Latest / AG Bull / AG Squawk with Davis Michaelsen | Terrain | Water Drainage & Data Solutions

Transcript

AG Squawk with Davis Michaelsen | Terrain | Water Drainage & Data Solutions · AG Bull

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of a slow day in the grain markets today.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Mellow trade, you might say, ahead of tomorrow's WASDI report.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Livestocks got a little more jiggy, but really all told didn't close terribly far off unchanged.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking tile and water management today and how that industry has changed.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: From behind the big blue, bodacious microphone of Ag Bull, your pal Davis Michelson here.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Glad to have you along for Ag Squawk in the afternoon this October the 8th.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's already Thursday, gang.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Although of all non-Fridays, this is probably tomorrow's going to be the least Friday of all Fridays.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: If there's no such thing as Friday on the farm harvest underway, and it's beat the clock time.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you've got a window open, betting you're feeling like you need to be out there and uh turning and burning.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: We wish you all the best.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Be safe, everybody.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Just slow down for a moment when you can.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: And as I always say, don't stick your hand in there.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Don't stick your hand in there.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're not stronger than a PTO.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Just be careful.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Use caution, everybody.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Glad that you are here with us.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: We've got uh Mike Tweeton and Carter Quam from Terrain Water today.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Very modern solutions to the problem of water.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to get an update from them on some unique things that their business does.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not sure if everybody's doing it the way that they're doing it, but they do seem to be the industry leader and certainly among the largest.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll we'll get the details from them on terrain water and we'll we'll talk water removal.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if if ever there was a year where some farmers thought, what am I going to do with all this water?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: These are the guys who know what to do with all that water.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: We'll get to them in just a little bit.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Go to AgBull.com if you're interested.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: By the way, Tommy Grasafi, our own Agbol T-Rex, just posted a conversation with the farm CPA, Paul Nefer himself.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's over on the premium side, exclusively for subscribers.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: So, Agbol subscribers, make sure you check that out if you'd like to become a subscriber.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: We'd love to have y'all come on down and check out check out all the content that we've got for you there on a daily basis, plus these flash specials.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Today's a great example, Paul Nee for the Farm CPA there.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, a timely, timely conversation with our own Thomas Grashuffey.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: All right, with that, let's let's get to it.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Export sales.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I didn't even pull up a graphic on this.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Basically, in line with expectations, I would call export sales fractionally meh.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, nothing to shout about.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Corn and soybeans, wheat, all below the same week last year.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: The biggest change week on week was sharply lower soybean export sales in the weekend at October one.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: Soybean meal exports were more than double the top end of pre-report expectations, but well above year ago.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: Cotton also came in above year ago, but down slightly from the prior report week.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: And just another little note here that I stole from Jim Wiesmeyer's comments this morning.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: U.S.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: ethanol exports climbed 6% in August to 211.8 million gallons, reaching their highest level in five months as shipments increased across most markets.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: Canada remained the top destination, 84.8 million gallons up 14% from July.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: That accounted for 40% of total U.S.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: ethanol exports.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Canada did.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Shipments to the European Union rose 2%.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Exports to the UK up 52%.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, Columbia posted an even larger gain with shipments surging 163%.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Through August, U.S.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: ethanol exports totaled 1.62 billion gallons with a B 12% ahead of the same period last year.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about the ethanol stocks just kind of starting to dip lower.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think we're at 24 point or 23.4 something million barrels in stocks as of as of the latest report.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And we may expect to see that number headed lower.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get into the markets with the tail of the ticker.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Corn and soybeans under light selling pressure in early session trade this morning.