haven't, we've kind of stagnated a little bit on this. 15:39 Is it gonna be more adoption? Does the technology get better when more farms buy the drones? 15:44 Or is it need more investment? Because it seems like it's not, there's a reason that they're not on every farm 15:50 yet. What, what's that reason? I think the, I think that as far as technology wise, we're, we're headed in the right direction from, if you take 15:58 where we started with small drones, uh, say the, the DJI Phantom three, I think that's the first one I remember flying, um, to, 16:08 to where they are now. Say like the, the Mavic that, that Caleb Traw has that we went and seen in, in Georgia. 16:16 Small drones are, are, are com small drones are here, small drones are, are, are here to cr inspect crops. Yeah. They're used with cameras. Right. 16:26 More scouting, like you said, finding out if the middle of that 160 acre field has, uh, doesn't have any plants, 16:33 we can figure out a way to go and amend that situation. It's a tool for reconnaissance. It's not a tool for production. 16:43 That's right. And they're taking those now say that like, like the one that Caleb has and integrating those and, 16:51 and I'm a, I'm, I'm a, I'm a dj. I fan and the most of the world is, it's, it, they're, they're, they're, they're good. 16:57 They, they're taking the small drone now to where you take it, you pick it up and you fly around and you can send the information to the, to the big drone 17:05 and, and go do whatever you're gonna go do with the, with the app application part of it, the technology and the big drones is here and it's continually moving. 17:16 We're the ones that are a little slower to adapt because it's, it's unsure how to use the technology that we've got. 17:24 Uh, like say swarming, you know, getting 6, 8, 10 of 'em going or even figuring out where, where they're good for us or how we can, how we can make 'em work 17:34 for our, for our farms. Then you look at things like in the metropolitan area, say like, we're Temple and Chad 17:40 and Kevin, them are how they can make what they're doing better. 'cause they can save money not using the helicopters. 17:47 They can use the drones probably. I I think it's geared, it's getting geared a little more that way. 17:53 'cause just say like getting a plane that can spray 800 to a thousand acres, 1200 acres a day on us, it's, it's fairly cheap to where what everybody else can 18:02 Do. I'm gonna give you a prime example. We had a field the other day and the wind was blowing directly 18:07 towards the neighbor's rice. Yep. And we went up halfway of that field. We couldn't go any further because of drift. 18:13 I mean, he was well aware of what I was doing. I was calling him on the phone. It rained that night. And when I say it rained, it rained enough. 18:19 We weren't gonna get in there for another week. So we were able to get somebody to come take a drone. We had the right wind away from his rice the next day, 18:28 but, uh, you had to have rubber boots on to even be out there for About four hours only. So 18:32 a plane wouldn't touch it. Yeah. Yeah. We had about a four hour timeframe there for that wind plane wouldn't touch it 18:38 because it's just too close to him. We were able to take that, that drone and spray with the right wind right, 18:44 right down the tree line and stay away from his rice in the mud. You couldn't have run a ground 18:50 rig, airplane, wouldn't have got there. We would've probably lost the beans had we not been able to kill the weeds that were there. 18:57 So it offers, the timing it offers when every farm has one of these, or maybe you have one 19:02 and the neighbor guy has one, and you say, let's just go ahead and pair these up because there's sometimes I need it, 19:07 sometimes you need it, whatever. So it does, it does that the limitations are still on quantity. Uh, you couldn't, you can't get much out there. 19:17 So the time, the, like you said, then it takes a lot of time. So that's the tough part for it to become broad acre 19:25 and you'd say, well, we'll get more concentrated stuff. How the hell can we get more concentrated? You're already putting ounces on per acre. 19:31 I don't know that that's an answer either. So what do you guys think? No, I don't either. And, and you know, they normally run 19:36 what, two or three gallon? Two to three, two to three gallons is the application rate is still in my mind to to think three gallons 19:44 of water is gonna do what, 15 wheel on a herbicide application? Yeah. That's a problem in my me mentally. Right? 