00:00 Do you know your soil's moisture level? That's what we're digging into in this episode of Extreme Ag, cutting the curve. 00:09 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 00:18 with the information you can apply to your farming operation immediately. Extreme ag, we've already made the mistakes 00:26 so you don't have to. Managing your farm's water resources is a critical component to a successful and sustainable farming operation. 00:35 Advanced drainage systems helps farmers just like you increase their yields up to 30% with their technologically advanced water 00:43 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. 00:54 Welcome to another fantastic episode of Extreme Ice, cutting the curve. We're talking about soil moisture. 00:58 Obviously, if it is March and you walk across the field and you sink, you know it's wet sometime around August, you go out there and you're like, boy, 01:06 things are pretty parched. But do you really know what your soil moisture looks like? One inch, three inch, six inches down the soil profile. 01:12 That's what we're talking about today, because with advanced technology, this is something that's basically an environmental play 01:18 and the economic play. I've got Kelly Garrett, Garrett, land and Cattle, one of the founding fathers of extreme ag. 01:23 Joining me along with Kurt Grim. Kurt Grimm is with Nutra Drip, all about subsoil drip irrigation units, 01:30 but also new technology and even satellite imagery that could help you better understand your soil moisture. 'cause it's probably either worse than you think, 01:40 or not as bad as you think, but how do you know when you're just spit balling it? Kurt, uh, this idea came to you, came to me, I said, 01:47 let's talk about actually knowing your soil's moisture level. I think in, in many things, we are pretty bad at it still, 01:55 but we're getting better at really understanding soil moisture. Am I right? 02:00 That's right. It's really a, um, it's a technology that's been out for a while, but I think there's a, there's maybe a lack of education 02:07 or a lack of understanding. You know, farmers, they, they know when it's dry, they know when it's wet, but where's the sweet spot? 02:16 Where's the, where's the spot where the plant is the happiest and where's the, where's the spot 02:23 where there's the least amount of stress? Right? We don't want that plant to have a bad day. And so how do we, how do we, 02:29 how do we identify that sweet spot? And then how do we hold the moisture in the soil in that perfect balance? 02:37 If we get too much moisture, it's going anaerobic, there's not enough oxygen. Um, we get not enough plants are going under stress. 02:44 So there's, there's a real, um, defined line there where we want to try to hold that soil moisture. And, and there's a lot of tools out there 02:52 to help us measure that. Kelly, um, you've got the field that's right behind your, your barn and shop that's got the subsurface 03:00 drip irrigation in it. And you, you know, and, and most of your acres are not, uh, subsurface drip irrigation. 03:07 Most of your acres are not irrigated at all, but you're playing with this and you put in this new technology ear watch and, 03:16 and it's actually, the idea is it can make it so that you're not using as much water, because the reality is, even when you irrigate, 03:24 you're probably overusing, uh, water that you don't need because it turns out in certain parts of the field, 03:31 you, you don't know what it's doing. So talk about the going from probes to the new technology and what you see eventually happening, 03:38 because you've got some probes in the ground. So talk about that. Then. The technology evolution, The new technology is a lot more detailed than the probes 03:46 were, uh, to look at it very generally. The probes did fine, but this is just the next step in the evolution. 03:52 Uh, we, you know, like here behind my shop, like you talk about is the well, and there's more than enough water where the new technology 04:00 to me, really, uh, is valuable is where I use surface water, because when it's very dry, 04:06 like it has been the last two years, that that surface water is a very precious commodity, and we don't wanna overly, for many reasons, 04:14 number one is the supply. So if I can, if I can ration out that supply and get to further through the season, 04:20 because I don't have an infinite amount of water there like I do at the, well, the other reason that the, it becomes very, um, very valuable is it, 04:28 it's a very sustainable, uh, practice using the new technology because we're not over applying water, 04:35 so we're not wasting diesel or we're not wasting electricity depending on what our power source is. 04:40 Yeah. So we're going to eventually see, and I wanna talk about that here later on, about the environmental component of it, 04:47 because there's multiple reasons. One could be regulatory, two could just be cost savings and, and maybe even a few other reasons from the PR standpoint, 04:56 but, uh, we'll get into that in a minute. How's this work? First off, sensors, most people don't have sensors. 