00:00 Hey there, we're talking all about water and this episode and it's pretty important stuff that you probably don't even think 00:06 about you might not even realize but you definitely gonna see you're gonna see it on your yield monitor. You're gonna see it on your cost of 00:12 inputs. You're gonna see it on results Kelly Garrett one of the founders of extreme AG Mike Evans with integrated AG solutions. 00:18 They are business partners here on what happens in Western Iowa. And this guy's name is Sean Guth Miller. He's with Concept Agri Tech, 00:24 you know what we're in front of some tanks. We're in front of an irrigation system. And you said something really smart when we were breaking for lunch. You 00:30 said you know what I didn't see what was happening out there, but I have some pretty crappy water and that water issue then 00:36 ends up Downstream. If you will meaning it doesn't take care of the crop the way you want to because it actually what we're calling the 00:45 bad thing. It doesn't help with it's it's antagonistic to the chemistry to the biological you're using it actually works against what you're putting out there 00:54 in the field. You're spending money on crop inputs and the water that is taking away the impact tell me about it. We put irrig. 00:59 In and we went from Raising 210 bushel corn to 280 or 90 bushel corn. So that was great. Yeah, we love that. But now we're up. We're at 01:08 35380 bushel corn and we're trying to figure out what's stopping us from the next yield barrier. Yeah, so we always talk about limiting factor limiting factor and then we talked 01:17 about fertilizer Mike Evans talks about this all the time and so it's not fertilized. It's not lack of fertility. No, it 01:23 is not lack of fertility now, it's not lack of water because you put in the irrigation system exactly and I feel that we're almost wasting some of 01:29 the fertility budget because the EC of the water the electrical conductivity of the water. Is high enough that when you put fertility with it, it almost 01:38 becomes a yield limiting factor. It's hard on the root system of the plant and we're trying to figure out ways to buffer against that there isn't a product that you can 01:47 just put in there to solve it. So we're trying to buffer against it and concept agrotech is a part 01:53 of that potential solution. All right, you've got a product that is a biological and we've been doing a lot of Trials 01:59 of biological here at extreme Ag and one thing that was discovered was it you that came with this idea? Was it Kelly? He was idea Mike Evans. You're the more agronomically mind-setted person 02:08 every day. Mine said, it's not a word. I don't think anyway you brought your agronomic mindset and said Kelly what if the problems the water 02:14 did you come up with that or do you come up with that? Bob through some colleagues and stuff. I've been working with got more burst in 02:22 water quality and stuff like that and we've been testing water for last couple years here now pretty regularly and started looking 02:28 a reports and started seeing issues in the water. Yep, and kind of correlated to when you know, this crap looks great. Then we kicked on the irrigation. It kind 02:37 of felt like it went backwards as I walked the field of them. You're going. Oh, do you really wise? Yeah and kind of Click. Yeah, like 02:43 you're initial reaction be like wait a minute. Maybe we didn't turn irrigation on soon enough because the crop got harmed from some heat stress and some drought we should turn the 02:52 irrigation on sooner next year you turn on sooner and it still does something like wait a minute. Maybe the problem is within the 02:58 water. Okay, so you came up with this idea how long ago Oh, this is three weeks or a month ago. Yeah, like this is 03:08 you know, it's a steep learning curve when you get started and you're not in an irrigation area, you know, you didn't grow up with it things 03:14 like that. There's a lot of science to it. But there's a lot of Art and we have to understand what the problem is and this EC 03:20 we feel is now A limiting factor. So it's interesting to me is that we're always still learning. You know, you're like, hey man, we're gonna 03:28 fix all our problems. We'll get 350 bushel corns. We're gonna fling water out there through our sub service drip irrigation that fit and 03:34 nutrit came in put us in and that's great still not what you expected. Well, we've we have had 350 bushel corn with this water, but we want 450 b*******. All 03:43 right. So you talked about his product you decide the water needed a remedy and needed something. So it's not chlorinated. This is not from a City Source. This 03:52 is from Wells. We know it's got some lime probably has some Rust and some iron what else is in here that's causing problems. Why is it not working? Well, Kelly said the EC tie it's 04:01 also high and and by carbonates and it's really high in sulfates too. Why are those things bad salt for salt face? We