Latest / AG Bull / AG Squawk with Davis Michaelsen | Eli Arnold | BinFlow

Transcript

AG Squawk with Davis Michaelsen | Eli Arnold | BinFlow · AG Bull

• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it wasn't a terrible day in the markets today.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: We will talk about keeping it all together on the program this afternoon.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a young developer who's devised a way to keep inventory, bin space, sales, all kinds of key data all in the same place.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: From behind the big blue, bodacious microphone of Ag Bull, your pal Davis Michelson, the handsome newsman.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Glad to be here with you on your Thursday, October 29.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: October is winding down on us, getting away from us fast.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be November soon.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Pumpkin spice season is in full swing.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: People have uh mixed opinions about pumpkin spice.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: I like it.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Although I haven't had any this season, come to think of it.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It hasn't felt like pumpkin spice weather here in Kansas City.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's been too warm.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like pumpkin spice.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I want my feet to be a little bit cold before I really feel like, you know, getting into anything like that.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And be careful what you wish for, right?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Is that what you're saying?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm thinking.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Eli Arnold from BinFlow is my guest today.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, getbinflow.com is where you can find more information.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: We'll we'll probably mention that more than a few times during the program here.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: But as I said in the intro, he's devised a way to keep everything all together.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this this information can be used, I reckon, in a number of different ways.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Organization is key if if you're gonna think about your operation from a business standpoint.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: For some people, that's that's like duh.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, right.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: For others, you know, making that jump from this is a family farm to this is a family business can be tricky.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's hard to get your head around that.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: My guest, Eli, today, is is here to offer up a tool that can help you do that and sort of codify what you're doing, and as I said, keep everything all together in the same place.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get too far, let me urge you to go to agbull.com, check out our premium services, 855-737 Farm.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Give us a call if you want to talk.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk to you.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if operators are standing by, but somebody's there.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody's there.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or leave a message.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: We'll sure we'll talk to you.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: 855737 Farm or go to AgBull.com.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Still got some of those Bluetooth speakers pointing over here because mine's right over there.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Still got some of those Bluetooth speakers left for a one-year subscription.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: We'd love to send you one of those as just a small thank you.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: But dang, they're handy.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of liking mine.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of liking it a lot.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you might like one as well.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let me just dangle that out there for you for a one-year subscription.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's get into it.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Weekly export sales, pretty good, actually, in the weekend of October 22nd.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Wheat export sales totaled 872,000 metric tons.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's nearly four times the previous week and well above the same week last year.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Export sales of corn were below the previous week.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Fair.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: But well, let's see, export sales of corn below the previous week.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: I lost my place on my script here.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And below year ago.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the butt.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: But still solid at 1.3 million metric tons.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's a pretty good little weekly total for export sales of corn.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Soybean sales were below week ago, but still a stout 2.5 million metric tons.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the markets with the tail of the ticker corn.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Soybeans and winter wheat futures were under pressure, with corn and KC wheat down a few cents, and soybeans a dime lower in early session trade.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: The cattle complex was a little uncertain, with feeders mixed and fats under light selling pressure, lean hogs moderately higher to start the day.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was a rodeo across all the markets today.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Rounding into the lunch hour, grains had staged a bold recovery with corn a penny higher, soybeans working upward toward unchanged, and winter wheat futures one to five cents higher.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Feeder cattle joined fed cattle in negative territory and lean hogs built on early session gains.