00:00:00 The evolution of autonomy. That's what we're talking about, autonomous machinery on your farming operation. 00:00:04 In this episode of extreme Ag, cutting the curve, Welcome to Extreme ags Cutting the Curve podcast, where real farmers share real insights 00:00:13 and real results to help you improve your farming operation. And now here's your host, Damien Mason. 00:00:20 Hey there. Welcome to another fantastic episode of Extreme Acts Cutting the Curve. I got a good one for you today 00:00:24 because you know what, we're gonna geek out on machinery. You're a farmer, you love machinery. Let's face it. 00:00:28 We've all been to Louisville for the Farm Machinery Show and you just get excited about seeing it. 00:00:33 Yeah, we like the old stuff and everybody loves an old John Deere 40 20, but who doesn't like the newest, latest and coolest? 00:00:39 We're talking about autonomy on your farming operation. I've got Johnny Rell from Extreme Ag and I've got Michael Porter from John Deere 00:00:46 and we're talking about autonomy, how it's used on Mr. Verell's farm, where it was a few years ago and where it's gonna go in the future. 00:00:53 Johnny, you're kind of excited. You've got the, the deal set up. You got what three combines that run on, on Rell Farms 00:01:00 and then you've got your grain carts autonomy's helping you be more, uh, prosperous and use less human resources, right? 00:01:08 That's right. I mean, it is amazing how much things have changed just in the last few years, especially when you look at how the combine's getting 00:01:14 to be more and more efficient with the help of the grain carts, being able to talk to the combines. So, you know, you gotta look at it as you're driving 00:01:21 through the field and unloading. They're talking and they're, you know, basically the combine's driving the grain cart tractor, 00:01:25 but also the grain cart tractor's able to see which combine's full. Because at night and stuff, when we're running, a lot 00:01:30 of times we're running three or four combines in the same field. They can't tell which combine's full. 00:01:35 They can see lights flickering and stuff like that, but it actually shows 'em on the screen where the combine is who the driver is. 00:01:41 I mean, it really helps the grain cart guys know where they need to go next. Yeah. So, uh, 00:01:47 when you've got multiple combines working in the field, then it's, it is not just, oh, I gotta go catch uh, this one. 00:01:54 'cause he got on the radio. You're gonna know, uh, because of the autonomy. But like I said, that that grain 00:01:58 cart doesn't even have to have a driver. And that's the exciting part. So are you actually, are, do you have headless horsemen out there? 00:02:02 Do you have a tractor that's getting running around without a person in behind a wheel? No, We're not, we're not at that point yet. 00:02:07 We still have drivers in there, but basically when it's so dusty and stuff at night when we're running, 00:02:12 especially harvesting soybeans, you really can't see what you're doing during the day with all the dust at night. When the wind stops, you, 00:02:17 you can't see anything near a dust storm. The, the combine literally controls the grain cart, push 'em into the Zack spot, 00:02:23 and then from there the combine driver can move the grain cart forward, back, left. 00:02:27 Right. And that's where we're at today. We know the future's gonna be more and more autonomous features 00:02:32 where there's still a driver in there and, you know, combines controlling the grain cart even more probably. 00:02:36 But as of the, I have drivers in my grain carts, Michael Porter, um, I've been hearing about this. I gotta be honest, I, I heard about this at the, uh, 00:02:44 farm Science Review and Columbus, Ohio, uh, almost a decade ago. Um, that we're gonna have, uh, headless horsemen, 00:02:51 we're gonna have, uh, driverless tractors. And I'm like, great, this should be here. I gotta tell you, I think it didn't come 00:02:58 as quickly as it needed to. Are are, what's been the hold up about it and when are we gonna get there? 