Getting Your Sprayer Ready For Spring with Proper Winterization
Lee Lubbers, a meticulous advocate for sprayer maintenance, ensures his two units undergo rigorous rinsing and blowing with every product change. Additionally, he conducts extensive cleaning and winterizes the sprayers before seasonal storage. Highlighting more than just preventive care, Lee underscores the risks of damaged crops and weed problems linked to inadequate sprayer cleaning. Joined by Nick Fleitz, a dedicated 'sprayer geek' from Pentair, they emphasize the criticality of thorough sprayer maintenance.
Presented by Advanced Drainage Systems
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00:00 Is sprayer. Clean out something that's on your to-Do list. Is it something you're actually doing diligently? 00:05 That's what we're talking about, sprayer clean out in this episode of extreme Ag, cutting the curve. 00:12 Welcome to Extreme ags Cutting the Curve podcast, where you get a guaranteed return on investment of your time as we cut your learning curve 00:21 with the information you can apply to your farming operation immediately. Extreme ag, we've already made the mistakes 00:29 so you don't have to. Managing your farm's water resources is a critical component to a successful and sustainable farming operation. 00:38 Advanced drainage systems helps farmers just like you increase their yields up to 30% with their technologically advanced water 00:46 management products. Visit ad s pipe.com to see how they can keep your business flowing. Now, here's your host, Damien Mason. Hey there. 00:57 Welcome to another fantastic episode of Extre Acts Kind the curve. I got Lee Luber, extre Ag guy from Gregory, South Dakota. 01:03 I got Nick Flights. Nick is with a company called Pentair and we're talking about sprayer cleanout. 01:07 Uh, Lee has something cool, uh, and lots of information to share about this. He's got two sprayer Cleanout kits on his two sprayers in 01:15 South Dakota, and we're talking about contamination. We're talking about little things that maybe you're not quite paying attention 01:21 to that'll probably cost you yield, causing you damage. And also about winterization. Here we are recording this in 01:28 mid-November, going into the new year. Is your sprayer cleaned out? Is it cleaned out properly? Is it properly winterized? 01:34 And more importantly, during the season, are you properly cleaning it out? So Lee, you've got all kinds of stuff to share on this. 01:39 Actually, I think you introduced the topic. Um, tell me how important this is to you. Incredibly important. 01:47 Uh, anymore you're spending well over a half million dollars on a sprayer. 01:52 Uh, it's a key component to our operation and thousands of other operations. And, uh, what I refer to as sprayer hygiene 02:02 and clean out is it's critical for success. It's, it's something you cannot ignore. So you've got this, uh, this, uh, deal, you know, 02:13 this sprayer, and like you said, uh, you're changing products all the time. So we've talked about before we hit the record button, two 02:19 big components of this Nick. Um, it's the, the, during the season time, but switching between products. 02:26 And you even said you hypothesized if you shall. You said, I've wondered what the yield drag is when you're switching between products 02:36 and does it kill stuff? No, but does there, is, is there a, a contamination that is so slight that people don't realize 02:43 that just grabbed me three bushels off my potential yield? Yeah. And so when I was, my hypothesis was really related 02:51 to, to herbicide resistance. And that if there is residue left in, in the sprayer plumbing and we switch to a different crop, 02:59 we switch to a different application. We think we're rotating out of that chemistry. But, but in reality, with that residue that's trapped in 03:07 that spray boom, it's slowly gonna find its way out as we spray. And is there potential there 03:13 that we're making sub lethal doses of herbicides to fields where we, we don't even realize it, 03:18 and that that really, that sub lethal, that micro rate could potentially there be putting selection pressure on a weeded population, uh, for herbicide resistance? 03:28 And, and we may not know it. And that's, you know, that's a hypothesis. I have something I've often wondered. 03:33 I I can't say that there's, there's research or there's hard data showing that that is actually occurring in the field. 03:41 But it is something that I think, uh, you know, something we need to look into. 