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Wheat futures were up a few cents, but didn't stray far from unchanged.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: The livestocks were lower across the board.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Feeder cattle led declines early this morning.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Rounding into the lunch hour, corn futures had firmed back above key five bucks in the December contract.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: And although soybeans did post an early session high above 13, nothing doing at lunchtime, down around eight cents overall.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Winter wheat futures backed off early gains to trade in slightly negative territory.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And the livestock futures were still lower on the day with feeder cattle still leading the downside parade.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Let's check out the settlements there.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: I've got November soybeans down a dime on the day,$12.87 and one half.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: December corn.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, we uh we haven't talked about this on Axquawk that much, but uh throughout my career, I've called something like this a SAS close.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: One quarter cent within a uh a major milestone closed today, down one and three quarter cents.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: The SAS close comes in at five dollars and one quarter cent.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Soybean meal was lower, moderately lower, I'm calling it.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Soybean oil was higher.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Did I just say soybean oil?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Soybean oil was higher.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Soybean meal was moderately lower.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think I got that right.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Over to the wheats, the Chicago wheat.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Let's look to the December three and one quarter cents lower, 683 and a quarter.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: December KC wheat down two and one quarter cents, 736 and a quarter.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: And over to that livestocks tab.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: I've got November feeder cattle futures down 92 and 12 cents, 334.87 and one half.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Sharper losses looking out into the deferred see April contract down 245 on the day, down to 323.77 and a half was the April feeder cattle contract.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Over to your Fed cattle, 22.5 cents lower at settlement, 223.55 in the December contract.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Loss is not quite so heavy.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: You go out to the February, 70 cents lower, but then losses begin to increase once you get out to the April, over a dollar lower in the April contract, but the dece just off 22 and a half.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: And the lean hog futures.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: What have I got up here?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: 68.60.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's the dece down 50 cents even today at 68 and 60.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Before I bring in my guests, please let me mention plus 500.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: My crew and I use plus 500 T4 software.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I was just using it for real-time quotes and a host of dandy features.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: We trust plus 500 T4 software, plus 500, trust plus 500.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks to Plus500 from all of us here at Ag Bull.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And with that, let me bring in Mike Tweeton and Carter Quam from Terrain Water.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Hey fellas, how's it going?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Before we start the conversation, I've got this that I just ripped straight up.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: The uh the terrain website.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Terrain delivers intelligence and engineering for agricultural land so producers, renewable energy developers, utilities, and specialty crop growers can maximize their land, reduce risk.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: I like that part especially, and plan with confidence.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Carter Quam, Mike Tweeton, welcome to uh AgSquawk today.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: How are you, fellas?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Carter, how are you?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: How are you doing, buddy?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm good, Davis.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having us on.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: This would be a great conversation to have and bring some light to the water management world.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: So absolutely, absolutely.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: And and Mike, we're glad to have you here as well.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: You you heard and maybe even had a hand in composing that little blurb from your website there.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you got your fingers in an awful lot of pies there.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh very effective tools that you're offering to uh a variety of of types of customers there, I suppose.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Give us a give us the elevator speech on terrain, please.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_04: Thanks for having us first and foremost.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_04: But uh yeah, that that's a mouthful for sure.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um Terrain terrain's a fairly new company doing a lot of things, but we're centered around water, honestly.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's in the name, it's our focus, it's where we came from.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and our goal with with terrain water was to put water at the table in the grower's decision-making tree.