00:03:03 When is it gonna be that Johnny doesn't even have to have guys in those tractors with the grain carts? Yeah, no, I think there's a lot that goes into it. 00:03:11 I mean, there's obviously the big machinery and safety's probably the biggest thing that, you know, when we're trying to talk about autonomy 00:03:16 and adopting it on farms, gotta make sure it's safe, gotta make sure it works big, you know, expensive equipment. We obviously don't wanna damage anything as it goes through, 00:03:24 but we're making really, really big, uh, big iterations now. And I'd say it's coming even faster, um, 00:03:30 moving forward than it, than it has in the past. And so, you know, today we have, uh, I guess you're calling 'em, uh, headless horsemen, 00:03:37 but we call 'em autonomous tractors out there doing, doing tillage today. So we've got tractors that farmers take to the field, 00:03:44 drop off, have their boundaries and all that mapped and, and start the machine. And it goes and, and it is their tillage work 00:03:49 for their entire field without, without an operator in the cab. Michael, I'm looking at the calendar. It's October. 00:03:55 I was doing a little legend of Sleepy Hollow reference just for the fun of it, but yes, headless horseman. 00:03:59 Okay. So, and not being mean, but let's face it, we started hearing about this 10 years ago. 00:04:04 I, we saw the, the autonomous machines as recently as, you know, doing stunts or per, you know, uh, uh, 00:04:12 trials if you will, eight years ago. It's going to get there and it's necessary because, you know, 00:04:20 you've got a labor shortage still out here or qualified labor. But there is the reality 00:04:25 that Johnny's not too keen on taking a half a million dollar piece of equipment and then just, uh, you know, 00:04:30 letting his cell phone run it. So Johnny, when does it happen? When are you gonna see this happening? 00:04:34 When will it be that there's nobody in the tractor seat? Yeah, so where we're located at West Tennessee, 00:04:39 our field sizes are so small, we have terraces everywhere. I know the terrace is kind of a hurdle right now 00:04:44 with 'em from what I've been hearing. But you know, the way I see it is they're starting to baby steps, you know, 00:04:48 and the tillage, they're having to figure out how to automate the depth of the tillage, the grain carts they're having 00:04:53 to figure out how to fill the grain cart. I know they're working on all that kind of stuff from what I've been seeing. 00:04:56 So they're actually working on those things today. So once they get these things perfected, taking the dryer out will be a lot easier. 00:05:02 But you gotta be able to figure out how to maintain the depth and stuff like that when you're doing that fall tillage 'cause in a couple of, couple 00:05:07 of different tillage tools right now that actually have the option. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. Most of our tillage lineup now is what we, 00:05:13 we call it, we call it tru set, but yeah, it's prescription type tillage adjusted from the cab and, and our system can you set the depth 00:05:20 and it'll do whatever it takes to maintain that depth. Whether mud gets built up on the tires or, or you get to a soft spot 00:05:26 and tries to go deeper, it'll constantly adjust that, uh, as you're going through the field. 00:05:30 But what, you know, what Johnny says right there was, was pretty, was pretty spot on. It's, it's baby steps and we call it automation moving into 00:05:37 autonomy, you know, so we're trying to automate as many of the steps, whether it be tillage or harvest to make it easier, um, so 00:05:45 that when full autonomy comes, he knows what to expect and how it's gonna react. I mean, he, he's probably seen it, you know, 00:05:50 with the machine sink on how that tractor moves, how it fills when, you know, the true autonomous portion of that comes without the operator. 00:05:57 He'll know what to expect. And, uh, so like I said, baby steps as we kind of move up that, that automation, uh, ladder. 00:06:04 Right? Yeah, I mean to go from everything's in evolution, right? Uh, from, from, from the, from the, from the, 00:06:11 the two two cylinder, uh, tractor steel wheels to where we are today. By the way, Johnny's kind 00:06:18 of concerned about letting his tractors go driverless because of the terrain and terraces and curvy fields. Um, between you and me, Michael, 00:06:27 last year he had an operator and they flipped over a planter just sitting on a road. So I don't know how driverless could be doing a whole hell 00:06:35 of a lot worse than what he already has. They flipped over a plant or just sitting on a road. I don't know, man. I think I'd probably take 00:06:42 my gamble and go driverless. What do you think, Johnny? Yeah, well it's hard to fire somebody if there's nobody in the cab, baby. 00:06:47 But I think these things are very important. So when you come help me harvest, I don't have to worry about what you're going to tear up. 00:06:53 'cause the tractor and the combine are gonna take care of theirselves. Yeah. So tell me about these things. 