05:00 Again, most people's concept of what their moisture levels look like, are they drive by? Maybe if they're ambitious, they get outta the truck 05:07 and actually walk the field. Where are you on the educational aspect when you meet with growers? 05:13 What do you tell 'em about understanding soil moisture? So it starts with understanding what your soil holds. So every soil type, every, even even within a field, 05:25 you have different soil types, different water holding capacities. And so that's really where it starts is what is the capacity 05:32 of your soil to hold moisture. Um, there's some really great tools, web soil survey from the USDA does a really good job 05:39 of quantifying the capacity of the soil. Um, for example, um, I looked up on Kelly's field in the top 40 inches of soil. 05:50 His, his soil can hold eight inches of water. So we have the capacity when the gas tank is clear, full, let's say it, there's eight inches 06:00 of usable water in his soil now. So, so that's the starting point is understanding where you start. 06:07 At some soils, let's say a sandy type of soil is only gonna have maybe one inch per foot, where Kelly's soil has two inches per foot. 06:17 So there's, and, and there's some that could even have less than an inch. So it's really important to, to understand first of all 06:22 what the baseline holding capacity of the soil is. And then the next part of the equation is how much is the plant removing? 06:31 And that's typically referred to as ET or evapotranspiration, where we look at what is the, what is the plant and the atmosphere extracting 06:41 from the soil every day. A lot of times we reference, um, a quarter inch a day as kind of a, a rough number, um, 06:49 that varies every single day. And, and some of the new tools, we can actually quantify what that, what that physical evapotranspiration is. 06:57 But you can kind of think of it like your checkbook balance. So you, let's say you start with eight inches 07:01 of soil at the beginning of the growing season, not eight inches of Evapotranspiration, eight inches of moisture, 07:06 you said eight inches of soil, Correct? Yes. Eight inches of moisture in the soil profile. Yeah. We're starting, let's say with a full tank. 07:14 It, it stops raining. We know we're removing, let's say at the beginning of the year, five hundredths of an inch. 07:19 By the time we get to V six corn, we're taking a 10th of an inch out a day. By the time we get to tassel, we're taking out 25 hundredths 07:26 or even three tenths of an inch. And so there's some, there's some simple calculators out there that will help use what's called a checkbook balance 07:36 register, where it's, you know, here's what you start with. Here's all your subtractions, here's your additions of, 07:42 of rain or irrigation. And, and so you can manage moisture around that simple concept of, of just doing the math. 07:50 So that's kind of the basic elementary. That's where we wanna start at is the, is the elementary understanding that what, 07:57 what's in the reservoir and then how much are we taking out or what are the additions? 08:01 Okay, before we get into that, okay, we're talking about the sensors and all these different probes. 08:06 This is where a better measurement would, a, a more technologically advanced measurement tool would matter. 08:14 I've been hearing the thing about during that July august time, you're losing two tenths of an inch. I've heard that since I was a kid. 08:20 And even as a kid, I was like, well, what about that alfalfa field? Granted, it uses water still growing, 08:26 but it also has cover on it. What about this field that's bare that is more exposed to the wind and the powers of evaporation? 08:34 What about the stuff that's got more organic matter? We know organic matter increases water porosity and water holding capacity. 08:41 So it's never been the idea that you could, it's a nice guesstimate, but that's all it ever has been. Right? And, 08:51 and so to start quantifying that, then the, the first tool we look at is soil moisture probes. So soil moisture probes is essentially like a four foot 08:59 probe that's going in the ground, got a sensor every six inches, and it's gonna show us, and we can measure what the moisture content in the soil is. 09:07 Great tool. They, they, they work well. Um, it's all connected. You can see it from your phone or on a computer. 09:15 The challenge with soil moisture probes is it's measuring one spot in the field, right? 09:19 We have to pick that spot or two spots and, and, and you're only seeing data for one cubic foot of soil and we're farming 80 or a hundred or 200 acres 09:30 and trying to make decisions based on, based on what that reference point is. Yeah. So there's some limitations with that. 09:37 Yeah. Well, it's a bit like when we talk about soil sampling, you used to send a kit out and grab one soil sample per 80 acres or something 09:44 and you know, put that over in the low boggy area or put that on a clay knob or whatever, and you're gonna have a whole bunch of vari variability. 