Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, folks, welcome back to the drone on show. It's Mike. Today we have another episode where I was on the road at the drone convention, and I sat down with lots of different applicators at that show, just having casual conversations with them on how they got started and where they're at now. And so today is another one of those episodes where I'm on the road and having a conversation with another spray drone business. Let's get into it.
We'll just get started. Okay, so I'm gonna let you guys introduce yourselves as your couple man and wife here.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: What? Tara.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Tara.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:35] Speaker C: So, Trevor.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: Trevor from Utah. Utah.
What brings you guys here?
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Oh, man, we need to. We need to learn a few things.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:00:45] Speaker C: So why not come here to learn from some of the best?
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Are you just getting in?
[00:00:49] Speaker B: So we've had experience just flying smaller drones for some since, like, 2014. I mean, our first one was, like, 2014.
[00:00:55] Speaker C: No, we've been doing it for. We've been married for coming up on 14 years, so.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: That's all right. That's all right. Yeah. Flying small drones.
What does that mean? What. What you do, flying small drones?
[00:01:05] Speaker B: It was just more fun passion projects like YouTube, different little things like that. So.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: So for video picture stuff, but for commercial work.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: No, no, just personal.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Okay. Just personal.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Did you guys have your part 107s at that point?
[00:01:19] Speaker B: No, but currently we.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: Of course you do. Yeah. Yep. And then what made you guys think you want to get into big spray drones?
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Oh, man. We were at a soil health conference in southern Utah, and one guy, I actually think he might be here, had one of his agricultural drones, and a few days before that, I was perusing dji.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: And happened to see it and just randomly. Randomly. I mean, I, you know, staying kind of try and stay in it, but not as much as I had been. Anyway, that was kind of where it started, so. Got the wheels of turning.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: So however, I mean, we have. We have some agricultural background. That's probably the biggest downfall coming into this is not having the.
[00:02:02] Speaker C: The full.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: The full picture of what you're getting into and you get a big drone, but.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I don't think anybody has the full picture of when they get into this. Like, I don't have any agricultural background like where I came from, but I understood the drones. Did I understand ag drones? Absolutely not. I don't think anybody really does when they first get in. There's a lot to learn with ag.
[00:02:21] Speaker C: Drones, and it's changing so quick.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
[00:02:25] Speaker C: You think you have your hand on one thing. It's like, oh, nope.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Yeah, it changed.
[00:02:29] Speaker C: Something else changed.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: So you guys haven't you started last year? End of the season, how many acres do you guys have currently?
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Oh, man, that's still.
I mean, we're still.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Yeah, no, no, that's 100,000.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: I mean, we're still really new.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Okay, so. So how many acres total did you spray? Just 5,000, 1,000 00?
[00:02:47] Speaker B: About a thousand thousand acres.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: I thought you said 100,000.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah, we're going big. We get to do 100,000.
[00:02:53] Speaker C: We have goals.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: We start off, we, we big goals. We start off with 100,000. We're doing a million.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: Yep. Here we go.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: We're out to beat Rentizo.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: Nice. Nice.
Okay, so give me a little bit of your career. Are you doing a career shift? Is this like a retirement plan?
[00:03:11] Speaker B: Oh, man, it's kind of a both. Really?
[00:03:14] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: So he's currently a firefighter full time.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: And I stay home full time. We milk a couple cows and do a lot of things in that world for me, the homesteading world.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: You guys milk cows?
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Yeah, we sell raw milk on the sea.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: And we've. We've built up some of a social platform around that and then pasture chickens, pastures. Chickens doing things like that.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: What, what's that? So somebody can check you out if, if they want to watch your. What is it, a dairy farm?
[00:03:42] Speaker B: So we, we call it a micro dairy.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Micro dairy.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Yeah. So a lot of people are kind of getting into that more regenerative agriculture type world.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: When my wife listens to this podcast, she's going to be like, yeah, that's what I want to do. Because there's chickens right now on. On the farm.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Could go learn how to butcher chicken on our. On our Tik Tok right now. But, but anyway, so now I got to get back into what we were thinking about or talking about. But the whole goal basically is to be able to do it as a, a family and be able. Or family, couple, whatever, to get out there and do that ourselves and hopefully replace a full time income.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. So you're a fire. Firefighter. Are you a stay at home mom?
