Farming Podcast | How Is AI Changing Ag Operations? | XtremeAg

00:00:00 How will artificial intelligence and the rapid pace of technological advancement societally impact the business of agriculture? 00:00:07 That's what we're talking about with the next stream Ag crew. That's right. The second generation of extreme ag. 00:00:12 That's what we're talking about. Technology, artificial intelligence. And this is gonna replace all 00:00:15 of us we're covering out in this very special edition of extreme Ag cutting the curve. Welcome to extreme Ag Cutting the Curve podcast, 00:00:23 where real farmers share real insights and real results to help you improve your farming operation. This episode is brought to you by TIVA Corp, 00:00:32 providing farmers with the most technologically advanced products and innovative ideas to meet their quest 00:00:38 for higher yields, top quality and maximum profit. Visit tiva corporation.com. And now here's your host, Damien Mason. 00:00:47 Hey there. Welcome to another fantastic special edition of extreme Ag Cutting the curve. I've got the next Dream Ag crew on here. 00:00:52 You remember them because in 2024, we released a special four part series. We're doing the same in 2025. 00:00:57 We're recording this in early summer of 2025. Last year we did four episodes with the Next Generation. We wanted to do it again. These are brought to you 00:01:05 by our friends at Tiva Tiva Ag. In fact, the third generation of Tiva Ag is on board. His name is Caleb Kouts. He's joined by Alexander Evans. 00:01:13 Jackson Henderson. Danielle Venable, formerly Danielle Matthews, lane Miles, and Vern, otherwise knows Connor Garrett. 00:01:19 And we're talking about this very topic. All right guys, I told you before we hit the record button, uh, AI technology. 00:01:25 You can go on a technology tangent. A year ago when we released our first four episodes, we did the thing, the episode is Ag Tech, 00:01:32 where it should be. And we talked about all the shortcomings. Frankly, I think that still, we were ahead 00:01:38 of the curve 10 years ago. We're talking about autonomous tractors. We've done drone adoption. 00:01:44 We were out there in front of everybody, and I think we've stagnated and everyone else around us is advancing the ball further 00:01:51 than we are when it comes to tech. Vern's nodding his head. We'll lead off with you. Are we, do we go from being ahead to being 00:01:57 behind on technological adoption? And Now we're now, now we're looking now we're now we're looking like we're, we're outdated. 00:02:06 I, I feel like you could say that. You know, I feels like we've been talking about autonomous tractors my whole life. 00:02:12 Uh, we've been talking about AI and sensors and all the different things we can do, and everybody was excited 10 years ago. 00:02:17 And it feels like we're still just in that excited phase. And it hasn't really rolled out. 00:02:22 We haven't had the adoption that it, it sounded like we were gonna have Caleb from the corporate side 00:02:26 or from the supplier, vendor creator, not not just production agriculture side. Are you seeing, are you seeing AI pitches to you saying, 00:02:36 here's how you can make TIVA Corporation better using ai. Is, is it even something that's on your radar? 00:02:43 I I get an email about once a week about someone I, we can help you, you know, use AI in your payroll or, you know, to run reports and stuff. 00:02:51 But it's not something that from the, the business side that I have any interest in using anytime soon. I mean, they're, they're great at data collection, 00:02:59 but I don't have enough data to, to have to collect. I'd much rather be doing the hands-on stuff and getting out here and getting product ready for you guys. 00:03:08 And until I have a time where I'm glued to this desk and can't leave, I, I don't see a need for it where I'm at. That doesn't mean I don't think it's 00:03:15 useful for other people. But in my current situation, I don't see it happening anytime soon. Lane, when we talked to you, uh, 00:03:23 before we, uh, set up this topic two days ago, you said, I see it for search and for data more than anything. 00:03:29 And that's where the AI thing, most people right now, that's their introduction to it. They've been hearing about it, 00:03:34 they're a little bit scared of it. They've been hearing that AI's gonna take our jobs, et cetera. 00:03:38 Most people's exposure so far is they go on to a search engine and they type in something. Uh, how many soybean acres are in the state of Arkansas? 00:03:47 And the first answer that comes up now is an artificial intelligence answer and it's got it summarized. That's gonna help adoption. 00:03:55 But it still seems like it's a hell of a long way away. 'cause all that is is a, is a different Google. Yeah, I think it's a different Google. 00:04:02 I think it's a smarter Google. Uh, because like, even even, and, and I got two different ways of looking at the ai even 00:04:09 in day-to-day. I mean, we're not as, as a human race, we're not gonna get nothing but stupider with ai. 'cause I mean, don't get me wrong. 00:04:19 I know how to figure seed and how much, how many boxes of seed I'm gonna need, you know, to finish out how many acres and all that. 00:04:26 Well, I got second guessing myself. So I just type to, and ai, I'm like, well, how many boxes of seed do I need this population? 00:04:31 Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And boom, there it was. And it was on the money. All my math was right. But when you start second guessing yourself, you can put 00:04:39 that in there and be like, yep, that's what it is. But all that did was make me super, it didn't help me in the fact of, of what I'm doing in life. 00:04:47 So I I Is AI coming? Yes. Is it, is it coming in the right way at the moment? No. I think, I think it's, it's not, it's not helping. 00:05:00 Kids are trying to write papers with it. We're trying to figure a seed with it. I mean, it, it's not helping us at all. 00:05:06 Then on the flip side of that, I've got two combines right now that have got AI cameras on 'em. 00:05:11 So is that gonna help us? Absolutely. But what'd that do? It makes my combine driver stupider. 