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_04: So many times it feels like water management is a reactionary decision, something that's not planned, like your fertilizer and your inputs are.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_04: And we decided to try to create a software to help bring those decisions to the forefront, make them clearer, and really show the ROI of investing in water management and getting your water taken care of.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I I guess I'm how long has terrain been around?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: How long have you all been in business?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because the technologies that that you're you're using and offering up to customers are are fairly new, but you're you're no new kids on the block, are you, Mike?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_04: No, I've been in the drainage business for 25 years.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_04: Designing, installing, managing water across the entire United States.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_04: Train as a company is fairly new, but I've been doing it quite a while.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, excellent.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Carter, Mike mentioned it a little bit and trying to get a feel for who to bounce which questions off of here.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna just throw you in the deep end right now.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: He mentioned it.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we have all kinds of conversations about well, what's the right seed, what's the right fertilizer, what's the right this, what's the right that, and water management doesn't always come into the equation, but I I suspect you would argue that it ought to be right up there in that conversation.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Is that fair?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: And most growers you talk to, you know, typically they acknowledge that it's one of the top two variables between nutrients and water management, but usually it's like Mike said, a reactionary thing where maybe they have enough in the budget this year, or they've been wanting to do it for years but never got around to doing a plan on a field that's been holding back on yield.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like you said, it's it's definitely uh gotta be the top issue in egg that's you know never talked about or rarely talked about in the planning, especially.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, usually it's every year just that month or two months before they'll call and want to do something where it should be planned out five years, ten years in advance.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: You should know kind of what your next steps are gonna be for your farm.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because with any luck at all, it's it's gonna rain five years, ten years, twenty years down the road.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: You you probably want to be ready, have some have have something like laid out to uh to deal with all that, right?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and as we know, Mother Nature is probably the most uncontrolled variable in agriculture.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: So be having that water management system installed earlier than later is one way to control that variable.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Mike, when when we're talking about variables, that's a that's a buzzword for me because I feel like you know, there are, especially, especially now, there are an awful lot of variables, high input costs and high diesel costs.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, just just as Carter said, the weather is has been hugely variable this summer.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a big fan of getting variables checked off the list so you can at least minimize your your risk or your uncertainty as as much as possible.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it sounds like your service uh helps to do that.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_04: Our service starts with our IQ software.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_04: Excuse me.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's designed for a grower to get their data into one platform where they can start looking at all those variables together.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_04: You know, historically, that data comes in multiple forms and multiple ways, and it's been really hard to look at that in one specific spot over one farm.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_04: With our software, a grower can integrate yield maps, soils maps, fertility maps, their tile maps if they have them, all in one place, wrap that around rainfall data and flow patterns to decide what's really affecting that farm and make good decisions.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_04: And if it does come to the place where water is the issue, drainage is the issue, we offer design services and engineering to help them get a plan on that farm that they can take take out and get installed.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, because as I understand it, I'm a rank amateur when it comes to this stuff, Mike, but uh a soggy spot in a field doesn't necessarily indicate where the problem is.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is that is that a correct assessment?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, depending on the farm, we in the last six months have actually used the software to diagnose drainage issues with existing tile systems.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_04: So often a farmer has got tile put in it and and farmers think they've got it got it covered, and and we're starting to see that you know things happen, right?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_04: The real world's a messy place, and sometimes the drainage tile does not function the way it's supposed to, but it's hard to see on the ground.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_04: But when you start stacking data, we can start to analyze and really determine the cause of that yield yet or why that farm isn't performing.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_04: It's just been really powerful.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_04: It's kind of gone in a direction we didn't originally think it was gonna go, but uh growers are definitely using it to to make good decisions on their farms.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm gonna pick you up right on that.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: What direction did you think it went, and how did where it is now diverge from that, Mike?