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get over to those settlements.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've got December corn ending the day down one half cent.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Doggone it.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Was hoping for a positive closer.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Looked good for a while.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Down a half cent in the decease, 4.51 and one quarter.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: The March was off just a quarter cent.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: The May was up a quarter cent and out to the July.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're dead steady on the day, 479 on your July corns.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: November soybean futures four and three quarters lower, 12.19 and three-quarters.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not smaller moves headed out into the far further deferred contracts.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: The May was just down one and three-quarters.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: The July down just a just a half cent on the day.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: The jam beans down three and one-quarter cents at twelve thirty-four and three-quarters.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Soybean meal was lower.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'll call it moderately lower.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Soybean oil was slightly higher on the day.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Over to the winter wheats, your Chicago December winter wheat four and three quarters higher.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: 6.03 and three quarters.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: D'KC up two and one quarter cents at 645 and a quarter.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And clicking on my livestocks tab, I've got November.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So long October feeders, by the way.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's all she wrote for the October feeder contract.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Went off the board at 351 and 10.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: So let's look to the NOVE.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: 27 and one half cents lower, 346.47 and a half.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: But we were higher out in the March and the April.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the April was up 50 cents at 336.10.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: The Fed cattle was, let's see, let's go to D's 102.5 lower at 226.30.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's about kind of how she went across the board here.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh the lean hogs.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Not a bad day in the lean hogs.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: 122 and a half higher in the dees were the lean hogs 59.82 and 12.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like to see that five handle on the on the December hogs.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Out to the Feb, we were up 55 cents at 64.72 and one half.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And with that, let me uh thank plus 500 right quick.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was just looking at plus 500 to get my settlements.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, my squad and I all use, if you've joined us before, you know we use plus 500 T4 software every single day.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's an industry standard, really.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, plus 500, plus 500 trust plus 500.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And with that.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to bring in my guest today, Eli Arnold from BinFlow, get binflow.com.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Eli, it's great to have you here on AgSquarp with us this afternoon.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: How you doing, buddy?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm good, Davis.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's good to be here.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me on.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Totally.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now you uh you just came blowing in from class.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us your present setup right now, dude.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I've uh I'm at the Sigma Pi fraternity house right now at Indiana University.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm an informatics student here at IU and also an accounting student.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I started developing this this bin flow around May of last summer.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Came back home to work on the family farm and you know started started driving the tracks and delivering grain, and that kind of led me to our our core problem and kind of kind of get get getting into the solution there.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, excellent, excellent.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, tell me about the about the farm there.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you're in Indiana.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: What part of Indiana do you farm?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we're in we're in southern Indiana, around around Evansville, a small town called Petersburg.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: We farm just south of like 2,000 acres, corn soybeans.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's me, my dad, and my grandpa.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a family operation, but yeah, it's super small town, just southern Indiana.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you're studying accounting, and what was the what was the first one that you said?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Informatics.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Informatics.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Are you making that up?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds made up.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is that a made up one?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: What is that?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: It it does.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: I I get that question a lot now.