Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Drone on podcast. It's Mike Yoder. I'm excited to bring today's podcast where me and Jason sit down with Preston from North Carolina as he shares some of his experiences starting up a drone spray company in the mountains of North Carolina. We're going to get into it where we're discussing some of the ruggedness that he has to spray and how drones have really helped cattle farmers in North Carolina being able to apply in areas that otherwise would not be able to be done without drones. And then we're also going to talk about Christmas tree farms. What is the number one application that will be done on Christmas tree Farms using drones? It's very interesting. A lot of this stuff I had no idea that would be done in the mountains of North Carolina. So we're on the road. Me and Jason, we're gonna sit down with Preston talking about using drones to spray and also seed in the mountains. Let's get into it.
Bring our special guest. I'll let him introduce himself. But you spray some rugged stuff, so if you want to tell us your name and then we'll get right into it.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: So my name is Preston Cave. I'm the owner of Pack Aerial Applications. We're in the northwestern part of North Carolina in the mountains. And, well, I'm actually in the Piedmont.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Which is not like, there's still some rolling hills. Kind of like what you guys deal with there. In Ohio, I travel an hour hour to three hours west, and then it gets.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: Is a lot of your stuff in the mountains?
[00:01:22] Speaker B: I would say 80% of my stuff.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: I wish you guys could see this. He was showing us some footage on his phone. Obvious you guys are listening to us. You can't see it, but he is spraying some really gnarly stuff using your T50s or T40s, T25, T25s. Okay, so why the smaller drone?
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Well, so I bought the T40 first, and then the last fall in September, I got started doing some of this rough stuff and knew immediately, like, this 40 cannot follow this terrain.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: Okay. Yep, yep. So the train Falling on that 40 wasn't that great.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: So I was only able to get like 3 or 4 gallons in this 40 before I'd run out of battery. So I was like, well, for one, I don't have the money to buy 50 at the moment, so let's just do the 25. And I ended up apparently finding the only one left in the fall, so. Oh, wow. I got the 25.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: And honestly, it probably worked out Better for you?
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I mean, I mean the 50. The 50 could have worked. Like, obviously it could have worked.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Probably wouldn't have filled it up every.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: Time, but a lot of times I'm flying by myself. So it's super nice to be throwing that thing around. And we're actually building like a, a Japanese mini truck rig to be able to throw this thing in the back of. Because a lot of the things that I do, I mean it's just so, so rough. Like I can't even fly the whole field from home because of the, the max altitude in your.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: So I'll have to find like a level squat.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: So for the listeners, there's, there's a max altitude on your controller that the drone literally won't let you go above where you're taking off. So you take off at the bottom of a valley and you climbed it. What do you do if that happens?
[00:02:49] Speaker B: So one mountain I couldn't. There was not even a flat place for me to land. So we ended up having to strap my 40 on the back of a four wheeler and took a 12 minute ride up to the top of the mountain through like literally really had to do a three point turn to get through these snake bass.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: On a four wheeler?
[00:03:04] Speaker B: On a four wheeler.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: I got an idea for you. Use a fly cart.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: We could fly the 40 up.
Yeah, yeah. No, we could, we could do it. But I ended up having to train these two old men how to. Because my truck was at the bottom of the mountain. So they had a four wheeler and an RTV that they trucked chemicals and batteries back and forth with two and a half gallon jugs.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Yeah. It was nasty. And I told these guys I did.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: How long did that job take?
[00:03:27] Speaker B: I done eight acres and it took me four hours.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: In eight acres. But now this was like me, like this was like the total time I went back with a T25 and finished the rest of the. The 20 acre pasture in less than two hours. Yeah, because we, we was set up and ready to roll then.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: So. So I'll tell you. So I reached out to the engineers at dji. I was like, guys, you have to understand that these drones are not just being used for.
And I gave that example. I was like, if I'm at the bottom of a valley and I have to go spray up a mountainside, you're going to stop me halfway up the mountain they're like, oh. And then they went back to their engineering team and came back and said that just due to all the Regulations and stuff, they're not going to open that up.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: Well, even if they let us go to 399, that would give us the extra feet that we needed to possibly get up there. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I understand 400ft like that, that's the law.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: But I mean, yeah, if it's 400ft AGL.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: So. But what's, what's the.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Yeah, so AGL, you could be on a 7,000 foot mountain as long as you're 7,330. Yeah, you might be 7,300ft above from where you took off, but you're only 300ft above the correct mountain. So how did you get into that type of train? Like did you go look for that type of work?
[00:04:43] Speaker B: So I've got a cattle background, so I'm very familiar with cattle and pasture management and I actually one guy called, I'm very familiar with our extension program and the guy that's in the mountain research station called me to do a drone demo in the mountains and from there it just took off. There was a bunch of old farmers there. There's no other way to spray these mountains because they're having to backpack it or they're literally spreading fertilize by hand. Oh my gosh. Gosh. I mean it's, it's like miserable stuff.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: So. So why do they have to spray the mountains? What's going.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: So there's a vasive species that I mainly take care of is multi floral rose.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Oh y. Yeah. And we have that bad dog gone it when you walk through it when you're hunting. I have them in my legs for like a week.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: Y. Yeah. Yep. So that's just, just taking care of weeds on these pastures.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: So okay.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: So the mountain size would normally be where the cattle gray.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: So there's also grass on these mountain sides.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Yep, yep. So we're just spraying a. A herbicide just to kill the weeds.
[00:05:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: Do you spread fertilizer too?
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. What? We haven't got into that. We're going to get it in the spring.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: So these guys are wanting me to spread 4, 5, 600 pounds of fertilize to the acre. And even. And even there's guys want me to spread like a ton of lime to the acre. Pelleted.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: How is that even feasible?
[00:05:58] Speaker B: I don't know. We're fixing to find out.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it can be done because if you put it in AI and if people aren't Using AI. Do you use AI? Do you have an Android or an Apple?
[00:06:07] Speaker B: Apple.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Okay. Apple. You can get what's called GRO3 on there.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: It's insane. I. I'm going to make a video and let people know that if you aren't using AI as a drone, applicator or business.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: You're losing out because you can literally just tell it exactly what you want to tell it. I'm going to spread 10,000 pounds of fertilizer. My drone carries 100 pounds of fertilizer and it has a something, something swath. How long is it going to take me if my batteries. You can put all that in and I'll send it right back to you. What it's going to take? Well, my question is like they're doing £400 the acre and it's going to take you. That's fine. It's going to take you a long time. How is it. But how far are they going to do it? Yeah, how else are you. How is the farmer able to afford.
[00:06:47] Speaker B: That with a 5 gallon bucket and H2A label? We're quicker than that. You know what I'm saying?
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: So, yeah, so we're just charging. We're just telling these guys we'll charge by the hour, 400 an hour if they have somebody bucket and fertilized. Whatever, whatever, whatever.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Good business. And you see that's going to grow and take off.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: I mean, it's the way. As hard as it is to find good labor and expensive as H2A labor is.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: Tell me what H2A.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: So H2A is.
Can you edit this?