put salt for on these crops. So I would have be bad. 04:10 I don't want to buy carbonate it is and what was the things that you see explain that again? Let's go with the first one sulfates why it's all Fates bad. Oh good 04:16 and Moderation I guess be the best way to put it, you know with sulfates High sometimes Kelly's always talked 04:25 about putting liquid nitrogen through you're never saw responsible. The sulfates are so high that it kind of too much of 04:31 a good thing too much. Like when I have five cigars instead of just one exactly. Yeah. So there's some of that bicarbonates though 04:37 precipitate stuff out. They'll put it by carbonate load and soil so really tightens the soil up. Okay. It's really a negative effect in the soil. Okay, and the EC's 04:46 just cause of all that and the EC I didn't even know anything about it until we started recording this. So what are we talking about? And why is it an issue and then we'll get to him EC is 04:57 stands for electrical conductivity and I would say the most harmful there's several different measurements of EC the most harmful one 05:06 is high sodium. Yeah, okay and our sodium isn't tremendously high but it's high enough. Yeah, and then 05:12 when you add in the sulfates in the bicarbonates we have three medium problems is the way I would 05:18 explain okay and medium. You don't mean middle you mean the carrying? Yes. Yes, we have to you know, like the the bicarbonates aren't tremendously High the 05:27 sulfates are tremendously High. The sodium is a tremendously High all of them are on a scale of 1 to 10. 05:33 We have all right three sets of sixes. All right, so no and a six doesn't kill you, but three sixes together have an exponential they have a synergistic effect. It's a 05:43 build over years since 2016 and every year you pump water out and you leave a little bit left. Okay, started residual residual residual 05:51 build on itself. Alright, so here's the deal Shawn they're building up. They're building up residuals out here that are not 05:57 what you want and it's because of the water they like the water it bumped them 100 bushels on their yield water's good. But 06:03 now we've built up these bicarbonate sulfates and EC's still not exactly sure what that means here. So anyway, what where do you come in? 06:12 How do you help remedy this? All right, we ran concept Digger tax a bunch of bugs with biovade XP. You're putting it through their drip system through their drips 06:21 and the promise of the product of bunch of bugs is so we're getting a Consortium of biology ran like hundreds of 06:27 different biologies and you're getting humics full vix and some sugars in there as well. So one of the big things you're gaining out of this is 06:36 we always talk about buffering capacity with humex. So like one of the things that they're accomplishing when they're getting these bicarbons in there the humic and the sugars in 06:45 there and the full Lakes they're gonna help buffer all that extra. Load that we have in here and so the humics 06:51 in the full Wix are helping to help them break down those bicarbonates in there. But what we're really trying to do and one of 06:57 the nice Parts about their drip tape is it's deeper. So we're trying to get more biology deeper down into it and that deeper 07:03 down because of the bicarbonates in there are going to help release more nutrients deep down and get more air into 07:09 the soil. Can I ask you an agronomic question your drip tape is a 16 inches Kelly. That's right to 16 inches The Roots might get down under 16 07:18 inches. How does the quality of water? You would think by the time we get to July and August when it's hot out here in Iowa water's water, 07:24 especially when it's clear down there nutrients rep in this part of the Horizon. They're not clear down there 16. It's just what difference does it make it's big difference because corn Roots 07:33 will get that done for being rich. It's a good down there and when you incorporate this 07:39 kind of water while we're dealing with in those new root areas, they really kind of shock some almost kind of stunts them kind of 07:45 creates a negative environment for them. I'm at stresses the plant you know, so we got to figure out a way to buffer it down that deep when 07:53 we're trying to fertigate or whatever. We're trying to do. All right, you talk about the product you came on 07:59 to this. This is our first year of using bunch of bugs through the drip tape. That's right. All right, tell me what you what was the promise that 08:05 made you want to experiment this with this? the water obviously, we believe this harmful that the soil and the root structure the hum makes the full makes the sugars and 08:15 bunch of bugs have a healing compounds within the water some things some elements within the water some characters except 08:21 the water with the residual impact. What the EC measures. Yeah. EC is a is a measurement of these compounds in 08:27 the water that we believe are harmful