Farming Podcast | Are Your Soil Nutrients Going Unused? | XtremeAg

00:00:00 Activated carbon technology using a product that helps you access nutrients you've already paid for that are in your soil, very good economically, 00:00:06 very good environmentally, and you know what? It's gonna help you moving forward to farm better with less money. 00:00:12 That's what we're talking about in this episode of Extreme Ag, cutting the Curve. It's extreme ag cutting the curve podcast, 00:00:18 cutting your learning curve, and improving your farming operation every week. This episode of The Cutting the Curve podcast is brought 00:00:25 to you by BASF, creating innovation to help farmers do the biggest job honor. And now let's get ready to learn 00:00:33 with your host, Damien Mason. Hey, to welcome to another fantastic episode of Extreme Ag Cutting the Curve. 00:00:39 I've got a good one for you today. I've got two guys that are, uh, uh, got some interesting technology that you might want 00:00:44 to know more about. Uh, Matt Miles has experience with this company and their products for the last several years. 00:00:50 So, Matt Miles with extreme Ag joining me, he's joining Brad Benson and Brandon Laws with a company called 00:00:54 Activated Carbon Technology. You may have seen us, we recorded some stuff at commodity class a couple of years ago. 00:01:00 The basic premise is this, during one of your passes, you're gonna put their product in your rig and you're gonna put it into your soil. 00:01:07 It's soil applied and it's going to help you access the nutrients that are in your soil and get it into the plants. 00:01:13 We talk a lot about this. Access is an issue. Matt Miles, the very first year I started working with extreme Ag talked about all the phosphorus 00:01:20 that was in his soil, but it wasn't ending up in the plants. These are real issues. 00:01:24 You're paying for the fertility, why the hell don't you make sure it's getting into the actual crop so you can benefit from it. 00:01:29 That's what we're talking about. Brad, did I summed that up right for you? That was perfect, man. Perfect. 00:01:34 So you are a Louisiana based company. You're also a crayfish farmer, which I think is cool. That's right. Yeah. I say crayfish. 00:01:42 Was it crawfish or crayfish? Did you say? Crayfish? You said Crawfish. It's crawfish. 00:01:45 What does it, Matt? What does it Matt? I, uh, well, for a Yankee it must be crayfish, but the actual name is crawfish 00:01:56 Mud bugs, I think is what they call 'em down there. Right? Mud bugs. All right. 00:02:00 So anyway, talk about this, this thing. Matt, you can go ahead and lead off since you're feeling feisty and obviously correcting me on my, on my, uh, 00:02:07 verbal representation of crustaceans. Well, yep, I can do that. Alright. So, you know, I've been working with Brad and, 00:02:15 and Flood Growth Solutions. Now, I guess this our fourth or fifth year, uh, Brad and I met in the airport one day going 00:02:22 to the Commodity Classic. I think I seen his hat on, and I knew that I got my ass handed to me in the soybean yield contest that year by a guy 00:02:30 that used nothing but their product. And so we just struck up a conversation waiting on our luggage that went from there to me testing their products. 00:02:39 Uh, this year we put it on a hundred percent of our rice acreage. We do it a little bit different 00:02:43 and Brad can, Brett can kind of, you know, lead you into that. How we do it a little bit different. 00:02:47 But we also did trials and are doing some work with doing it as soil applied at planning. 00:02:53 Um, you know, I had a real smart guy tell me one time and it finally, so I've been Liquid, you know, just everybody trying 00:03:02 to go on this liquid diet with a plant. So I didn't understand we're gonna lose, may lose minor soils, blah, blah, blah. 00:03:08 I had a guy tell me one time, he said, I really don't care what's in your soil. I care the ppms of these nutrients in your plant. 00:03:14 So if you can take the, this product, get it in the root zone, and and get it uptake, get the uptake into the plant, 00:03:22 it don't matter what's out there in the middle. 'cause your roots are really not gonna get to it anyway. So, you know, this has been a process. 00:03:28 You hear this a lot, people accessing the fertilizer's in the soil, and this company has been able 00:03:33 to figure out how to do that. Uh, easy to use, you know, a lot of these carbon products, when you use 'em, there'll be an inch 00:03:40 or two left in your tote of solid material. Yeah. You know, that's not something we see with their product. 00:03:46 When you, when you enter the tote, the tanker, uh, whatever, you're using it, it's all gone. 00:03:52 And and that's what, because that stuff at the bottom of the, of the tote is what you really want on your crop, you know? Yeah. That's, 00:03:58 That's the actual, the better act of ingredients end up being the stuff that settles out and then the rest of it you're putting on water and, 00:04:03 and that's not, uh, happening with this stuff. So it's a liquid product. Go ahead and just gimme the quick brand. 