19:51 When you stand under that drone, it were literally, we were spraying, uh, we had a guy spraying some corn the other day and, and, 19:58 and Lane was concerned it might blow the corn down because we were doing it in our field day plots. So we were doing small, you know, 20:06 small plot, very small plots. And that's where it's great you take ag and I've got, we've got lane's got 40 plots out there to do, 20:14 and your sprayers over here spraying, you know, our day job farm, and you've got this plot that's gotta be done on growth day. 20:21 He can take that drone run over there and spread that 40 acres and be away from everything else. So there's some advantages to it. 20:28 But, but back to what you said, it's, it's, it's limited on time. Yeah. And, and there's gonna be 20:34 a time when it's gonna be better, but I don't know if it'll be in my career or not. Lane, the thing about the air, obviously they, 20:42 they fly like little helicopters. They got what we saw one of Johnny lls, he got like six propellers on it. 20:48 The idea is that's, that'll help you get product through the canopy. But also it seems it's hard for somebody that's just 20:59 around conventional spraying to think that somehow misting with fans on it is the right way 21:05 to get product on your crop. I don't know. Help me understand that. Uh, once you watch behind it say one, one 21:13 and two gallon work, that that's really, really getting, I don't know. I I'm not, I'm not much on that. 21:20 The three gallon work, once you really watch it and, and sometimes the sun can kind of distort it, but if you, if you're, if you're in a spot to 21:27 where you can see how it's actually driving that down to the ground, it does a pretty good job. I'd like to see five, but I mean, 21:38 I don't know that we're ever gonna get there. You mean gallons? Because Yeah, I mean, compared to, you know, your old man's sitting here, Elaine, you know, 21:44 he's used to where you went and tapped a 55 gallon drum of, uh, dual and uh, and you just flinged it out everywhere. 21:53 I mean, you just, you just went across there and you just fling the gallons of stuff everywhere. So this is, this is getting a little precise 21:58 for somebody from the old school. Well, you're right. You're like, your chemical rates are still the same. 22:03 I mean, like, I'm putting on, you know, 32 ounces of Roundup or whatever. 22:09 It's still gonna be the same in in the drone. It's just your water volume that, that you really feel like you need and Right. 22:15 It's good to get coverage. And you, and you're saying the fans help, help make up for the lack of water because you still get coverage, 22:20 you get more of a mist. Which brings me to the issue of drift. You said, uh, before we hit record, Matt, 22:25 that drift is gonna be a problem with these. I'm not sure that compared to aerial manned aerial, it's gonna be any worse, but it probably is more 22:36 of a drift risk than if you had, uh, a ground rig. Yes, Absolutely. Yeah. Our ground rigs now are pulsating, you know, they have 22:44 that magnetic field or whatever and it's basically looking it to the ground. And the drones more similar to an airplane, you would think 22:52 because you're flying, you know, 10 feet over the crop that it wouldn't drift. But it's got so much of those fans, as you were saying, 23:00 the adverse reaction to getting that in the canopy is you're, you've got a lot of mist going around. Mm-Hmm. So get in a weather, uh, a situation 23:08 where the wind changes on you and you're about beside a susceptible crop, something like that. 23:13 It could, I could see where it could get you in trouble. Uh, other things that, what, 23:18 what gets you excited about the technology lane? You're the young guy by the way. If you are listening 23:22 and you like what we do at cutting the curve, if you haven't checked out the new miniseries within cutting the curve with the next stream ag, that's, 23:30 that means guys like Lane Danielle who just had a baby, Jackson Verne Alexander. It's the next generation of ne of extreme ag. 23:39 We are releasing them. It's sponsored by our friends Tiva Mark Kouts. It's awesome stuff. 23:43 And we talked about technology by the way, Lane's kind of the old man of the next generation. You look 30 anyway, 23:51 Not quite close. What Do you think about the stuff that we put out there? Pretty good stuff. The next stream ag. 23:57 I like it so far. It's been good. I mean, I, It took me the first episode, it took me all day to watch it because it's rather lengthy. 24:06 But every time I had a break I thought, I've gotta watch some of this. I've gotta, because, and the main thing you did with them 24:12 that was cool is you got 'em behind closed doors. They didn't worry about our feelings as dads. Yeah. Our moms or whatever they were about what, 24:21 what you were asking him. I mean, there were times I'd walk up to Lane's window and need him for something 24:26 and he'd give me a, you better get the hell away from here. 'cause I'm not coming outta the room. 24:31 Yeah. It's pretty cool. So next generation, um, you're the, you're, you know, they talk about young people adopting technology. 24:40 Uh, what excites you about this drone thing? It's not there yet, but what excites you? Where are you seeing this lane? 24:47 I, I really think, I mean, I, I, I know I, and we may be trying to get a DJ out, DJ I partner. I don't know because I, I could, I could go on 24:55 and on about the, the, the way they've taken the, these little, to me, the little drones a little more impressive, uh, than, 25:03 than the actual spray drones like the T forties and they're eventually coming in with the T 50 in the next year or so. 25:08 Um, but I just, the things that we can see from the air that we used to have to get in a CVE 25:17 or go around somewhere with, with one of our pilots, uh, is pretty substantial. 