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_04: Being drainage people by trade, we started out building this tool with a sole focus on drainage ROI and showing the return on water management investments.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_04: Shortly after releasing the software, we quickly learned that the software was going to go in a different direction.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_04: Although the water management piece was very important and a key piece to the software, the ability to get all that data in one place has really piqued interest of a lot of growers.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the first couple demos we did of the software, the growers instantly said, Man, I want to get my soil sample data in here too.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_04: Because once the water is managed, you can start to look at that that next level of nutrients and pH and fertility.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_04: But the the resounding sound was none of that matters if we don't have the water managed first.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, looking back, we we started down the right path with the water management piece.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_04: You know, that's obviously in there, that's our cornerstone.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_04: But the data stacking and analysis piece of the software is also pretty important.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Carter, let me uh let me jump to you on this because I mean the the weather, especially over there in the eastern corn belt, and I don't know, maybe we need to talk about tile in a lack of drainage as well, but the heavy rains that just wouldn't stop basically wrote your commercials for you this year, buddy.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: I wonder if if you expect you may see an uptick in uh in some business over there in the eastern corn belt after what what they've uh what they're still dealing with today.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, in the Ohio, Illinois region that, you know, just got hit pretty hard the last few weeks.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I talked to a guy out there and he said basically it just stopped raining last Thursday, so they are a couple weeks behind harvest, which obviously like you were just showing earlier with markets is obviously impacting that a lot.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, like the like we were talking about earlier, kind of the lack of planning water management definitely can affect that.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: The people that were proactive in their water management plans are able to get in the fields a little earlier than the people that weren't, basically.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: So definitely helps us out there for sure.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now, when you talk about stacking data, Carter, yeah, can you kind of walk me through that initial point of contact?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: A producer or someone who feels like they've got a water management problem calls you up, they say, you know what, we're sick of this.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: We we need to do something about this.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say it's a you know, a corn, soybean, wheat grower, pick your crop there.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: But when you start talking about stacking data, can you kind of lay that out for us?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: How do you where do you get the data?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: How long does that take?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't even know quite what to ask here.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so just pretend I just called you up and said I got too much water on my farm, I got soggy spots everywhere.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: How can you help?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so kind of the first thing that we would do is create that account for you with the terrain IQ account for you to load your data into.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: So as far as the data import goes, for your yield data, we have an API with John DeereOps and Kset IH to pull in any of your data you already have available.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's pretty simple.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: It takes five minutes for John Deere to send it from the cloud.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: Once you put your username and password in, it's in your account.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: Then we also take in shapefiles right off the monitor.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't use any of the the cloud services, we'll say, we can take in any of the shapefile data, just import it onto there.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: That one is a little more manual entry than the John Deere Apps or case API, just by nature of they already have it in their cloud instead of us having to manually import it into it.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then for tile maps, I mean shape and the soil sample data that Mike's talk been talking about, that's PDF, shape files again, any of the manual entry stuff.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's gonna take a little longer to get in there, but it's all just taken from your hard copies and put into a digitized electronic version, basically.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then yeah, for the stacking, you know, for for I see for what the water management plan for you.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: If you had a spot on the farm, you know is what basically you could take your yield maps and took turn on our would be our called drainage map.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: We pulled natural drainage characteristics out from soil types and created its own map.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: By stacking those two over the top, you can get a pretty good idea, good idea where the natural drainage is affecting your yields, along with topography and flow charts like Mike was talking about to see where your water is flowing to.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: Just use for the natural lay of the land and the natural drainage characteristics of your land too, or just some key factors that we usually look at when we're start designing plans.
• 18:39