'cause I do think it, there's some real validity to that, 03:48 uh, that hypothesis. So Lee's nodding his head. Are we building up, are we building up tougher weeds because of little as a n excess sub lethal amounts 03:59 of chemistry that's in the tank that then builds up resistance? Is this one of the reasons we have 04:04 chemistry resistant herbicides, uh, chemistry herbicide resistant wheats? I agree, uh, thousand percent with Nick's theory. 04:13 Uh, we do sprayer clean out by the book, but I have watched, uh, in our area neighbors, uh, there was one in particular. 04:24 Every year he kept dinging his crops more and more switching and it just kept, 04:30 every year was getting increasing more and more and more. And for the first two years he was blaming other 04:36 people around him. And then it got to the point where he could be a mile from anything else that could be possibly be contaminated 04:46 and nailing his crops. It finally got the point. He traded sprayers and I bumped into him uptown after he traded 04:52 and I commented, Hey, you traded sprayers. He goes, yeah, my other one was just getting so dirty, I figured it was time to do it. 04:59 So he actually traded sprayers instead of cleaning it. But I could tell in his fields, first he was dinging the crops 05:06 and the weeds, instead of getting faster kills, he was getting slower kills. And one of our local co-ops is doing the same thing too, uh, 05:15 finally ended up involving thousands of acres and a lot of upset customers because, uh, some people are commenting 05:22 that some things were not dying the way they should. So, uh, you think about it, weeds adapt. That's what they're designed to do. 05:31 And, uh, they want to grow. And if you're throwing low rates at something, uh, you can build up resistance over generations. 05:38 It, it can happen. And if you take someone who's going year after year after year doing this, 05:44 I think you're on the path to resistance. Yeah, we can talk about, I wanna hear more about the problems and the examples of this. 05:51 So the person that's listening to this says, all right, well then what am I doing wrong with my clean out? And I think there's probably a, 05:57 a little bit more than just, okay. You know, every, every, every farmstead has the place over in a corner of the barnyard where you fill the thing up 06:06 and you, you let it bleed out with water. That's not getting the job done. And I think that's what I'm hearing here. 06:10 So tell me what I need to know about getting my sprayer properly cleaned out, Nick. Well, I think one of the first things goes back 06:18 to the actual sprayer plumbing and historically our sprayer, the plumbing, they've left a a length 06:26 of pipe past the last nozzle body at each section. Uh, and that's an area where product just dead ends and it can build up and get trapped over time. 06:35 And it's hard to get it out once it gets past there. So if you've got a sprayer plumbing that has a dead end section past nozzle bodies, 06:45 I would recommend trying to remove that and get the last nozzle body right there at the end of the boom plumbing that's gonna reduce that dead end space 06:52 for stuff just deadheads and get stuck. And that's gonna help, uh, get product out of the boom where it doesn't build up. So that's, 07:01 And by the way, I wanna point this out that first off, you wonder why the, why they're made that way. Why is there an extra 18 inches of pipe 07:08 after the last nozzle? I don't know. 'cause I don't, I'm not in the manufacturing, uh, uh, business of machinery, 07:14 but also the person that's saying, Nick, it's 18 inches of, of pipe on, on both ends of my boom past the sprayer and, 07:23 and it's a thousand gallon tank. You're talking about a a couple of quarts of product, uh, uh, uh, in there. 07:32 It doesn't seem like it should matter. You can pack a lot of, you know, atrazine or dry flowable, weldable powder, products like that. 07:39 A lot of our, uh, pre-emerge herbicides or dry products that we dissolve in the suspension, you can pack a lot of that into the ends of those booms. 07:47 And, um, you know, once it starts to build up, it just kind of compounds on itself and it's going to inch closer 07:53 and closer to that last nozzle, um, and build up more and more, uh, as you continue spraying with those products. So it's, look, it's, is it a huge, 08:02 you know, game ending deal? No, but we're really about trying to increase our, our, our efficiency, our precision do all these things. 08:11 And so small gains and, and small changes can really add up over time when we're trying to, uh, be, be more precise and more efficient. 08:19 So, um, is it a huge deal? No. But is is it a, a, a problematic issue? Yes, it is. And, and I believe that correcting it, uh, can really, um, 08:30 you know, bring some nice, nice benefits and gains in, in productivity and efficiency. Alright. Spray plumbing is number one on sprayer clean 08:37 out, Lee, you take number two, whatever you think the most important thing about getting product out there. 