00:06:57 Michael Porter and see, he likes it when I I why his apple about things like that. He liked, he likes being reminded that, uh, um, 00:07:04 a several hundred thousand dollars piece of equipment was damaged, going right into his most important time 00:07:09 of his year planting season because it flipped over on a road he likes when I bring that up. 00:07:14 Um, machine sink, what does that mean? Yeah, so I think, uh, Johnny explained it pretty well, but basically it's, uh, it's where the combine kind 00:07:23 of takes control of the, of that tractor during grain cart, you know, loading from the combine. 00:07:27 So, uh, that tractor, as it approaches, approaches the combine. The, the driver of the combine kind of has a, an area 00:07:35 identified where once that tractor comes into it, the control shifts from the, the operator of the tractor over to the combine to unload the grain 00:07:42 so they can bump it forward, uh, or speed it up, slow it down, move it left, move it right to fully fill that grain cart. 00:07:49 'cause in the combine seat, it's, it's a lot of times a lot easier to see into see into that grain cart, camera on the spout, things like that. 00:07:56 It's a lot harder for the, for the grain cart operator. So trying to make it easier. So even if you don't have an expert running that grain cart, 00:08:02 it still looks, you know, you can still fully fill that grain cart. And you're Using that right now? That's 00:08:06 happening right now? Yeah. Yeah. We've had that for quite a few years and yep. Control of the control, the green cart using the combine, 00:08:12 The combine operator does it or the combine itself? Does it? Yeah, so a little bit of both. 00:08:18 So the combine itself is sending signals to that tractor to, to hold its location. 00:08:23 And if you speed up that combine, that combine automatically tells that tractor to speed up to match my speed, but then the operator input is, Hey, 00:08:32 this is where I want that grain cart to be. So if I want that grain cart to speed up or move forward so I can fill the back of the grain cart, 00:08:38 that's manually done by the, the operator of the combine signaling that tractor. Yep. So the first thing we're gonna eliminate is gonna 00:08:46 be the driver of the grain cart. When do we eliminate the driver of the combine? Johnny? I think it's several years off for me. We'll see. 00:08:52 Okay. So the combine, the combine's gonna keep a human in it, the green car's not, you talked about tillage. 00:08:58 Have you done any of this with tillage or is that more of a thing if I have a square 160 acre field? 00:09:03 Well, we don't do much tillage, so it, it just hasn't been a thing for us yet, so. Right. Is there anything else that you're using autonomy 00:09:09 in or auto auto automation verging on autonomy at farms? Well, you know, I, I think it all started back, you know, 00:09:17 I, I was thinking about when did we start doing auto steer? So like the nineties you were doing, uh, foam dropping foam 00:09:24 so you can see where to spray, right? Well then in the early two thousands you were doing light bars, mid 2000 auto steer came out, you know, 00:09:30 now we're doing auto path, so that way we get repeatability and that's gonna tie into the combine. 00:09:35 That way the combine knows exactly where the 12 or 16 rows is supposed to be going in at. And so that, like I said, everything's kind 00:09:40 of been baby steps of how they coming out with all this new data and all this new technology. The auto path is really, really interesting how it works. 00:09:47 It really helps you speed up the, the best way to plant a field the best way. That way the sprayers come back in there 00:09:53 and run the same, same lines every year. So I think it's all kind of working on top of each other, but you get into the machine sink, dang, it's pretty neat. 00:10:00 I mean, it, it throws a square box out there. Yeah. And when that tractor gets inside that square box, it'll make a sound. 