25:23 The mapping that we can get off of it is, is pretty cool. I think that, I think the spray drones will get there 25:29 because it's our, I mean I, they're, they're pretty high tech now. Um, I don't know. I just, I, I like, I like anything dj. 25:37 I, and, and I like that, that anytime you, I don't know that I like it, but I say I like it anytime that you get something from 'em within a year, 25:45 it's pretty much old technology because they're, they're that fast moving All. Another thing another, 25:49 go ahead. Okay. Man's nodding his head. Alright, you got something to say? And I got another question about technology Go, 25:55 Well when he said old technology, that's, it's just gonna be like computers or anything else we've had. 26:01 When you buy that drone, you're already six months behind on technology. Yeah. You buy brand new drone, you pull it outta the box. 26:07 Yep. It's already, it's already behind the, so it's coming and there it is just like a, you remember flat screen TVs? 26:14 Yep. You know, they were $3,000. You go to Walmart today and buy 'em for 300. Right, Right. So, 26:19 you Know this, my buddy, my buddy has a point that he had like a 10-year-old conventional television that he still had the box and the remote controls 26:27 and he couldn't give it away. So, you know, um, on the technology, when you, when you're talking about the difference, 26:36 you know, between Matt's age and Lane's age, you know, Matt and I are the same age. We remember like, you know, the guy down the road farm 26:42 with an open cab 6 56 or something like that. And how far we've come. I just, I just have the question, what gets fa what gets, 26:54 what technology gets good faster autonomous ground rigs or drones? Because I've been hearing about autonomous tractors now 27:02 since 2016 at the Farm Science Review in Ohio. Case IH had their unit there and it was all exciting. They're gonna unveil it. 27:10 And I went up there and I'm like, this is a big nothing burger. It's just a cab tractor that they took a blowtorch 27:15 and cut the cab off of and it didn't actually do anything. And I don't think we're still there. 27:19 So if I'll tell which one's getting you tell me first lane, which one gets good first? 27:25 I, I would say drones. Drones is a lot easier and a lot cheaper to, to bring the technology. Uh, I I I think we're a good way to weigh on autonomous. 27:36 I mean, I, I don't, I I'm gonna pull my old man say, and I don't see that happening for a while. Uh, it just is, it's, it is hard to, 27:47 to fathom having somebody in a field that's not actually in the field seeing what's going on, Matt, autonomous 27:56 or drones, which one gets, gets more practical and farm ready fastest. Absolutely. The drones, I mean, 28:05 I think there'll be an autonomous type and which it is autonomous already, but I think there'll be a bigger machine in the future. 28:11 The the thing with autonomy that's great. You know, it's, our agriculture is so segregated based on the country 28:18 and the type of ground you're in. You, you could take an autonomous in the Midwest and, and not screw up a lot, 28:25 but you get out here with all these bows and, and rivers and Yeah. And highways and running them. 28:30 I mean, you talk about liability when, when you go hit somebody with a, with a, you know, 16 ton machine versus a small drone, chances of 28:39 of not having a bad accident's a lot different. So I think drones have already overshadowed autonomy as far as where they've come from day one to here. 28:47 Yeah. Just like at 16 you were looking at autonomy. It'll come, but I don't know when. Yeah. And then the other thing, I, I agree with that by the way. 28:55 And I don't know autonomous, I, I've been excited about it. I wrote about it in my book, but that's been four years ago. 29:00 I've been to the demos maybe in these massive, you know, section size 640 acre square fields in 29:09 the prairie provinces of Canada, perhaps. I don't know for sure. Alright. Money, uh, $40,000 to the people that listen 29:16 to the extreme Ag podcasts that are used to spending massive amounts of money for farm machinery. This ain't anything that we got a hiccup over, right? 29:23 There's no hiccup over a $40,000, but then it becomes return on the $40,000 or 80 or a hundred, whatever that thing is. 29:29 Talk about the money behind that lane. Are you going to be able to make this drone that you're going to be employing on your, 29:36 on Miles Farms in the next 12 months? Are you gonna make it make money? Uh, 29:45 I would like to say yes. I, IIII think that there's a, there's a place to make money on it. 29:51 Um, we just gotta find it. We gotta we gotta find the sweet spot. Okay. I think you either you're gonna find uses for it. 30:00 I'm not sure. This is just my thought, Matt. You tell me. I think it's one of those, like, 30:07 there's a lot of tools around a farm. You're like, I don't know how we got by without it. Once you have it, I don't know if the drone's quite there, 30:15 but, you know, skid loader, you think about the things that when they first came to the farm, whatever year that would've been, you're like, 30:21 how the hell did we get by