00:05:16 I mean, uh, that, that's the only way I would really look at. It's, it's, it's the, it's it's another brain 00:05:21 that we're not having to use our own brains. It's gonna make my combines run better, probably. So, I mean, they're probably gonna do a lot better job. 00:05:27 'cause even like Harvest, harvest Smart does a better job for us than, than us trying to run 'em on our own. 00:05:34 But I still don't think it helps us in general as, as people. Is it gonna make our businesses better? Probably. So 00:05:41 Young people are supposed to be all about adopting this whole technological future. And I just heard from grants over here that says, uh, 00:05:49 this new technology's making us stupider. Danielle, you're laughing. Actually, I agree with what he said. 00:05:56 Do you know that? Do you know that I used to be able to have like 300 phone numbers in my head. Like if you just said, oh, hey, call Vern. 00:06:03 I'd say five one five, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Uh, and I, I can barely remember my own tel. 00:06:09 Like, when you go to the grocery store, you had to punch in a number to get your discount. Like son of a b***h. 00:06:14 What, what, what's my wife's phone number? Uh, it takes a while. Stupider, stupider. It's technology making you stupid. 00:06:21 Look at it, by the way. Hey. And, And they're only gonna get worse. I saw this statistic just yesterday that there's so much 00:06:28 AI generated content on the internet now that they're training them off the internet and now there's so much they're gonna start degenerating 00:06:37 and they're, they're not sure they can ever clean it up. So now the tool we're training is being trained off 00:06:42 of itself and it's just gonna slowly degrade it. So it's already to the point within the last three years that we've flooded the internet with chat, 00:06:49 GPT written papers and fanfiction that, And now, Now you're gonna be able to train. Now it's got an exponential ability 00:06:56 to keep replicating itself, using itself as its base. It's like some sort of an old sci-fi movie where you let a virus loose and it just keeps continuing. 00:07:04 I mean, or pro parais. You know what, there was a movie about that once when I was a kid, I was scared to go in water. 00:07:09 I couldn't see the bottom of, because I thought that every water, body of water had this piranha situation where they'd been bred in a lab 00:07:17 to become a super species of man eating fish. Anyway, speaking of man eating fish, when I'm in Arkansas, they always like to show me scary things 00:07:25 like snakes and alligators. So anyway, let's move over to North Carolina. Danielle stupider is not really a word, I don't think. 00:07:33 I mean, we can make it a word today. What do you think It's today? It's right now. What do you think? I think lane's, right? 00:07:42 I mean, we, we rely on technology so much. I mean, if you wanna go back even further, even a calculator, like 00:07:50 how many times do I do math on a calculator that my dad can do in his head when he's loading the sprayer, loading the planter, 00:07:57 all the fertility things that we do. And I can't count the number of times. I have an app on my phone that does gallons to ounces 00:08:06 and does all those ratios for me and converts everything, and he's done got it figured out 00:08:12 before I finish typing it in. So the technology has put us behind in that aspect. I do think it is an advantage if you have an employee 00:08:21 or situation of somebody that's not good mathematically or isn't, there's areas they lack in, they can use the technology to help 'em, 00:08:29 but they don't have that knowledge on their own. So by the way, the whole promise of the stuff is that it makes you more efficient, makes you faster, 00:08:39 it can do, uh, so much more than you, et cetera. But then there's the dependency issue of it. All right, I'll go to Jackson. Are you already dependent? 00:08:48 Are you stupider? I think so, for sure. If you ask my dad, probably so Dependent. But 00:08:58 You know, I, I think there's a lot of pros and cons to it. There's, but in the end game, like everything you do, 00:09:04 I think it's, it's, it's helping us in a certain way, but it's also like weakening the human. You know, like it's, it's so good that, that we're just, 00:09:13 we're we're uneducation ourself as we go along with it. The more we use it and rely on it, Is it gonna replace us? 00:09:20 Alexander, I'll go with you, by the way, much better backdrop than our previous recording. I love the ducks. Decoys makes you think 00:09:25 about Maryland. Awesome. Thank you. Damon. Are we getting To, are, is it gonna replace us? 00:09:31 Am I gonna, am I gonna not, am I going, who am I not gonna need? Who am I gonna no longer have a need for 00:09:37 because of artificial intelligence? I can think of a whole bunch. I mean A whole bunch of people I don't need already. 00:09:43 And that's not even there. Yeah. Yeah. I just like, the problem with the whole AI and self automation 00:09:48 and all that stuff is like, you still have to have somebody there like to monitor it, you know, like somebody there to keep an eye on it 00:09:54 because you know, you're not just gonna let a tractor or whatever just go be by itself in the field and just let it go. 00:09:59 You, you say that 10 years ago we were told, we were told 10 years ago, that's only gonna be for the first couple of years 00:10:06 and it'll be just like every other thing from calculators that were $180 back in 1978 to free on your phone. 00:10:16 It was gonna be in the next few years. The technological innovation is gonna get to where all you gotta do is pull up your phone 00:10:22 and you'll know, and the, and the tractors are running and the next township over. Yeah, but city only gotten there worries 00:10:29 me is like around here. Like we're in little coves and little spots in the field and stuff where our satellites sometimes 00:10:34 loses signal in the tractor. Like, what does it, what happens when the AI tractor or self automated whatever loses signal? 00:10:40 I mean, what is it gonna, does it just shut down or does it keep going or lose signal and drive into the woods? 