00:10:06 The tractor driver hits the resume, auto steer button. It's got a home point stuck out underneath that grain, underneath the auger of that combine, 00:10:12 and it's pulling right underneath there. So, but it all started in steps and, and here we are now. And I mean, like you said, the next few years, 00:10:18 there's no telling what they're gonna be able to do just with the automation on the machine sink piece itself. 00:10:22 Michael, we've got something called auto track automation, then auto track implement guidance. 00:10:26 If we just ver we just talked about those two things, or are these two things that we haven't quite visited about? No, he, he, he got on pretty good. 00:10:32 I mean, the, it's like I said, baby steps, you know, the, the implement guidance and stuff is, you know, when, 00:10:37 when auto track started was putting the tractor on a guidance line. But in reality, do we care where the tractor is as much 00:10:43 as we care where the planter is? And so like, implement guidance is where we actually start. We're putting the, the lanter 00:10:50 or whatever implemented behind it on that guidance line and maintaining, so that way we know where all the rows are versus hey, 00:10:57 the tractor's on the guidance line, but maybe it's getting pulled a little bit to the left or pulled a little bit to the right and draft, you know, 00:11:03 and so that's, that's a start there. And then I think the second one you talked about is, is turn automation, you know, getting to the end 00:11:09 of the field, slowing down, picking up that implement, uh, making that turn and coming back into the row. 00:11:15 Now we can automate, we can automate that. So an operator of the cab during planting season or tillage gets to the end of the row. 00:11:22 They're not changing what they're doing. They're sitting there monitoring the job quality, but they're, they're not actually doing all that. 00:11:27 And, and, uh, a lot of that goes back to the, the initial guidance track that we created, you know, auto track. 00:11:33 But now moving into auto path, what Johnny was talking about there, that's what all of our autonomy is built on, you know, 00:11:39 our autonomy tillage solution and, and all our future autonomous solutions, they're, they're built on this auto path guidance planning 00:11:46 that we've created where you, you know, exactly the best. It's, it's projecting the best way to farm that field. 00:11:52 And then, then it's creating guidance lines across that entire field. So give us a thing here from the farmer's perspective. 00:11:59 The person listening to this giant saying, Hey, that's all cool. I know I like to geek out about equipment, et cetera, 00:12:03 but why is this, why does this matter to me? How can I use it? Okay, eventually we take a person outta the seat that's manpower. 00:12:08 That's, that's human labor. That's an issue. We got that. The guidance stuff, it helps you farm better 00:12:14 because of nutrient placement or what's, uh, What's, well it it, it does, but it also speeds up. It, it kind of helps you figure out the 00:12:20 fastest way to plant a field. And then also when it does that, when you put the receiver on the planter 00:12:25 and have implement guidance, it turns around and tells that sprayer exactly where it needs to be running. So you've got auto steer there 00:12:31 where it's running straight up, down through the field. But if you can get some planter drift, this allows that to come into play and actually keep that sprayer. 00:12:37 Even if the planter's drifting a little bit dead center of that row so you're not running over the corn 00:12:41 and stuff, then you turn around and take that to the combine and harvest it. Tell that that combine can open the field up, 00:12:46 cut the end rows off, and it, that combo knows exactly where to go in to start opening that field up. 00:12:51 So you're on matching brothers all the way across. I wanna ask each of you, because we got listeners all over the North America that listen to this, all right? 00:12:57 Where Johnny is, it doesn't have a lot of hills and curves. It's not like Kelly Garrett, but he does have a lot of, 00:13:02 uh, winding edges. Is this more important for someone like him or the person? In other words, is this a better application? 