08:41 How, how, how do you go about getting the, how do you go about, tell me the fundamental part of you. You're going to, uh, 08:49 clean out a sprayer here at the end of this week. What's, what do you think about? He says, sprayer plumbing, you can't change. 08:53 Well, you can change that, but assuming your spray plumbing is correct, then more, 08:58 Uh, well, I'll answer number two, but I'd like to elaborate more on number one, that leads into it. 09:06 10 years ago, 15 years ago, we're using a lot of high volume products now as we're bringing the rates down from a half gallon down 09:15 to four ounces or a 10th of an ounce. It's gotten more into clay-based and dry flowables, which that's 09:24 where these problems can happen. And then those dead spots that we call 'em in our boom, and even in the end when you're circulating in the pressure, 09:34 even if it's sitting there, just the flow of the water in that system is gonna just pull a little bit out 09:40 and kick it back into the system. And we're, we're working with different products than we used to. 09:46 So we, we noticed over the years, we are increasing sediment level. And also we went from a simple, 09:55 we had one spray tip when we started to three, now we're getting into five and seven, uh, nozzle bodies, and we're getting larger, 10:05 we're getting electronic nozzle bodies, we're getting a lot more areas that we can build sediment in. 10:12 And so we realized that this is just slowly changing and we wanted to stay ahead of it. So it's all about keeping your system 10:21 clean through the season. Uh, good quality water, uh, treated water. That's, that's a must. 10:28 And then when we're getting to the end of a crop, uh, we do by the book a triple route, uh, full system. 10:38 And, uh, we do not go low flow. We go high flow. And when we're doing something like switching from extend or if you're doing enlist liberty, anything like that 10:49 where you could really be damaging the next crop, yeah, we'll even do it two times. I mean, You'll do what? 10:56 20 minutes is not gonna kill you. What's, you'll do what you'll do it multiple. You're talking about rinses of the, 11:02 We'll even do it two times, you know, when you're done with a big project, it's not gonna hurt you another 20 minutes sitting there and do it. 11:10 And then we'll even, we will put in a tank cleaner and, uh, let it set for either hours or overnight. So that helps loosen everything up in the system. 11:22 Then we're ready for our tank clean outs the next day when I make my cup of coffee. 11:26 Then we go get everything whistle cleaned. So I didn't think about this. So you're, you're put a, you put a product in, uh, 11:35 so you fill the thing clear up and put a product in to, to get anything that adheres adheres to the side of the tank. 11:43 Uh, what we will do is, uh, we'll do, you know, uh, a complete three three system go through everything, triple rinse one 11:54 or two times, uh, depending on what products we're working with, especially if it's more Clay-based, 11:59 we're gonna do it two times. You know, we don't want to take a risk. Uh, and then we will just put in a hundred gallons of water 12:06 and we put in a tank cleaner and it's on agitate and then let it sit, walk away for a little while. Uh, you can find that the projects are do on the farm. Yeah. 12:15 And, and then we come back and then that has went and it's gotten to every little place in the sprayer with that cleaner 12:26 that's helping loosen everything up and getting those insoluble back to soluble so we can go and put it out the kit with the clean out kit. 12:36 Nick, I, I, I'll, I'll admit here, you know, you and I met a couple years ago. We've been in fields at 10 o'clock at night. 12:42 Uh, we, we, we, we've got, we've got some history here. I thought you were a little bit of a sprayer geek when I met you. 12:49 I'm like, good god, this is this, this, this is overkill. This is too much. And now I'm kind of hearing like, 12:56 no, this stuff matters. This stuff matters. So admittedly, uh, I, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm fastening up here. 13:02 When I first met you, I thought you were a sprayer geek. You gotta be. 