00:04:07 Brandon, you can hop in here. Brandon Laws, uh, you, you've been with this company for a while and so you, you're, uh, 00:04:14 you can describe it, it's a liquid product. Um, it's soil applied. It doesn't have a compatibility issue. 00:04:20 I can put it out with a fertility mix at, uh, a side dress or at time of planting, basically. 00:04:24 That's what I'm putting it on, right? Yeah, that's right. So you're, you're looking at a concentrated activated 00:04:28 carbon based material. Um, and then we can, we can do customized blends that include, you know, phosphorus, potassium, 00:04:36 micronutrient packages, you know, something that's designed to fit your operation, 00:04:40 but liquid carbon compatible with, with other liquid fertility systems. Um, you know, really the target is you want to go out in 00:04:46 that, what we call the app planting window. Um, so this Could, this could be done a couple of weeks. This could be done pre-plant if 00:04:53 for some reason I was doing a fertility or a herbicide pass two weeks before the planter runs, it would work then as well. 00:05:00 Yeah. Yeah. We wanna try to get it concentrated as much as we can. You know, like we were talking about farming's different 00:05:05 everywhere, like in Matt's neck of the woods, abandon it on before we, before we hip up or prepare those rows. 00:05:11 You know, that's a great application. Running it in like a strip till scenario, um, you know, abandon it right over the top, uh, prior 00:05:18 to planting is an option, obviously in the planter. And then we can do same type stuff up to 30 days after, is kind of that, the target window 30 days 00:05:26 before up to 30 days after. That's, that's a sweet spot. And then obviously we've got some side dress 00:05:32 opportunities, even foliar. But, uh, that, that at planting timing's where we see the most consistent return. 00:05:39 You just said foliar, but really we do it. We don't prefer that we think this, this product, this, this stuff works by getting it in the dirt. 00:05:46 That's where it works the best. Yeah. All right. Although, although Matt ran it foliar and, and, and switched it to his whole, whole rice farm. 00:05:52 So you've got, you've got options, but definitely the soil applied is the, is the Approach to go with Brad. I 00:05:57 got a question for you. So the thing is, this is, normally you're, because you're the owner of the company and this is your product, right? 00:06:03 You, you've pioneered this, right? Yes, sir. Did they not teach you in business school, you're supposed to make one standardized product that then you just make 00:06:11 that and you get better at efficiencies of production and then you put a label on it, you give it a brand name and it goes out the door. 00:06:17 Because you have just said, this is not a, this is, it's a, it's a company. It's a brand, but it's not a, 00:06:23 every product is a little different. Sure. Um, you know, if this was a, this was a public company and we had multiple shareholders 00:06:31 and essentially non, non-essential personnel that needed to make profit off of this, yeah, we'd put a, 00:06:37 we'd put a stamp on a single product and say, use it anywhere. Use it anyhow. You like, we just wanna make as much money 00:06:43 and sell as much product as we can. That's not the case. We are customized. We directly focus on that relationship with a grower. 00:06:52 Um, there's many different timings in which we can apply this, but we wanna identify the single most efficient pass 00:06:59 that you're making on your acres to incorporate this to help capture an investment of, of fertility that you've made. 00:07:07 And it's in your soil, you own it. However, it's never gotten into the plant. We're all about access and 00:07:12 Nutrients. The stuff that Matt buys, the stuff that Matt uses for you from you and stuff I might use here at my farm road, 00:07:18 Indiana are two different pro. They have some similarities, but they're, no two products have to be the exact same. 00:07:24 That's correct. That's correct. So let's talk about that a little bit. What, what Matt's been doing. 00:07:29 So Matt's been a very good steward. Matt and Lane both, um, you know, in miles forms, they've been good stewards 00:07:35 of their soil from a fertility standpoint on top of operations. Everything's done very timely. 00:07:41 And, you know, they have a lot of operation, a lot of acres to go across. So they're extremely efficient. 00:07:47 They use, um, they use chicken litter on, uh, that's a standard practice on just about all their acres. So they have, they have an abundance of 00:07:55 fo phosphate potassium and different micronutrients in their soil. However, Matt has been incorporating our 00:08:04 activated carbon in a foliar custom blend on his rice. Um, he's been doing that, you know, let's call it 70 to 80 days post planting on his rice acres. 