00:13:11 Does, does he get more utility out of it or does the, the farmer in Saskatchewan that's got a square mile, 640 acres that's square and, 00:13:19 and uh, you know, there's no, which one benefits more from where all this technology takes you in terms 00:13:26 of the steer and all that? Johnny, what do you think? Yeah, I mean I think it's both, you know, and, and the reason I say that we gotta get you through, 00:13:33 through a few hurdles, you know, as far as the automation, as far as the driverless thing 00:13:37 with the terraces and stuff, I think. But we, we started out with our farm, we're gonna make it work. 00:13:41 So we went in and RTK all of our boundaries and got exact boundaries you need to do that. And once you do that, you kind of, 00:13:48 you can actually make the planter snap the AV line that's a curb track around in the field off that boundary. So that takes it where you're not having 00:13:55 to freehand drive that first pass. It's automated, it's already there. So I would just say, you know, looking at it, 00:14:00 I think it's a fit for everywhere. I think the Midwest where it's square and flat, that's definitely an easier play for it. 00:14:06 But even here, where we're located at, it's a big deal too. 'cause you get those exact boundaries. 00:14:10 It can have, it can, it can help you all throughout the year once you get those boundaries. 00:14:14 Right. And it takes a little time to get the boundaries. Correct. We took a gator and we r TK to every one of 'em. 00:14:19 And yeah, it takes a long time to go around some of these fields we got, but you get it done, they're there forever and they're saved. 00:14:25 And if you like the lines you've got, you've got 'em forever. That's how he just said that. 00:14:30 I think he was sucking up to John Deere. He says we took the gator. He didn't say we took the ranger. We didn't say the Kawasaki mul. 00:14:35 We took the gator around by the way. He said RTK. What's that mean? What's, what's RTK? So it's the highest level of accuracy from, 00:14:44 uh, from our receivers. So we've got RTK radio, which is I think what Johnny was talking about there, where it's referencing 00:14:51 satellites, but also a, a stationary radio tower to pick up exactly where it is in the field. We also now have what we call S-F-R-T-K 00:14:57 or satellite accuracy, but think subin accuracy, repeatable year over year. You know, so within, with under an inch. Yep. Alright, 00:15:06 So we said, I, I teased that we're gonna talk about the evolution of autonomy and automation. 00:15:10 Um, we talked about where it was and you know, Johnny went from dropping foam to now the sprayer knows where it is, you know, and, 00:15:17 and some of us are old enough to remember all that. That's cool. And yeah, auto steer became this, became this, and we talk about where we're going. 00:15:23 Eventually we take drivers out of the seat, the person that's listening to this that doesn't have autonomy or any of these automations. 00:15:31 Let's talk about their personal evolution. What do they need to know and how do they start? And I guess I'll take it from both of you, 00:15:36 from the pr the product guy Michael, and then from Johnny the practical on farm. Like what's the first thing that person should do that's, 00:15:44 you know, maybe they only farm six or 800 acres and they're like, you know, I'm gonna start trying to up my game on this automation, 00:15:49 but I don't wanna break the bank. Kind of help me help them. So start with, I think, you know, one of the first steps 00:15:56 that we talk about, you know, he talked about is boundaries and auto track. I mean that's, that's the big one. 00:16:00 I mean that's one of the easiest things I think that to kind of pencil out for a customer is if I don't run over the 00:16:06 roads that I've already gone down and I'm not overlapping and things like that. There's a, there's a true cost savings to my inputs, right? 00:16:12 So that's a, that's a really good place to start. And today that's usually a, some sort of a receiver and a display to do, you know, your auto track. 00:16:20 And then along with that you start to get some of the documenting or documenting that data and that yield to help you make decisions. 00:16:27 So to me that's really the first step is what we call our, our core technology. But it's a display and a receiver. 