[00:07:15] Speaker A: Go ahead.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: Yeah, we need to Google that.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: So, so I, I think it, what it is, H2A is, is from workers outside the country.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: A workers visa.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:25] Speaker B: I don't know the right.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: Okay. No, that's all, that's all good.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: So you're saying that, that labor is going up as well?
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Yeah, so it's, it's up a lot.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: If you see if you'd have Grocky just put it right in there and she's going to tell you.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: But, but, yeah, but Jay can't use it because he's an Android guy. I can use it. I just have to get on their website. Oh, yeah, but it's coming, it's coming to. And Right.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So they're getting labor. Most of these guys up there, Hispanic or South Africans, they come on a work visa.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: Yep. South Africans. Do you bring that up? I always get DMS from people in South Africa. That they want to come work here.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Bring it on.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Okay. And a lot of this stuff is like the Christmas tree workers. They have this super high labor because they're trimming trees, they're manually throwing out fertilizer. There was one, one farmer I talked to, he has 50 H2A workers every year that come in and he got four less this year because of the drone that he bought. So. Yes. And his. He's sending.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: I mean, not nice for the people that were working, but.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Well, yeah, the farmer, the farmers paying these guys. Yeah, we're from 30 to $40,000 a year to come here and work for six months. And now he can not, you know. Yeah, he's able to save that money to buy, you know, a $30,000 drone to replace $120,000.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Huge. Yeah. That's massive. Yeah.
How old fellow are you?
[00:08:37] Speaker B: 30. 30 years old.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: What made you want to get into. Into drones?
[00:08:41] Speaker B: It's kind of. It's kind of a wild story.
I mentioned my cattle background. I was doing grass fed beef and had some summer annuals that we were grazing and had a buddy of mine.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: What does that mean? Sorry. So I don't know. Yes, summer annuals.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: So summer. So we were grazing, doing grass fed beef. Right.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: So summer annuals is like sorghum that.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: Okay. So you grow sorghum in a field.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: And then you or semi cattle out to graze it to make a higher quality. Because most time grass fed the annuals, you have to.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: You have to seed it every year.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: Every year. Yep, yep.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Is that broadcasted or drilled?
[00:09:15] Speaker B: Most time drilled.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: But I had this summer annual, the sorghum Sudan mix. It was like sorghum sunflowers and cow peas and a bunch of different things. Basically like a food plot.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, yeah.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: And it was like rank, 14 foot tall, hadn't been grazed, and I wanted my buddy to come up and spread winter annuals. So like a winter cover crop like triticale barley radishes, spread that over top of my summer annuals and then the cattle would graze it and trample it in.
So I only had like 15 acres. And my buddy Harrison Jenkins in Statesville, he's a little bit south of me. He's like an hour away. He had a T40 and I told him to come up and I asked my dad, he grows row crops. I asked him, I said, let's get some of your acres together to make it worthwhile coming.
And my dad was like, let's just go buy one.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Okay. So I was like just randomly. Yeah. Never used it. Just go buy one.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: Yes. Apparently he went out to.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: I like that type of farmer.
What are they called? Like progressive.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: Or. Yeah.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: Yep. So.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Because not all farmers are like that new technology now I'm not going to use.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Well, well, apparently in July he went out west in Indiana to Hereford Junior Nationals. It's a cow show, but. Okay, that's besides the point. But he laid over at a farm in Indiana and they just had bought one. So apparently he. He'd been spinning in his mind since July. But this happened in September. That was on a Friday. And Friday morning at 9 o' clock and we had a T40 in our driveway.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: Monday morning, somebody local was selling them.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: Oh, no, actually overnight at 1.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Go ahead.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, yeah. So we called up.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: This is an open podcast.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: Okay. So actually we called up Hager spray and.
And that guy was pretty close and he's been great to work with ever since. But okay. We ended up going with another guy that wasn't local, another agri spray dealer that was like nine hours away, Johnny, down in South Georgia. And he brought it up, was there nine o' clock in the morning and man, it's.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: And they. And then. Did he show you how to use it or he just dropped it?
[00:11:09] Speaker B: No, he ended up staying with me. All. He stayed with me. Monday we sprayed fungicide on our. On our beans.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: Yeah. So that you definitely got your exemption overnight.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. All that stuff.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Yeah, we were within one weekend.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: Yeah, we were super legal. And so.
So he shows up Monday. We didn't have a clue. Like, I knew nothing.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You probably didn't even know you needed it.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I didn't exactly.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: It's like for a farmer, do you think you should need it?
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: You actually think so?
[00:11:39] Speaker B: I don't know, man.
If you're just doing your own stuff, I don't see the problem with it. But you are in airspace. You don't need to be stupid with it.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: Yeah, but dude, you're really in airspace.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Exactly. I call in notams and every time I call one in, the guy laugh. He's like 40ft above ground. I was like, yeah, most time I won't even be 20ft off.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: And he's like, why are you wasting my time?
But no, Johnny. Johnny stayed with us on Monday. Ended up spending the night in my spare bedroom.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: Nice. And we got that guy is offering service.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Yeah, he's. He's top notch, dude. And then Tuesday we wake up and put the spreader on and he's from South Georgia, Flatland. And we started doing some of our pasture stuff. And I know this is totally wrong. I have to. I'm going. Have to hit up Johnny because he. He's hilarious. But he mapped my pastor out on the screen of the remote with trees in it.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: Like, no, no. He put obstacles around the trees, like the shadows in the tree of the remote and everything. Like, it's not going to work. Not going to work. Ended up. Ended up crashing the drone. Oh, yeah. That day.
Yes. Yes. It come up to the obstacle. He's like, all right, it's going to bypass it. And it did. It went around it and he slid it over too fast. Like the break point.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: Slid it over too fast. Slid it right into the tree.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. But. Because at that time, it wasn't that great at side obstacle avoidance. If it was going forward, it's fine.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Yep. So he just slid right into it.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:12:59] Speaker B: But he. That was on Tuesday. He loaded it up in the back of his truck, drove to South Georgia, and my dad and brother in law left out the next morning and went to South Georgia and picked it up fully repaired. So.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: Impressive. Impressive. Yeah. That's how you got into it. I would say that you were just like, what, less than four days? You had a drone. You were like, I think we should.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Yeah. So then it took seven months to get fully legal.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: Yeah. It was a pain in the butt.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: I think we're about there right now. It's ridiculous how long it takes to become illegal with air quotes on that one there, man.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: It. And it's like, then I never knew how to fly a drone. I never even flew a drone before. And then here I am.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: Were you scared flying it?
I'm glad you brought that up because guys ask us all. I know nothing. I'm like, you don't need to.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: Oh, I shouldn't say I've never flown a drone. I've had less than 20 minutes of flight time behind the sticks of a drone.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: But nothing crazy, but.
[00:13:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: No. That. It is really hard to wreck it. Almost.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: If you've got everything set the way it's supposed to be set. If you got somebody training you to make sure everything's set.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: It's almost impossible.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: I agree. I mean, with the radars and stuff. So the T25P has the. The radar in the back as well. Yeah. Yeah. That thing's really good.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: No way.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Way better than the 40. Oh, dude. By the end of it, I may. Or not may not have crashed all of them.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Because it was just. There was a lot.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: And you got to be careful, too. I mean, that was like four or five drones.