00:08:15 Two gallons of an activated carbon foliar blend for miles forms has gotten them an average increase of 600 pounds of grain. 00:08:25 Right? In rice, you know, they have, they have super high p and K levels in their soil, 00:08:30 however, that activated carbon is helping to get it into the plant. That's it. That's what ag production agriculture is. 00:08:37 Uh, whether you're growing ornamentals in a greenhouse, um, produce that's going from farm to shelf and grocery stores 00:08:45 or producing grain, um, the, the whole premise of, of what we're trying to do to get a return on our money is get the nutrients into the, into the crop. 00:08:55 That's, and that's what we specialize in. Hey, Mary, by the way, he just ran out some numbers. Go ahead and do those. 'cause you know, we we're, 00:09:03 that's what we're all about here. X extreme mag is sharing the actual numbers. You put on a couple gallons of this stuff per acre, 00:09:10 and he said 600 pounds of rice. Isn't rice about 60 pounds a bushel? 45? Well, it's 45 pounds a bushel. 00:09:17 Okay. So we're talking about, oh Yeah, he kind of, he kind of stumped me when he went with those 600 pounds, because I do everything in bushels. 00:09:24 That's about 13 and a half, say 12 and half, 13 bushels. So, so about 13 bushels more. 00:09:27 And that's, that's, uh, on percentage increase. 'cause the person that's just a corn producer, like, I don't even know how good that is. 00:09:34 What's, what, what yield did you go to and from? Well, that 13% would be what, about 5%? Yeah, 5%. 13 bushel. 00:09:42 13 bushels is about a 5% gain. 200 Bush, 200 bushel crop be a little over 5%. Um, you know, rice has been six 50 to $7. 00:09:51 Uh, it is not gonna be that this year. I mean, the last bid I got is like four 50. We're in a tank, can't get rid of it. It's terrible. 00:09:57 The worst scenario I've ever seen on rice. And, you know, those numbers economically will make that, you know, that that profit go down, 00:10:05 but still, you know, you're looking at 50, $60 an acre even at the poor s**t we're selling now. Um, you know, and it's not what, 00:10:13 $20 an acre, Brad? Isn't that about right? That's a $19 and 50 cent investment. Yeah. Okay. So two gallons an acre is $19 and 50 cents. 00:10:22 And that's, that's not the pass. That's, but you're, you're assuming you're already taking a pass across that field. 00:10:26 It wakes up, mixes and compatible with everything. So it's 19 50 cents of product. Yep. He's applying it with his fungicide. 00:10:32 It's a standard practice on rice. So it's a free ride. Yeah. All right. So 1950 makes you, well, so 00:10:40 what number are you using on your rice then using five bucks? Well, If we use 13 bushels 00:10:44 and we use four 50 this year, uh, I gotta have a calculator that's 58 50. I spent 20 to get 60. Yeah. 00:10:55 You know, and I'm the guy that, you know, everybody wants to talk these two to one returns or three to one returns. 00:11:01 Right. If you give a dollar every day and I give you a dollar 20 cents back, you're gonna do that every day. 00:11:07 You know, that's only 20%. But if you really get down and look at the ROI, you don't, I mean, yeah, it's great to have a one-to-one return. 00:11:15 You put out, you spend 20, you get 40. But if I spend 20 and get 25, I've made money that day. So what I'm hearing here is, uh, 00:11:26 you've got a good track record. This is your third year doing this. I just wanna look at my calculator. Yeah, 00:11:31 This will be the fourth year, fourth year I think. Yeah. I think this is the fourth year. Right? And then we've done it on corn, beans 00:11:38 and, and cotton as well. This year was the first year we really concentrated on cotton. 00:11:43 And we basically, like I said, you know, depending on the price of cotton, if cotton was where it needs to be, you know, 00:11:49 we would've probably been somewhere in the $30 range. You know, on ROI, we ended up pretty much breaking even with the cost of product. 00:11:57 But that's not the company's fault that prices are so low, we can't make a living. So I'm go with both Brandon and Brad. 00:12:03 Um, I'm go with how it works and then how it has worked. So in other words, how does this work? 00:12:08 I, I want to, I wanna experiment with this. How do I go about doing that? Because obviously if the every product you send is a little 00:12:15 different, it's gotta be based on climate, topography, soil type, objective crop. There's a lot of variables. So start with that. 00:12:28 Uh, we could, we could talk about, let's look at something real simple right now, phosphate. Okay? If you're using traditional sources of phosphate, 00:12:38 let's call it triple or dap, okay? At a hundred pounds, um, that's 45 units applied. Um, I'm telling you right now, we will displace 00:12:48 that a hundred percent with two gallons of material, right? Two gallons of activated P source. Okay? 00:12:55 Um, so what we're gonna do is we're going to chemically the activated carbon will chemically break the bonds of the fixed 00:13:04 and tied up nutrients that that phosphate has with calcium, iron, aluminum, magnesium. 