00:10:45 Like that's stuff that like, kind of worries us, you know, because I think based on Caleb's earlier concern, Alexander, 00:10:51 the lost tractors will go into the woods and become rogue. They'll breed with one another and they'll come back 00:10:56 after their human creators, I think is what I'm hearing. Skynet. It's coming. Yeah. 00:11:02 I just, I don't know. I feel like for the long run, it's kind of, it's hurting us. 'cause we just become so reliant on it. You know, there's, 00:11:09 There's still, there's still a lack of common sense on them. They, uh, like you said, even these guys 00:11:13 that are trained them have, um, like handlers, basically the, the story that I've seen go around is they asked the ai, you know, Hey, 00:11:19 is it safe to boil a baby? And they're like, yeah, it is. It's not gonna hurt you to boil a baby. 00:11:25 Like with no, you know, so the, the handlers have to tell 'em like, Hey, you can't say things like that. You can't tell people that it's okay to boil their babies. 00:11:34 Yeah. So there, there's some concerns here because if it, the concern is becoming over reliant before it's even proven. 00:11:41 I mean, that, that's, that's the big concern. All right. Ver ver I still Think the potential's there though, right? 00:11:47 Like Che GPT five years ago was kindergarten level intelligence. At this point, they claim it's college 00:11:53 level intelligence, right? I mean, it's learning faster than humans in that five years. It's, it's learning over twice as fast as humans. 00:12:00 And if we do have that exponential growth curve and we get through these hiccups, there's still tremendous potential there. I think, 00:12:05 I didn't even know we had chat GBT five years ago. So this is where I got, They had early models. 00:12:10 I think the, the public model got released since then, but I'd say two, Yeah, two years. Yes, sir. Mr. 00:12:16 That, that was the wake up call. Really? That's Like elementary level five years ago and their college now how long 00:12:24 until they start getting dementia? So I guess the big thing is, I mean, I, there there's a gazillion dollars 00:12:35 and I, I mean that's not a real number, but literally trillions of dollars of capital backing the, the advancement of artificial intelligence. 00:12:44 These companies and the investors behind them clearly believe this is not quite like the.com where it was, oh yeah, you know, Danielle 00:12:52 and Damien have an idea.com and it gets bid up when No, there's these things, I mean, Nvidia, all these kind of things, open ai, uh, you know, 00:12:59 the Google platform, all of them. So the point is, there's, everybody believes this is coming, there's it gonna change what we do. 00:13:08 Caleb, you go first. Other than being scared that they're gonna run off and propagate and become rogue, 00:13:12 how's it gonna change what we do? Clearly, the the money, the money says it's coming. The money says it's coming. 00:13:17 Otherwise there would not be this deployment of capital to make it happen. How's it gonna change what we do? 00:13:23 Listen, I mean, on mine, it's gonna make things infinitely easier on a recommendation standpoint, on an analyzing people's soil data. 00:13:31 That's where AI shines right now. It's gonna be able to summarize all this. It's gonna throw it all together. 00:13:36 I'm not gonna have to, you know, dig for, you know, the, through the 1700 soil samples I've been 00:13:43 sent over the last year. I'm gonna be able to have the AI pull it up. I'm gonna have it a summary of what it looked like. 00:13:48 It's gonna tell me the base saturations, it's gonna tell me the P one, the P two, and I'm gonna be able to make a much more accurate 00:13:54 recommendation a lot faster. It's gonna be incredible on the information, you know, output side of things. 00:14:02 It'll, it'll change. You know, the way that we, you know, a year ago we were sitting here wishing 00:14:07 that everything was all, all our systems talk to each other. And that's what the AI is gonna allow to do. 00:14:11 All that's gonna be interconnected into one system, and you're gonna be able to find what you need within seconds. 00:14:17 It'll, it'll be so much easier. Third generation with tiva, as I told you, special episode four part series we're doing 00:14:26 sponsored by tiva. If you wanna know more about tiva, go to tiva ag.com. I got their website pulled up right here. 00:14:32 No single product can solve your fertility problems, but a total fertility program can do that. Guys like Caleb and the team at TIVA can help you. 00:14:38 The proven fertility solutions for today's farmers. Thank you for sponsoring this four part series. Um, all right, then it becomes information overload. 00:14:47 I think if AI can help, it's gonna be in refining it and not boiling babies, but boiling down information. Because right now it's, it's like 00:14:58 a million sets of encyclopedia and then some, it's, it's too much. So that's my challenge. So who wants to take that one? 00:15:05 I think that Caleb's assessment, it makes recommendations easier. Uh, information. It's also too much 00:15:12 to Elaine's point about getting stupider, you know, what else can make you stupid? Being completely overwhelmed in a sea of information 00:15:17 and trying to, trying to discern which, which thing is actually accurate. Who wants that? 00:15:25 I, I think that's, that's the thing, is it needs to be able to simplify it and give you something actionable, right? 00:15:31 We, I mean, all we hear about is data is our most valuable commodity. We're a data centric in industry. 00:15:37 When we can put all that data into one thing and it can take your, your fertility, your soil tests, and your past yield data 00:15:44 and spit out recommendations based on that and give you something actionable rather than your overwhelming information, I think 00:15:51 that's gonna be incredibly valuable. There was gonna be things on our wrist. Smart watches. Danielle, hold up your arms. You got a smartwatch on. 00:15:59 Okay, you know what that was gonna do? Apple Health, it was gonna give you second by second information, 00:16:06 biological information about your body that it tells right on your phone right now. You just went through nine months of pregnancy 00:16:12 and had a baby as opposed to just going to the doctor once every month for prenatal care. Imagine if every damn second your phone is giving you data 00:16:22 and says, oh, your, your glucose levels a a little off. Oh, you know what? Your heart rate went up by a beat. Oh, it gets to where then it makes you paranoid 00:16:32 because you, it's overwhelming amounts of information to Vern's point. If it simplifies, I'm concerned that AI is going to be this 00:16:40 vast universe of over information. If you can imagine, imagine such a thing that then overwhelms our brains aren't the same as ai. 00:16:49 We get overwhelmed, we have emotions, we have all that stuff. I think it's gonna end up making us stress baskets. 