Yeah.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: I didn't do it all. Oh, did I do them all? No, no, no, no. It was a.
But it's a learning. But. It's a learning experience.
But now you can take the knowledge that I've gained and have somebody you know next to you, like, educate you.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: And that's. That's what I didn't understand. Like, I bought this drone. Obviously, I didn't know nothing about being legal, which Johnny helped me as much as he can. But North Carolina has so many different restrictions. We got to have 125 hours of apprenticeship time under our apprentice. And I start calling all these people that are local to me, and they won't even give me answers. Like, guys, we need to be in this together. We need to grow together. Like, this is an industry that we all need to be together. And learning one bad apple can ruin it for everybody.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Y. So what would you say to somebody that wants to start this in North Carolina? If. If it starts with. Right, you need to have your commercial pesticide applicator's license, and you need to have that amount of experience. How's he going to get it?
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Call me.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. We're. We're actually building a shop right now, and we're going to put an apartment in it so that these people that are wanting to come can come and live with me for a couple weeks till they get those hours. And so how many hours did you say it was? 125. And I'm still working on the details of this.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: So how long is that going to take? You just going to have him sleep next to you while you're flying through the night and.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: Well, no, I got an apartment in my shop.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I'm just saying, like, how long is he going to stay there to get? 120 some hours a week or two?
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: I don't really look at the numbers and figure out.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And also, it's not. You. Doesn't. You don't have to be. It's not 125 hours side by side. It's basically like me and you talking about a mission tomorrow.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: I could count.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Okay. So would I. Would I qualify because I have experience? Like, could I go buy it in North Carolina because I got way more than that, or do I have to be in the state of North State in the State. Oh, yeah.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: What? I think so.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Because we just heard, like, New York is kind of like that, but if you have your applicator's license in another state, I believe you can get it. But I also just heard that Nevada has a. It takes you two years experience to get chemical license out there. But if I have the experience elsewhere, I can.
[00:16:28] Speaker B: You can get it?
[00:16:29] Speaker A: I can get.
[00:16:29] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe. Maybe. I wonder. I'm not sure about that.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: Well, we'll. We'll check into that. Not that we have to discuss it right now, but that's. That's cool. So you want to help people because, you know, there's people calling us at New Way from North Carolina and they tell us this. It's like, well, I want to get into it, but how am I going to do it if I can't?
[00:16:45] Speaker B: Yeah, and that's the other problem. Everybody that's. That's legal, you know, to be this apprenticeship is potentially competitors. So they don't.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: They don't really want to do it.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: They don't really want to do it.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: So I got lucky. We got an extension agent in North Carolina that helped me do it. So it was. It was great. Didn't charge me anything, but I feel like I have something to offer as far as my experience with doing all this stuff. So I haven't figured out all the details on how we're going to do that, but I feel like it could. Easily somebody could come and stay with me for a week and.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: Okay. So you got this drone. You just got thrown into it. The drone crashed in front of you, day one.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: How did you feel after that?
[00:17:22] Speaker B: Man, that was a bad feeling.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:25] Speaker B: The first, like, literally the second day I've had this thing and you said that. You said it. I wish I had took a picture of. I didn't take a picture of it, but it was a wreck. Yeah, it was a wreck.
But you're so, like, disheartened. And, you know, Johnny, he was there and he's. And he, you know, it's. It's nothing out of the ordinary. He knows it could be fixed. And I'm just like, can this thing even fly again?
[00:17:45] Speaker A: I know it is nuts what you can do to them. And they'll fly. Yeah, Yeah.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: Y.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: But. Because every single part he can fix. Any part on every single part can be replaced.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: That's so cool.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: Yeah. And I really haven't. I mean, I did wreck it one other time than that, but that was my fault. So I am plus around all the Fields. And I forgot to come back and mix manually fly around a tree and actually had. This is a pretty crazy story. So I actually had a loan officer there that was there to.
To buy that T25. So I was busy talking to him. So I was flying around the edge of a pasture, and there was a tree like, inset, like 30, 40 foot from the edge, and I forgot to fly around that tree. So I come back and I was going uphill, which I. It wasn't very steep, but I always cut my radar off.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Why?
[00:18:31] Speaker B: For the T40 to actually fly the train.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. T40.
[00:18:34] Speaker B: Yep. So I had my radar cut off so the T40 could actually fly and not be buckling all the time.
And was talking to my. Talking to the loan officer, and next thing I know, my motor stall. Motor stall, Motor stall.
And I look and all I can see is a tree trunk.
I mean, it is buried in the tree.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: That is the worst feeling.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Yep. So I was like, well, I'll take you back to your car now.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: Did you take him back before we went?
[00:18:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: No.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I was like, there is no sense in your. You've been here anymore.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: Did he give you a lawn for that?
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Actually, I actually ended up. It worked out great.
Kent was there. He's an applicator in Virginia. And the guy I deal with now, Acura ag, is in Dublin, Virginia. So we pulled it out of the tree. Kent helped me pull it out of the tree, and I was only 45 minutes away from Accurate AG and they have a whole warehouse full of parts.
So we were back flying in three hours.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: Yeah, nice. Yeah.
[00:19:31] Speaker A: It's crazy how little time it actually takes to fix it. Like when you first looked at it. Okay. So for myself, I seen a drone. I was like, scared to, like, even take this prop off or this foam and dig into it, but it's like plug and play.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: Like, just take things apart and it's going to plug in just like. Yeah, yeah. It's super easy. That's cool. So how many acres were you able to get done on in your first season? And what was your first season?
[00:19:58] Speaker B: Yes, my first season was I started the fall and just played around with it and then 20.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: 23. Okay.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: And then I got fully legal in May of 24. So from there on, we sprayed 4,000 acres.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Wow. With one drone.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Yeah. One P. I had the. I had the 25 there at the end, but it was always just me flying. So I had.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: That's impressive on that gnarly type of yes.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: So now I also, like. I can go down east eastern part of the state. It. I do a lot of traveling, so I was literally at the. @ in Southport on the Cape Fear river, like, at the beach spraying rice, and two days later, I was in that gnarly terrain spraying pastures. So, yeah, you.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: You. I tell people, if you're wanting to get into this, you got to be willing to put in some work.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: And my first season was tough because it was such a bad drought last year. I only sprayed 200 acres of corn fungicide.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Wow. So, I mean, everybody had a tough year last year.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: So, you know, if commodity prices go up and we get some good. Some good, Good, good rain and good weather. You know, North Carolina is so diverse in its crops that I'm able to. I sprayed 4,000 acres last year, but I've already sprayed and. And spread seed on a thousand acres this year so far.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: So that's impressive.
[00:21:10] Speaker B: And it's March and it's March. So we got into Christmas trees. Spraying deer repellent on Christmas trees too.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: I wondered if that would work.
[00:21:17] Speaker B: Y. That's always something to spray that every 30 days. No way.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: That's cool.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: So. But it's worth it for them because. Oh, yeah, they'll lose their crop.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. No, it's. There's.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: You remember when I brought that?