00:16:33 And if we can get those, if customers get into those, it unlocks a lot of value really, really quickly with things like auto track, but then documentation 00:16:41 and then it connects for, for John Deere customers and other customers out there to our operation center, which is our, our kind of cloud-based solution, 00:16:49 but allows 'em to start documenting what they're doing Yep. And then figuring out what impact that has on their yield 00:16:55 and, and down the road and helps 'em make decisions. So to me that's the first place to start is, is start with auto track and start with with documentation. 00:17:04 Johnny ll you, you're nodding your head. Yeah, I would agree with it a hundred percent. And you know, a neat thing is it's kind 00:17:10 of on the automation, the section control that we have on planters. So you got individual road shutoffs, 00:17:15 all that plays in together. A lot of farmers already have that, but you go to the same thing on the 00:17:19 exact apply on the sprayers. So you got that. But one thing I was gonna throw out there, Daniel, as you start having this automation in the future, 00:17:25 whether it's driverless people or you know, a, a tractor without a driver in it, you know, you got your waterways going through the field 00:17:31 and all that, when you get these boundaries put in there, that planter shuts off off that boundary. 00:17:36 So you gotta have stuff like that 'cause you're not gonna have a person in there manually doing that no more. 00:17:40 Or making sure you stay outta the waterway spraying. So it's pretty neat how all this stuff's gonna tie together. And you gotta think in the last, I don't know, 00:17:48 almost 20 years how far auto shears came now it's unreal when it's done. I don't mind when they plant through my waterways, 00:17:55 I get a little prickly when they spray through my waterways. That's always the, the one that bothers me. 00:17:59 All right, so that's the first thing is auto track and that's, uh, display and it's some technology, and I can put this on all the John Deere 00:18:05 or I can put it on anything. You can put it on just about anything. Yep. And we have, we have, uh, 00:18:10 what we call our precision ag essentials, which is exactly that. It's, uh, it's a display, it's a receiver, 00:18:15 and it's, uh, also a modem to help send that data to the cloud. And you can put that in, you know, green equipment, 00:18:21 other equipment, old equipment, new equipment. Okay. And I can do that. I, I stick this in my, my main tractor, my combine and my sprayer. 00:18:30 Yes. Yeah, sure. So if I'm out here and I'm a smaller scale farmer and I, I put it in those three things 00:18:36 and then it all ties together and then it connects and I use my phone or my laptop or something to get all the data. 00:18:42 Yes. Yeah. All right. Then what's the next thing after that, if I wanna go to the next phase after that, I, you sold me on that 00:18:48 and I'm like, okay, three years later I'm ready to go to the next thing. Then what? Yeah. So the nice thing is you've got the, 00:18:53 you got the hardware part done. So now it's, it's how do we start unlocking that next level of software? 00:18:58 Things like Johnny talked about there, you know, section control. Um, it's obviously you can, you can do that in 00:19:04 that first step, but, um, with the same hardware. But then unlocking things like what we call our, our G five advanced package, which is auto path 00:19:12 that implement guidance. Some of those, and again, some of them may take an extra, another receiver. Um, it may take some of that, 00:19:18 but it's still the same hardware. Just unlocking that next level of precision. You know, maybe that customer, 00:19:25 when they bought the Precision Ag Essentials kit, maybe they had our basic level of guidance, you know, a couple inches of accuracy, you know, two 00:19:33 to three inches of accuracy. Now they wanna get to sub inch accuracy. The nice thing is a lot of that's through software, uh, 00:19:38 we call it our advanced software. That's kind of the next step in what we call our, our technology stack or our pyramid. 00:19:45 Yep. You've u you're using that right, John? Yep. Yeah. All right. Um, in your evolution of automation toward autonomy, 00:19:55 any hiccups do you wanna share with anybody, uh, from the farmer perspective, like, Hey, we did this and it and it cost us a day of learning, or we did this 00:20:04 and we, we screwed up and did this. Is there anything you've done wrong? Any hiccups? Any words of warning? 00:20:10 Yeah, I mean, I, I think if you work with your dealer and get all the updates, you know, updates seem to be the things that always cause the issues 00:20:15 that when we went to the auto path and stuff like that, we didn't get quite the receivers updated just right. 