00:00 Is your planter set up ideally is your planter efficient is your planter doing everything you want to do and also not causing you downtime. I 00:09 hope that's the case, but you know what, maybe your Planters not doing as good a job as you really think it could and that's why you need to tune into this episode right 00:19 here. We're gonna be talking about correcting planter inefficiencies and correcting planter problems. 00:26 with Kevin Matthews of extreme AG welcome to extreme AGS cutting the curve podcast where you get a guaranteed return on investment 00:36 of your time as we cut your learning curve with the information. You can apply to your farming operation immediately extreme AG, we've already made the mistakes so 00:47 you don't have to managing. Your Farm's Water Resources is a critical component to a successful and sustainable farming operation Advanced Drainage 00:57 Systems helps Farmers, just like you increase their yields up to 30% with their technologically advanced Water Management products visit ads 01:06 pipe.com to see how they can keep your business flowing. Now, here's your host Damien Mason. Well greens 01:15 are welcome to another fantastic episode of Extreme Ice cutting the curb. It's me your host Damien Mason. I'm talking to one of 01:21 extreme AG Founders Kevin Matthews about a planter problem. Okay covers a lot of Acres. He has more than one planter and it turns out he's gonna plant her 01:30 right now. It's gonna get through the season but he's sure as heck gonna make a big change to it for next season. Maybe you're 01:36 doing the same thing if you're farming right now and you're saying hey, we're gonna get through we're gonna live through this season. It's go 01:43 time. But my golly we're gonna improve this next year and that's exactly what's cool about getting these podcasts recorded right while things are happening. This is fresh and Kevin's 01:52 mind as we speak his hired guys our doctoring up the planter to get through this season. And he says, here's what we're doing next year. What was the problem and what are 02:02 you gonna do? yes, so Damian we We put our fertilize out in a 2x2 by 2 formation actually on this planter. It's 02:12 three inches off the row on each side been doing this for many years on we did research early on and it absolutely pays splitting that fertilized the problem 02:21 you're running into is place in that fertilize. How do you get it down in there last year? We were on a product the year before we're running on four rows last 02:30 year. We put it on a whole planner called closure system and it dribbles the fertilize right in front of the closing wheels 02:37 and it incorporates it into the soul. It doesn't really good job. No issues with it whatsoever economical. It's right on my planner. That's Danielle's 02:49 planner. She runs it our other planner runs. We got done disc and we inject it right behind the desk. It does a pretty good job as well. 03:00 Um, it's it's actually it's not as efficient as the closure because you got to pay for wire entire disc and replace them, but it does a good job, then on my 03:09 planner. I've got a product from Precision planting. It's called conceal and it's two swords the concept. 03:16 I absolutely love the concept and that's why this you know allowed them to put this on my planner and we invested in it's been a lot of money the problem we 03:26 get with it is there's no longevity in it. And so last year we got 628 acres and we were set a swords out and we had cut them off and we figured out 03:35 how to get about 900 to A Thousand Acres out instead of swords. And that's not really good for the Acres we go over it, 03:41 you know 44 foot planner. You're gonna go over those Acres pretty quick. Okay. So here's the thing. 03:48 I talked about this exact thing with Johnny Burrell about why he took two by two off of his planter and I 03:54 said, we I said this is like technology you're supposed to be doing. He said Damien, here's a problem. It doesn't 04:00 work as well. As I wanted to he's I love the concept. He said but you know what it plugs up. And then also he says my Sandy soils just basically 04:10 sandpaper and grind to those those applicators the swords you're talking about down. He said when his go time me and my higher guys need to be out here planting. He says 04:19 we're stopping and fixing the two by two and you know again like you said on a big enough planter you're talking about a day. Oh, you're 04:26 doing all this that's kind of the same thing. I'm hearing from you. You're not opposed to the system. I mean, obviously it's a great idea. 04:32 You've been doing it for a while if having to change out the the applicators every 900 Acres. That's fine. If you farm and I heard Acres, but far a number 04:43 of Acres you're stopping and fixing the planter a lot. Yeah. I mean we