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's the uh it's the study of uh human and technology slash software interactions, so like designing systems that are to be used by real people, which has helped out with the bin flow development for sure, is we're you know, trying to match the workflow that farmers are facing every day.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a that's got to be a sort of a newer field of study.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's really interesting and feels kind of like you're on the cutting edge of a of a of an important industry there, bud.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I would say, I would say, especially with the agricultural like scene as well, I think something that that I've kept on my like forefront while developing this is that you know, we're not the only ag like software around, like ag operation software, but I think there's real value into fitting an existing workflow, you know, like everybody delivers grain, everybody gets back a scale ticket.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so just to kind of get into what we do, so we we take those like those scale tickets, the little receipt papers that you get from any scale that you deliver to, and then all you do pull out your phone, take a picture of it, and then that data gets recorded into inventory, futures contract management, payment settlements, kind of etc.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I think matching that workflow is something that you know not only helps like current users and farmers, but it also you know is something easy for new users to pick up and get into.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and I I get a little bit preachy about viewing the family business, you know, or the family farm as a business.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like for some folks, that's a little hard to get their head around it.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Feels like a super big thing to do, but you're you're putting some pretty pretty handy tools right in the hands of folks to to solidify some things.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine a lot of stuff uh like this historically has just kind of been done like I do, pencil and paper.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And man, that uh that can be, I mean, you know, you you lose the notebook or you know, something happens to it, the dog eats it, who knows?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: You forget to write something down.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: That can that can put you in a in a weird spot.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: So here you're telling me that you can take pictures of stuff with your phone and it boop uploads it right into the uh the user's account or the what would you call it?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Their yeah, yeah.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: So so the way it works, the way that it's structured, you can see there's there's our dashboard on screen right now, but it everybody will create a farm account.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, like we're the Arnold Mud Creek farm.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: We have you know the big overarching farm account within separate users, and then you're the people you select as admins can view that data.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: So the way we kind of got here was like I said, I I started driving trucks for us this summer.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Would we get these tickets back, and and the way that we did it was I would sit down at the end of the day, have a pile of like 10 of these tickets and enter them all into a like a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: And what's kind of interesting about these tickets is you know, we would throw them in like a little like lunchbox thing in the in the cab of the trucks and just to have them for accounting purposes or whatnot.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: But but no, like it's that's the source of truth.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's telling you exactly, you know, down to the second decimal place on the bushel how much you've delivered.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: And you can kind of use that to backtrack and manage, you know, we had 10,000 bushels of corn selled on the D's contract, and we're 8,000 bushels away.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you kind of have some insight about and okay, okay, now how much do we have left to sell?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: All from you like these little paper tickets.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I think I think just like having that simple workflow of taking that picture and then having all that value in one spot.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head with transforming that family farm into a family business.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's what farming is when you're making these selling decisions, you have to have this data you know in front of you.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's good to pay attention to the markets, but if you don't know what you actually have on hand, like what you have to sell, you're kind of in that gray area.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, okay, here on on this screen here, this again is is from your website at uh getbinflow.com.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Getbinflow.com.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: You've got different bins here on the on the previous page.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: You had different crops.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this gets super specific, doesn't it?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah, it does.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: So so when you when you go into make an account, we we kind of push for the first step to be creating your bins, whether you have inventory or not.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: We have a we have a system in place to to set you know initial inventory, say you got 15,000 in the bin starting, you can you can enter that in.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then it all it all is like moving in and out of the bin.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then, like I said, we tie that into you know, not only like your your inventory of what's in the bin, what you actually have on hand, but also you know, we connect that into what you have contracted out, and then how much you have left outstanding.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then also another you know, important piece of this is did you actually receive the check from the from the granary?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Down there, you know, you can see the weekly summary of what's been you know moving in and out of your bins, what you've sold.