00:20:21 We were having some issues with that. Once we got all the updates in there, everything started firing on 00:20:26 all cylinders and everything was good. 'cause you gotta realize how much data you have coming from that planter and you got basically individual road guidance 00:20:33 lines and you got implement receiver back there that's actually driving the tractor. So it's a lot of data coming back and forth. 00:20:39 It's probably gonna be amazing what they do in the next few years as far as keeping up with that data. 00:20:42 But it's a lot of stuff that you just need to make sure you got everything in place at the beginning that's updated correctly. 00:20:47 Michael, you're nodding your head. So the, there he does, he didn't say there was a hiccup, he didn't say, you know, uh, 00:20:54 and then granted he's, he's all about adopting and adapting new technology and all that. Um, no, no, no big hiccups, no big, uh, problems. 00:21:02 Uh, just a matter of managing all the information. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, No, I think that's a big part of it. 00:21:08 I also think, you know, doing it in, in the steps that Johnny's talked about also makes it more consumable. You know, there's a lot of times where maybe a customer 00:21:16 hasn't done some of the basics, like boundary mapping that, you know, we talked about and maybe they don't have a good 00:21:21 boundary set and then they try to go straight into maybe the auto path and then they're upset with the auto path 00:21:27 because the boundaries, you know, maybe weren't, weren't drawn, drawn the way that they probably should have been. 00:21:32 So what I like to say is, if they put in the, the time and the effort with, with some of the inputs, you know, those inputs being the boundaries 00:21:40 and time doing their offsets, doing their calibrations and updates on the receivers, things go a lot better. But also doing it kinda like Johnny said, is working, 00:21:48 working kind of up that up that complexity makes it a lot easier than trying to jump from nothing straight into something like Auto Path. 00:21:56 Got it. All right. Uh, where do we go? Where do we go? What's, what's, we're recording this in October of 2024. When I talked to you two years from now, 00:22:05 Johnny Rell, what are you gonna say? Remember we did that thing now? Look, Yeah, I mean, I think if you're retrofitting you need 00:22:12 to reach out and try to get a game plan in place as you order new equipment. A lot of it's already in there, 00:22:18 you just gotta get it unlocked. So it's kind of whichever way you wanna go. But you can do every bit of this with 10-year-old equipment 00:22:23 as long as it's been upgraded to where it needs to be from a software, from a receiver standpoint. Yeah. So yeah, don't be intimidated. 00:22:30 Am I breaking the bank to do this, Mr. Porter? Am I breaking the bank to do this? Be honest with me. Yeah, No, I'd say again, when we start talking about, 00:22:38 if we start at the basics with something like our precision ag essentials, we're talking a couple thousand dollars to get 00:22:44 to get started with that system. You know, John Deere and our kind of our, our new strategies around lower upfront costs, you know, 00:22:50 getting customers into it. Yeah. And then it gets better over time with those updates that Johnny talked about. 00:22:55 And then, you know, we start getting into the advanced software and stuff. It's, it's incremental cost. 00:23:01 And then even, you know, our full autonomy, I think a lot of people think I've gotta have a brand new tractor 00:23:06 and a brand new, you know, all these camera systems and things. But you know, we're gonna take it back to, 00:23:11 to older equipment in this full on autonomous tractor solution that we're talking about with that drives itself, that'll go on a tractor for tens of thousands of dollars, 00:23:21 not hundreds of thousands of dollars. You know, it's gonna be what he talked about. It's our, our precision upgrade kits. 00:23:26 We're gonna put it onto older equipment and put it on newer equipment as well from the factory if that's what they choose. 