00:16:55 I don't disagree. Uh, I mean, if you take, take me and you tell me, you know, I need to do this, this, this, this, and this, and I've gotta start sitting 00:17:03 down and figuring it all out. You basically, you, you gotta sit down and figure out one, you know, finish one. 00:17:09 You do one thing, finish it, do another thing, finish it. If you're having tried to do all this at one time, 00:17:13 it's information overload. If I, if I get that back to Caleb's point, if he's gonna, you know, if AI's gonna generate all this information 00:17:21 for a recommendation, no offense, Caleb, that's gonna put you out of job because the farmer's gonna go generate all this information. 00:17:28 Hopefully it gives you a recommendation, which, well, Vern's the one putting me out of a job. He's the one that wants the actionable stuff. 00:17:34 I just want the information. So I can still tell you what to do. Actually, before, actually, before you log on, Caleb, 00:17:38 they pretty much all unanimously wanted you to not have a job. I mean, no offense, I mean, they, 00:17:44 that's not true. They appreciate That information. If you take that information and information overloads you, 00:17:51 then I can't decipher all that. I mean, I can decipher some of it, but there, there's gotta be a fine line, 00:17:57 like Bern said is something actionable. But then again, there's gotta be something that, that, that it's not, you don't want a stupid answer 00:18:05 either, if that makes sense. I think if we leave it up to the AI to give actionable information, I mean, 00:18:12 it's only learning based on what it is. You get the, the science textbook, the university answer. And I think we can all agree, having been out in the field 00:18:19 that that's not how the real world works. There's way too many factors for it until where we're at now with ai. 00:18:27 We're, we're not close to actual data. It is gonna take people, you know, it is for the average person information overload. 00:18:35 But that's why you're gonna have people, you know, people like me are gonna be able to use it as a tool, decipher through that data, and then come to the farmer 00:18:43 and be like, Hey, here is what it is, and let's walk through it together. So you understand. And you know, you don't have to see 00:18:49 that the AI pulled all the, you know, pulled it all for me. But I can walk through it with you. 00:18:53 You know, that's across every industry. I think that's what we're gonna see until they make some massive leap here where it can calculate more than just, 00:19:02 you know, what the, what the textbook says it should do. I want to hear predictions on replacement from 00:19:08 Alexander and from Jackson. But before I do, poor Danielle, I threw the thing at her about the information overload. 00:19:16 If you'd have had every second something popping up on your, would you have been a paranoid wacko pregnant? It 00:19:23 Would've been awful. Yeah, it would've been awful. Especially, I need that. Your 00:19:26 first kid, my mom had kid for ninth kid, Danielle, by the time you'd have nine, there's Not gonna be nine. There's 00:19:32 no, even If you do, if you do like Genevieve Mason and have nine kids, by the time they got to me, it was like, I don't know, uh, what's that one's name? 00:19:42 I mean, trust me, you'll, you'll get there. Did they, did they leave you at home and go on a trip like home alone? Did you have that happen? 00:19:49 No. 'cause they never went anywhere. But anyway, so paranoid. Too much information doesn't make you only, 00:19:55 it doesn't make Wayne Lane's thing about stupider. I think it makes you overwhelmed. It does. It really does. 00:20:01 And I think that once you get to a point with too much information, some people, like, even on the health side, 00:20:06 they're gonna think they're smarter than the doctors. So you also need to realize, like, as a farmer, I'm not smarter than like, book wise. 00:20:15 Then somebody with a PhD, like in agronomy, they're gonna have more book knowledge behind it. I might have in some instances more field knowledge on 00:20:24 something from experience. But if you, you gotta have that human element in there. I went to the doctor, I went to the doctor in April. 00:20:33 I point this out though, I'm starting to wonder if maybe we aren't. I went to the doctor in April and had a little symptom 00:20:39 and uh, and he just listened to me and he said, okay. And he didn't listen to everything. He went over to his computer, started typing something. 00:20:46 I said, what, what, what, what are you doing? He says, I'm looking it up based on what you've told me. I said, well, hell, I can do that. Why? Why am I here? 00:20:54 So I don't, I don't know. Maybe we're, we're there. Maybe you need to find a new Doctor. Might be 00:20:57 it too. Maybe, uh, Jackson and Alexander, whichever you wants to go first, who's gonna get replaced? 00:21:03 What, what? We already, we already, uh, the predictions, but it's not really happening. 00:21:07 Technology has been replacing workers. Uh, the, the cotton picker, uh, the combine, uh, name everything in our industry that has replaced labor. 00:21:19 The tractor replaced the horse, the horse replaced the human. What's getting replaced in the next three years 00:21:26 by technology, AI or otherwise? AI is probably the most leading candidate. Jackson, what's getting replaced? 00:21:33 Gee, let let Alexander go first. Alexander, your old man does that same trick. He must be a genetic thing. All right. 