  unknown: Yeah.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and that's interesting that you already have sort of figured into can I call it an algorithm?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: When you start talking about different soil types and topographies and things, it sounds like almost given the right data set, a grower doesn't necessarily need to go out there and walk up and down each row and make a little grid pattern before you guys can get to work.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Am I thinking about it right, Carter?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: So we actually do have our, and that's awesome you say algorithm, because we do have an algorithm or formula built into terrain based on natural drainage characteristic and your CPI or productivity index that basically helps driller identify the right investment.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: So, right, the old thinking of water management is the we got a wet spot on the farm, let's call it.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: But what we're trying to do is be proactive.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: So if you have a farm that's got a really high CPI or very productive, and the limiting factor is that natural drainage characteristic, we can give you a score basically of 100 to zero.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: And that gives you the grade of is it a good investment for you to do water management or not, and what the benefits and the returns to be of doing a plant on that farm.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it just helps the growers be proactive in their operations and pick out you know top 10, 10, 15 farms for them to start focusing it on and then working a budget around those farms.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: Mike, I want to ask you kind of a strange question.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: But you mentioned you've been in the business about 25 years, and I I get the sense you and I are are roughly the same vintage.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen I've seen farm country evolve dramatically.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: This has been, you know, I think about it in terms of music.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: We went from from 33s to A-Tracks to cassettes, now we got CDs, now we've got streaming services, and it all happens so fast.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you think about how long did it take us to get the first record pressed to how long it took from there to get the first CD pressed.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that when some of these new technologies came out, Carter mentioned we can use data that that farmers have already uploaded.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: When some of that stuff first started coming out, there was a fair amount of pushback and a fair fair amount of standoffishness.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: But with a system like yours, it feels like people who who have adopted those systems and who have uploaded data here and there are probably uh streets ahead, as they say.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Am I thinking about that right?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and that that's kind of the point of the software, too, is to put the data back in the the producer's hands to allow them to make decisions.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we're not selling inputs, we're not selling seed.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we're we're trying to help guide water management decisions and then giving them the data to make those decisions on their own and assisting them along the way.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_04: So, yeah, I mean everybody's got data, but it's really hard to get it all in the same place to start making decisions.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_04: So this is a huge benefit for those that have been collecting data because the historicals are are super important in telling the story of that farm.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and I feel like this is an excellent, maybe not first use scenario, because I'm sure that for a while people have found uses for that data.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: But like like you say, Mike, you know, to be able to just sort of slide this right into your your folks' applications it seems super handy, a lot easier than it than it used to be.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: You you go back just a little bit away a little ways.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: How does your experience and the company's experience, I guess, in in drainage?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: engineering how does how does it feed into what terrain IQ is able to offer?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_04: That those years of experience are are just embedded in this software.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_04: The one size doesn't fit all for what you'll call it.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_04: Historically in the drainage world, you know it was kind of a one size fits all, you know.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_04: But in everything else we've the word precision comes to mind.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_04: So we're we're trying to do what we call the precision tile plan.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_04: Using this data to to build that tile plan that is uniquely catered to your ground, to your farming practices, to your operation.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_04: Because one thing I've learned is farms across the road are not treated equally.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_04: They're not farmed the same they're not dealt with the same way.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_04: And certain people want to drain their ground a certain way.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_04: And that's what's really important is let the soil tell you what it needs, let the producer tell you how they're gonna farm it and design a system that meets both of those needs.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: Wow that's really good that that Taylor made that that whole idea that uh the way your neighbor does it is going to be different from the way that I do it from the way his neighbor does it and to be able to to tailor as you said to those different different needs, different outcomes, different uh different plans really that's it's got to be a huge advantage.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Carter, I'm curious how did you how did you wind up in the position that you're in?