09:52 So moistures are better, moisture probes are better than nothing, but they're still also exceedingly, uh, 09:57 limited in their scope. Okay? Right there. There's a limitation to 'em. And, and so kind of the next phase of evolution of, of where 10:07 moisture sensing is going is satellite based. So, um, a new tool we started working with this this year is called ear watch, where every day 10:16 between noon and 2:00 PM there's a satellite that, um, takes a thermal image of the, of the field and based on the thermal image 10:26 or the stress indicators that it, that it gets from that data. It's providing a map every day of areas in the field 10:34 that are too wet, areas in the field that are too dry. And so now, instead of having a single reference point, now we can look at the whole field, um, 10:43 and be able to see where do we need to allocate water? Where do we maybe need to, to pull the water back at? It's given us a lot broader vision of, 10:51 of what's going on in the field. Sure. And I wanna talk about that. I wanna talk about that technology before I do. 10:57 Uh, early adopter Kelly Garrett, he is usually at the front end of, we're gonna experiment with this new thing. 11:03 We're gonna put it on every acre and all, but we're gonna do this. So you're an early adopter. This appeals to you. Yes. 11:09 Oh, absolutely. Makes us more efficient. It's a very progressive, progressive way to look at things more detailed, uh, you know, 11:16 in intensive management, like we're always looking for. And again, it's very sustainable. Like we talked about. What I'm wondering is, 11:23 and this is where I think the technology is going, although Kurt's the expert here, the ear watch a satellite that has mapping, and we've been, 11:30 we've been doing some satellite stuff for a while, but this gets even more thorough then, do we use the probes kind of almost like as a, as a check. 11:39 Like the, the gauge on my car tells me that everything's fine, but if it tells me there's a problem, I actually then investigate 11:47 and I that, is that where we think the probe? Like is that where you see this going for you, Kelly, that you'll still use probes 11:53 after you're dissecting the, the satellite tells you where you should probably monitor? Yes. I, I think that we need to do our due diligence. 12:02 You know, technology continues to improve and get better and better, especially from the satellite perspective. 12:08 But in the, uh, you know, in the past, the problem with satellites was that the data wasn't tight enough. It was too much of a generality. 12:17 So at that point, I wanted to stay with the probe, you know? Uh, but now with the ear watch that Kurt has, 12:23 this is good data and, and now the satellite has caught up to where we want it to be. So it's very usable information. 12:30 It gets very specific and very detailed. And now I'm happy with it. I'm gonna play the skeptic, um, a satellite up in the sky, 12:38 uh, and then here's this field behind my, uh, house. I don't know, man, is it, how, how accurate are we really talking? How, I mean, 12:47 I agree. I agree. And there have been other satellite, like I said, there's been other satellite technology I've been 12:53 in involved with the past. It wasn't tight enough because it's that satellite in the sky. 12:58 But now what Kurt's got now, it gets down there and it performs the way that we want it to. You know, it isn't a generality, it, it's not a waste. 13:06 Now, now the information is good, the information is tight, it's accurate, it's very specific. 13:12 And, uh, the technology has per, uh, improved to leaps and bounds. Pardon me? Yeah. So when I look at this, uh, this, this thing, 13:25 does the technology make it so that it's more, does this democratize soil moisture monitoring because to have probes, 13:34 I don't know hardly anybody that has probes. I don't have probes on my property as far as mine ground. I mean, that's a costly 13:39 and very more intensive labor, whatever, whatever. Is the, if the satellite technology works, Kurt, is it going to make us kind of like go from landlines to cell phones? 13:52 I think so. I think it's another tool in the toolbox. I don't know that it's gonna displace what we're doing today, 13:57 but I think it gives growers a, another tool that helps manage water on a broad scale. The adoption of probes is fairly low. 14:07 I think less than 5% of the irrigated acres of the US have moisture probes. And the reason is there, there's, there's issues, right? 