00:21:38 Alexander, your old man, your old man never met a, your old man never made a statement he didn't wanna make. So go ahead. What do you got? 00:21:45 I think the absolute best part would be, um, is our local fertilize dealers and stuff like that when they go around to do, you know, 00:21:53 insecticides and all that stuff. Um, checking for pests. I think that's probably gonna be the best is like drones 00:21:58 flying over and, you know, detecting pests, detecting in, you know, insects and all that stuff. 00:22:03 And fungicide, whether you need fungus out there or whatever. I think that's gonna be the best part. 00:22:08 'cause then you don't have to have somebody from that company out walking the fields. You fly the drone over it, it tells you, not tells you, 00:22:15 but suggestions on what you need to do. So that way that person that will be walking the fields can do something else 00:22:20 for the company to make that company better. Um, I feel like that's probably the absolute best of, you know, replacing that person. 00:22:27 That's their field, their field guy. And, and Mike, anything on that before we go to Jackson? Uh, if a drone can flower field 00:22:35 and say, here's the exact symptoms and the exact prevalence of something, an actual count versus doing spot samples, that would be, 00:22:45 that would be technolo. And, and that's, that's where this could come together. In this field, you have 23% damage of the whatever. 00:22:53 I mean, I you're the agronomic, Vern, you're the agronomic expert over here. I'm not, but that would be the technology that 00:23:00 it may not replace anybody. 'cause right now there's nobody doing it that well. Just new tool, right? 00:23:08 Yeah. Yeah. I think that would be awesome if we could use sensors and satellite imagery 00:23:11 and drones to spot those problems at the field level. Identify the level and what we need to do to rectify it. I, I think that's a huge, huge area 00:23:20 that's being explored right now and is only gonna get better. I'm excited about the potential for that. 00:23:25 Jackson, what's, who's gonna get replaced by technology in the next two years? Uh, I would've to agree with what Alexander said, 00:23:32 but you know, like on the long run, I think everybody's replaceable, you know, but the, to me, knowing what's right 00:23:39 and what's wrong, you know, like, like, like what do you believe and what do you don't? Because some things work here 00:23:44 that don't work at other people's farms, you know, so, so where is AI going to say, you know, this works here 00:23:50 and this don't, based on your location. Like, is it made it that far yet, you know, but in the long run, I think we're all 00:23:54 at risk to getting replaced. You know, So there is the thing that we're gonna have all this massive amount of compiled 00:24:02 and, uh, calculated that information. And let's say there's a problem that, I don't know, uh, spot leaf, whatever, you guys are the experts on this. 00:24:11 How you treat it is gonna be very different where Lane is than where the Garrets are 00:24:17 because of climatological reasons I'm guessing. And maybe the technology makes that calculation for you. I don't know. 00:24:25 I think it, I think it'll certainly be able to do that. Um, location based. Yeah. And to the point of reliance on it and replacement by it. 00:24:35 I, I feel like if you can replace part of me here, so then I can focus more there, I'm all for that, right? Like some of the old guys don't like auto steers. 00:24:44 Oh, you can't plant a straight a row 'cause you just rely on your auto steer. That's fine. When I'm on auto steer 00:24:50 and I can pay attention to what's going on better and I can spot problems quicker and I can, I can make adjustments in real time 00:24:55 because I'm not focused on how scrape my rows are. I think that's a great thing. Auto, uh, make me dumber in that case, I'm more concerned 00:25:03 with the overall result than, uh, my own skills in a certain area. Lane, by the way, it's not dumber lane made 00:25:13 for memorable reasons. Stupider. It's not dumber, stupider. All right, lane, what do you got? 00:25:19 Uh, I mean, I, I agree with Vern. I, I I think that You guys agree too much. It'd be more compelling if you guys would disagree 00:25:26 and say, no, Vern doesn't know what he's talking about. Vern think I'm stupid, or you don't know who he's talking about. 00:25:32 Uh, but I mean, if, if, and I'm not gonna say that we're gonna be replaced, but if you can replace something that I'm doing, 00:25:38 because we we're, we always, the big saying is farmer wears a whole bunch of hats. If I don't have to wear the, I drive a tractor straight hat 00:25:46 and I can put on my agronomy hat, right? Or I don't have to decipher all this information. I can let it kind of help decipher the information 00:25:53 and use it from there. Like Caleb was saying, with, uh, with recommendations. I don't are are we becoming dumber, 00:26:03 stupider, ignorant maybe. But are, are we using our time more ly? Well, that's what's supposed to happen. 00:26:11 So Danielle, you can take that one. I thought this was a topic. You can, anyway, you like this topic. 00:26:17 Does it allow us, does it allow us to use our time more valuably? The thing is, every time that's generally been good 00:26:24 for economic advancement, right? Uh, you know, we used to dig, uh, tiles by with a spade, right? 00:26:29 And so now the idea is we can dig them with the machine and then this person can go and do the next thing, the next thing. 