took the The guys took off today. They had a little over right at 04:51 600 acres on them and he is out. There is a couple roads starting to get trouble where they wire on the sides and then they start messing the whole up and it stops up 05:00 as Johnny was talking about on his and so what we have actually done they've got an extended wearer version and they sent it out today another issue with 05:10 this sword is it takes enormous horsepower to pull it? Because you're dragging them knives through the ground and then it robs from your down pressure. So it's 05:19 taken we're on a plantar side by side. So Danielle always running on average. It's 20 to 30 pounds down pressure less than I do because I'm trying to 05:28 match them swords in so that's a big deal right there alone because it affects your seed placement and that that we don't run into that problem with 05:38 the Dome system that we run on the soybean planter and you don't have that as bad now, he will affect it does affect seed placement to a point but not critically 05:47 now only through those other real quickly because one of Johnny's other points was this which is we honestly are going to need we need bigger tractors because 05:57 again when you're dragging that much more through there same thing, you just said you're burning more fuel probably going slower because 06:03 of having a force those things through that ground. Yeah, and these extended wire versions that they got today, they've changed them and it's wider and that thing's probably 06:13 you know, it's three eights. It's probably a eighth inch wider all the way across than what the previous version was. I don't know that I'm gonna be able to push them 06:22 into ground. I'm kind of concerned that these at the guys put on a day. I may end up just running a hose out the back and dribbling 06:28 it to finish the year. If these things give me a fit we're gonna see how they work out, but it scares me when I see how 06:34 they redesign them, but I got question for you one of the products that we worked with last year you just you discovered as I way 06:43 fungicide, which is a great technology because you can put fungic sound at time of planting the problem is it needs to be away from the seed or 06:50 you're gonna have a little bit of a yield drag or even a germination problem? 06:54 If you get rid of your two by two or three by two in your case all together. 06:59 You now limit your ability to use that product. Am I right you would make correct? And that's why I will not limit. I will not 07:08 eliminate the two by two system the banding it on each side of the road. I'm gonna split it on both sides road. So what we're going to do we run a product our closing system 07:19 on my planner is a Furrow Force product from Precision planting. I really like this product it performs very 07:25 well for us. It does a good job. It's got displays in it that are like salt-tooth blades that help push the air out of the seed trench and what I'm 07:35 going to do is build me some stainless steel brackets and some drop tubes similar to what the closure system that Kelly introduced me 07:44 to has and I'm gonna put that fertilized right in front of those Scott Those saw two blades and let it incorporate it in. Oh, it'll 07:54 be about an inch and a half to two inches off of the sea Trench. And what we found was we could run it 08:02 out the back we've done that old school that works good in Sandy soils other soils. It's not quite as good but then you can get violation from it and 08:11 certain areas. It works great certain areas that don't some slopes they claim it washes off, but what we found with the closure system is if we 08:21 incorporate it with that closing wheel into the soles, it's just as effective if we knife it in. So we're going to actually start incorporating it 08:30 right in front of those Furrow Force salty disc. On each side of the road and we're going to get rid of them swords next year and and like say if I 08:40 can't push these new updates in the ground. I'm gonna get rid of this year just raise them up to whether or not affecting it 08:47 but I will tell you that back a week ago before this rain came. We was planning in both plants are setting at a two inch debt and 08:57 I could not keep a 90% ground contact. I had to raise mine to an inch and three quarter to maintain 90 percent and Danielle could keep 09:07 on rolling with other way. What's the difference in depth? You said that by making it so your seed depth was one three 09:13 quarter. Yeah. I had to raise it up. So I wouldn't pushing them knives as far down. Yeah, you put your seat 09:19 at one three quarter. What was she at two and a half? She was it too? Okay, so it's not a huge order. Yeah, but you know quarter inches a 09:28 lot, you know, I don't know. I've been in webinars where we hear from miles and I