14:15 The, you have the installation, you have the technology, you gotta keep going, the hardware side of it. 14:21 Um, and so the, it's been a fairly low adoption rate where if we can move to a satellite sensed 14:30 a satellite based sensor and, and get comparable data on a large scale, um, I think it's gonna be a, a win-win. 14:38 And it'll be another tool in the toolbox for farmers to manage water and even on dry land acres to, to really understand, you know, what, what kind of stress 14:47 is the plant experiencing and could I mitigate with different measures, right? Um, just understanding that, you know, 14:54 we see the yield map at the end of the year, but what happened during the growing season that we could have impacted had we been measuring 15:03 and monitoring things every single day? And I think I wanted to make that point that we've been using different satellite tools for a long time. 15:11 And the thing that's impressed me about this particular one is the frequency. So it's, it's an every day. 15:17 And, and, you know, most satellite tools struggle to get a, a reliable image out once a week, every 10 days. 15:24 Um, this is very reliably every day with the exception of complete cloud cover. Um, they, they can't get an image, 15:32 but it, it's been very reliable at getting frequency of images. All right, I want to get into that and how it works. 15:39 I wanna talk about how much it costs, et cetera. Before I do, you talked about stress. I wanna bring up something that Kelly Garrett 15:45 and I talked about more than two years ago in his office. It was October of 2021. I was sitting there. 15:50 The harvest was about dawn and we were talking about big objectives and he said, Damien, I'm gonna concentrate on stress 15:55 mitigation for the new year. Stress mitigation is all I'm gonna work on. In fact, he said, A plate full of food fed 16:01 to an unhealthy person who cannot eat it is a waste of nutrition. So if you apply that same concept 16:06 to your crops, what are you talking about? Your plants are stressed and unable to uptake nutrients, 16:12 applying more nutrients will not help. So that's why Kelly applies accomplished max in furrow for stress mitigation. 16:18 If you want healthier plants do, like Kelly Garrett, accomplish max in furrow, stress mitigation helps your plant stay healthy, 16:25 and then you're not dumping nutrition that an unhealthy plant cannot take. Visit loveland products.com. 16:31 You can go ahead and say it, Kurt. Pretty much you can say it. Paul Harvey wasn't as good as that. 16:38 Segue into that read was pretty much, you can say it like that was, that was right up there with Paul Harvey. 16:42 You can say it, can't you? Yeah, you slipped it right in there. Just real smooth. It was good. 16:48 Um, here's the next thing I gotta ask you. You think this is more accurate? This is the, this is not the first satellite satellite 16:55 technology that we've been employing in agriculture. Why is this one better? Is it just 'cause of the frequency 'cause it's every 24 hours, 17:02 or do you think there's some other technological stuff that we might not fully comprehend that makes this more accurate? 17:08 Because again, like Kelly and I've seen, we're the oldest guys on here, by the way. Yeah. We've seen satellite utilization before. 17:16 So it's, it's the frequency, but it's also the fact that it's thermal like temperature is, it's just like you and I when we're sick, our temperature goes up. 17:24 Plants are the same way. And we had worked with a, a temperature based, um, infield sensor system probably seven or eight years ago. 17:32 And, and, and loved the technology. It was taking a temperature of the plant every 15 minutes. You could tell within 30 minutes 17:39 of turning the irrigation on the temperature of the plant started to drop. Like literally there's an, there's an immediate response 17:47 to irrigation and sufficient water to plant temperature. So the idea has always, 17:52 we've always been intrigued with the idea. We use thermal drones now to help us, um, analyze and, and basically audit a drip system 18:01 to figure out is it working right? Is there, is there a plugged line or a line that's king or is there a leak? 18:06 So we're using thermal drones and now, but, but obviously they have their limitations. We can't have a drone in a field every day. 18:13 Um, so the idea of having a, a thermal map of the field every single day is, is really in my mind, it's a game changer. 18:23 Like it's what really perked our interest when this technology came out and, and the user interface that they provided that actually gives the farmer actionable steps. 18:32 Like there's, there's tools in there that say, okay, here's how much water you need to apply. 18:36 Here's what your, here's where your water holding capacity is at. Um, gives you a graph. 18:41 It's kinda like a virtual moisture probe Series of questions for Kelly Garrett. First off, do you believe that under most irrigations, 18:50 I'll go ahead and tip my hand. It's pretty much my assertion that we waste water with irrigation. 18:55 We've, we've over applied or inefficiently or, um, less judiciously used the water once we put in the irrigation system. 