00:26:34 So in general, the reason we have Google is because we don't have to have all the employees from Google out 00:26:40 gathering berries to eat. So there, there is that. I think that if it is allowing you to get something else done, then it is a great tool to have. 00:26:51 But you also have the aspect of technology breaks sometimes. So are you gonna spend too much time when it's not working 00:26:58 right, trying to get it fixed when you could just go on and do it yourself. Um, And maybe that's not gonna be an issue with ai, 00:27:08 but I feel like every technology breaks at some point or doesn't work, or won't load. Yeah, it gets, it gets hard when you become reliant on 00:27:15 something and then all of a sudden it's not there. Right? And that's, that's right's, everything when your truck won't start 00:27:20 because of some, uh, chip in there. It's like, I I, I don't need that chip. I don't need it to log my, uh, 00:27:26 gallons per i, my miles per gallon. I just need to get down to the next field. I don't give a damn about the data. 00:27:31 I Yeah, that's the problem. Alexander. Here's the thing about this technology adoption. You over there at the roads, 00:27:37 Chestnut Mary Farms pride yourself on operating machinery. That is a good 77 years old. 00:27:42 So anyway, when you gotta talk about technology adoption, are you talking about going to John Deere 40 twenties 00:27:48 finally, or what are you talking about here? Yeah, I think we're gonna go back to like the model A or something put off on this here. 00:27:54 You know, What are you seeing right now that you say, oh my God, we didn't have this just two years ago. 00:28:00 And it's a game changer. There's probably something, I mean, just the complexity of the auto steer and section control and all the auto swath 00:28:10 and all that stuff is probably, probably the coolest thing for us. I mean, 'cause everybody knows just as well as we do, 00:28:16 you know, we try to, we keep the old stuff, but upgrade the technology in it, you know, to keep it up to date. 00:28:22 But the machinery isn't that up to date. But, you know, we invest more in the technology than we do the machinery. You know, 00:28:29 We talked about in another episode, Jackson will go to you and then I'll go, uh, around the horn here. 00:28:32 We talked in another episode about having tools taken away from us right now as we're recording this, in June of 2025, 00:28:37 the Maha movement says they're gonna take away atrazine, glyphosate, uh, and all these other things. 00:28:42 You know, food dies, whatever, whatever. Does technology allow us to use less applied stuff, whether it's herbicide, fertility, 00:28:55 whatever, and not sacrifice, yield. Is this the gold, is this the golden thing that we're not even thinking about? 00:29:00 All of a sudden, will our use rates five years from now will be half because we say, dear God, 00:29:05 we didn't realize how bad we were. We were literally spilling this stuff outta the back of the truck and now technology lays on his head. 00:29:12 Is that where we're going with this? All of a sudden, five years from when Luke's out there running around doing stuff for you, you're gonna say, son, 00:29:18 we used to dump half the twice as much stuff out the back of the truck out here. Technology now has changed all that. 00:29:24 Uh, I've got a deal on my sprayer called Axion, and it's basically AI on your sprayer that's tells you droplets per leaf 00:29:36 and if you can adjust your pressure or if you can use less chemical or you're getting better coverage 00:29:42 or change your t blah blah, blah. It's, it is all it is. Is AI telling you if you're wrong or right, 00:29:47 and then you make an adjustment from there? We've had some issues right now just kinda keeping it running. 00:29:55 But I think that it's bigly bigly good for what we're doing. I mean, just for what you're saying, 00:30:02 can we use less chemical? Can we set a spray in 10, 12, 15 gallon work? Can we spray three four gallon work? 00:30:09 Uh, Johnny's been up there in Tennessee spraying a lot of herbicides at three gallon work. You know how much time that is? 00:30:16 I mean, Jackson, how many times do you fill up a sprayer? 10 doesn't work. Yeah, I mean that's what we, we've tried 00:30:20 that a couple times with some burn down stuff instead of going 10 or 12. We've been all the way down at five. 00:30:25 And there you go from a hundred acres to 200 acres load, you know, and it, it is saving time. 00:30:30 And then just like on the, you know, the newer sprayers with the exact apply, you go from turning on what, 15 foot of a boom to one nozzle body. 00:30:39 You know, like everything's going in the right direction. Everything will save you time if you 00:30:44 choose to do it the right way. By the way, other than you, Alexander Lane said two times before I actually understood him. 00:30:52 He said 10 gallons to five gallons of water. And it took me a second to hear what he was saying. So anyway, I thought it was only you. 00:30:59 Uh, here's my thing, Jackson, you do all the spraying down there, do a bunch of the spraying down there. 00:31:04 If it's not just the water, which means of course less trips because of better application, 00:31:09 but also it's the actual product. We're probably using too much product. We probably, and we've always said, well, 00:31:16 I don't wanna go into it twice, so I'll use more. That's where I think the big payoff for this is. Yes, Yes. That's where we're 00:31:22 going right now. I mean, anything that can save you, the, the less ounces you put in that goes over a bigger body 00:31:27 of acres, that's, that's the rate you want to go. 'cause a lot of people don't wanna take some time. You know, it's the more time you 00:31:33 take, the more money you're losing. So for us, it's all about go, go, go. You know? And what works the best 00:31:38 Next generation Alexander, is Temple going to hop on board with this or is he going to just over there 00:31:43 with his sharpie writing stuff on the back of his hands and then say, Alexander, figure this out. I don't know. I don't, I'm I'm over, I'm, I'm over my skis. 00:31:49 No, I think we're, we're definitely moving that direction. I mean, like, um, 00:31:53 That's not the one I asked you. I didn't ask you if we are moving this direction. I said, is Temple gonna be over there 00:31:59 with a Sharpie right on the back of his hand? And you're gonna have to do all the technology adoption? I mean, it's usually a Sharpie on his hand 00:32:04 or a headset on his head talking on the phone. It's just, so Are you gonna be in charge of technology adoption? 00:32:08 And he just stagnates, kinda like the Amish just stopped at like 1860. He's gonna just stop right here. 00:32:15 I, I don't know. He's, he's into it. He likes technology just about much as I do. I mean, so we'll probably we will adopt it together. 