[00:21:30] Speaker B: Yeah. There's food plots.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: Think about it, dude. This is a whole different business. It's coming right now as you're talking to us on this podcast, like, it's a whole business where people pay high dollar money to have a food plot put in.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: Deer repellent. The thing.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Oftentimes they spend thousands of dollars planted, planting these food plots, and there's too many deer there, and they've just demolished it before. I wonder what. What's that stuff called that you're putting on it?
[00:21:54] Speaker B: Buck barrier.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: I googled it. I think it's.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: It's an essential oil.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:59] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's. It's a really good product. You can actually put it on bare ground at 32, and it's only 2 gallons to the acre or so. You put 32 ounces on bare ground, and it'll protect that plant for 30 days before it even comes up.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: So somehow it's got some kind of technology that'll get in the plant, and it messes with the deer's senses and also their saliva glands.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: Wow. Okay. So anybody that's listening right now in our area in Tuscarava, Holmes county area, if you Guys do food plots or anywhere really if, if you guys. Because there's businesses that do just that, Get a hold of a guy that has a spray drone and protect that stuff. Because if you could, if you're putting in clover or alfalfa for deer, I mean, protect that stuff till it's tall, then let them get in there and hammer it.
[00:22:43] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah, you could probably guarantee there's people that do that.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: We have to 20, $30,000 to get their hunting place ready to hunt. No. For. No joke.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: No joke.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: Yeah, dude, we could bring you up and you just do the food plot stuff for a while.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Yeah, sounds good. We got the T25. Wouldn't let her eat. Yeah, it's perfect for food plots.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: Yeah, that would be. Oh, that's nice.
[00:23:03] Speaker B: Yeah, man.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: What is that company called that you did food plot stuff for Whitetail. Whitetail Habitat solutions.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: No.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: Something. No, it's, it's not that. That's the shoot. Anyhow, we're gonna. Well, okay.
Now you really got me going. Okay, so you do buck barrier or do repellent.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: Yeah. On Christmas trees, man, these Christmas trees, they're planting like a thousand to the acre. A thousand. Fifteen hundred the acre. And you know, a standard Christmas tree. Six, seven foot tall Christmas tree, they can sell for 50, 60 bucks. And maybe I'm a little off on the, on the money there, but then there's also in the same field, deer pressure so bad that the tree is basically worthless. Like there'll be six foot trees with just absolute four foot holes eating in the side of them. So instead of a six foot tree, it's a two foot tree now.
Or nobody wants a Christmas tree with.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: A top cut off.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: Exactly. No. Yeah, exactly. And then the. I mean there's just places that are just complete sticks. Like you got six foot pretty Christmas trees and then acres of trees that are just completely sticks.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: Would you, would you say that, do they have any data that it, it worked?
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Oh yeah, yeah. Well, not, not true data. But you know, one of the problems in, out there in the winter times, whenever it snows, is the only thing that's there to eat is the Christmas tree.
All the ground is covered.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: So are these Christmas trees on mountains?
[00:24:21] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: Okay, so how do they get the Christmas trees out?
[00:24:23] Speaker B: By hand.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. Okay. So that's why I brought it up. Fly cart that stuff out of there.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: Yep. I've. I've been talking to the Christmas tree grower that I deal with and, and.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I will tell you, they think. And I would, I would Love to have the Christmas tree farmer tell us if. If that's a crop or not. But the FA doesn't think that that's a crop.
[00:24:42] Speaker B: That's stupid.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: And that it doesn't fall under agricultural.
Because if it's not under ag, how would you do it on your 137? Yeah. Yeah. Got some guys thinking now.
So it's a crop. I'm just saying, like the FAA is trying to say that Christmas tree farming is. Is not agricultural.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: Yeah. It's crazy.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: Yeah. But FAA says a bunch of.
[00:25:01] Speaker B: They do. They do, right? Yeah, yeah, they. But we're. This Christmas tree deal is going to be huge for the drone industry.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: Yeah, huge.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: I mean, we're talking about this deer repellent fertilizer. We also frost seed clover in these things as well.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: So we'll. We'll throw out clover. I should be doing that now instead of here.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: Yep, we're here. And it's Alabama and it's sunny and you should be spreading seed.
[00:25:25] Speaker B: But hey, we get to talk to you guys.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: But anyways, frosty clover and then they come in and spray 8 ounces of glyphosate over top of these trees.
Yeah.
[00:25:34] Speaker A: It does not kill the tree.
[00:25:36] Speaker B: No. You got to do it a certain time before bud break. So just to stunt the grass and the briars and stuff to give the trees a little more.
[00:25:43] Speaker A: Are you blowing it down in or are you just going across it full speed?
[00:25:47] Speaker B: Going across.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:25:50] Speaker A: That's cool.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: Yeah. So right now they're doing it with Ms. Blowers on these mountainsides or by hand with backpacks.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: No, we still do that in America.
[00:25:58] Speaker B: That's what I'm saying. This Christmas tree deal is huge.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: Wow. Even in orchards and stuff. We sold a T50 to a guy that was previously to buying the T50. He would just pull a. Some kind of sprayer behind his tractor and he was trying to get 10 gallons to the acre by just like blowing it up in. But he said he has no idea how much he's actually putting.
He's just thinking, you know, trying to get it to that gallon per acre, but he has no idea.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:26:21] Speaker A: Now he's using T50.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's. The Christmas tree industry is going to be big.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
Would you. The market that you're in or the area that you're in, how many drones.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: Around there it's growing.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: Is it twofold?
[00:26:34] Speaker B: No. Lord, no. No. That's what, like whenever I called all these guys locally, like, they just it got. I guess they realized who I was and that. That I could be a benefit to them too. And they. It got better. We. We talk now. But there's. There is so many acres out there to be covered.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: I mean, I. I couldn't agree more.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: I mean, I go. I'm the chair for young farmers and ranchers in our. In our state farm bureau. Young farmers and ranchers. And I go to all these high schools that I can or colleges and just talk to them, like, especially high schools. There is no reason right now for a guy that's willing to work to go to college whenever this kind of opportunity. Yeah.
Why would you go to college whenever you can buy a drone a heck of a lot cheaper now.
40% cheaper.
Holy cow.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: Anyways, we're talking about.
So here at the show, we were just like, side.
I mean, I was sideswiped by shocker.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: Punched in the gut balls, whatever you.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: Want to say by DJI. We're all sitting in this big conference room and DJI comes out and says that they're dropping their T50 NT25P. Yeah, 40%. And we're a dealer of it here at New Way. Hey, we deal. We have stock that we paid more money for the drone for at a wholesale price than you can now buy at retail.
[00:27:49] Speaker B: That's insane. Insane. Insane. Anyhow, so why would these high schoolers not come out and buy T25 for less than 10 grand and be able to pay for it in 2 days? Spraying Christmas trees. I'm being dead serious. Yeah, Where. Why would you go to college?
Maybe party, maybe go on the weekends? You can do that on the weekends, but yeah, you could do that on the weekends. Still party when it's windy. When it's windy.