00:13:11 All right? That's number one. Number two, biologically it's going to accelerate the decomposition breakdown 00:13:17 of stubble and residue. Okay? We are recycling nutrients, that's what that is. And then from a structural standpoint, 00:13:24 the activated carbon will open up the network and pathways, uh, within our soil, within our root zone to allow for water, nutrients 00:13:34 and oxygen to flow more freely. That's, that's it in a nutshell. Now, let's go into the economics of that. 00:13:40 Right now, pot, uh, phosphate is trading at anywhere from eight 50 to $900 a ton. 00:13:46 So at a hundred pounds, that's gonna be 40 to 45 bucks an acre at two gallons. That's gonna be about 21 bucks an acre. 00:13:54 And I'm telling you that at minimum, it's gonna hit your, your yield goals, right? 00:14:00 So do I end up, do I back off of my applied fertility or is it just, or in other words, is it that allows me to back off and not lose yield, 00:14:08 or it allows me to get bigger deals? Brandon, you haven't talked for a while. What's this? What's your, what's the value proposition that you pitch? 00:14:14 You come to my farm in Indiana and you say, I really want you to experiment with this. And I say, sure, I'm open minded. 00:14:19 I'm extreme guy, I'll do this. Um, why, how, Yeah, like, like Brad said, Brad touched on kind of the, the why it works. 00:14:28 I, I like to sort of take a look at the systematic deal. I mean, we're taking a look at your soil test. 00:14:33 We're taking a look at your, what we call the activated carbon access test. A, a total cross section of nutrients in your soil. 00:14:40 So we get a good snapshot of, of what's available that day. The soil te was tested, 00:14:45 what's what's available in that, in that bank. Um, and then we're working with you to build those, those yield goals and the, uh, sort of the economics of, of 00:14:55 how you wanna run your operation. Um, what we're doing mostly in, with our core customers is we're, 00:15:02 we're backing off their fertility. We are replacing it with activated carbon, and we're saving 'em on their, their cost, their line item 00:15:11 of, uh, fertility cost while maintaining those yield goals. Um, you know, if, if, if your operations such, it's like, 00:15:19 Hey, I want to go from, from 2 75 to 300 bushels on, on corn, then we'll build a program to do that. We may end up spending more money than you're used to, 00:15:28 but chances are we can take those fertility dollars, invest them differently, and get a better return. Man, have you cut back on applied 00:15:35 fertility because of this? Um, and that, that's one thing I wanted to ask Brandon. Brad, the same question. Brad. 00:15:42 Uh, Brad and I have had this conversation many, many times. And as a farmer, as a conservative farmer on fertility, 00:15:49 I've spent years building my soil, right? So for a guy to come in and say, Hey, you don't need to do this anymore. 00:15:56 Just spray our product out and you don't have to put all this money out fertilizer. Well, of course I'm gonna be skeptical of 00:16:03 that right off the bat. And so that was the kind of question I, when Brandon, when you said cut back, are you, 00:16:10 are you talking completely cut out or just cut back? 'cause I know y'all do add some, y'all will add some micros or macros to that if to that blend, you know, 00:16:21 are you just taking it away? And then my second question is, and I didn't get on here to ask questions, I know, 00:16:26 but you know, is there some point where you start mining the soil to the point that, you know, if you're never putting more back in the bucket, 00:16:35 you're just taking what's already in the soil? Is there a point where can you do this a year or two? What I've seen in the past, and on some programs, 00:16:43 I've got enough fertility out there to grow the 26 crop minus my potassium and nitrogen, I guess I should say phosphorus 00:16:52 probably maybe the 27th crop. But I think my 28th crop, I'm gonna start, you know, if I don't put anything out, I'm gonna start really seeing 00:16:58 some declines. And what's your, I mean, are y'all cutting completely out or cutting back? Because to answer your initial question, Damon, 00:17:07 I have started cutting back on my nutrients, right? Nitrogen, phosphorus. I will not do it on potassium, on cotton. 