00:32:22 Is Kevin Matthews gonna adopt technology or is he gonna stagnate and it's all on you Danielle? He he's very good about adopting it. 00:32:29 He normally is on it before we're on board with doing something, he'll show up. Like, this is what we're gonna do. 00:32:35 Jackson, go ahead and rewire this. Jackson, where's, where's Chad? On the adoption curve, we're talking about people that men 00:32:39 that are in their fifties here working on the farm. Is it gonna be up to you to make sure that this all gets brought back to Henderson Farms, 00:32:46 or is he gonna be leading the charge? No, I mean, he's doing good. He, he's good with it. A lot of times he finds out that like, 00:32:53 when we're not using stuff like auto Path or something, he's like, son, why ain't we doing that yet? You know? But he's, he, 00:32:58 he's definitely following the curve on keeping, keeping up with the, the new stuff coming 00:33:02 And then it's up to you to deploy it. Who deploys it? That's, I do that. I've run all the operations center 00:33:08 and doing all the prescriptions and everything From the business side. Caleb is your, is your old man gonna be, uh, front, 00:33:15 front end on this about using data, big thing about data information, et cetera, using the latest, uh, 00:33:21 on artificial intelligence to advance Tiva? Well, uh, this year was the first year I got him to do grower meetings with a projector 00:33:27 and an iPad instead of a whiteboard. Uh, but that being said, he, he's a slow adopter, but I mean, like things for us here at the plant, 00:33:36 he's a big proponent of doing them. But yeah, I'm, I'm gonna implement 'em. Hey, this is, you know, we automated loading last year. 00:33:44 I can load a truck in half the time. I used to. It's all a button press. It's, it's fantastic. And he was behind the push the entire time. 00:33:51 But when it came time to, Hey, I see the value in it. You need to learn how to use the computer and learn how to program it in. 00:33:58 I'll let you take care of that. You know, so sees the value in it, but actually learning 00:34:02 to do it may be a little bit slower on that part. Lean, I, it's not only that I sensed it, I felt it a slight an insult for those of us that use whiteboards. 00:34:14 I've been to Miles Farms and there are whiteboards and Damien Mason Enterprises has a whiteboard on the wall right here with my creative stuff. 00:34:22 And my other, uh, accomplished things on my, uh, creative on my content. I don't know that there's a problem with whiteboards. 00:34:28 Why is, why is cots gotta go picking on us to use whiteboards? I don't have a problem. I Have my giant scheduling 00:34:33 of truck whiteboard on the other wall here. There's nothing wrong with him. I'm just, it's Dad was never a PowerPoint guy either. 00:34:39 He was, uh, we don't need a PowerPoint. I'll just, I'll just write it up there. Who's gonna adopt it? I already know 00:34:45 what's happening at Miles Farms. Uh, Matt prides himself on, if the power goes down, he can still use, he can still use a notepad 00:34:53 and a pen and and pencil. So anyway, you're the guy that's gonna lead the charge on the technology adoption. You are leading the charge on the technology adoption. 00:35:01 Dad will want it being used, but he ain't gonna learn how to use it. He going, let us do it. He's, uh, he's still that. 00:35:08 He, he, I think he got offended when Mr. Mark got the iPad out. This, this at the grower meeting this year. 00:35:15 Vern. Is, uh, is Kelly on board with this? Uh, or is it the same as these guys? Okay, just start using this. 00:35:20 Hey, he's, he's pretty, he's pretty tech savvy. Uh, I think it's pretty close to Matt. This sounds cool. You guys should use this. I'm not gonna figure it out. 00:35:28 So then us, me and Evans kind of implement it. Maybe Last question going around the horn, what excites you and what scares you? 00:35:36 Um, I, I, if I were i'll, I'll go first. I'll help you out here. I just met with my gal. Um, what scare doesn't scare me. 00:35:45 It's the same scare that we all have. And then the older you get, I relevance, uh, irrelevance is a fear like, well, what if, 00:35:53 what if seriously? Uh, I get to where my value is eroded because of this thing. And that's been going on since John Henry, uh, 00:36:03 lost the competition of digging the hole through the, uh, through the mountain with a steam shovel. 00:36:08 By the way, those are fairytales are actually, uh, fables from the old days. I know that your kid, your 00:36:12 generation didn't grow up with those. But anyway, um, and then what excites me, I think there might be a chance for time savings 00:36:21 and labor savings, which we all hold out, but you know what? The computer was supposed to 00:36:26 make it so we didn't have to work. And now my neck hurts from hunching over my laptop all the time. 00:36:31 So I, I think what excites you is the promise, but what scares you is the fact that it actually doesn't really do as much for you 00:36:38 as you want because it just makes it so you're still working just as much. So that's my thoughts. Who wants to go next? 00:36:42 What excites you? What scares you? I mean, I, what excites me is hopefully I can help me one, save money or two make money. 00:36:52 Uh, I mean, if it, if it does that, I'm all for it. Um, probably the outside of farming, what scares me is my kids aren't gonna learn to be able 00:37:00 to do some of the stuff they should be able to know. Like math? Yeah, write papers, do math, figure chemicals, whatever. 00:37:07 If they wanna farm, I, I hope they're not stupider. Who's going next? What excites you? What scares you? Yeah, I'm kind of on board with that. 00:37:17 Hang on, Danielle, you're muted. Go ahead. Alexander. What scares you? What excites you? You wanna go, Danielle? You can go if you She's, 00:37:22 She's muted. Oh, Okay. Yep. Um, I think the thing that excites me is, like I was talking about earlier with the pesticide 00:37:27 and stuff, that detection, just, you know, saving that one person from going out in the field and just making our everyday lives easier. 