When it's windy, you can go to.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Raleigh and you'll actually have money to party.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: Dude, it's wild.
But I mean, in all seriousness, this is a huge industry for young people to get involved in because I have people that I'm trying to sell drones to, these Christmas tree farmers, but they have nobody to fly them. So if nothing else, these kids can get legal. If they don't want to go out and buy a drone or don't have the money to, they can work for these farmers and use. And I'm sure if they get their stuff done on those farms, then they could go out and do their own stuff with that drone too, I'm sure. I would imagine.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: So.
[00:28:45] Speaker A: So how do you get work? How are you. How are you getting work?
[00:28:47] Speaker B: Well, I'm so One thing that I think is advantage for me is my ag background.
[00:28:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: So I can talk to these farmers a little bit better than, no offense, most drone operators can.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: But you, I mean, that's just. Yeah, it's just how it is.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: It's just part of it.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:01] Speaker B: I mean I literally was at a stoplight the other day in a truck, had farm tags, and I run out of my truck and gave him a business card. Like that's, that's cool. That's the type of guy that I am.
[00:29:11] Speaker A: But you got to have hustle like that.
Even drone guy that doesn't know anything about farming, if he sees that like do get out and give him a car.
[00:29:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Give them a card.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: I like it.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:29:21] Speaker B: Yeah. So I mean, that's just. I'll drive by a piece of property and think about, man, that's a big flat field and I'll stop at the shop and talk to the guys and. Yeah, that's the only way that you can do it.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: And. And whenever you say you're going to.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: Do it, that's so good you're bringing that up.
[00:29:35] Speaker B: Because whenever you say you're going to do something, you better do it.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: And it's not, this is not a business where it's 9 to 5. I mean, there's a lot of times I'll get in the truck at 3 o' clock in the morning. You just, you guys do the same thing. 3 o' clock in the morning. You better be there to start spraying it.
[00:29:49] Speaker A: We literally up the other morning at 3:30 and I'm at the farm and I was like, oh man, this is a grind. Like I'm literally thinking of that. But, but, but you can make money.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: You can make money and there's nothing else than seeing a sunrise come up. Dude, it's like God's just giving you something. Like I, I literally watch the sun come up over a mountain and you're sitting there like, you know, this is awesome. Like, this is, this is. I feel like this is my place to be in God's earth, taking care of God's creation. You know what I'm saying? It's just awesome.
[00:30:19] Speaker A: Yeah. So talking about this, the sunrise, I got to show you this one. Yep. This was one of those mornings. Sun is just crest and yeah, we're watching a video right now of the all new T60X knocking out some acres.
[00:30:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:32] Speaker A: With the sun coming up, it's just nothing like it.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: No, they're absolutely, absolutely nothing like it.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: Yo.
[00:30:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: But the guys have to be willing to work.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: Oh, sure.
[00:30:40] Speaker A: Yeah. You got to get out there and you gotta grind.
[00:30:42] Speaker B: Oh, it's, it's, it is a grind.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: Yeah. So you, you brought up about you just have to stop and talk to people. And I'm going to be releasing a video doing that exact thing to show people. Like, this is so new. You have to educate people. And if you're scared to talk to people and randomly going into a driveway and knocking on the door, it's probably not going to work for you right now. Now, in the future, in five, 10 years, when everybody knows that drones spray or drones spread, then, you know, farmer Joe goes drone sprayer near me or something like that on his Google phone. But until then, you got a door knock and you gotta educate people and do that. It's so cool you brought that up.
[00:31:23] Speaker B: Yep. And one thing we done a lot of was field days.
[00:31:27] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:31:27] Speaker B: Which we. That's a benefit for us. We have our own farm. We were hosting these field days all across the state, so going to our. To our friends farms and getting with our extension to offer pesticide credits. So a lot of these, A lot of these farmers want pesticide credits to be outside where they're actually learning something. So we can actually go and make these pesticide credits outside available to farmers, have some food, and they get free outdoor pesticide credits instead of being stuck in a class.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah, that's. That's really cool.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: Yep. So I done. I done like five field days across the state. Four or five field days.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: And how do you set those up?
[00:32:02] Speaker B: Just with extension agents.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: So you just call them up and be like, hey, I have a drone. Do you want to do a demo or. Okay.
[00:32:08] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:32:09] Speaker B: Yep. And that's cool. Yeah. And it's been. It's gonna be crazy this year between young farmer and rancher stuff. And then now that everybody was new and scared of it, but now everybody wants to know something about it. So my. You have to go through my calendar. I've. I've got. Whenever I get back next week. I've got two field days next week.
[00:32:25] Speaker A: I gotta do it for you.
[00:32:26] Speaker B: Yeah. So two or three a month. Wow. Which.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: And are you getting paid to do that? That's free. No. Yeah. And you gotta be willing to do that during this stage of the game. It's so early. You gotta educate. You got to show them the technology.
[00:32:38] Speaker B: Yeah. And which there is going to be at some point do I quit doing that stuff and just spray by myself or do I go out and do these field days and have people hired.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: At home to run it. That was going to be my next question is where do you see yourself going as far as custom?
[00:32:53] Speaker B: I don't know, man. Yeah, I don't.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: Cuz it's growing so fast.
[00:32:56] Speaker B: Growing. So I mean, I mean, I have two small kids at home and got one more coming. So it's kind of hard for. For me to be hustling and busting like this to some point because I want to be at home with my kids. But this business is so new. There's a fine line there. Like if I'm not the first one in it or the first one to these guys, they're going to stick with their. With their educator. Yeah.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: Yeah. See, and that's another cool thing about this business is like, it's not a one and done. Like oftentimes it's going to be repeat and sometimes you'll do it multiple times that same year.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: It almost to me feels like a lawn care business.
[00:33:30] Speaker B: Yep. Yep. So like the herbicide and a lot of people are scared of herbicide, but a lot of this pasture herbicide work we do, I mean, they've got weeds that they want to kill now in March. Well, they also got new weeds that's coming in in July that they want to kill. And then we're. Then we're seeding in, you know, in the fall and frost seed and clover.
[00:33:47] Speaker A: You know the nice thing too, you have, you make your boundary one time, that thing's done, you come back next time, it's half the work.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. If you're going back to that same field. Yeah, yeah.
So the farmers down there, they already know that you can spray pastures or are you educating them? Hey, I have a drone and I can pay both.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: So one thing that I am doing is each county has a cattleman's association. So I'm going to these cattlemen associations. They have meetings like every month. So I'll go to different county, county cattlemen associations and do a little present presentation or a demo. And so these guys in each county, they'll have a group of 20, 30 farmers show up. And then I'm. I'm kind of going to my hill country where all these hills are and setting up and showing them what we can do.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: Look how much more we could be doing. Jay, what are we doing?
[00:34:36] Speaker B: We're too dang busy the way it is.
[00:34:38] Speaker A: But no, you're doing it right, dude? Yeah, that's good.