[00:04:22] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: Right now we got little baby next to us needing attention. That's all right.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: If you hear him in the background, I apologize.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: That's all right. Yeah. So a full time firefighter. Where I come from, we have volunteer firefighters. My brother is a volunteer. How. What city do you live close to that would need a full time firefighter?
[00:04:41] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. So I work for up and. Well, it'd be northern Utah. It's not exactly northern Utah, but it's northern to us.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:51] Speaker C: So we live central Utah. So we travel an hour and a half up to work.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: Okay.
So every day you drive and we.
[00:04:59] Speaker C: Work 48 on 96 off. So two days on, four days off is what we work.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: Oh, so you're not at home, like.
[00:05:05] Speaker C: Yep. We live at the station. We do everything as a station. As a crew.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: What?
[00:05:09] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: So how long have you done that? Oh, man, is she gonna say too long?
[00:05:15] Speaker B: No, I wanted to be in that world too. So, I mean, you know.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:19] Speaker C: Yeah.
So I've been at the fire service since 2000 into 2006.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Okay. So.
[00:05:25] Speaker C: And then from there, then when we got married, she's like, hey, as an entrepreneur, I was doing hardwood flooring and everything else. She's like, hey, you need to go get a job.
Like something sustainable as things like.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: No, I'm an entrepreneur.
[00:05:39] Speaker C: I'm gonna leave me alone.
I'm making it work. She's like, no, I gotta have insurance. Xyz. I'm like, okay, whatever.
So I went and worked corrections, their state prison.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:51] Speaker C: So I did medical within there and as a correctional officer.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:54] Speaker C: And then at the same time, still working volunteer fire and part time fire. And then I left corrections and then for a short stint came back into corrections. Then I went out to patrol as a patrol deputy. And that just became so.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: So like a policeman. Yep.
[00:06:11] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: So I worked the road dealing with. Dealing with everything.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: How was that?
[00:06:16] Speaker C: I loved it.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: You did?
[00:06:17] Speaker C: It just becomes too political.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: What does that mean, political in policing?
[00:06:22] Speaker C: Well, just political within. Within the sheriff's office.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: So you're. Okay, so like rankings stuff like.
[00:06:28] Speaker C: Yes, anything and everything. At the time that was going on with law enforcement.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:33] Speaker C: So with all the riots, everything that's going on. So that was affecting us in Salt Lake, so our department was actually put on. On standby too to. To get ready to go up to help with the riots.
But I mean, we're just a small little area, you know, in Utah. But they're calling up all the sheriff offices and everyone else said, hey, get ready. So.
So by that time, I'm still working part time fire. Then I decided, hey, it's time to make the jump. I had a job offer to go work full time fire.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Is that pretty good money being a full time firefighter? No, no. Yeah, yeah.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: At least not in Utah.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it's.
[00:07:04] Speaker C: It's like it pays the bills.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:07] Speaker C: But yet a lot of the guys that I work with, they work two to three other jobs. So they either work another fire job somewhere else or they go work at the hospital.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: What?
[00:07:15] Speaker C: As a tech.
And to just make.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Sounds like those guys need a raise. If you do two or three different jobs. Yeah, but that's to think that you're going to run into a burning building.
[00:07:24] Speaker C: Yeah, but a lot of it too is a medical base. So a big majority of our costs. Okay.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Going out, somebody either fall or heart attack.
[00:07:34] Speaker C: Oh, you. You name it, you know, or they stub their toe or they have a sliver in their foot, you know, hey, it's been hurting me since five days ago. I need help. At 3 o' clock in the morning. It's like, oh my gosh.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: So did you have a job before the babies came?
[00:07:47] Speaker B: I did, actually.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: What was that?