19:03 Like, heck, got it. Throw it out there. Yes. Water, nitrogen or beer to a college freshman, 19:13 they always think more's better. And so all three things and so we've done it and you are learning that, uh, 19:23 you don't have to do it. So there's the environmental thing, which we're eventually maybe gonna be regulated about, 19:28 particularly in the western states where it's dry. Maybe not in Iowa or Indiana where I'm from, but we start getting out where CURT's from in Kansas. 19:35 Water's a little harder to come by. We're gonna see some potential regulatory environmental reasons. 19:40 And Kurt, can we admit we've over applied? Oh, absolutely. I think that's one of the first things that, um, growers, when when, 19:51 when a grower installs a moisture probe, um, even with that piece of technology, that's one of the first things they learn. 19:56 It's like, I turned my irrigation on because my neighbor did. Right? And, and that, that mindset has to go away. 20:05 We have to start measuring and monitoring and, and using the right amount of water at the right time. What I just heard there, Kelly, is Kurt wants 20:12 to do an entire series of podcasts that's going to reverse the farmers trying to keep up with the neighbors. You know what that I want to be a part of that. 20:20 When you tell me that you're gonna be the, you're gonna teach farmers that they don't want to compete with their neighbors. 20:25 I want to be a part of that. I wanna see how that comes to fruition. Okay. So, um, a farmer 20:31 that doesn't want to keep up with the neighbors. That's funny. Okay, answer me this on the moisture levels, and this is really kind of where it gets the crux of it. 20:39 What does the moisture need to be? You know, Kelly made a crack when we talk about his, his, uh, stress thing, he says, I don't think we know 20:46 what a healthy plant looks like. 'cause we've never seen an unstressed plant. I'm gonna tell you this, I don't think that we really know 20:51 what mat, what optimal moisture level is. Oh yeah. Well, I have a question. First I wanna know if my soil 21:00 will hold eight inches of water. Is that at the saturation point Kerr or is that at the perfect point for the plant? 21:07 Because if that's at the saturation point, I would tell you eight inches of water is too much. Right? Yeah, it is at saturation point. 21:15 That's where those numbers come from. Yeah. So eight, eight inches of water then in my soil is too much. 21:19 'cause if it's at the saturation point, then we've taken all of the oxygen out of the soil 21:23 and then we're stressing plants because of that. So I don't know what the perfect amount is, but it's not eight inches. 21:29 So that, again, uh, you know, I go back to, I i, I know I've said this in a number of episodes that, you know, FFA soil judging, they said perfect soil. 21:38 And granted, this has been a couple of days ago, 50% particle, 25% airspace, 25% water space, meaning the porosity is there. 21:46 And that way you've got the oxygenation and you've got the moisture and you've got the ability for the roots to move. 21:52 If that's the case, that still doesn't tell me because by, by soil type there you would believe is greater an organic matter, greater porosity. 22:04 Right? So I'm trying to figure out do we know what the moisture level should be? And it should certainly vary by soil. Type one would think 22:13 Yes, a hundred percent. So there is a science behind it. Um, and and the really, the right way 22:17 to do it is when a moisture probe is installed, you send the soil that the probe displaced when it went in the ground, 22:25 you send that to a lab and they analyze it for the percent sand percent silt and percent clay. 'cause those three factors impact 22:34 how much moisture that soil holds. Then you can, you can draw some lines where it says, here's my readily available moisture 22:43 or plant available water. Then there's another line that shows where is the wilting point. 22:49 And, and basically you don't ever want to get to wilting point. You want to keep it above that, um, 22:54 plant available water line. And then above that is the saturation line. So kind of between saturation 23:01 and readily available is, is the sweet spot. But you're right, it it varies on every soil type. All right. Then the next question is, if we think 23:11 that in general, nitrogen irrigation, nitrogen, water, and beard or freshmen are generally always, uh, over applied and we think be more is better, um, if we get better at the, 23:24 the measuring, then there still becomes the science of it's, the measurement is gonna vary. 23:30 In other words, the the guy across the township has a different moisture level requirement because of soil type. Absolutely. You just like in my soils, our, 23:39 our variable rate nitrogen wreck. Mm-Hmm. It's infinitely variable. Well really the water wreck is infinitely variable as well. 23:47 Just the delivery process. We don't have, we can't do that yet with the drip. I mean, you, you could in theory, 23:53 but the, it would become very expensive with all the different zones in the irrigation. But, but yes, somebody, uh, 10 miles north of me, 24:02 10 miles south from, or even within my own field, the water recommendation or the water needs will vary and, and change very fast. 24:10 Because as the soil changes, Kurt, I got a question. We know that we're going to, it is kind like probes might end up being like, you know, the landline 24:21 and the new cell technology is gonna be the satellite. How do I use this satellite? I assume it's a subscription service. 