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: But then are you have you actually received that check yet from the granary?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then we allow for in a ticket history page on the website for you to mark each one as paid, you know, just for you know, your own like personal accounting purposes, just to make sure nothing got lost in the mail, you name it.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm I'm okay with computers, medium okay.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's certain certain softwares that I've used for a really long time that I'm super good at, but it took me quite a while to get there.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: This all seems fairly intuitive.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: If people are interested, but they're but they're kind of intimidated by uh I don't know with the computers, I don't know what if I make a mistake, what if I can't figure it out?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: What sorts of resources are you able to to offer folks like that when when you get the initial setup?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: But then once you're once you know you've you've got an account in stream there, if they have questions or problems, I imagine you've you've probably got some sort of support lined up that you can help them.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah, I I encourage that as much.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like anybody that wants to sign up and like is thinking about using this, you'd see's got us pulled up down there.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: There's a there's a support page in there somewhere.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the contact at the top.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: It'll it'll pull you straight to my email.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: My email is eli at getbinflow.com.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I strongly encourage you to uh to reach out to that and you know, I will walk you through personally onboard anything.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: But like like you said, I think we try to keep it pretty intuitive.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know there's there's a bit of a setup curve with just setting up your bins, but like after that, it's very straightforward.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then the way that we structure our account systems, there is there's an admin account, and then there's a just we what we call a driver account, the people that are just hauling for you.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And all you see on that driver account is a big button that says take a picture, you tap it on your phone, snap that picture, and it gets uploaded.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, as far as like that, you know, if you like we hire out drivers from time to time, we don't really need those people to see what we've got in the bin, you know, how much we're expected to be paid in the month of January, you you name it.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, for them to just kind of be isolated in that little workflow, I think also helps a lot.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a really nice feature there because you know, you don't want you don't want people rifling through like the deep dive of your uh of your data there.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: As I'm scrolling through here just a little bit, I see that word TAX tax, you know, and uh as I was thinking about talking with you about this, man, bankers gotta love having folks who have their their data all put together, they can show you know the progression of sales, what they've collected, what's still outstanding, all kinds of stuff.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine this is this is a great tool as far as they're concerned as well, yeah.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: That was that was something me and my dad, you know, kind of just got done talking about, actually, is that like you know, come tax season or if there's ever an audit that pops up, having this all in like one place is like there's real value to that versus like us digging through the lunchbox and trying to line up paper tickets by date and and see where they all fit in.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: But but no, I mean, even from that perspective, there's real value to having all of you know these movements and where you've sold grain kind of listed out and and in order also.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, our our real kind of vision is that we want to cover the life cycle of grain from the time it you know like comes out of the combine, hits the truck to the time it's sold at the granary.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Something new that we're working on actually is a markets feature that will allow users to essentially like you know view the today's like movement on the futures price, but also to look at each elevator's local like cash bids, like what they're like willing to give or take away.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: So that you know, farmers can kind of kind of dictate not only like okay, yeah, corn's up half a cent today, but this granary is willing to give me another three cents, but they're it's a 50-mile drive, you know, you name it.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of comes down to the individual farmer with some selling decisions there.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I think uh, you know, that that's a futures like future feature, but I think once we can cover that that full life cycle, there's there's real value here.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's super cool.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely uh some great value there.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let me let me just shift away for one second here because you're also developing an app to go along with this, and I want to get into that just a bit, but but I'm curious about you.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: You you mentioned that the inspiration for this was came in part from you being there on the farm and driving truck and doing all that sort of stuff.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder, I'm I'm super fascinated by farm kids and their plans for the future.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm a farm kid, left the farm, all right, and I know that there are lots who who choose to go and work in agriculture or even outside of agriculture off the farm.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just curious what what your plans are.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Apparently, you're you're still pretty heavily involved in the family farm there.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do you plan to continue that?