00:17:14 I've seen it wreck my farm before when I've said, okay, two tons of litters, enough, the numbers are there, okay? 00:17:20 You know, two tons of litter's gonna give you about a hundred to 140 pounds of potassium. That's plenty of potassium, 00:17:28 but I can't get that in the plant. That's where these products, to me, come in and aid with the, with the macros I'm putting out, 00:17:35 allowing them to get in the plant. Again, I'm not really worried about what's in the soil. I'd like to keep the levels where I'm at, 00:17:41 because I spent a lot of money in years building them. So I'd like to keep 'em for, you know, relatively the same, but I need to get that into, if I apply something 00:17:51 and it don't go into the plant, well then not only do I have my fertility levels there, I put this other fertilizer out 00:17:56 and I didn't get it in the plant. Yeah. So I'm just throwing good money at bad money. And that's where this product will allow those nutrients 00:18:02 to go in the, into the plant, the ppms in the plant where you're gonna get your yield, not what's over here in the middle in your soil. 00:18:09 Yeah. You said that's a great statement. Throwing good money and bad money. Um, that's kind of where we live. 00:18:17 Um, so I'll put you on the spot here a little bit. What's your average parts per million of phosphorus on most of your soils average? Uh, 00:18:25 They're gonna run, I had that question asked to me yesterday. 50 to 80. Okay. Um, I know where you farm. 00:18:32 I've taken these activated carbon access tests, total nutrient extractions around your farm. I'd be willing to say that you have 25 to 2,800, um, 00:18:41 you know, pounds of P 2 0 5 on your soil. What about potash? Where are you at there average? Oh, shoot, I'd have to go look at my numbers. 00:18:50 They're, they're, they're a little bit lower. I wouldn't even wanna guess. Yeah. So let's just say one 50 to 200. Let's, 00:18:58 Yeah. I'm gonna say more than the one 30 to one 60 range. Yeah. I, I'm, I, I can't keep high levels of potash 00:19:04 for some, I guess that we're using it. Yeah, that's right. Why'd be willing to say that you have, you know, um, probably close to 3000 pounds 00:19:12 of K two O in your soil. So you're talking about, let's say 30 to 50 PPM of p you, you probably have closer to seven 00:19:21 or 800 ppm, um, you know, 130 ppm k probably have closer to, to 900 ppm. And, uh, and that's what exactly, 00:19:32 and that's what, that's where we, that's where we shine. That's what, that's what our goal is, 00:19:36 that we're all about nutrient access. Um, now you asked the question on what's the longevity of this? 00:19:43 How long can I do this? Um, we currently don't know, but that's the reason why if you're a first time user, we want to establish that baseline. 00:19:52 We want to take that total nutrient extraction, that activated carbon access test, because the first barometer that you're gonna use 00:19:59 as a measurement of success is yield. Okay? We, that's the name of the game. That's how we generate revenue. 00:20:06 Secondly, we need to go post-harvest and look at these total nutrient extractions, activated carbon access tests 00:20:12 and see what the soil's reaction to this process was. Because we are in the business of mining the soil, but we're not in the business of depleting the soil. 00:20:22 That's where our, that's where our bio biology comes into play. Nutrient recycling, let's use the stove 00:20:29 and residue, which makes up over 70% of the, of the nutrient removal of a crop. That's right. And, uh, you know, 00:20:37 that's really where we stay. Brandon, you want to add to that? No, I was just gonna kind of chime in 00:20:42 and say that's where that customized approach comes in. Damien, like we were talking earlier with, with, you know, getting a dairy situation or where guys are chopping 00:20:50 and removing a lot of residue. Yep. You know, those guys have a different program than someone like Matt, who's just, just doing grain. 00:20:56 So, you know, we're, we're using the tools that are out there to, to build these programs, to have that longevity. 00:21:01 We don't, we don't survive if the farmer doesn't survive. So we gotta keep this thing running for, for decades. Well, 00:21:09 I mean, one of the questions are gonna be, all right, so I use your stuff and after a couple years, I, it's, it's allowed me 00:21:16 to grab all those nutrients that were sort of banked up in the soil. Well, now what? Now I've used them. 00:21:22 So then I could make the argument after two years using your stuff, um, good. It would help me out. It helped me grab 00:21:29 and put stuff in the plant that formerly was not. But now have I used up all that to Matt's point, and it's like, well, shh, you know, crap, 00:21:36 here are 2027 or eight. I'm, I'm gonna have to really ramp up applied fertility to the soil. 00:21:41 Again, I, I don't, I don't think that's the case, but I could see someone having that sort of, uh, concern. Well, the way you do that is you monitor that each year. 00:21:51 You know, and that's what I was gonna say about, about their, their company. You Do it based on removal rate, Matt. Yeah. 00:21:57 If a guy