'cause this, 13:06 this stuff has real ramifications. Yeah. Sprayers are one of the, the most used implements on the farm. 13:13 You know, if not the most used nowadays, they're, they're used throughout the season and, and there's more technology built into them, uh, 13:20 more features and benefits that can be unlocked. So it, uh, you're not offending me, calling me a sprayer geek. 13:25 And I'll, I'll, I'll accept that. But, uh, um, I, I think it's good to have, have some of us around to, uh, uh, to really understand everything 13:33 that's going on and, and get the most efficiency we can outta sprayers. This is the first I've heard about a, a product 13:39 that actually goes in that's supposed to take chemistry and, and, you know, stuff that adheres to the walls 13:44 or to the pipes and get off of there. Is this common practice, do other people use the, do other people do stuff as diligently as Lee, I'm guessing? 13:53 No, There are several companies that make, you know, tank and, and spray system cleaners, uh, that are, 14:01 are somewhat commonly used. Um, I, I don't often hear people being as thorough and diligent as Lee is talking about, um, 14:09 doing the triple rinse, doing it twice if you need to, putting that product in, uh, cleaner into the tank and then agitate for a while. 14:18 Um, I don't hear that often, but it is good to hear. 'cause it, I do think it is good practice, especially with a lot of the new sprayer technology. 14:26 It's using solenoid valves, electronic nozzle bodies, and that, um, adopting those practices is going to prevent, uh, performance issues 14:35 and clean out issues when you go to spray. So it, it's really gonna pay dividends in in the end, in my opinion. 14:41 What about Lee, what about the, uh, the person that you talked about, you know, the, the, the ding because the person that's listening to this says, 14:49 I don't know, that's a lot of messing around. I'm not sure it really matters. These products are so good. Uh, it doesn't matter. 14:55 You've got several examples of like, no, I think it really matters. Like is, tell me about a real cost. 15:02 Uh, why do you wanna risk, uh, damaging hundreds or even thousands of acres of your own crop and taking away the efficacy of your products? 15:12 You wanna maximize what you're putting on. Uh, let's just say the next thing you go do is fungicide and oh, but with contamination, you've taken 30, 15:22 40% out of your efficacy, or you switch chemicals and you do the same thing. You're, you're not only losing yield, 15:31 you're really wasting money in what you're putting on next. Right. And, 15:35 and what you described there that, you know, you, you said, okay, well I don't have time for that. 15:40 Well, first off, you can overnight it. And you said that. So the other trick that you do is you overnight it use a 15:46 sprayer, clean out product. What about that plumbing thing, uh, that, that Nick talked about is your, 15:51 is did you reconfigure your sprayer? So there's not some dead end, uh, where residue builds up? Uh, well, like Nick elaborated on, we're getting 16:02 so much more electronic and solenoids, it used to be everything was a mechanical valve that you did. Now it's push button. 16:09 And uh, there's so many more places where you can get potential dead spots or, uh, uh, material to adhere to. 16:18 And so one of my first conversations with Nick is when he talked about his sprayer clean out kit, his boom kit. 16:25 And I'm, I'm like, oh man, this, this, this could be awesome. And, and it has been. It's been huge for us. 16:34 Nick, when I think about the, the sprayer clean out and the contamination, that's one thing. And then let's talk about winterization. 16:40 So when I, the importance of doing this going into winter, 'cause the, you know, there's the angle like, I'm done, 16:48 I'm ready to put my feet up. It's been a long season, it's drained. Isn't that enough? You say No. 16:56 Well, it's, it's good to go ahead and do, do some extra leg work now to prevent having to do it in the spring. 17:01 Uh, and, and getting things really cleaned out good. Like Lee's talking about preventing buildup in there. Um, especially if you're using like a PWM system, 17:10 we use electronic solenoid valves, you know, it's good to get everything cleaned out very, very thoroughly. Um, it's also, uh, good to get things winterized. 17:19 Well, uh, if you're in a colder climate, uh, like Lee is, we certainly don't wanna avoid any freeze issues. 17:26 So getting all that water flushed out, getting a winterizing fluid into the system, and that's really all parts, all parts that, uh, 17:34 that handle water, that can be the, the front fill hose, uh, chemical ductors, all that. 17:40 Getting everything, uh, filled up with the winterizing fluid's gonna be very important, uh, to, to withstand the winter. 