24:29 It is a subscription service. Um, yep. There's, do I have to be a neutral simple signup properly? Do I have, do I have to have 24:35 subsurface drip irrigation to use it? 'cause then it would seem like you'd be ly limiting your acres. 24:41 Absolutely not. No. So we're using it on pivots already. Um, some flood irrigation this year, dry land. 24:47 So any really any kind of, uh, farming practice, um, you can learn a lot from it. And so if I subscribe to it, my acres are all dry land. 24:56 All I'm doing it for is the curiosity factor because I can't really do anything about it Anyhow, other than pray for rain, 25:03 There's some management things that you potentially would do in season. Yeah. For example, should I apply late season nitrogen? 25:09 Right. Well what's your, what's your potential? How much potential have you already shaved off? Yeah. And there's some tools within the, within the platform 25:17 that show like what your dry matter production is, what your dry matter production should be or what your potential is. 25:24 So there's some, it's more than just moisture and temperature. They've, they've made some really, really interesting, um, 25:31 graphics to help the farmer understand how to use the tool. Right. That's what I was gonna say. 25:37 It, it's more than pure cur curiosity. Damien, you could make, uh, fertilizer decisions, late season fertilizer decisions based on this again, 25:46 you know, where where other people with irrigation think I might need to turn the irrigation on 'cause it's too dry. 25:51 You might have a grower that says, I'm not gonna put on my fungicide, or I'm not gonna make my R five fertility pass 25:57 because it's too dry. You can make an informed decision with this tool. You can also make marketing decisions with this tool. Yeah. 26:03 Right. Because oftentimes the need for water isn't as great as what we perceive it to be. 26:09 And this tool will help you make a a more specific decision. Honestly, where I see it maybe being a benefit in a person 26:16 that's a dry land, uh, which most of where you and I are is dry land, uh, farming. If you compared a field 26:24 where you did this practice cover crops reduce tillage versus one that was conventional, I would think that you would pretty clearly see 26:31 moisture holding capacity in the one that you didn't touch as much. Or the one that you had cover crop 26:36 or reduced till would have better moisture retention come July, August than the other. 26:41 I I would think so. It might give you a chance to tabletop some different practices. Is that something you see people doing, Kurt? 26:49 I do, yeah. Different practices with, yeah. Farming practices, applications of different things. Um, there's, there's the ability within the tool 26:57 to zone different soil types. So you could essentially create a, a map of your soil, a map of hybrids treatments. 27:05 Um, we had a center pivot this year where we were trying a, a nozzle treatment package where it was supposed 27:10 to change the structure of the water on two towers of the center pivot. And, um, and so we were analyzing was that tool working? 27:17 Was there any benefit, um, to the plant based on this water treatment? So, um, kind of some interesting studies that you can do, 27:26 um, just with a click of a button. Alright, is the future are, are we gonna see more of this? Is this gonna get rapid adoption? 27:37 The use of the use of satellite, the use of satellites to monitor gauge moisture? I think there's a better chance 27:44 that they'll adopt this than there'll be a probe because you have to go out and put the probe in the ground, things like that. 27:50 This is just a subscription. Somebody could take a look at it. I think that this has a better adoption. If you don't, 27:56 I can check it out on my phone. Right, Right. How far down are we looking? Are we looking, I mean, we, are we talking 28:02 moisture cleared outta the subsoil? That's where all my, all my August moisture comes up from the subsoil. 