said, what's the plan? 09:34 Says about one knuckle. So you're worried about a quarter of an inch. He's out here measuring stuff based on you see how big is hands are 09:41 but but that's not a scientific. That's not a scientific thing. Talk about one knuckle or two. Yeah, you gotta look at the size of the hand one knuckle on 09:51 hems each. Hi. So here's my question. And if you're going you you said you're going to do this next year and we're 10:01 recording this dear listener first week of May and Kevin's a little bit behind because of the weather. They've had that's why he took time out to do these recordings. So this is really good 10:10 because it's fresh in his mind the issues that they're having right now and I think it's really cool that then you document 10:17 this and say after we get through planning season here are the changes we're gonna make you start like making your your summer to do list. Yeah absolutely. Just 10:26 like, you know, when we get done Harvest that's when we pull the combines in and we want to go through them this past year we wasn't able to do that. 10:34 We write down when we're planting we're taking notes. And Jim is amazing him and Eddie what they do, they'll write down everything. That's 10:44 a problem on that planner. If it's a cylinder, it's leaking if it's a bush and that's 10:50 don't looks right. You know, it's not service not anything you think of a tire that's aggravating right? Everything's wrote 10:56 down and I encourage all the listeners that you really need to keep that journal. And in this winter when you pull it out of the shed and you've had a hopefully a 11:06 Bound for Harvest and yeah and corn bean prices is really good and you made some money and you wanted to decide what you're gonna do to your planner. You can pull your notes out and 11:15 say hey these were the things causing me problems. Don't just park it in the shed and walk away from it. Well, yeah and 11:21 both feel like me during my busy season in January of February. I write down list the stuff I'm gonna do when I get slowed up in April, but then sometimes I don't I don't 11:31 get quite as diligently through the listeners. I need to hey, Miss. Right same for me. Yeah right to do this. So here's me 11:37 this. We talked about inefficiency. What do you think? It's costing? It's costing more diesel the way it is and you're not getting the the depth 11:45 that you want. So more diesel because you're pulling harder. You're not quite getting the consistent depth you want or as 11:52 deep as you want. Is there do you think you're losing yield or you think that's not going to be that's not your issue you think right now you're not in yield 12:00 you won't gain yield by putting in the Kelly system you're talking about. 12:04 Yeah, I'm I'm on Earth that I'll slow down and make sure I'm getting the seed the the ground contact that I need and get to see in the 12:14 right spot. So yeah, and and last year we was comparing to two systems to see if incorporating it with a closing Wheels versus. 12:24 Using the conceal knife in it in was a yield difference. I couldn't find a yield difference. It comes down to just simply efficiencies and and I'll be 12:34 You know very you know that 24 row planner. It was 5800 to replace those Swords not counting labor and that's a very 12:44 labor intense job to replace them because it just it's not easy job. And so I had three guys working on it today for about three hours 12:54 on a 24 row planter and they're pretty good guys. They don't fool around much. They're they're focused and they work hard. So you figure 13:04 that labor, you know 6200 bucks 6500 bucks just to play some that's expensive Damian and and quite frankly 13:15 we don't have time to be fooling with that kind of stuff when we can roll. 13:20 So the inefficiency you don't necessarily think it was a loss of yield. It's just now downtime and and all these other issues diesel downtime 13:29 and and more importantly mechanic time or wrench time shop time. What about the new system you're putting on do you think it'll give you more yield or you 13:39 think if it just stays the same you're still just happy. I don't I don't look for I'm not looking forward to give me more yield. 