00:37:33 Um, and then kind of what scares me too, lane is, you know, not only the kids coming up 00:37:38 but that are in there now discovering all this stuff. Like what are they gonna do when they get outta school? When, you know, is it, is it really gonna make 'em dumber 00:37:45 or what, you know, what's gonna happen with that if they can't do simple math and they're just typing in their computer or whatever, 00:37:51 Right? Danielle? I think what excites me is the opportunity that it has. Like maybe it's gonna help us think outside of the box 00:37:59 that we normally do when we're just doing simple tasks. But then I think what scares me is how reliant is this next like, workforce 00:38:11 that's fixing to graduate college. Like how much did they rely on in college? How much did they actually retain and learn themselves? 00:38:18 Or is every time we ask 'em to do something, are they gonna be asking AI and chat GPT the question when we leave the room? 00:38:25 I think that's kinda what scares me on that forefront Force you to think new stuff. Caleb, what do you got? That 00:38:31 That is actually I am, I, I'm the opposite Danielle. The fact that that AI allows me to, my workforce does not have to be nearly as educated 00:38:41 as it was before because AI can do the heavy lifting for them. That's where excites me. 00:38:46 I don't have to get someone that knows how to do the math or knows how to do certain things. 00:38:51 You know, certain things because the AI can handle it. But also then, yeah, that's, that's my, my fear is that the reliance on it, that I, 00:38:59 I have now hired a workforce to help produce this, to load trucks, to figure out weights and they don't know how to do it. 00:39:06 And now the technology's not worked or it's gone haywire and it's sky up the place 00:39:12 and I don't have anyone that can figure out how to do anything. Jackson, what do you got? What excites you? 00:39:16 What scares you? Either or, or both? Mine is like what's coming with equipment on how far the technology's coming. 00:39:22 You know, like the sea and spray stuff that's coming that excites you, excites me. Yes, sir. And then the, what scares me would be what's, 00:39:30 what all will be replaced in the next 10 years from ai? Mm. Vern your own last, oh, by the way, I'll even prime it for you. 00:39:38 I'll go another excite and scare. Excite is the thing that we just heard from Alexander. Technology has improved lives in a lot of ways. 00:39:47 And one of 'em is you don't have to be in harm's way. You don't have to touch nasty chemistry. What about that, that thing that you're talking about, 00:39:54 you know, drone replacing, uh, crop dusters. It's cool what those guys do and lane's best friend's a crop duster, 00:40:00 but sometimes they get hung up in power lines, you know, and they're, and they're handling stuff that's, 00:40:04 they're flying through stuff. That's, that's, let's face it, we we're pro chemistry, but some of that stuff's pretty nasty stuff. 00:40:10 That's the promise of it. The thing that I think is maybe, I don't know if it's a scare me, but it's negative. 00:40:15 We're doing a room edition right here. You know what artificial intelligence can't do? Can't crawl in a crawl space and run romex 00:40:21 and uh, and put electricity. We're also hung up on the, a advances of technology. We're forgetting that there's things that absolutely do have 00:40:30 to have human hands and human hands that can think and can do the math that Lane is talking about and say, wait a minute, I've got a, 00:40:37 I got a three one run on this electric over here. That's that. You don't want the guy in your crawl space that's wiring your house to then have to put in ai. 00:40:46 What's too much amper little burn a guy's house down. I mean, there's, there's a little concern about that though. Vern, you're last. 00:40:53 Yeah, what excites me? I think if we can just automate all the boring, administrative, repetitive tasks that just 00:41:00 that simple cognitive work, you know, that's gonna be the first to go and we can get rid of that and do more of what we love 00:41:06 and be outside working with our hands and be more profitable and be safer, like you said, with the crop dust. 00:41:12 If we can do all that, I think that's a great thing. I I, I'm all for that. Um, what scares me, like what everybody says being replaced. 00:41:20 Um, and I mean that's what, what do we lose when we lose the human touch? And I mean, overall people joke about Skynet, 00:41:29 but if you read up on some of the people that are actually working on this stuff, they're scared of that kind of thing. 00:41:33 But I mean, if the overall probability of the end of the human race has gone up, that's probably worth a conversation too. So 00:41:40 The overall, what of the human race has gone up? The Overall probability of the end of the human race being in the near future. 00:41:46 If that's going up, maybe we should hold the brakes back and think about that. I don't Know. We think it was, we think usually think 00:41:51 it was nuclear Armageddon that was gonna kill us all. Now we know it's gonna be, uh, technology that becomes rogue that goes and replicates itself 00:41:58 and an exponential manner comes back and kills us all. All right, we're going to a robot. Uh, what's that? The Movie I Robot? 00:42:06 Yeah, We're gonna leave it right there. This is a, it is a great topic and something we'll probably visit again, 00:42:12 we're talking about artificial intelligence, we're talking about technology, we're talking about AI replacing you. 00:42:16 What's gonna happen and how does AI and the advance of technology, rapid advance technology, how's it going to change agriculture? 00:42:22 And US did this with the friends from Next Stream Ag. That's right. This is the next generation of the people. Extreme Ag. Daniel Matthews, venerable, Alexander Evans, 00:42:30 Jackson Henderson, lane Miles, Verne Garrett, Caleb Cooch with Tiva. Tiva is the sponsor of this. Go 00:42:35 to Tiva Ag to check this out. This's a four part series and, uh, we're going to enjoy this four part series. I want you to share with somebody that 00:42:43 can get something out of it. Also to next time, thanks for being here for this very special edition of Extreme 00:42:46 Max Cutting the curve. Check out all of our great stuff on our YouTube channel. Go to YouTube type in extreme ag or@extremeag.farm. That's 00:42:53 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 1118 00:43:01.795 --> 00:43:03.155