28:07 Right? So the answer to that is they're using the plant as the sensor. So however deep the roots have gone, that's 28:15 what you're gonna be picking up with a satellite. So if you have a very shallow rooted crop, that's, that's where it's gonna be sensing it. 28:21 If it's a deep rooted crop, it's essentially, it's essentially using that plant as the sensor and measuring that the temperature of the plant, um, 28:29 to do the, the indication of what the moisture is. Okay, so if I wanna do this, uh, how do I go about doing it? 28:39 Yep. So get ahold of us here at Nut Nutri Drip. Um, we can get you signed up or signing up acres, um, 28:44 as we speak at the 12 month subscription. So whenever you start, uh, you basically get 12 months of the service. 28:50 Another interesting thing, and this is really how we got comfortable with using the tool, is we went back 28:56 and we, we looked at a, we looked at the prior season. So, um, you can go back and sign up fields from last year if you know, you know, 29:05 you know what the outcome was and you want to see, well, what happened during the season, now we can actually go backwards and, 29:11 and get all the data from last year as well. Then Kelly, we posed the question at the very front of this episode, do you know you're still has moisture 29:19 level, you do at least where your probes are now you're using this ear watch, it's getting you better and better. 29:26 Can you extrapolate from both of them, in other words, having done the probes and now sampling in, dabbling in ear watch, 29:33 can you extrapolate that and say, well, if that's the case on these types of fields, I'll bet it's the same over here, here and here. 29:39 In other words, has it made you better about understanding your soil moisture levels? 29:44 Yes, it has the, it's made me not as nervous at different times throughout the year because you can look and see what the levels are in the, uh, 29:51 monitored fields, if you will, and you'll know that it, it's okay longer than what we think it is. 29:56 So between this giving you almost a assuredness that things aren't as bad as they might appear, and then the fact that we've got the technology on seed 30:05 and some of the practice changes, I would think that it let me sleep a little bit better in a really dry June. 30:11 Or, you know, where you, where your, your where grandpa would've been festering all the time. This might help you a little bit 30:16 on some of the stress level. Exactly. Education and information is power and it's knowledge and it brings great security. 30:24 All right, get me outta here, Kurt. What do I need to know about my soil's moisture levels? I asked the question, do you know your soil's moisture 30:29 level in general? We know when it's saturated, when we're, when we can't walk across without sinking 30:34 and we know when it's really, really dry. What else do we That's, that seems like, that seems like pretty, that's like saying we 30:40 didn't know you're alive or you're dead. I mean, I don't, that doesn't seem like that's very good diagnostics. 30:46 Yeah, I mean, water is everything, right? Like too much, too little. It all hinges on water. Your, the effectiveness of fertility, the effectiveness 30:55 of all the other farming practices that we do to optimize yield, it all hinges on water and the right amount of water is, is so critical. 31:05 So it's, uh, it's a tool worth looking at, I think. All right. His name's Kurt and Graham. The company's name's Nut Nutri Drip. 31:11 If you want to dabble into era watch, we encourage you to do so. They, they don't have to do the whole farm, right? 31:16 They can do, they can do certain parts of it, right? Correct. Yep. We can do zones or just small areas to get, get a guy started. 31:24 Got it. His name's Kurt Grimm. Company name is Nut Nutri Drip product is era Watch, like Irrigation, like the watch on your wrist era watch. 31:32 And my name's Damian Mason hanging out with Kelly Garrett of Extreme Ag. 31:37 If this was helpful to you and I know that it was, share it with somebody that else could benefit from it. 31:41 Remember hundreds of videos that these guys shoot in a field in basically a library@extremeag.farm, also hundreds of these podcasts 31:47 that I've recorded with them cutting the curve all free. Go to Extreme ag.farm if you wanna take 31:51 your learning to the next level. Become a member of extreme Ag. It's 750 bucks a year, that's it, 31:56 just seven 50 bucks a year. And you will have access to people like Kelly with a question answer format. 32:01 You can also get exclusive offers, like for instance, to go to Commodity Classic for free 32:05 through one of our business partners. You know what else you're going to get? Exclusive content, extreme Ag Farm if you wanna be a member. 32:13 It's a low, low cost investment for a high return, uh, information and uh, exchange of information that you can get from extreme Ag. 32:20 Until next time, thanks for being here. That's a wrap for this episode of Cutting the Curve, but there's plenty more. 32:26 Check out Extreme ag.farm where you can find past episodes, instructional videos 32:32 and articles to help you squeeze more profit outta your farm. Cutting the curve is brought to you by 32:39 Advanced Drainage Systems, the leader in agriculture water management solutions.