13:45 I'm looking forward to give me efficiency. And if it does give me more yield it's gonna be that we might get done planting a day or two earlier and 13:55 typically the earlier you get done planting the better the year. It's not always but in general the better timely is planning. It's better yields. I must 14:04 of the day it's just gonna make me more money and it's just gonna be a lot less headaches. I just wanting you get out and get a flag and unstop 14:11 them during swords. It's just aggravating. This can be speaking of money. I want to ask you if you want to save money on fertility without sacrificing yield and I know you do. What is your 14:21 method? One method should be for you to harvest last season's nutrients for this season's crops using extract from Loveland to 14:29 products go to lovelandprice.com to learn more. Just slipped a little commercial Force right there Kevin, but that's all right. You coming. Um answer me this though about your situation 14:39 and I really should think about the the person that's listening to this. You have two Planters. You called it Danielle's planter your daughter and in yours and you can compare the 14:48 two side by side and that's when it's probably struck you damn. I'm not very efficient. I'm not able 14:55 to plant as fast as her I've got my my seed placement is gonna be different because of this Boom the person that's out here listening that says I only have 15:05 one 12 row planter or I don't have two players of any size. They might be suffering some of the plantar inefficiencies and 15:13 not realizing it because they don't have a comparison. What's your recommendation to them? Yeah, I mean. 15:21 Call us email us talk to us. We've got the ability here at extreme AG to get you with the right person and but I'm saying maybe they don't 15:30 even know if they have the problem. I mean, what would you like you discover this because you had a comparison they might just be plotting along 15:37 doing their thing. Do you have advice for them? Like hey girls are actually Yeah, this this this concealed product the 15:47 lifespan of these swords. It's on the side. It's you know, everybody I talked to has the same issues that runs them. The concept 15:57 is just phenomenal. It's great. But the sidewall those things said it just a little bit of a angle and IT wires this IT wires 16:06 the side of the shield of the sword and it's not really wearing the bottom of it and they've got an excellent bottom on that sword. So it wires aside and then when 16:16 it wires it pushes in on that whole one and it causes in the Restriction just like getting a flake of you know, rust or something in a 16:25 spray nozzle. It starts. They don't want to spray right? You're not getting the right pattern, but the same thing we fertilize it going to your corn 16:32 so I think it's uniform. I think that the guy that's just got the one planner like probably I'd say 80% of the 16:40 farmers out there to run one planter. You got to look at how much money you're spending on a per acre basis on maintenance and repairs and if you're 16:50 in Rocky land and obviously it's gonna affect your seed placement anything you add to that row unit is going to do that. I don't care who's product it is. 17:00 So that's something to think about. You just again, it goes right back. You're going to have to get you boots out in the field and walk and see but 17:09 nobody let me tell you you're gonna know when your pocketbook when you go to replace them things every year because that's pretty expensively. 17:15 Yeah, whether you got one planter or three the main thing I'm hearing here is you are correcting an efficiencies inefficiencies 17:21 by doing this and you don't think it's gonna cost you anything in terms of yield. So the point is why wouldn't you do it and the answer is 17:30 is there any is there anything that you're you've already made this decision? Was there any concern before 17:37 you made the decision like you're like, well I still concerned about this or that no. 17:43 Oh, no, I mean, you know some people you're missing and he's gonna say you spend all that money on that planner. Now you're taking that stuff off and ain't using it but that's that's 17:52 part of learning. That's what we do. You know, we don't you don't always make the right mistakes, but the concept is 17:58 absolutely great. And I really thought like they'd be able to get the things where they do a better job, but it blows my mind how much it takes 18:08 to pull those son of guns. And so the thing you're doing you said about is this closing wheel you're buying from Kelly's company the is that 18:18 is that that that's where this or it was that a necessary part of what you're doing. Not well, so that was actually so when we 18:26 ran out and on the other planner and I was concerned on running that fertilizer on top of the ground because I had done that in the past and I 18:35 had winds and losses. I didn't have consistency in our field certain fields. We always had consistency, but then when we use Kelly's concept of 18:46 letting that that closing wheel Incorporated and then we is able to compare to the one being knifed in and we couldn't find a yield difference. 