[00:34:40] Speaker B: Well, some, some people do it with YouTube and some people do it with cattlemen.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: Well, no, you know what, I feel bad because I, I did a project for a farmer doing clover frost seeding.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: And he's like, we had no idea that this was available.
[00:34:54] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:34:55] Speaker A: He's like, could you spray my wheat? I was like, sure. Could. Could you spray my neighbor's corn? Could you spray my pasture? Like. He's like, I didn't know. And I'm like, guys, if you get on the road, the farmers don't know, but. And they want it.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: They want it. And that's. They asked me like, could you come up here and do 20 acres? And you guys know it sucks to go somewhere, drive two hours and do 20 acres. I'm like, I could do that, but I would have to charge you a lot. I would really like for you to get some other neighbors close by to make it worthwhile.
[00:35:23] Speaker A: That's exactly.
[00:35:24] Speaker B: So if they're going to save money, they're going to call up six of their buddies close by and instead of a 20 acre job, it turns into a 200 acre job.
[00:35:32] Speaker A: Yep, exactly. Do you have a minimum to go.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: Out if it's, if it's close?
Yes and no. But if it's. If I'm. If I'm going out, I'm saying $600 minimum job plus travel. And I would as busier I get. I mean, obviously we're about to up that or start hand picking jobs a little better. I haven't really turned anybody down at the moment.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: Yeah. What's the highest paying job you ever had?
[00:35:54] Speaker B: So I done a job down East. I sprayed 270 acres in one day with a T40 and 18 an acre.
[00:36:01] Speaker A: Okay, nice.
[00:36:02] Speaker B: So that's 4, 800 bucks in a day.
[00:36:05] Speaker A: It's a good payday. It was a really good. With one drone.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: With one drone. Jeez. Yeah.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: How much cost did you have that day?
[00:36:12] Speaker B: Fuel.
[00:36:12] Speaker A: Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah.
[00:36:15] Speaker B: 12 gallons of gas. I actually, I had to. I filled up my. I filled up my generator and then the generator's 10.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: 10 gallons?
[00:36:22] Speaker B: Yeah. And then I run out because I didn't have a. I don't usually do jobs that big. So I run, I run out, I run out of gas. So the farmer come and put like a couple gallons. So 10 gallons? Yes.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: Okay, so 10 gallons of gas and it was probably what, like $3 and 85 cents a gallon?
[00:36:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: While you had a whole $38.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: Well, we got fuel getting there.
[00:36:40] Speaker A: Okay. Okay, so 200 bucks in fuel.
[00:36:43] Speaker B: Probably. Probably three because it was a three, three hour drive. Away from me.
[00:36:46] Speaker A: But $300 in fuel.
[00:36:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:48] Speaker A: Margins.
[00:36:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah.
[00:36:50] Speaker A: There's not a whole lot of things you can do.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Make four grand in one day. Let's work. Let's not kid you. Like, guys, when you. If you are listening, like we're talking these numbers, but it's like you have to work for it.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: Dude, I had poison oak.
[00:37:03] Speaker A: Oh, man. Tell us, dude, why'd you get poison oak?
[00:37:07] Speaker B: I don't know how I got poison oak, but I was in the eastern part of the state and it's like mosquitoes and dog. We call them dog. Well, we call them gnats.
Anyway, tell me what we call them. Dog pecker gnats.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:37:20] Speaker B: Yeah, but anyways.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: Why.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: Exactly. But I had poison oak so bad. I had it all over my face, around my eyes. The poison oak oil was dripping off my nose. I had it in my ear. I had it in my ear. It was dripping out of my ear. Horrible, dude.
[00:37:38] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:37:39] Speaker B: Luckily, I bought a Harbor Freight, like a Little Harbor Freight 20 volt van. And I was literally sitting in front of that thing. And it was easy flying because it was flat. I was sitting in front of that thing absolutely dying with that fan going straight. It was so bad. I had a job lined up on the way home to do some. I was actually spraying tobacco. Spraying some MH30 on debaca, which is kind of cool because I've.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: What is that? I don't know.
[00:38:03] Speaker B: Tobacco.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: Oh, tobacco.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: Yeah, tobacco. Okay, sorry. Tobacco. Tobacco.
[00:38:07] Speaker A: I heard tobacco. Yeah, I was.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: It's the same thing.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:38:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we're down.
[00:38:11] Speaker A: We're down south.
[00:38:12] Speaker B: Yeah, we're down south. But I was spraying a growth regulator on. On tobacco. But I was super excited about it and I told the guy I. I left that field at. At 10. Finally got finished up at 10:30 after I wrapped up PM. Yeah, PM and drove to Raleigh to spend the night with my cousin, which was like an hour and a half ride. So I get there at midnight and I'm just miserable.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: And I told Poison.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: I texted the guy. I said, I don't know when I'll be there in the morning. Honestly, I don't know when I'll be there. I end up getting a shot in the ass to the next morning to get it.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, wow. Did it go away then?
[00:38:46] Speaker B: Right away? Yeah. Well, not right away, but.
Oh, it definitely helped. Yeah.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: So you touched your face or something with poison oak?
[00:38:52] Speaker B: Yeah, something is bad, but I'm super allergic, so.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:38:55] Speaker B: But never. I. It was like it's usually like on my arms and it's not that big of a deal, but it started getting around my eyes and I was a little worried about it getting in my eyes.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: Swollen.
[00:39:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. But I woke up the next morning like the whole face was swelling. But we ended up.
I was a little slow getting out of there, but I got to that tobacco field at like 10 o' clock and done some morning glory jobs on some corn there too. So got. Got some jobs on the way home. And then the next day we. Next day after that, I went west and sprayed like 200 acres of pasture.
I was literally seven hours away from where I was sprayed that morning to two days later. I mean, that's how much traveling it was.
[00:39:32] Speaker A: Wow. Wow. So you're a cattle farmer and now you do this. Do you see drones taking over the cattle farming thing or. Not really.
[00:39:39] Speaker B: There's definitely you talking about my business.
[00:39:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:39:42] Speaker B: Oh, I've done sold my cows.
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:39:46] Speaker A: Wait, because of drones?
[00:39:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: Well, I'm glad I brought that up.
[00:39:49] Speaker B: Yeah. No, the cattle market is crazy right now.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: Crazy good or crazy crazy good?
[00:39:54] Speaker B: Super high. And anybody listening, like the herbicide work right now is a good time to get it because these cattle farmers are making bank.
Yeah.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: So, okay, so educate us on pasture. Why should somebody that raises cattle spray their cattle ground? Oh, I'm trying to understand.
I don't raise cattle, so I don't know how it works. Like, is it like a yield? It's not a yield.
[00:40:16] Speaker B: Yeah, it's basically a yield. You get more grass per square foot. You know, instead of weeds taking it over and choking out the grass, we can just spray the weeds. You know, we're spraying herbicide that's a selective herbicide, only kills broadly.
[00:40:28] Speaker A: Broadly. Yep.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: So. Yep.
[00:40:30] Speaker A: So you. That means you could run maybe more cows per acre.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:40:33] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:40:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Especially like the stuff I'm doing in the mountains. You know, we're able to. I mean, this stuff hasn't been touched in years.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: I mean, or ever.