[00:07:49] Speaker B: So I was a firefighter and EMT for quite a few years and then I actually quit when we got pregnant with our first one.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: But I worked for the university. I don't know, a lot of people might know Brigham Young University. So I worked there for quite a few years. But when the babies came, I decided just to take a step back and be a stay at home mom. So. But then of course that led into other things like milking cows and.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: And then you were like, oh, let's start filming this for.
Do you do YouTube or just like.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: We have a small YouTube channel. I mean we're still about 1500 subscribers, but our TikTok, we've amassed about 39,000 followers. So people just love to watch. They like to see and learn. A lot of people are getting their own milk cows, so they want to learn how. And we've gained all the knowledge in the last five years about just as beginning homesteader type things anyway, so people just like to watch that. So that's kind of what I've done done the last three to four years is doing that. And so now, did you guys grow.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: Up on a farm?
[00:08:44] Speaker B: Like I grew up on a farm.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: You grew up on a farm?
[00:08:47] Speaker C: I grew up working on farms.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Working on farms. Okay. So it's been in your families, you kind of went out.
To me, it sounds like you went to the city to get a job rather than stay.
[00:08:58] Speaker C: Well, yeah, the city was the only place you could to go get the job.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: Is it hard to have some type of rural business in wherever you guys are from in Utah?
[00:09:08] Speaker B: Like a rural, like.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: Yeah, like. So for where I'm from, a lot of them are Amish and so we have construction crews, we have concrete crews, we have flooring crews, carpet crews, like all these crews from inside the community, but then they get in trucks and then they go to Columbus, Cincinnati, all over the place to go do their work. So I'm trying to figure out where, like, are you out in the middle of nowhere, Utah? And let me show you. Yeah. So.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: Well, listeners can't hear that. I know.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: No, no. Then I'll, I'll explain. He's, he's going to show me on his phone where you're at. I, I, I have an idea that you are out in the middle of nowhere.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: Let's, let's just say that, that we're in the world book of. Well, I don't know how true this is, but we're in the world book of records for the smallest post office, like it's a blink and you miss it type of town. At least where we're currently at. Yeah.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: Oh, all right, here we are.
Oh, so pivots. A lot of pivots out there. So, so, okay, so pivots. Can they. You guys can only grow something if it's irrigated because basically. Okay, so we're deserty.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Oh, 100 high, high plains.
[00:10:09] Speaker C: So here's Salt Lake City.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: Okay. Yep.
[00:10:11] Speaker C: Salt Lake City here. And then we come down south and come to this little, little town.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, that's cool, dude. Looks. Are those mountains or.
[00:10:20] Speaker C: These are steep, steep mountains right here.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: Oh, it has to be beautiful.
Beautiful. You're not really going to believe this, but I was just looking for farmland and in like, New Mexico with mountains.
[00:10:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Maybe I gotta look at Utah.
[00:10:31] Speaker C: Look at Utah.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: If you want to pay extra. Yeah, I was just gonna say if you, if you want to pay extra, you could get it. I mean, there's some, some crap ground, but.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: And, and if a guy buys land to do farming, he has to get water rights.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: And they're big money as well.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: Big money. Okay. Because you're gonna have to pump it out of the ground. Or is it rivers?
[00:10:50] Speaker B: So we have irrigation systems. So they have canals that feed into individual ponds that feed into lines down to each individual farmer. So, and, and they're monitored quite fre. Like a lot of them are.
[00:11:00] Speaker C: Now it's becoming monitored.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Monitored to make sure that you're keeping what you are taking what you, what your share is.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: What your share is. Oh, how do they monitor that?
[00:11:09] Speaker B: Monitors gallons per minute out.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: You're also actually, like, when you're sucking it out, it's getting met.
[00:11:14] Speaker C: They just start a last.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: And what if what? If you just put a pump right next to it, right little.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Yeah, if you want to.
[00:11:22] Speaker C: Then we deal. Legal.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Then we get. We call him.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Right, so.
So you guys are going to be spraying pivots?
[00:11:29] Speaker B: Yeah, a lot of them.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: Probably a lot of rain.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: So what would be the crops out there? Most of the crops.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: A lot of corn, a lot of alfalfa, wheat. Tritical. Oh, there's a lot.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: Okay, so what do you think your guys's season is going to be like? Like the lengths of season? Do you guys.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: It's pretty short.