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: What's what's your official job title there?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: And walk us through you know a young man, a a toddler perhaps even who one day dreamed of being in water management.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: How do you get to where you are today buddy?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah so my official role is the sales and support with terrain so anyone that reached out to book a demo or has an account has issues or engineered design whatever it might might be would contact me and work through the issues with me.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: And as far as how did I end up here basically I grew up in ag um grew up in an egg community and grew up in ag and knew I wanted to do something egg did a couple had a couple stops through college doing different internships at co-ops and whatnot working in the precision egg world and end up seeing or had mutual connections to get Mike's contact and he was telling me a little bit about the program and it's kind of exactly what I wanted to do with the precision egg side right like Mike mentioned back to on everyone's got their precision egg on their nutrient variable rate maps and seed and seed placement everything's precision these days besides the water management.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: And when Mike was telling me that you know we want to start looking at soils and an acre by acre management of farms it kind of got me intrigued and got me interested in doing it and so I took the position and started here.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well I'm I appreciate you telling us a little bit of your story there because I think it feels like sometimes when when when kids grow up on a farm or in a farming community or around agriculture the the choice at some point just seems to become very black and white leave the farm stay on the farm but with these new technologies Carter that are coming out and that are out and now have been proven and have been used and shown to be successful there's certainly a place for uh farm kids if I can just say it that way farm kids who also have an interest in technology and don't necessarily want to move to Cupertino to pursue to pursue a career in computer design or or whatever.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: There's room for that isn't there and you're walking proof.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah definitely and I mean technology's only become more relevant as it continues to evolve right everything is going to be technology based and precision based at that point just because of how like you said earlier high inputs you know the the farm squeeze that's happening right now everybody's gonna have to start managing their operations better and smarter.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's just going to get technology introduced more into the farm operation.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well and a guy like me in that position would need company like yours a guy like you Carter to help me figure it out because uh it's it can be rather intimidating sometimes all this new stuff but uh the new stuff certainly does give advantages Mike I want to come back to you because you're you and I have talked just sort of about the on-farm applications and I I think I want to stay there but if we're talking about growing operation that's concerned with agronomics that's concerned with application rates that's concerned with you know all sorts of different things I would imagine that an agronomist is going to look at the data that you all collect and bring together under one in into one file basically they're gonna look at that differently than farmer Joe who really just wants to maximize his corn crop.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Is that fair?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely and and that was the reason we built in a Teams function on the software so when a producer signs up and and gets their farm into the software and starts making decisions we offer a free Teams function where they can invite their advisors whether it's their anonymous craft consultant grain tile installer into the software and and share that data and actually work hand in hand with them in the software to make those decisions.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah terrainwater.com terrainwater.com is that the best place if folks want to get to know more about what you're doing over there yes sir terrainwater.com let's let's talk about the ag engineering because that's that's gotta reach beyond just tile drainage I mean maybe maybe in the old days just having having good drainage was thought to be was thought to be good enough but but are there steps that the ag engineering takes that are just sort of a cut above for you folks Mike?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah I I mean it all starts with the planning right our our team does a lot of pre-construction research to really understand what's going on on that farm.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_04: You know there could be more than just tile drainage needed whether it's you know a grassed water way a terrace or some sort of water quality piece that needs to get integrated into the farm.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_04: You know we're capable of taking all of those things and getting them across the finish line for the producer to take to you know their contractor to get it built.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah I'm not sure if if either one of you can speak to this or not but I seem to recall I don't know a few weeks ago reporting on a study that showed the amount of tiled land in the United States has increased pretty pretty dramatically over the last five ten years with some of the sharpest increases coming in northern cropping areas.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: I I just I wonder if if maybe you can speak to have you had have you noted an increase in demand in because you're in southern Minnesota if I'm not mistaken you're in Minnesota there have have you noticed more demand for uh for tile up there in northern areas where maybe we don't usually think about people going quite so hardcore with cropping?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_04: Oh for sure you know I I've had a little bit of an experience even in Canada as well and it it is growing significantly there as well all through the Red River Valley and and even out into the western parts of North Dakota we're seeing the demand you know as inputs increase as land prices increase you know growers are seeing the need to manage their land properly and it it really starts with water Carter maybe this is an unfair question.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: I like to ask unfair questions it's it's how I get my kicks you might say but uh well I'll ask it this way what are what are some of the main benefits that we can get other than hey wow I can get a crop off of that that soggy patch that even granddad couldn't figure out how to grow corn on now I've got that cleared up using terrain IQ what are what are some of the key benefits that you've seen growers observe?