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: You you plan to farm for life, or do you expect to go off and maybe join an accounting firm or or something like that?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just curious, what are your what are your aspirations right now?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I the way that I look at it right now is like I'm open to any conversation.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'll never say no to talking to somebody.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know what, I'm also exploring opportunities.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I it's a family it's a family business, you know.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm looking to stay involved, but you know, right now, like like any sophomore college student, I'm looking for internships, I'm looking to recruit and go maybe work somewhere else this summer because I'd be selling myself short not to.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: But I yeah, I'm I'm very open to to staying involved, you know.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now whether that looks like me out driving a tractor every day or not, we'll see.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: But I think uh yeah, like staying involved is definitely in my interest right now.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: But I've been recruiting so far for like a tech like consulting internship, like kind of UI, software dev, that kind of stuff right now.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: So do you consider yourself a developer?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Would you call yourself a developer?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: I would.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah, I've I've built this myself.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've been I've been very involved in the development side, but I mean, I'm not I'm not straight up like software engineering, so but I I do think there's value, like I said, in in designing something around a workflow, you know.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: So like tech consulting, you know, in the the big like business world is is solving like a problem for an existing company, like giving them a software solution that kind of matches what they're already doing and fits into their business.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: So like that kind of work does interest me.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I think this has given me that that firsthand experience to get that interest in it, though.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and this is this is really cool because I'm I'm just fascinated by I've said it before on on the show, Eli, and there's there's often sort of a thought, well, I'm either gonna work in agriculture, which means, like you said, driving a tractor, planting crops, raising a herd of cattle, whatever that might be, or I'm gonna go out and work in the business field or you know, in in some sort of non-farming occupation.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's lots of stuff where you can kind of meld the two.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's way more ways to serve agriculture than than just the farm or not farm.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you're you're kind of demonstrating that for us right now.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a hundred percent.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: I like that's kind of the perfect world for me, is maybe whether that's an ag technology company, you know, keep developing this and turn it into a larger overarching business.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I think you know, for people that grew up, you know, the farmer's kid in it, I don't think there's any reason that you have to stray away from that, you know, like kind of follow your passion and where you want to take yourself, but you can always translate that.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of overlap between that business world and ag, or even you know, ag technology now.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's new stuff coming out every day.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks for sharing sharing some of that with us.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little personal, but you know, I'm we're we want to get to know you, Eli, is what we're doing here.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we've talked about the website.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: there that's up and running she's humming along doing great you're when we when we lined this up we put it off a week because you were hoping that you would have an app drop but you've had to jump through some hoops so you're you're you've you've created and developed a companion app along with the getbinflow.com website i wonder if you could just walk us through the process of how how do you develop an app how to talk to me about some of the pitfalls tell us tell us the journey that you've been on to get this app to uh put out there yeah yeah it it has been a journey um so so yeah we pushed it back so i really wanted this to hit the app store working with with the apple development process on the app store side take is a big learning curve and like something i thought would be a lot more straightforward but essentially the the app will be the existing like bin flow workflow when you're logged into your account your farm all that will be there and it will translate back and forth between the website and the like and the mobile app so if you want to manage stuff on your computer it'll update from your phone that that'll all work like well but the way it works is I had to uh compile all the source code from this website and kind of translate it into a language that Apple's like app store like host can understand.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was a process in itself but that actually went quicker than I thought it would.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: There's a bunch of rules and stipulations that Apple has about the things that you have to submit when putting in for a new app so I had all kinds of privacy policies that had to be put out like account deletion had to work without like if all your farm users were to like delete their accounts like it couldn't like orphan that farm like the farm data had to be deleted with it.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: So a couple different things but I did get it submitted it's under Apple review right review right now but I got an email I think Tuesday they wanted a screen recording of it working on an iPad which to me was something very random but that was that was what they thought they were missing.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we got that submitted it'll be out honestly it could be out tomorrow.