00:23:33 That's fantastic. Uh, you got anything for me on the way out the door here? Johnny Var? No, I, I think everybody just needs to really see 00:23:40 how this can make you more efficient and in the next few years, efficiency is gonna be what helps us keep us profitable. So I, 00:23:45 I like the idea of it as an evolution. I mean, you've been on the evolution ever since you came back from Murray State and you know, with the farm, 00:23:51 but so has everything, right? So if you're, if you're not in on the automation leading to autonomy, it's not that overwhelming. 00:23:58 I mean, you've made me convinced here Michael and the, and the, and the dollars aren't, that arent, you know, it's not, it's not a, it's not a, it's not a bank breaker, 00:24:05 Right? Yeah. 00:24:06.585 --> 00:24:06.965 And I like the idea of the tractor. Daniel, I guess go out with this. 00:24:10 It's not like you're gonna have a catless tractor. Yeah. You know, that's not what, what they're coming out with. 00:24:14 They're gonna have a, a kit that goes on a tractor that would drive every day and when it's, when it's able be used, you use it when it's not, 00:24:20 you still drive it normally. I think two years ago everybody thought it was gonna be catless tractors. 00:24:24 That's not how it's gonna be. Yeah. Well, like I said at the Farm Science Review eight years ago, uh, they just took a, it was not Deere, 00:24:30 it was maybe a competitor to them that just came out with a tractor and they just took the blowtorch and cut the cab off. 00:24:34 And that's why I call it the headless horseman. But the reality is that's not what's gonna be at all. Because then it also, it makes it 00:24:39 so you can't operate it when you wanna do something not with autonomy. Right? Right. A hundred percent Use it, you know, use it 00:24:45 for autonomy when it makes sense for you, you know, your busy seasons, you know, use it, right. Have it stay in front of your planter, 00:24:51 tractor running tillage, you're running the planter. But then maybe you do catch up and you need to go and you wanna go do some more tillage or, 00:24:58 or the grain cart when you've got operators, great. Use them. But when you don't, that's when autonomy really starts 00:25:03 to help out is when you are short on that work or that labor or you have something else you need to be doing. 00:25:09 Yeah. Well like Johnny's point was that, that it is basically by chopping the cab off, it made it so it was singular use versus, 00:25:14 and that's going the wrong direction. We want to, if we're gonna spend hundreds of thousand dollars on this piece of 00:25:19 equipment, let's make sure we can, yeah. It can be autonomous at so times and not the others. Talked about the evolution of automation into autonomy. 00:25:25 That's the subject to this. We're doing a four part series with Deere here at Extreme Ag in 2024. 00:25:30 I'm sure there'll be more in 2025. But what we're talking about in this one was autonomy. Other subjects that you can go 00:25:34 and check out Precision upgrades. This very thing about taking a 10-year-old piece of equipment and using new technology to make it new again, 00:25:42 because let's face it down economy and agriculture, you gotta watch your pennies and you can do that and Deere's gonna help you do that. 00:25:47 Another one we're covering is about the operation center. We're gonna explain the Operation center 00:25:50 so you can go and check out all these videos. Uh, if they're not released yet, they will be, uh, check out that one. 00:25:55 And then also we're gonna talk about Sea and Spray Technology with a couple of farmers, uh, that have used it. 00:25:59 So you can see that. So it's a four part series with deer. Um, check 'em all out 00:26:03 and you can check out all the other great stuff at Extreme Ag. It's a lit, it's a free library 00:26:07 of information to help you farm better. It's really what it does. We've been doing these Cutting the Curve podcasts for more than three years, hundreds 00:26:13 and hundreds of episodes. Not to mention hundreds of videos from people like Johnny at his field day and his information you can use all free 00:26:20 at Extreme Ag Farm. Till next time, thanks for being here Michael Porter. Thanks for having me. Enjoy. 00:26:24 Thanks for taking time away from Harvest, Mr. Johnny Rell. Thank you Diane. Till next time. 00:26:28 I'm Dam Mason with extreme ice cutting in the curve. That's a wrap for this episode of Cutting the Curve. Make sure to check out Extreme ag.farm 00:26:36 for more great content to help you squeeze more profit out 00:26:40.005 --> 00:26:41.285