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah and I think it's the not just the you know what's bot that we never could farm it's getting the 30% increase on a farm that you know would have been considered pattern tiled wall to wall by using terrain IQ a farmer was able to go on and increase capacity increase add some splitter lines in and increase their yield by 30% on a farm that most people look at and say they're pattern tiled out on that farm.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: Do an analysis like that and then also the deeper analysis with the whole farm story with the not just the water management side of it but also having the soil sample side now you can start looking at a farm once you have that water managed correctly you can look at soil sample nutrient levels nutrient deficiencies and start seeing how your yield stacks up the county average.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: If you're at counter average on a very productive farm how do you increase that and even go past county average on that farm.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: So it's more than just farming something you couldn't farm in the 50s or 60s it's increasing the yield that you think is a good to an extra 20 bushels an acre, 30 bushels an acre across the farm.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: Mike, here's my curveball question for you we're getting way off script on this so just you know tell me to forget it.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: If if you're if you're uh not in a position to answer or or just flat don't know that's fine.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm asking you an unfair question so it's on me.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: But about 10 years ago I've been a reporter now in ag for I don't know going on 15 years I suppose but various states I was in Iowa at the time various states started started talking and focusing on nutrient runoff from both farms and also from industrial sources and with your experience over the years I just wonder if if you had any observations about some of these nutrient reduction strategies or nutrient runoff at all and how that might relate to terrain.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_04: It's a big one but yeah my take's a little bit different probably than the general consensus on I like it already I like it already Mike let's have it you know I I personally feel managing your water is critical to managing nutrient runoff and making sure that you can put those nutrients on that farm where it's needed and you don't have to over apply in fear of losing nutrients due to excessive water and runoff.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_04: When you're managing your water on your farm to me that is that is the first step in managing your nutrients correctly it allows you to really get detailed on how you apply how you manage and getting the most bang for your buck.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah I was just gonna say I think what you're suggesting is that the the nutrients and whatever else we may apply to the soil and to our crops have a better chance of staying where you intend tend them to go as a as an app applier as an applicator as a farmer who puts down fertilizer and and different chemical better chance of it staying there if the water does what it's supposed to is that that uh that that seems to make sense now like you made a light bulb go off in my head just then Mike yeah absolutely yeah for sure well Carter I'm gonna start heading us toward the door here I call it the Minnesota goodbye and I don't know I guess I've got a couple of Minnesotans sitting in front of me here.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you can confirm or not if the Minnesota goodbye is a thing we just sort of ease our way toward the door over a a medium period of time I'm gonna set us off on that path right now.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna come to you Mike with the same question after Carter gets done here.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: But Carter I would like for you to before we head for the door leave us with something important maybe something we haven't gotten to what would be your message to my viewers about terrain I think the biggest message I have is start planning and preparing your operation and be proactive in not only water management but nutrient management controlling everything you can on your farm like we kind of talked about earlier with the farm squeeze going on and high inputs going on being able to control every dollar and out of your farm is going to be overall success for your operation at the end of the day.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah very good Mike I'm gonna throw the same question at you I'd love to hear your closing thoughts anything we didn't get to whatever you might want to say before we hit the door no I I think we've covered a lot today and obviously hard to explain a software on a podcast but you know I would I would really encourage people to get on the website book a demo get a free trial if it works for you we'd we'd love to have you we'd love to help you it's not for everybody we understand that but we do think it's gonna help a lot of people make some good decisions so you know there's really no risk in in coming over and giving us a shot.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely visit terrainwater dot com terrain and I did have to look it up two Rs two Rs in terrain that's terrainwater.com Carter a farm boy question for you how the crops look where tell me uh roughly where you're at there in Minnesota right now just west of Rochester and they look really good do they um yeah I mean we get patches where they're they're so so there are a lot of crops coming off now so we finally got dry here last Thursday we had a little stint there with rain and some guys had to quit picking beans now we're most people are back out in the field so getting some good production going there so good to see.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: Are you uh finally getting some some dry weather I know it was awfully soggy we talked about it a little bit earlier but uh it looks like pretty much everybody in corn growing zones at least uh in the plains and northern plains have got some dry weather there going is it has it been dry enough lately yeah yeah the last few days definitely it's dried down for guys to get back in the field there that the rain I think it was last week and the week before that really had held things up but most guys are able to get back in the fields now and continue with harvest so let's hope the rain holds off for the rest of the fall and let guys finish harvest up.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah indeed indeed I'm glad to hear that Mike I ask all my guests this today towards this toward the near I ask all my guests this question near the end of the conversation but I see you got a window there behind you.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you need to look outside or not but I'm just curious what's what's the weather like out that window right now today it's it's beautiful here it's about as perfect as we can get to to go cut soybeans and start a harvest so everybody's going full swing here and we we couldn't ask for better weather in October right now.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: Excellent excellent well let me go to the National Weather Service where Isaias apparently we pronounced that exaias or something like that.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's expected to approach the northern Gulf Coast as a strong hurricane on Friday that's tomorrow everybody bringing life threatening storm surge heavy rain damaging winds severe thunderstorms across the region and southeast into the weekend risks of flooding and tornadoes related in the central U.S.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: well above normal temperatures will continue through the weekend and into at least next week that sounds like a wide open harvest window rain chances will return rain chances will return for the middle of next week and I I've seen some forecasters talking about moisture from that hurricane that's in the Gulf right now heading up and making sort of a northward path once it once it makes landfall there.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah Rosie let's let's go ahead and get that next slide there.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: Here's the heat here I want to help you interpret this viewers okay so we've got red back in here but that's diversion from normal so don't expect that red to mean the same thing that the red meant a month ago when it meant 105 degrees and no chance for for hope of anything at all that just means just a little bit above normal here.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: All right fellas uh Carter Mike before we go I'd like to just bore you for a moment with some items of mild interest from history today.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: Are you ready?