comes in and sells you a product, a fertility product, and he don't ask for a soil sample, yeah. 00:22:04 You probably need to stay away from him because he has no idea what he is doing other than just trying 00:22:09 to sell you a product, rather them work with the soil you have. And I was sitting there thinking about this while we were 00:22:14 talking about this perfect case scenario is for me to use my nutrients that's in my soil, get it to a generic level, and then add, if I need to add from there, 00:22:27 because again, what I've had to learn the hard way is it's what you want in a plant. So all this stuff and all this money I've spent 00:22:34 to build this soil, is it really worth anything? Maybe if I sell the land, I show 'em some soil samples. Yeah. But I've seen guys that were, 00:22:42 that don't use fertilizer for two years. Their soil samples will be the same or even higher than they were when they took 'em previously. 00:22:49 So we, we don't even, we don't have a, any kind of grasp of what our soils are doing 00:22:53 and what's coming out, you know, or what's staying in. I mean, we think, yeah, we keep putting this out. I used to say, well, I'm gonna put out extra potassium. 00:23:01 'cause it goes in the bank. Well, I just told Brad, my, my potassium ppms are never raised. I could put 500 pounds of potassium out there 00:23:09 and I'm still gonna have the same level next year. I, you Know, and we've, and we've covered before. 00:23:13 I mean, that's the most, the, the best example Chad Henderson put out like three times what any normal recommendation would've been, 00:23:21 and did it for like a year or two maybe. And at the end of two years, the soil didn't show that it had this super amount of, you know, it didn't, it, 00:23:31 it didn't even, it, it made no difference. So the, again, that's the, I think the most telling thing that I've learned of working with these guys about 00:23:37 fertility, the idea that you're gonna just over fertilize by some ridiculous amount, 00:23:42 and it's gonna matter if it doesn't get in the plant. It doesn't matter matter. And it also, it doesn't, it doesn't, even if it did bank up in the soil, 00:23:50 it's a pretty damn expensive savings account. You know what I mean? Because you're putting it out there two years in advance. 00:23:55 You know, it is just, anyway, Brad, um, what do I need to know? I'm a farmer. I'm, I'm, I'm thinking through this. 00:24:05 Um, I, it's making sense to me what's like, what's like the, the couple of things that I need to know 00:24:12 that we have not covered yet. You started this, you started this stuff, right? You're, you're, you're an ag guy. 00:24:16 You came up with this, what do I need to know? Yeah. Well, I mean, the business was originated on, um, you know, offering a 00:24:30 complex high value technology to farmers that allow 'em to fertilize more profitably, more efficiently. Okay. We'd like to remove the, the misleading 00:24:41 information that has been at the forefront of our fertilizer guidelines. Right? Let's look at the Paul Harvey version, 00:24:50 the rest of the story, right? And that's where our activated carbon access test, we wanna look at everything in your soil, 00:24:55 whether it's available or unavailable, because we have a tool that can access that. Um, and, you know, we're gonna customize 00:25:02 and design this program for you. We're gonna establish that baseline. We're gonna check the box on yield year one, 00:25:09 but as soon as, as soon as harvest is completed, we're gonna take a soil sample and see how the soil performed from activated carbon. 00:25:18 Brandon, how many acres do you think you were on in 2025? Brad, do you know? What do you think, Brad? I would say close to 200,000. 00:25:28 Okay. And anything, anything that you're like, oh boy, this, this is one thing that didn't work. I mean, you're not out here, 00:25:36 you're not, you're being a huckster. Uh, did, did you find anything that's like, it doesn't work in this type of soil, doesn't, 00:25:42 doesn't do anything on this type of a crop? Or, here's the one thing that didn't give me a nons successs story, or more importantly, a big lesson learned in 25. 00:25:49 Yeah. Um, non successs story. So we've had some guys that, um, that have implemented a full p 00:25:57 and k replacement, um, at planting. Um, followed it up with, uh, postseason mid to late season, let's call it reproductive stage foliar applications. 