18:58 And we did this over 3,000 Acres with two planners that got my attention that okay, we figure out now as long as we incorporate that fertilize in there 19:08 and not just running on top of the ground on the Soles that we farm this works. So, you know, it's kind of opening the door. Now you 19:17 take temple he has extremely good success on his low sees CC soles by running it off the back and he's flat so he's 19:27 not worried about the Contours of it washing over into the sea trench like I would be yeah, so couldn't so putting 19:33 stuff on top of the soil. Like he does you're not gonna lose it if you get an inch and a half of rain because it's not going to wash down the hill clearly that wouldn't work and Garrett's place 19:43 and maybe not where you are. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. You got to fit you got to fit the program for your environment. Yeah. 19:51 All right. So you created you correcting planner and efficiency problems when you get this done, I think we should do a video about it. Is there anything 19:57 else that we need to know about making adjustments? And right now somebody's listening to this they're in their their in their tractor. They 20:04 got their planter behind them and they're thinking man. I wonder if I wonder what I should do. So you're encouragement to them is what? 20:11 Well need to get see what's costing you the money and whatever's costing you money get rid of it. And what's making money make more of it. 20:18 I think you also just said something really important and farm people sometimes are bad about this. You 20:24 just talked about the time. And you know, everybody's time has value. You've got hired guys. Maybe the person 20:33 listen this doesn't well that doesn't mean that you need to spend eight hours wrenching on something and think 20:39 that it doesn't have a cost your time has value and I think that you're looking at this as efficiency, but you also brought in the 20:45 element of time in some Farm people don't give themselves enough credit for the value of their time. 20:50 For our times really important. I mean Damien I look at I look at the my family, you know my girls and my son 20:57 the three kids there. I spent tremendous amount of time on the farm that I could have spent some time with them. Yeah, maybe 30 minutes. 21:07 Here I are there. But yeah looking back I would you know, no before we had employees, you know, I started with 30 Acres. I didn't 21:16 have employees at 30, right and when you know, I was farming nearly two thousand acres for I hired a full time employee and I actually didn't even hire him 21:27 my my cousin. She said my you know, your cousin her husband's coming to work for you and he's been here ever since but so 21:38 Time is valuable whether it's money or whether it's family time. It's valuable. So take advantage of it make every minute of 21:48 Life Camp. Well, you just said it right there first off if you if you're planting slower and then also you're fixing stuff 21:55 because it's not the right set up. Would you rather be would you rather be on the end of a wrench or or holding your kids? So I think 22:01 that there's something too that His name is Kevin. Matthews talked about correcting planter inefficiency problems. And you know what the one thing that I kind of like talking to 22:09 these guys is that they're never afraid to make adjustments. They're they're not out here saying well, you know, I'd be afraid to do that. They pull 22:16 the trigger on stuff they make adjustments and that's what it's kind of cool here. You contemplated that you thought about it. You looked at 22:22 your window and watched a planter and said, nope. I'm gonna make this change next year. So if you want to share this with somebody that you think can 22:28 benefit from it, please do so. Remember we've got literally 100. I have produced hundreds of these. These guys are produced hundreds of videos on Farm 22:35 just helpful tips. It's extreme AG dot Farm. It's all free. But if you want to take your farming games to the next level you can join extreme AG as a member. It's 750 bucks 22:44 a year 700 Peanuts because you get then a monthly webinar you get invited stuff you get access to guys like Kevin Matthews for 22:52 straight information where they'll actually help you, you know, when a one-on-one situation extreme agnot Farm hundreds and 22:59 hundreds of videos and podcasts there. But also if you want to take it the next level, we have a monthly webinar our next, you know, first Thursday 23:05 of every month and we also have field days. So again get involved use this to your advantage and share 23:12 this with somebody you think can benefit from until next time. Thanks for being here Kevin. 23:16 Thank you. Damien till next time I'm Damian Mason. This is Extreme Ice cutting the curve that's a wrap for this episode of cutting the curve, but 23:23 there's plenty more check out extremead.farm where you can find past episodes instructional videos and articles to help you squeeze more profit out of 23:33 your farm cutting. 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