17:47 And this is really all just trying to set things up for you better in the spring so that when it's time to go in the spring, you're not having 17:54 to replace sprayer parts, you're not having to work on your sprayer. It's gonna be ready to go 17:58 and you can start spraying immediately. You know, trying to find sprayer parts in the spring is always tough 'cause that's when everybody's trying 18:05 to buy 'em and there tends to be a lot of back order issues on parts, uh, nozzles, nozzle bodies, fittings and that. 18:11 So trying to avoid those situations is really what we're after right now, uh, with good winterization practices. 18:20 Alright, so what are good winterization practices, Lee, for god's sakes, we know that, you know, winter in Gregory, South Dakota. 18:28 So, so let's talk about winterization. You've got one sprayer that's still, you got one unit that's out there. 18:33 Here we're recording this mid-November. You've got one unit that's still out crossing some acres. I don't know what you're putting on, 18:41 but when its thing comes in at the end of this week, when you're done for the season, what are you gonna do? Uh, we are not gonna cut. Wait, 18:49 Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Would you agree that you think, you know, winter, I mean, would you say that compared to the southern guys like Matt 18:56 and Chad and Kevin, you know, winter Yeah, we've got a little bit of experience with it In, in our neck of the woods. 19:05 Well really the, in the colder climates, you talk to anyone who, uh, sells sprayer parts or dealers every spring, 19:16 they can tell you stories about the guys that did not do it correctly. Yeah, I mean, uh, there can be some wild stories of stuff 19:23 that they see, uh, one, uh, tech that we know well, he was telling us a story several years ago where one guy didn't want to go 19:33 and spend the money for the premixed, uh, special antifreeze that you put in with the water. So they threw in diesel fuel in their sprayer. 19:44 They go, well, diesel's not gonna freeze. Well, it took all the seals, everything pumped seals, boom fields, all fields out of their sprayer. 19:51 Uh, another guy didn't think it was a big deal to, uh, clean out his booms and then he sends him a picture 20:00 of footlong icicles in the middle of January. Go. Is is this bad? I mean, major damage is done. And like Nick said, uh, parts can be scarce at times. 20:10 I mean, spring is go time. You want to be, uh, you want to be ready to go to the field and not go, well, we gotta go spend a week 20:16 and thousands of dollars fixing everything Now. Yeah. So what do you, what do you, yeah, by the way, 20:21 you're saying that there was still water in the boom and it froze solid as a, you know, solid as a rock. Um, by the way, what's, I didn't even think about this. 20:31 So you, you bring this unit in, you said something about antifreeze. Ideally there's no liquid in the thing. 20:37 So why do I need antifreeze? Uh, we run, it's a pre-mix that we get from our dealer and it's made specially for sprayers. 20:47 It's a winterizing fluid. And but before we do that, we make sure everything is pulled apart and dry and even, uh, down at your inductor can be a real, 20:59 that's a very common place where you can end up where you think, oh, I've got everything clean, but there's a cup full that settles down in there. 21:07 So even though it's not in the owner's manual, we're pulling off that coupler, draining it out dry. So, uh, we do not want any place for actual water 21:18 to retain because when it freezes, it swells damage is gonna happen. Yeah. It's Gonna expand and bust something. 21:24 So, so exactly. If you, if you've got the thing completely dried out, which I'm sure some people don't do that extra effort. 21:32 Do I still need to put some antifreeze in? Uh, well it's, you would refer to it as dry, but there's still water droplets inside 21:43 and that can lead to issues and sensors and solenoids. So many more solenoids in the sprayer than there was 10 years prior. 21:52 You know, the technology's been great, but we've gotta pay better attention to our spray systems because yes, they can perform more during the season, 22:02 but we've gotta take care of 'em in the off season, especially in the Cold. Okay, so after you 22:06 dry everything and you drain as best you can, you still go and dump in uh, some kind of a sprayer antifreeze? 22:13 Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. We will even go and uh, and uh, with Nick's kid it's easy. We can just go and put on a, an adapter, 22:21 we can go put on an air fitting and we also go and purge with air, purge everything out and then go and do the izing fluid so we don't have 22:33 to worry about anything hanging up that's not supposed to be there. How many gallons, how many gallons are you putting in? 22:38 I mean, this is like a huge unit, I'm guessing It's not very much. It, it's really not that much 22:43 because you're just getting it into the system. So it coats everything. You know, you're not going in a hundred gallons or something 22:49 or anything like that, you know, it used to be in, in the older days, even 10 years ago, you literally went 22:56 and got an entire drum of it. Yeah. Now we get two small jugs and you pre-mix it and you're done. 23:02 Okay. You know, volume is way less, but it's better quality material we are working with to help coat the parts. 