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of up to their discretion but it'll be out early next week at the latest I would say when when users go to look for that what what would they search in their app store?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah it'll be bin flow all one word capital B-I-N capital F L O W.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Bin flow B-I-N capital F L O W.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: I see here did I did I see on the website that you get emails every Sunday sort of updates just auto generated and and and talk to you about the last week and just give you a status report is that right yes yeah it'll it kind of gives you a a weekly summary email of you know where how did grain move this week and that and that could be even you know we took 5,000 bushels out of the field and brought it into bin number five or you know the selling and an overall standing of where you're at but I think you know we we try to give that you know week by week insight like to keep people engaged in this data so that when it comes time to make those sell decisions or you know outlook into the future like it's all right there and you kind of have a mental picture as well of where it looks like if I run a couple of truckloads just straight into town straight out of the field this this is in the perfect scenario where you don't need to run it through the dryer it's the Goldilocks unicorn scenario but there just isn't room in the bins this this doesn't account for that necessarily does it or or do you have a spot for that on there?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: We do have a spot for it.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: So at the top of that screen you're on right now you see the scan ticket page so this looks prettier on the iPhone but uh when you when you uh when you get that say that you sold it on spot that day at whatever the price was you go take a picture of that ticket and then where it is under delivered to and then there's also a notes section when you go and submit these in your ticket history it you can it'll it lays it out very clearly that this load never hit the bin like it it wasn't hauled from a bin.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: And um yeah we I mean we've had that a bunch this fall you know just stuff that took it out of the field straight to the thing and I think you know it it shows that this was sold on spot or even if we put it on the contract and what to expect it coming from.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: I will say on this demo I believe that you're on right now the the public version is a little bit like cleaner and uh kind of more straightforward because it has like your real data in it.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: But but yeah it's that's the general the gist.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: And another thing now that you say that is there is a export CSV button which allows you to export and put all of this data onto a like spreadsheet into Excel so that if you do get that audit or need to use this data for like tax purposes you can kind of put it in a cleaner more like traditional format that accountant probably wants to look at rather than going to bin flow but but it came from here.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Wow that's really handy there's there's an awful lot in here already how did you how did you decide what to include and what not to include as far as what data to collect and compile for farmers what was there something that that isn't on there that you think ah it'd be nice to have that on there but they're really just I just don't want to overcomplicate things talk to me about that yeah I mean there's uh you know with the development of AI there's there's kind of been that temptation to like well we could throw in an AI help bot in there like that kind of thing but like like I've said I've you know done some some market research and there there's a lot of other platforms that I I think kind of oversaturate this like I said we try to I think like our main thing is like hitting on this workflow.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like we it it exists I mean I was taking pictures rolling out of the granary this summer like without even like stopping you know it's a very simple thing but but yeah I mean there's all kinds of things you could add in there you could add field management you know like what's the soil tests you know I mean like crop rotation stuff like X amount of fertilizer that you put on what was the price of that fertilizer I mean but to me that's a lot more documentation that has to be dumped into this app and I think it overcrowds what we're getting at.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said our goal here I mean it's in the name binflow like what what's happening to this grain in the lifestyle of when it or what life cycle of when it leaves that combine like gets into the truck to where you know you're rolling out of the granary.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah I think sticking to that like that workflow has kind of helped us stay uh stay simple if that makes sense.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah no that's that's really good and I think what you've got here is is some of the most important vital information for sure especially if accountants and bankers can can use it and you can use it in in that way as well keeping it simple is uh because I'm I'm sure it's tempting to put all kinds of stuff in there but uh yeah yeah you've done a good job talk to me about the uh the crops there that uh that are coming off the family farm this year Indiana had some trouble I think probably further north from where you were with uh some extreme rains and stuff like that did you guys miss all that this year we did not no we uh late late spring through the summer we the rain hit us hard we I think as far as like stuff getting totally drowned out we we didn't get hit too bad I but we were in a we had a lot of replant corn just from even like looking back to uh like early spring we had like a round of frost that got some of our beans as well had some replant there it was you know the the rain was like for sure concern the summer yeah yeah yeah how many acres you guys running over there roughly the number I have in my head is around 1700.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay okay pretty sizable operation then yeah especially we uh we keep all the help mostly in family too so yeah it's uh it's it's a lot to tackle sometimes but sure sure so what's uh how's how's the yield monitor treating you at harvest corn very good we have you know a lot of our have a lot of like river bottom ground that's always just performed super well if it stays dry enough and I mean the stuff that did stay dry was very well like I said the beans some of that like I mean got replanted pretty late in the summer and just even now we kind of waiting on stuff to harvest it just still needs some more time but overall like pretty successful fall can't can't complain too much given given the rain circumstances.