00:26:06 And we didn't really see a, you know, an increase on yield in, in those scenarios. Um, you know, we, 00:26:16 Brad I would, I would probably talk about one of the things, sometimes you get, uh, you get in trouble when you try to win something, 00:26:21 even though you know it's not, uh, not the right choice. We, we did a side by side comparison where we, 00:26:28 we actually guaranteed that with the grower, uh, positive return over his, his current program. And, um, you know, what I will say is we, we grew a heck 00:26:37 of a lot of corn on, on five pounds of phosphate. But, um, you know, it, it wasn't the right recommendation. And, uh, you know, sometimes you, you get in those scenarios 00:26:47 where you're trying to, trying to fit a box that you don't belong in. Yeah. So the point is, you, you, you went backed way off 00:26:53 of applied fertility, and then there's a, there's a, there's a point where this doesn't work. You can't, you can't back off to 00:26:59 Point. Now this part, this particular case, he's a very aggressive and, and, uh, you know, very intense grower. 00:27:06 Um, he's already backing off. He used a non-traditional, uh, p and k source at a lower rate. 00:27:13 It was liquid, it was banded. Um, we went with a, a reduced rate on p and k, even compared to what he was doing 00:27:22 and led with activated carbon. Um, we stripped 2000 acres. Okay? So a thousand acres of activated carbon program versus a, 00:27:29 um, you know, let's call it a, a ortho p and K type blend. Um, and at the end of the day, we, 00:27:37 there was a phosphate limitation early in the season, and you thought it would be a 10 or 20 bushel difference from the activated carbon program 00:27:44 to his, to his grower standard approach. Anyway, the activated carbon eventually caught up, but it was still about 1.3 bushels, 00:27:51 1.3 bushels less than his standard fertility. Um, now you could take that and spend it a couple different ways. 00:27:58 We grew 200, we grew 233 bushel corn with two units of, of phosphate, and about four and a half units of, of potash, which was about 25% a fourth 00:28:10 of what he had actually applied. So that was a loss. Um, you know, we kind of overlooked the importance of early season phosphate there. 00:28:18 Um, but, you know, lesson learned, um, you know, that's, that's, uh, you know, 00:28:23 that was a shortcoming we had this year. Hey Matt, we are, we, we believe that, and part of the big messaging around extreme ag 00:28:32 and some of the trials and the stuff we're showing people and our data conference 00:28:36 and all that is you're going to have, and I absolutely believe this 100% in the next several years, more scrutiny. 00:28:42 There's gonna be nutrient management plans, just like, uh, a big livestock operation has to do 00:28:47 for manure on applied nutrients. The environmental aspect of farming is gonna get more intensively scrutinized. 00:28:55 And because we got a bunch of nutrients that run into the water, a product like this does this, this is right down the reducing, 00:29:05 making sure the nutrients get where they need to be and stuff like this plays into the future of a more regulation, I would think. 00:29:13 Absolutely. I mean, this is, I would call this, uh, I mean it's a bunch of different things. Stress mitigator, it's, you know, 00:29:19 carbon does a lot of different things. Their version of this is, is efficiency. And, you know, there's gonna be a time when we're 00:29:27 limited to what we can put out. Yeah. We're in a little better situation because we live in the middle of nowhere. 00:29:32 But, you know, Kelly and them are dealing with that in Iowa right now with the river right there. Uh, we get blamed for it, even when it's not us as farmers, 00:29:39 you know, we're the ones doing it, even though there may be a factory sitting there. But to answer your question, these type products, 00:29:45 these type programs are gonna aid us in being able to be more efficient. You're gonna be forced to be more efficient. 00:29:52 It's easy to hit the easy button and just pile the fertilizer out there. But that's not gonna be able to happen 00:29:57 for the rest of my career. No, it's not. And for first off, from an economic standpoint, now more than ever, 00:30:04 you should be do doing it because of your bottom line. But then also from the environmental regulatory. And, uh, I'm telling you, it's coming to every state. 00:30:11 And when Iowa and Nebraska and Wisconsin's ag areas are under very bi intense scrutiny right now about nutrient, uh, 00:30:19 I think that this plays into that. Brandon, and nod your head. You got your last word for me? No, I was just kind of agreeing with you. 00:30:25 I think, uh, when you look at the efficiency, the environmental aspects of it, uh, the, the economics agronomics, you know, that's like, 00:30:35 I've known Brad for, you know, 15 plus years and that's when, when he started this deal that that's why we did it. 00:30:41 I mean, it was to, to build a technology that offers efficiency to farmers from how we make it, how we deliver it, how we recommend it, how you apply it, 00:30:50 and how it works on your farm. That's, that's kind of efficiency sums us up in, in one word. And Utilizing resources that are your soul. 00:30:58 So if I wanna do this, uh, you'll make it at your facility in Louisiana and put it on a truck in a shuttle 00:31:03 and then drop it off at my farm. I don't need to go through an ag retailer. How do I work? How's this happen, Brad? 00:31:07 Yeah. You work directly with us. So we have a website, activated.ag, um, we also have phones, uh, Brandon and myself. 