23:11 Uh, I'm guessing, Nick, this is not a common practice, am I right? So a lot of what Lee's talking about is a common practice 23:21 flushing things out, running antifreeze through it. Uh, now what he said about, uh, using our express flush valve 23:30 and then hooking up to it in air hose to blow air out and do a strong air purge, that is not something I hear as commonly done to really flush out as much 23:40 of that liquid as we can. So that was a really interesting comment and I think is, uh, an interesting practice 23:46 that I don't hear about very often. You got seven, five different spray tips. You and I have talked about spray tips before. 23:56 Do I need to, do I need to rotate every, uh, nozzle and, and blow 'em through? Or is one sufficient? 24:05 It's if, if you've used any of them recently, I think it'd be good practice to turn that nozzle body and, and try and make sure everything is clear. 24:15 You know, there can be some liquid that can, can get trapped in that nozzle or in that stem of that nozzle body. 24:21 So, you know, just trying to, to, to be thorough. I think it is good practice to, to try and blow air, uh, or or antifreeze through, through your nozzles to, 24:32 to make sure you're gonna get that any bit of trapped water out. 'cause it doesn't take a lot of water left in there 24:37 that could freeze and, and lead to cracking or busting over the winter. And I always say this is the best time of year 24:44 to check your spray nozzles when you're winterizing. Go ahead and spray through 'em, do a visual check, pick a few, do a quick, uh, catch test, make sure 24:53 that they're not too worn. And that gives you all winter to source new spray nozzles if you need to. 24:58 So you're not trying to do it in the spring when, when time is tight and when a lot of backward issues can occur on our end. 25:05 'cause there's such demand. Yeah. So, uh, it it, it is a lot about preventative maintenance. By the way Lee was nodding his head. 25:13 Do you, do you, you and your guys go out there and turn every, every uh, spray drop nozzle. Do you turn 'em to make sure they all get rinsed out? 25:23 Uh, if it's anything we've used, uh, this fall in the last two months, those tips we do, anything that we used this last summer 25:30 we're not gonna be worried about. So, and it only takes a matter of minutes. You know, it, it's not a huge time investment. 25:39 Well, you, you say that, you know, a hundred what? 120 foot boom and you've got a spray, a nozzle every what, 25:45 like couple feet? You, you know, that's, that's a lot of fooling around going and, and turning, doing all that. 25:51 It's an easy part of the gig. All right, so, uh, get me outta here. I I want to, I wanna make sure we do this justice. 25:59 We talked about the problem we talked about because the person that's listening that says, I'm not sure this is that big of a deal. 26:04 Uh, Lee just gave a great example. You're dinging your crops. You're, you're, you're burning up yield, uh, on stuff where 26:11 just because you, you you, you did something wrong. What, um, to the person that's says, okay, I wanna do a better job of this. 26:18 What do you wanna tell 'em Nick? So I'd recommend and Lee's talk mentioned it with the clean out kit. 26:25 Um, you know, from us it's called the Express Flush Valve. Um, a lot of people may be familiar with the express end cap 26:32 and, and that has been a product that's been on the market for several years. 26:36 Uh, some OEMs like agco, um, um, equipment technologies with the Apache sprayers, some of 'em have it as a standard option on their sprayer. 26:45 The express end cap that removes that dead end space we talked about earlier. It puts the last nozzle body right 26:51 at the end of the boom section. And that had a clean out plug you could take off. So you could openly access the end of the boom. 26:57 You could pull that plug, you could really do a heavy flush and clean everything out very quickly and easily. 27:04 But the, the plug you took out of the end wasn't always easy to get in and out. You had to have tools, you had to have a bucket to keep 'em. 27:11 So what we did is we, we created a stainless steel quarter turn ball valve. And this is what Lee's using on his sprayer. 