and a bunch of bugs buffers against that it isn't like it's gonna take it out of there. No product exist to do that, but we believe bunch 08:36 of bugs will buffer the soil and the root structure against those compounds that are harmful thereby amending hopefully all of 08:45 it. But at least part of the problem. Alright Lance me of this why concept Agri Tech bunch of bugs aren't there Biologicals or 08:51 everywhere? Why did you decide on this one? We believe that it's an active product a great product, you know Lee in South Dakota Chad and Matt, Alabama 09:00 and South Dakota. They've all had good results with much and it's a good company to work with I think one of the big things that 09:06 he latched on to is because we are Consortium. So we're getting all aspects of it. Like one of the main goals of bunch of bugs when it started was for Rice country 09:15 for that anaerobic bugs in it. So like when you get deep down in there, we're gonna have a little bit higher quality in the anaerobic because you don't you're 09:24 not getting the air down that right. So if we can fracture up that air down there those roots over soil. Yeah 09:30 fracture up the soil to get down there deep. They're gonna have more nutrients more root here is going down deep. I 09:36 mean root here's in that top inch is great, but they're only there because the nutrients are right there. So we want to stratify those nutrients down deep into our soil. So we 09:45 get big healthy Roots all the way now. Yeah, so fantastic illustration right there here the more agronomic on here the group 09:54 And we actually use a biological to start fracturing stuff that's down there 16 inches if that's a tight soil. It's tight. It's biological gonna change it. Yeah, it 10:03 will I mean we need biology down there just like we do the top four inches to help start that whole biological process. Once you 10:09 start getting the bugs in there and building those colonies. It starts building that ecosystem to where you get an earthworms down 10:15 there for building that soil structure. Go ahead. We actually see through our moisture sensors in the 10:21 corn and the beans 32 or 48 inches deep. There's not uncommon for the roots to be down that far. Yeah, and we did we never thought about that with the core maybe 10:30 an alfalfa plant goes down 40 inches, but we never thought that with this conventional realize the corner that's a 10:36 48 inches deep the soybeans they'll they'll be drawing water 20 30 inches deep. So let's get back to water because that's the 10:42 real premise of this entire episode because you might have deer listener viewer a water problem and I'm gonna talk about 10:48 too much water. That's about flooding. I mean a problem with the components in your water Matt mile smart guy, obviously EXT. 10:54 Guy talked about using a biological and it was at one of his Fields where the water came from a City Source. He says we never saw any results what the hell's wrong Robbo and 11:03 like wait a minute. We're putting chlorinated water in here and it's killing our biology. So think about that kind 11:09 of thing this stuff can't work. If it doesn't have it. It's killed off, but also it can 11:15 help water that doesn't have chlorine, but instead has other problems. What should you do? 11:20 You need to test your water and find out what you've got. We've learned a lot about water from Jason and Jared Cook. 11:26 And from Lee Luke's yeah, all water is not pure and and good and it's not necessarily bad where you shouldn't use it. It's not contaminated. It's just 11:35 contaminated. You know, like when we started here we added about 33% to our yield with irrigation with this water. Yeah. Well, 11:41 we'd like to add 50 or 60% Yeah, and that's what we're trying to do. Yeah, it comes back to the fact that we've sat 11:47 here and scratched our heads like we've had enough fertility. Yeah and done the right enough right things out to get for Bush corner 11:53 where I why are we doing it? Yeah the waters it could be our biggest limited factor Shawn. Do you think this is gonna be a new thing? Do you think that I 11:59 mean even if irrigation, you know, it's what covers 20% crop land Acres. Maybe you're irrigated the United States. I don't know. I'm just 12:08 taking a stab at it how many of them are thinking these guys are wait a minute. We need additive to make our water better. Well, 12:14 we're all looking for the next big thing. That's the biggest thing is, I mean, like he said we get we get 12:20 put Hands down. We're doing all the same thing and we've hit this Plateau like 250 to 280 bushel corn on just 12:26 about everything's kind of the easy part now now we're trying to get those extra bushels. So what can we do to get those extra bushels? Well, I am a hundred percent agreement. I 12:35 farmed from Southeast South Dakota down in northeast, Nebraska and then you said 280 bushel Corners like normal. Is that really happening in Yankton? I can't believe yes, we 12:44 can grow some corn there