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: Are you in for it?
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_01: Outstanding well in 1860 on this day October 8th 1860 the telegraph line between Los Angeles and San Francisco began operating I found this picture here apparently that's a Pony Express guy and I don't know if he's hollering at the telegraph dudes it looks like the telegraph guy is waving back to him but uh I mean that was the end of the of the Pony Express.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's all she wrote for that this guy was out of a job.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: I wonder if he maybe went and worked for the for the telegraph company after that.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: In 1943 the birthday of Chevy Chase American comedic actor one of my favorites and in 1949 Sigourney Weaver it's her birthday today American actress Lieutenant Ripley from the alien films and actually I was a fan of the alien films my oldest daughter's middle name is Ripley after Sigourney Weaver's uh character Lieutenant Ripley from the Alien movies and uh just one more let's okay let's have some fun here Carter this one might hit you but I want to see if you can name the movie quote okay I don't know if you're a big movie guy or not but uh I'm gonna throw out a movie quote here that has nothing to do with anything just sort of random here but I'm curious the quote goes like this it's from a big blue guy.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'll give you that quote the guy is humongous and blue and he says Oi 10,000 years will give you such a crick in the neck can you name the movie I feel like this is your era no I don't think I can it's not ringing a bell I feel like you were close it's uh it's gonna it's gonna give me an idea the Disney animated uh movie Aladdin it was Robin Williams when he popped out of the bottle he says oh 1000 years will give you such such a crick in the neck it's got nothing to do with anything but I thought it was a it was a fun quote Mike tweeting Carter Quam terrain water let me make sure I get this right terrainwater.com fellas I appreciate you taking the time today be safe out there in the in whatever you're doing and I wouldn't mind if we could check in again sometime in the future if you fellas are up to it.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely thanks you bet thanks again Mike Tweeton and Carter Quam from Terrainwater.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: And thanks also to Trade the News which keeps me and my squad informed at all times of what's moving the markets.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: Trade the news is real news you can actually use use trade the news for useful news and once again I would direct you to agbol.com where you can dig deeper with AgBull Intel 855737 Farm take the markets by the horns with AgBull.com and on that annual subscription I was just talking to Tommy today he's got a whole box of those uh Bluetooth speakers that we would love to send you as a thank you for an annual subscription not only that with the annual subscription you're getting two months off anyway two months scot free like it never even happened um you'll get daily text alerts you'll get well access to Paul Nefer when he does super secret videos with us all sorts of great things I hope that you'll go to agbull.com or dial 855737fa followed by the letters R and M.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_01: Ag Squawk back first thing in the morning to get you set up with the taste of that Ag Bull intel and then I'll wrap up the uh wrap up the week with a quick solo hit tomorrow I think so anyway it depends on the reports we've got uh we've got a WASD tomorrow and I know there isn't really an expectation for much to happen there but we said that last week too and corn wound up taking it in the teeth so if there's anything there you can expect that uh I don't know maybe Jed maybe the Ag Bowl T-Rex himself will elbow his way into the afternoon program either way we'll be here for you tomorrow and I hope you'll be here as well for another edition of Ag Squawk.