27:17 It's called the Express Flush Valve. It fits right on the end of the spray boom. So now if you want to open up the ends of your spray, boom 27:25 to flush them out and clean them out, all you have to do is flip that quarter turn ball valve open on each end of your boom and it's gonna save you. 27:34 I mean, Lee can talk about his experience with time savings, um, but it's gonna save you a lot of time and hassle. 27:40 You don't need any tools or anything. It's really gonna enable you to do a better job of cleaning your sprayer out. 27:45 'cause you're more likely to do it, you know, more often more thorough if it's gonna take less time and hassle. 27:50 So, you know, from my perspective on the plumbing side, the hardware side, that's something I'd really look into, uh, to, to save time, save hassle, and gain efficiency. 28:01 Lee, uh, the person that's listening to this, uh, we all know that it is like, this guy's a little bit a**l retentive, this guy's overdone. 28:11 I don't think it's that big of a deal. What's your, uh, what's your, what's your re what's your response to that? 28:17 Well, it's all about getting acres per day. Yeah. We know that we have two sprayers in our operation, but we also wanna maximize what we're doing 28:25 with our sprayers and sprayer. Clean out winterizing doing things the way you need to do it. 28:32 That is low hanging fruit when it comes to ROI that is easy money. It pays you big time for the time that you invest. 28:40 And, uh, Nick's uh, clean out kits have been huge because sometimes we're spending up to two hours pulling apart nozzle bodies, cleaning out 28:51 the stuff from Clay-based herbicides. And with his kit now we eliminated that two hour step and we do that multiple times a year. 29:01 Yeah, I think that's, you know, the, the obvious, the obvious, um, objection or or excuse is gonna be, I don't have time. 29:08 We got a lot of acres to cover and you've systematically said, okay, you're talking about 20 minutes, 29:15 you're talking about an hour, you're talking about just doing something overnight. So it's not, there's no excuse. 29:21 I guess there, there are excuses, but there's really no excuse is what I'm hearing. That's how we feel on it. 29:27 You get paid big time to do it this way. Yeah. And, and also you're covering so many acres with this thing and, 29:34 and you know, if it, if, if what you don't do cost you a bushel, it see, and, and you throw that bushel on every acre, all 29:42 of a sudden it's like, wait a minute. You're talking about you didn't have an hour to go ahead and do this. 29:45 Right. It seems like maybe that's the, the answer, right? Mm-Hmm, absolutely. 29:51 Nick Flights company, Pentair, a self-admitted sprayer, geek Lee Luber, one of my favorite guys to ever record with. 30:02 I gotta tell you probably two of my favorite episodes I've ever recorded and I've been doing this now we've got more than 200 30:07 of these episodes out there. We talked about earthworms. If you are just sitting around this winter, 30:13 I encourage you go back and find the episodes I've recorded about he and Terry, his brother starting out. 30:19 And then the other one is about the value of earthworms and how he made the switch to no-till two of my favorite episodes ever recorded. 30:24 There's hundreds of episodes like this. It's called Cutting the Curve. It's at Extreme Ag Farm. If it's the first time you've ever viewed it, 30:31 I encourage you to go and check out. It's like a library of information you can use. It's all free. If you wanna take your learning 30:37 to the next level, you can become an Extreme Ag member for $750 a year. That's it. 750 bucks a year. 30:42 You'll get direct access to guys like Lee. Hey, I wanna go a little more in depth on this. I have a question about sprayer stuff. 30:48 I wanna find out more. You can do a question and answer session. If you're a member of Extreme Ag, 30:52 you also get exclusive content and you get benefits from our sponsors. Awesome stuff. Become a member 30:58 of extreme ag if you are not already, but if you don't want to, you wanna dip your toe in, just go ahead and check out all the great stuff 31:05 Extreme ag.farm. Also follow us on Facebook and on Twitter, extreme ag.farm, and find all of our hookups there. 31:13 Till next time, I'm Damien Mason. Thanks for being here. Awesome discussion. Thanks Lee. Thanks Nick. 31:23 Outta here. That's a wrap for this episode of Cutting the Curve, but there's plenty more. 31:28 Check out Extreme ag.farm where you can find past episodes, instructional videos 31:34 and articles to help you squeeze more profit outta your farm. Cutting the curve is brought to you 31:40 by Advanced Drainage Systems, the leader in agriculture, water management solutions.
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Gregory, SD