00:31:15 So you can contact us directly. We'll give you the, the tools to pull soil samples for yourself if we can't make it out there for you. 00:31:23 Um, once it hits the lab, we'll have a consultation. We'll design a program for you to see how efficient and how lean we can be on our, uh, 00:31:30 on our fertility investment Activated ag. I'm pulling it up right now on my phone, right? Yep. And then you, you send me the stuff, 00:31:40 I pull samples and I tell you, Hey, I wanna grow, uh, whatever on this, whatever the crop is next year. And then we look at the soil samples 00:31:47 and then we look at the, what I wanna do and my objective and you say, here's my recommendation, 00:31:52 and then I'll make a product specifically formulate it for me. That's correct. Yeah. So what's your goal? It could 00:31:59 Vary. It could vary from one of my farms to my other one based on soil type. And on this one over here, I'm gonna 00:32:04 grow soybeans on this one over here. I'm growing canola. That's right. Yeah. 00:32:08 So soil top crop and app soil type, crop and application. That's really what we need to, 00:32:13 to make a recommendation for you. Okay. I just went on the website. It's called activated.ag Activated Carbon Technology, 00:32:19 the name of the company, you just figured it out. These guys, obviously it's not a big corporation, it's them. So you can call them and figure this out. 00:32:24 Matt has four years of experience working with them. And then speaking of while you're on your phone, I have an app on here called dictionary.com. 00:32:32 And you might remember we started this episode that I made the mistake in front of my friend Matt, of saying, yeah, you know what Brad is? 00:32:39 He's a crayfish producer. Jesus say crayfish. Well, I'm just gonna tell you something, Mr. Matt. Just like the word grainery, when you came here 00:32:46 to film Grainery, you told me I was misspelling grainery. And I said, I don't believe that I am. 00:32:51 'cause it's not spelled like the word grain. 'cause the root word is granular. Turns out old dictionary.com says crayfish, 00:32:59 C-R-A-Y-F-I-S-H. And what does it say? It's a noun, a freshwater decapo, crus station of the janera, blah, blah, blah. 00:33:07 Closely related to, but smaller than the lobsters. You didn't ask me, you didn't ask me what the proper name was. 00:33:13 You asked me what it's called. So you, that's two, you're, it is Matt zero, Damon two because he's right on the grainery also. 00:33:21 But also there is the word crawfish. And then, um, I'm not the total northerner because as a kid, I remember going in Clear Creek 00:33:28 and picking out what we called craw dads back then. And then, uh, put 'em in a bucket of clean water for a couple hours so they can clean out 00:33:34 allegedly, and then boil 'em. And man, they're delicious. So anyway, um, uh, we're gonna cover that in another episode someday, 00:33:39 maybe on my business of agriculture show. I talked to Brad about cr crawfish, crawdad crayfish, crustacean production. 00:33:47 Anyway, if you wanna learn more about their stuff, go to that website. We just told you activated.ag. 00:33:51 If you wanna learn more about everything that you can do to farm better, we have hundreds of videos 00:33:56 that guys like Matt have shot out in the field. We have webinars. If you're a member, you can watch the, uh, the backlog 00:34:02 of webinars that we do every month. We've got hundreds and hundreds of episodes of, uh, these right here, uh, of the Cutting the Curve Show. 00:34:09 Uh, and also you can catch us at events. We do have a data conference coming up at the end of January in Davenport, Iowa. 00:34:15 If you wanna go to Extreme Mag Farm and sign up for it, you'll hear all the guys talking about the trials, the data, the results. 00:34:21 There'll be some of our corporate partners there. It's free if you're in attend, if you're in a member of Extreme Mag, you go to this conference for free, 00:34:28 meaning there's no admittance fee and the room and meals and all that are paid for, 00:34:32 you might have to buy your own drinks. I'm not sure about that yet. But the point is be there. I'm gonna be there. Uh, check out all our good stuff. 00:34:37 That's Matt Miles joined by, uh, activated Carbon Technologies, Brad Benson and Brandon Lost. Till next time, thanks for being here. 00:34:42 I'm Damien Mason and this is Extreme Ice Cutting the Curve. That's a wrap for this episode of Cutting the Curve. 00:34:48 Make sure to check out Extreme ag.farm for more great content to help you squeeze more profit out of your farming operation. 00:34:56 This episode of The Cutting the Curve podcast is brought to you by BASF, creating innovation 879 00:35:01.665 --> 00:35:03.805