00:00 For all the precision that is associated with modern production agriculture. Filling your sprayer is not exactly as precise as you might hope. 00:08 And I'm talking about getting the right volumes of the water. And then of course the inputs, Johnny, we're talking about sometimes, you know, 00:14 ounces per acre, you know ounces per small amounts of ounces per gallon. And here we come on the side of this and you say, all right, when I fill this, 00:25 I fill it here. I got a monitor right here and I've got a big tube right there. And you said that works kind of, but I also fill out of the front. 00:33 So tell me about the problem that you face when you're filling your sprayer and getting the volumes right. Yeah, so for us, a lot of times, 00:38 98% of the time we're gonna do the front field. And so when we're doing the front field, there's no indicator up there digitally that tells you anything. 00:45 And then we're always looking at the sight glass. But the problem with the sight glass is a rubber tube atrazine sticks to it, turns it white, you can't see the inside of it no more. 00:53 We run a lot of humic acid, it'll stain it. So basically the sight tube's either gotta be replaced quite often or cleaned. And so, you know, Deere does offer a digital readout on the side here, 01:03 but when we're front filling, that's not an option. Well the sight tube, I'm not gonna be mean here, but it's kinda like a rudimentary rain gauge. 01:09 It's not even straight. Your hose is flexing so that's not gonna give you a good indication necessarily. And you're kinda standing down here on the ground, I'm six foot one, 01:18 that thing up there at the tops, like 11, 12 feet, I can't see what that is up there. So it seems like that's a little yesterday's technology and you know, 01:26 and a lot of times we're in here filling up the ground's not level. So the side gauge is always gonna be off on that. 01:31 And then you also gotta look at just over time, like when we're coming in to fill up, we need a 50 acre load and we're doing 10 gallons work, 01:37 we're never just gonna put 500 gallons cause it's hard to trust that site gate. So normally we're gonna put 5 50, 5 75 and if we get done with the farm, 01:44 we gotta do something with that extra. So you got 50 extra gallons to burn and you end up, what are you doing environmentally? 01:49 You're not supposed to be able just go and dump it, but you end up putting it in totes. Okay. Okay. So the site gauge is pretty antiquated. This is okay, 01:57 but it still doesn't give you a complete exact reading because you've got a float gauge. So there's float at the bottom, flow at the top. 02:02 And then like I said earlier, if you add an extra five or 10 acres to make sure you got enough, sometimes the products we're using are 20 to $40 an acre. Yeah, 02:09 that's a lot of extra money that adds up over a week's time. If you found a better way and you're gonna show us. 02:14 All right now let's go to the front of your sprayer. Well Mr. Perl, I'm starting to see the problem we're standing at the front of the sprayer. 02:20 It's about a 14 step walk over to the side where your uh, gauge is as well as your sight tube. 02:26 And this is where you normally do your fillings. So when you're doing your filling from here, you're running back and forth, you have to have a second person. Yeah, 02:32 a lot of times you have a second person cuz if you have the trailer set up over here to our right, you honestly can't see the sight gauge. 02:37 Of course you can walk around and look at it, but it always seems like the last few gallons fill up really fast. Yeah, and as you said, there's a lot of inefficiency because you know, 02:45 at 50 extra gallons, I mean that seem like much, but what do you do with it when the field is done? And also there's value in that 50 gallons and where do you go with this? 02:51 So you fill from here. Uh, by the way, one of the answers is gonna be why don't you just fill from the side? Yeah. So for us we had to usually fold up to fill from the side to come in. 03:01 So for us we could stay unfolded, pull right up to the trailer, fill up and back, right back. Okay. So fill it from the front. 03:06 It just works more efficient you more efficient for us. All right, so we got now this uh, 03:10 system right here and you're with Simon Innovations. Your name is Steve Simon. You pioneered this system. Tell me about it. Absolutely. 03:19 So the ACU volume system I designed after spraying fields for the last 20 years. 03:25 And I was always having the trouble running short or having too much product. Yeah, it was never, 03:31 it was always crossing them my fingers at like 50 or 60 gallons hoping I had enough to make it to the end of that last pass. 03:39 I said there's gotta be a better way. So I worked through different technologies to try to measure volume in the sprayer tank and I wanted it to be live. 03:49 So I designed and patented the system called the Accu Volume System. And it is all done through a single sensor that scales a column of solution 03:57 within the center, most part of the sprayer tank. And it is spot on accurate, actually breaks it down into less than half gallon increments. Okay. 04:06 So when Johnny talks about sometimes we 50 extra gallons, you know, within a half gallon what we're at right here. So the uh, 04:12 the savings just from that, how's it work? Yeah, so it's all just measuring, um, from this single sensor, the weight of a column up solution. 04:22 And with our 20 point calibration chart, once it's calibrated, it creates a shape and size of the tank and breaks it down into the la less than 04:29 half gallon increments. All right Steve and then go into the farmer. This obviously then has something tied into the cab, right? 04:35 You also can see in the cab what the volumes are. Yes sir. So you know like, hey wait a minute, 04:40 I must have overlapped too many places because I thought I had enough to cover this field and I've got two laps left to go and I'm not done. 04:45 So you know what you're doing in the field so you can monitor your, it's a lot more accurate rating what's actually in your tank. So you know, 04:51 you know if you're gonna be over under a lot faster. Is this paid for itself just so far this year for you? It does on our farm just because if we go in to fill out, 04:58 we add an extra 20, 50, 75 gallons every time to make sure we have enough. It really does. Cuz once again, a lot of times we're switching products. 05:05 If I was in the commercial business, that would even be a bigger shape. Yeah. So you don't have to now have as much extra carry that you then dump it a tote 05:11 and say we're gonna try and use that the next time. Another big thing it does for us, if we switch from water to a fertilized product, it has a way to self, 05:19 like you have the calibrations already saved in, you hit a button, it changes the calibrations and you're always dead on accurate. 05:24 Where your fertilize, convert, fertilize flows differently. The water. Yeah. You had said that before we started recording. 05:30 So when you're using a fertilizer uh, product, you said a lot of times you're at the beginning, you won't have enough fertility in the boom. Is that the deal? Well, no, 05:38 it's usually putting out too much fertilize. Okay. Cuz it's heavier. Yeah, it's heavier. It just, 05:41 it usually you'll put out too much the first load and machinery recalibrate with this thing here. 05:46 You know exactly what's going on as you're going through the field. So saves your money and then also saves your products. Okay. 05:53 Steve Simon, if I wanna learn more about the Accu Volume system, how do I learn about more of this? Yeah, visit our website at uh, 05:59 simon innovations.com. Got it. All right. If you wanna learn more about the Accu Volume system, you know where to go. I'm Davey Mason with Steve Simon of Simon Innovation. 06:07 It's Johnny Verell coming at you in front of a sprayer where Johnny's really happy about the solutions he has found in his first year trialing this product.