without this? I think the drone could be like that. I think you're gonna find uses 30:27 before you find that it has a good positive return. Am I right about that in terms of money? Well, there and, and 40,000 don't sound cheap, 30:35 but you can buy a 2-year-old drone for 10. Yeah. Uh, that and you know, in the parks to rebuild a drone are are, 30:43 I mean, plastic, you know, there's nothing to it. I think the numbers are there. I think, you know, Kelly talks about this all the time. 30:50 A farmer wants to hit the easy button and the drone's not gonna be the easy button. I think you can take the drone to use it properly, 30:57 get the right amount of labor, the right amount of charging facilities, the trailer, you know, you're talking about when you buy a drone for 40, 31:04 you've probably got another 60 in a, in a really quality mixing vats drone trailer. 31:10 Uh, you know, there's a lot of support equipment that's gotta go with it. But I, I think the numbers are there. 31:16 When you look at a sprayer today that runs $600,000 and you can buy yeah, probably four drones for 160. So probably for, for $300,000 you can buy 31:31 what you can buy for one sprayer with multiple drones. That'll swarm. I think. I think it's gonna be there if a guy 31:38 wants to put the time in. Yeah, That's probably, that's, that's, that's a real good, uh, and and the timeframe, 31:44 I don't think it's a decade away either. Uh, it doesn't seem like it. Yeah, You were there pretty close. Pretty 31:50 Close all lane. You're the one that's all, uh, you're gonna be the, you're gonna be the drone man. 31:53 It's gonna be one more job for you at Miles Farms. Uh, get me out here. What, what, what thing do I need to know? 31:59 The person listening to this that we call this, how we'll use drones to farm smarter. That's what we're talking about. 32:04 How will the person listening to this use drones to farm smarter? What do they need to know? You've been dipping your toe into 32:09 the water a little more than they have. What have you already learned? Closing statement? I, I think the, the, 32:16 the last thing you want to do is, is go do the buy you a brand new drone with a brand new trailer and big mixing back. 32:26 I, I think you're better off to go look for the used drone. Spend a little time with it. 32:32 It's a, it's a lot more to it than it looks like. Uh, but if you want to dip your toes in it, I, I think it's something that, that can help somebody's farm. 32:43 And I think it's something somebody can make money with if they're wanting to be in the custom business. Yeah, and I think there's gonna be some of that too. 32:50 I've almost wondered if this might be the, the savior for some of these retailers that, uh, that they can be in the drone business 32:57 because, you know, larger scale farms have gotten to where they don't need some of what retail used to offer just 20 years ago. 33:03 So I wondered about that also. All right. These are the mild brothers. They're not really brothers. They're father and son. They're in McGee, Arkansas. 33:09 That is Deha County, which the first six months I knew them. I called it Deha. But anyway, it's in the Delta region 33:14 of Arkansas and they have a field day coming up. It's gonna be a great one. They've got, uh, a new facility to show off. 33:20 They got like a six or eight acre field right next to the facility. So if you get hot, you can go on the air conditioning. 33:25 It's gonna be starting at 8:00 AM on June 27th. That's a Thursday. I'm looking at my calendar right now. June 27th is their field day. It's gonna be a big one. 33:33 All kinds of business partners that are gonna be there showing you trials, products, panels, discussions. 33:40 And if you are an Extreme Ag member for just seven 50 bucks a year, get all this information, get direct access to guys like Matt 33:48 and Lane to ask 'em questions. You also get trial results. But you know what else you'll get, you'll get invited 33:51 to the evening before party, the evening before on the 27th, on the 26th, I mean, on the 26th. The evening before. We're gonna have our industry partners 34:00 as well as us be there to shake hands and say hi to you. And, uh, maybe even, uh, have a sandwich together. 34:05 It's gonna be a dinner the night before, so you can do that all the field days. June, June 13th is the field day in Iowa. 34:12 And, uh, at Kelly Garrett's. May 16th is the field day at Henderson Farms in Madison, Alabama. 34:17 August 8th is the field day at Kevin Matthews. And August 22nd is the field day in Maryland at Temple Road to round it out five field days. 34:25 We want you to come to as many as you want. You don't have to be a member to come, just to come to the evening before party. 34:30 Till next time. That's Matt. That's Lane. I'm Damien Mason. This is Extreme Acts cutting the curve. 34:34 That's a wrap for this episode of Cutting the Curve. Make sure to check out Extreme ag.farm for more great content to help you squeeze more profit out 34:42 of your farming operation. Cutting the curve is brought to you by Simon Innovations. Don't let your sprayers limitations hold you back. 34:50 Visit simon innovations.com and upgrade your sprayer's capabilities now.