[00:40:42] Speaker A: So once, let's say it's really bad, like broad leaves and you kill it. Do you, you then seed it, right, or no?
[00:40:49] Speaker B: Yeah, and that's, that's one thing you really need a good seed to soil contact. So drones may not be the best for reseeding something. You may would want to maybe frost seeding it. You could definitely frost seed clover. And then like up north, from what I hear, like if you got enough snow, maybe you could throw the, the grass seed out. But right before a big snow and it can kind of push the grass seed down. Or you can, you can. I don't know. Many farmers wouldn't do this stuff that I done as far as, like, rotational grazing, but you could, you can move your cattle around to where they were grazing a strip, like, long ways if we're doing rotational grazing to, like, trample the stuff in.
[00:41:22] Speaker A: Okay. But so for the most part, guys aren't using drones to spread grass seed if it's on pasture that already has some grass on it.
[00:41:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:32] Speaker A: It had to be pretty fair.
[00:41:34] Speaker B: Yeah. It would have to be bare, and then you would want to try to incorporate into the soil. It would have to be, like, ideal conditions to get grass seed to come up.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:41:42] Speaker B: With a drone.
[00:41:43] Speaker A: Because I'm thinking, like, our area is really wet in the spring, and if. If cows are on the field and we go spread it, they're going to walk around it. Yeah.
[00:41:51] Speaker B: And if it rains enough, you'll be fine.
[00:41:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:53] Speaker B: But if it doesn't, then.
[00:41:55] Speaker A: But yeah, but with the drones, you could try to check the forecast.
[00:41:59] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: And see, you know, when it's coming in.
[00:42:01] Speaker B: And one thing that I've done, even with the COVID crop side of business, is if. If it's good weather to spray, we'll go spray. But if there's a chance of rain, I'll switch over to cover crops or spreading seeds. Just so you know, if it does rain, we're not washing off our chemical, but we are there to get a good. A good germination.
[00:42:17] Speaker A: Yeah. What. So what'd your wife say when she said. Or you told her we're going to sell the cow?
[00:42:22] Speaker B: Oh, no, she loved it because I would be four hours away and the dang cows would get out.
Yeah. Yeah. So we had the beef business, and it was a good business, but with. With cattle prices the way they are, narrow margins and. Well, I've been so busy last year doing this drone thing, my fences have kind of gotten a wreck. And I keep a lot of my cattle behind one strand of poly wire just because they're so used to polywire a temporary fence. So if I'm like, if I'm gone and it's cloudy outside and the solar panel dies on my fence box, and then the cows are out, and my dad's having to get cattle out of the road. And so, yeah, we just. The cow. We'll. We'll get back to cattle. But for right now, we'll. We'll take care of this drone business.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: That's cool. So are you operating mostly off of the ground or do you have some type of trailer setup?
[00:43:10] Speaker B: So I've got a truck that is. That we built and it's a double decker truck. It is.
It's kind of. It's so.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: So it have a flight deck up top. Like you're actually landing and taking off on the top?
[00:43:23] Speaker B: Most. Most of the time, yeah.
[00:43:24] Speaker A: Do you feel it's pretty important to have some type of setup that you're landing and taking off it?
[00:43:29] Speaker B: Yes and no. It depends on. It depends on what you're doing. It's all kind of.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. He's showing me a picture of its truck right now. A nice flight deck up top.
[00:43:36] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:43:37] Speaker A: So what if new way would make something like that purchase? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're thinking about it.
[00:43:43] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I think that definitely has its place for one. I can't haul that new way trailer around them mountains.
[00:43:49] Speaker A: I get it.
[00:43:50] Speaker B: I get it. But the only problem about that is if, like if I'm spreading seed, then I'm either got to float, throw the seed up top of the deck because all my batteries are stored up there too. So that. That's kind of the problem. But as far as far as spraying and being efficient, like you. The most efficient thing or the biggest thing that we run into is moving around all these small fields. And you have to have a place to, if nothing else, land your drone up top and just be able to strap it down and roll. Yeah, yeah. Because efficiency is key. Moving around all these.
[00:44:17] Speaker A: How do you use your drones when that flooding happened in North Carolina?
[00:44:21] Speaker B: Yeah, that was. That was some wild stuff, man. We. I got hooked up with the Bestway AG crew and Russell Hedrick and Jake Harris and Jeff and them. And we ended up running fly carts. And I didn't really do much flying. They done most of flying, but I was around all. I was very familiar with this stuff obviously because it's. It's basically the same thing. Right.
[00:44:41] Speaker A: So a fly cart is basically a big spray drone that is made to pick things up. Yeah. And you guys went down there and.
[00:44:47] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah. We ended up delivering three and a half tons of supplies to people that couldn't be got to with the drone.
[00:44:54] Speaker A: That's impressive, dude.
[00:44:55] Speaker B: It was super cool. It was the coolest. I wasn't a part of this, but the cool, like the coolest things it still had. The hurricane happened on Friday and then I got there Monday and I ended up leaving out Friday just to slap wore out. But they got a call Saturday. So this is a week after the hurricane. Saturday, there was a mom that finally got cell phone signal. And she was. Her and her three kids, she was breastfeeding. Her youngest infant had run out of food, run out of water. And she'd been out of water for like two days or out of food for like two days. And they were able to deliver 700 pounds of diapers, formula, everything she needed in 45 minutes. 2000, like 20, like 2200ft away. Able to deliver that stuff to her dog.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: Gone. How'd she get phone service?
[00:45:37] Speaker B: I don't know. Maybe. Maybe we just. Maybe she walks somewhere. I don't. I don't know all the details of it, but. But I mean, that's. And every time I get a chance to tell this story. What we've done in the mountains could not have been done without anything other than Chinese drones.
[00:45:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Because we don't have American drones. We don't.
[00:45:55] Speaker B: We don't have. People would have literally died in these mountains without these Chinese drones. Or you would put so much, so many people in risk trying to get to these people because of the, the landslides, because of the, the road washouts, because of all the trees. I mean, it was even a problem. All these, all the flooding washed out all like the yellow jackets nest and the snake nest, and people were trying to walk to these places and getting stung by yellow jackets and snake bit because they couldn't even get to people.
[00:46:22] Speaker A: What?
[00:46:23] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:46:23] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:46:24] Speaker B: That is crazy. So we were able to just set up in different places. One, one place we set up for like five hours and delivered like maybe a ton of food in five hours. Like 11 or 12 different homes and a whole mountainside above.
[00:46:36] Speaker A: So I'll just put it out there. Because I was getting some heat on social platforms, like, why don't you go to North Carolina and help? And because I got the thermal, I got. I got everything you need. Yeah, I wanted to.
[00:46:47] Speaker B: Well, and, and to that point, we called you guys. As I was souping up my 240, I mean, T40, I called you guys, and you called me back within six hours and let us know what we needed to do to make it work. So you were, you helped. Oh, yeah.