too. We're not his backwards as you think. Okay. All right sure, but we have water quality just like 12:53 here we have extremely hard water and Yankton and then you go across the river. It's that nice beautiful stuff where we can have pivots for 80 years and not having a 13:02 problems. Well, you get back to his point. You got to treat your water source individually and Go part by part because what's happening up. My Northern 13:11 Fields is just like what you have here, you have those sulfates you have high iron and it's tying up certain nutrients 13:17 Yeah, the more times we get the humics and full vix the sugar. Biology deeper down the soil mixing with that 13:23 water. We can adjust the pH the EC anything we're trying to do because When we get that water figured out it's gonna help 13:32 proceed these plants like one of the things we were talking about before here is what do we do with these double ears because they keep backing off. 13:38 I mean part of the problem is we aren't getting the nutrients and in there to load them up further and it's 13:44 gonna come from bigger root masses because we can only pull limited volume through the top four inches. We need to get those roots bigger so we can get that second year 13:53 going harder you use bunch of bugs, but that was the this is the road to a remedy. Let's talk about how it all went. The person 13:59 not there listening to this that says I'm gonna start doing more irrigation. I believe I watched extreme AG this whole thing with net of them and putting 14:05 in subsurface drip irrigation brilliant idea. I'm gonna do it. Okay, then I get my 33% yield bump. And then from there you start observing. Wait a minute 14:14 every time we put the water on starting in June July. It's hot and dry we get the bump on the crop, but there's a little problem You 14:20 observe this and then you said what's a problem then you tested your water and then you said I got this idea because you 14:26 some of your cronies and Agronomy said maybe it's a water issue then you 14:29 Up with the idea of adding a biological what's next? What's this trying these Biologicals and I really think like with metafem and subsive surface drip irrigation. I think 14:40 it's we always looked at a fertigation and getting water to the plants. But I also think it's a tool to amend the soil 14:46 and those deeper Parts especially in Kelly's motel that we can't really do. I mean we can amend the top four inches. Yeah best 14:52 we can but really the heart of it is getting that subsoil, right? And this is one ways to do it is your hypothesis your 14:58 hope your Much that you're going to now you figured out the water is got some issues you've done this but you're gonna find a few more things that you're 15:09 like Aha and wow, we're off the races again. Absolutely. I think that if this proves out to be beneficial and I'm optimistic it will I think we'll come up with two 15:18 more ideas. I think that's the it just kind of mushrooms from there. When you start down a path like this new identify a possible solution 15:24 many doors will open got it, you're gonna go irrigation and you're gonna do some service irrigation. That's fantastic. You're gonna get a big 33% bump. We just heard that right here and then you're gonna 15:33 all sudden start realizing wait a minute. We got some residuals build up because I got some water so then it begins with observation right after installation 15:39 comes observation and after a couple of years, you say wait a minute. Why are we at this threshold right here and it might be the water get your water tested. And then after the 15:48 water is tested talk to somebody like you and say, how can we remediate some of those issues through biology, correct? And I 15:54 mean the the biggest thing like we keep saying is getting biology deeper into the soil. I mean that is what we 16:00 are trying to do. Right part about subservices There are 16 inches. You're getting that biology down there trying to do it 16:06 from the top down is going to be a harder harder deal, right? Yep, and we can't get the air down there and that goes back to everything. We're 16:12 getting water down there, but we need air down there to get that little down get the ear. You gotta get the biology the openness porous 16:18 space up. His name is Sean goth Miller. He's with Concept aggress Tech. They are one of our sponsors. You'll be hearing more about 16:24 the stuff we do with them all through other videos extreme Ag and also at our year-end webinar where we talk about all of our trial results 16:30 if they want to learn more about your biology like a bunch of bugs, which is a product name go to concept day or tech.com 16:36 this Tech with a K on the end of it. His name is Mike Evans. His name is Kelly Garrett, you know them, you know me, I'm Damian Mason check out all of our 16:42 stuff and stay tuned for more interesting results and more importantly ideas. You can apply to your farm especially as a potatoes to water until next time.