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah sounds like you've had a kind of a number of potential hits to that crop so I'm glad to hear that it that it's all working out in the end for you there.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you put all this together from a frat house you you've certainly used your time better than than some people have in in frat houses and I I think it's really cool and admirable I wonder if there's if if there's something that you want to come back and hit once more if there's a bit of an elevator speech you want to anything else that you want to make sure that our viewers know about bin flow and what you do and uh I I guess I would just open the floor to you now for that right quick.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome yeah so again thank you guys for having me on I I encourage anybody listening to this if any of this like information sounds like like it would be valuable to you I encourage you to get on getbinflow.com right now create a farm account and just kind of set up what you know with the grain bins like I said we kind of have an estimator to help you help you get all that set up but yeah set up your bins.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean when you roll out of the elevator take a picture of that ticket that you get and watch it adjust you know the bin inventory and whatnot and I think that I think that anybody that uses it and like kind of commits to this workflow I think there's real value in that and I think that you will see that when it comes time to sell and and market out your grain.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: But but yeah it'll it'll be hitting the app store soon like I said earlier it'll be at binflow one word capital B capital F.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah like I said I I I really encourage you to to check it out or on Instagram at I believe it's get binflow and yeah check us out give us a follow there we'll we'll be posting some more content coming up but but yeah I appreciate you guys for having me on thank you oh absolutely absolutely and I'd I'd like to talk to you again maybe a a few months down the road and just see how it's going once you get the app dropped and and you know get some get some users on there and just just find out how it's how it's going because I know it's been it it seems like it it's felt like a bit of an uphill climb to get that taken care of but you've put in the work and you've got a great great service here at getbinflow.com and the app binflow capital B capital F coming soon perhaps as uh as early as as tomorrow Eli Arnold thanks so much for for being here buddy you've put your time to good use over there we really appreciate you man yeah thank you Davis like I said I appreciate uh I appreciate you guys coming on but but yeah like like I said the actual business side of it is is coming along but the service is there like I said getbinfo.com check it out make your account and I think you'll you guys will find value in it but absolutely appreciate you guys having me on go hoosiers go hoosiers let me ask you this if you look out your window right now what's uh what's the weather like at the university today you got sunshine you got rain yeah we got internet today we're uh we're sunny over here we uh yeah a little cold in the mornings but it gets up to about mid-60s in the afternoon we got uh we got college game day coming to town on Saturday for the yeah for the game we uh looking for some rain though unfortunately but what are you uh it'll be good do you have strong opinions on pumpkin spice I'll do a pumpkin spice latte yeah I don't like the uh like the donuts or the food as much but I can get behind the lattes.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay okay that's fair that's fair well let's go to the National Weather Service the uh they say a front extending from the upper great lakes to the southern high plains will advance eastward off the northeast coast by Friday evening the system will produce rain with embedded thunderstorms over the upper great lakes and rain over the lower great lakes through late Thursday night.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: Additionally scattered and light rain showers will develop over parts of the northeast through Friday evening looks like Texas is getting it right now and uh there's a little bit headed for KC as well where I'm at.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Eli um let me just just keep you for a little while longer.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about some items of mild interest from history today um this is this may be of interest to you this day October 29 1969 this one surprised me in 1969 the first early internet connection was made between Stanford and UCLA universities by the end of the year the U of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Utah were also online I didn't know the internet actually started in 1969.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy sounds like it just sort of went between two two universities I wonder if it was just kind of an extended LAN like a local area network or something like that.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know you probably know all about it yeah I I don't know much about the early internet phase but uh but no I yeah I would imagine that was that was probably some kind of local service they had set up that was communicating somehow between the the universities there but that's interesting that it that it expanded out from university.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah well in 1942 Bob Ross was born American painter and television host here's a quote from Bob Ross it's the imperfections that make something beautiful that's what makes it different and unique from everything else and for me sometimes um mistakes or accidents have become some of my best ideas and most successful uh thoughts which is uh you know right up Bob's alley there and then finally in 1993 I know this is way before your time but there was this whole campaign and there were these ads and it would just say got milk and they had the little mustache milk mustache on them 1993 the very first got milk commercial was broadcast there's the Van Halen brothers for uh for got milk Eli Arnold binflow getbinflow.com uh it's very encouraging to talk to a fellow like you um I wish you all the best and uh thanks so much for being here today Eli.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah thanks for having me on I really appreciate the opportunity right on well may I also direct you to agbull.com once more where you can dig deeper with Ag Bull Intel 855737 Farm take the markets by the horns with Ag Bull.com AgSquawk will be back first thing in the morning to get you set up with a taste of that Ag Bowl intel and then I will wrap up the week with a quick solo hit tomorrow we may even get Tommy to poke his head in we may we may need to do that I may need that come on back tomorrow as we wrap an up another week of AgSquawking