[00:47:01] Speaker A: Well, I was calling around, trying to get things figured out, but because of the YouTube content, because of how many people watch me do my stuff, the FAA has been watching us really closely. And I wanted to go there, but it's like, how are we going to help once we get there? And I'm going to show what we're doing. Me helping somebody, is that going to make the FAA call and be like why were you doing this? So that's partially some of the reason that we didn't go. But I also wanted to know like who's in charge?
[00:47:30] Speaker B: Yeah, that was the problem. No, I mean you could have come down and help but they didn't know how to utilize us.
And Russell made probably 100, 150 phone calls to ever even get into where the situation we were at to get in touch with each county's EOCs to be able to do any good. And we get there and they just send us around. Like the first mission we done was with a fly cart and nobody talks about or we had to get this thing hooked up to a relay. And everybody says that a fly cart can't get hooked up to a relay. But we got it hooked up to the relay I use on my T41 time.
[00:48:03] Speaker A: But then it didn't work again.
[00:48:04] Speaker B: It didn't work again after we updated it. But we tried flying this, the fly cart two and a half miles away over top of a mountain hooked to a relay to get to a community that apparently had never been got to. We ended up losing connection. Had to come back and like redo the whole mission. Time we drove around the next half of the day we find out that they had actually these guys in this. In this not village but community had pulled together a bunch of fallen trees to make a bridge out to get to Tennessee. So they were already out when I was able to travel in and out of this bridge that they made with fallen trees.
[00:48:35] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:48:36] Speaker B: So that's how bad communication was. Like we were.
[00:48:39] Speaker A: That was one of the big things like with us going down too is like who do we talk to? There's. Yeah. In charge. Like who's going to tell us what to do. I could have brought so many thermal drones there. But I need to know who's in charge.
[00:48:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:51] Speaker A: And then I'll show you how we do this. And we could have searched. You don't even know. And it was much. It was done.
[00:48:58] Speaker B: It was like an absolute war zone, dude. The amount of helicopters and planes. It was dangerous.
[00:49:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:04] Speaker B: I mean it was absolutely. You've seen the deal in California where that one drone. I think it was a couple months ago that one drone hit a plane. It's crazy. We got. We got held up. We knew where there were people at. And Joe Biden was coming in to fly over and look at the place. Like he couldn't look at pictures but like we were.
[00:49:19] Speaker A: Could he even see it? Is the Real question while he was asleep going over.
[00:49:23] Speaker B: We were. We were grounded that morning. We had missions that we could have done. We were grounded. But what would have. Like, there's possibly people could have died during that time. But what would have happened if we would have hit somebody? If we would have hit a plane or something?
[00:49:35] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:49:36] Speaker B: They would have buried us under the jail, you know, I'm saying. Yeah. It's just might have been worth it.
I don't know.
[00:49:43] Speaker A: No.
[00:49:43] Speaker B: Yeah. But it was wild times, man. It was. It was a lot of. So not.
[00:49:48] Speaker A: So not just agricultural spreading or spraying.
[00:49:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:52] Speaker A: We're starting to use these things for a lot more.
[00:49:54] Speaker B: Yeah. And I did use my T40 for one flight. He actually, during this time, we was trying to figure out, like, what all we needed to do, and my cousin was in a city and found shopping carts on the side of the road, and we come back and hacked up these shopping carts to make baskets with, to be able to haul stuff in with our T40 inside these baskets.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: That's cool.
[00:50:14] Speaker B: That is cool. So we like, hacked them up to make them lighter. But we made three passes with our T40 with fuel, water, and food to an elderly couple that their bridge had washed out. So we literally just flew up over a river and set it down on the other side of trees.
[00:50:29] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:50:29] Speaker B: Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, we had. We had a. We had one of our. One of our guys on our crew over there on the other side to be able to get the stuff out of the basket underneath the drone and all that stuff. Yeah.
[00:50:39] Speaker A: So cool.
[00:50:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:40] Speaker A: Who would ever thought, dude, this.
[00:50:42] Speaker B: This is what blows my mind. We're talking September of 23. I'd never even flown a drone before. Didn't know nothing about these Ag drones. Didn't know nothing about it. Luckily, I got a pretty good one. But here I am talking to you guys, like a year later, after finally getting legal to do this stuff, and here I am on a podcast, sprayed over 5, 000 acres of crops, supporting my family with a business. That's. That's great. You know what I'm saying? This is a dream come true for me to come back to the farm and make a living.
[00:51:09] Speaker A: Yeah, that is amazing. Like, because you don't have to be close to the city or close to town. Like, you can do this wherever, as long as there's like farms or pasture land or any crops, anything.
[00:51:21] Speaker B: And just if you want to do rugged areas, get up and move. Go. Go move somewhere. I mean, it's. There's plenty of work to do in these mountains. There's plenty of stuff to do. I mean, you ain't got to. We was talking to somebody here. He's in Boston and won't know what he could do in Boston. I'm like, it's nothing to get up and move and. Or you can find something to do in Boston.
[00:51:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:51:40] Speaker B: It's a great.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: So what would you tell somebody that wants to get into it now?
[00:51:43] Speaker B: Hustle.
[00:51:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:44] Speaker B: I mean, it's.
It's a hustle. And I'm sure everybody here's seen your stuff on YouTube and they realize that. But it's a hard job. It's a fun job. It's a profitable job. There's a lot of risk involved, too. I mean, you just got to be careful and know what you're doing and do a good job.
[00:52:02] Speaker A: When you're up there and everything's going good and you're just monitoring your, you know, your screens, you look over at your buddy Jay or whoever is your buddy, and you're like, we get paid to do this.
[00:52:13] Speaker B: Yeah, dude.
Yeah, yeah.
[00:52:16] Speaker A: It's just like, wait, am I actually getting paid to do this?
[00:52:19] Speaker B: You're at the end of the day, and you finally sit down and eat a nice meal like a Mexican restaurant, and you just made, like, four grand.
You know, that ACP never tasted any better. You know what I'm saying?
That's the best Texas ACP ever. Do y' all have Texas ACPs?
[00:52:35] Speaker A: I don't even know what you're talking about.
[00:52:37] Speaker B: It's just chicken and rice and the white cheese.
[00:52:40] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, we have that.
[00:52:42] Speaker B: Yeah, we do. The Texas. Texas version is just steak, shrimp, and chicken. Yeah, it's great.
[00:52:47] Speaker A: I definitely get that every time. Yeah. Just chicken and rice with cheese sauce.
[00:52:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:51] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: Yep, Yep.
[00:52:52] Speaker A: Oh, that's funny. I didn't even know that. Yeah. All right, well, thanks so much for coming on podcast and sharing your experiences, and hopefully anybody that's listening right now, if. If you guys want to get into it, it. Now's the time, so.
[00:53:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:05] Speaker A: Yeah. All righty. That's all we got. Appreciate it. Until the next time.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:53:08] Speaker A: Chicken and rice with cheese sauce.
[00:53:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:10] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:53:10] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:53:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that's funny. I didn't even know that. Yeah. All right, well, thanks so much for coming on podcast and sharing your experiences, and hopefully, anybody that's listening right now, if you guys want to get into it, now's the time.
All right. That's all we got. Appreciate it. Until the next time.
[00:53:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