[00:11:46] Speaker C: Yes, short season.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: I mean, so about May is when people really can start like the freeze stop.
After late May. I can't even think what day it is.
[00:11:57] Speaker C: Memorial Day.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:11:58] Speaker C: Memorial Day is about last day of freezing for us out there.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: And so then you would maybe start using your drone for burn down stuff.
[00:12:06] Speaker C: We've already started using it for pre. Emergent.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Pre emergent. Yeah, we've already done a bunch of COVID crop seeding.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: Cover crop, good idea.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: So.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: And you're using a T50.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: Okay, so we're talking cover crop. How accurate have you been able to get your application? So if you put say 15 pounds per acre and you calibrated it, how accurate is it to actually doing that?
[00:12:27] Speaker C: It's one of those things that you have to keep paying attention and adjusting it.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Okay, good work. Because it's good for the listeners that are getting into this. Don't think that it's like everything's easy. Just, you know, punch it in liquid. Pretty accurate there. Pretty accurate, but dry. Right now the system's still working on. Yeah, yeah. Because when I went, I was like, oh, this will be easy. I'm like, it went out, came back and said it did one and a half acres and the whole thing was gone.
[00:12:52] Speaker C: Yeah, we had kind of the same thing.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:55] Speaker C: Wait, it's £50 to the acre and this isn't working.
[00:12:59] Speaker B: The math isn't mapping right now. So we had to recalibrate everything and just start fresh and then just start.
[00:13:05] Speaker A: Pretty easy to figure out. Once you know how the system works. It's like do an acre, see how much came out. Okay, now we're going do the math.
[00:13:10] Speaker C: And see if it's math.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: Yep, yep, exactly. Now I will say that the drones that are coming out after the T50 are going to have an offset auger system.
Way more accurate because you use the, the free flow of the T50. Well, sometimes it's going like that. Next it's like this. So it flows out Differently. The auger is spinning based on if the drone's going fast, it's spinning faster. So I. I think, obviously, you know, this technology is progressing fast. That part of it, dry seating, fertilizer is going to get much better.
[00:13:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: What would you guys. What. What would you guys be spraying on, say, wheat this time of year? Or do you guys not have wheat out?
[00:13:51] Speaker B: So there's not a lot of wheat in our area. It's more northern Utah that does a lot of the wheat that I. That I. So we haven't done a whole lot of that yet.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Yep, Yep. But you haven't really looked like what markets you think you're going to go after. Is it just whatever. Whatever happens?
[00:14:05] Speaker B: I mean, we're. We're in such infancy that we're just kind of trying to fill it out and see where our focus wants to be at this point. Because we do have a lot of rangeland. We have a lot of pastures. Yeah, Pasture rangeland. I mean, mountainous.
[00:14:17] Speaker A: I've rough. So I just talked to a guy on the podcast. That's mostly what they do is pastures. They're working on, like, anywhere from 60 to 80,000 acres. Just pasture. Oh, my goodness. When I started my business, I was looking at corn. Corn functions. That's what I thought. That's the king. I mean, that's what they're really good at. But there's so many other things there are that it can be used for. Yeah. So you bringing that up, it was like. Yeah. I think people that are listening, that are wanting to get into this, don't just think it's for one thing.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: No, heavens no.
[00:14:47] Speaker C: Think outside the box.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:49] Speaker C: There's so many different things. You name it.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: But at the same time, you don't want to be too spread out to the point where you can't be good at everything because you want to make sure that you're giving the best customer service to the people that you're serving.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: Very valuable.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: That's good. Do you guys have, like, specialty crops? Maybe like watermelon or something like that?
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, we have. We were just talking to somebody about that. We have a lot of pumpkin. We have a lot of watermelon, potatoes, onions. I mean, that's all northern Utah, but Idaho is potato country, so there's a lot of that up there.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: Good. So if you're going to farmers, have you started going to just random farmers and knocking on the door, on their door? Or do you guys have enough network and you're calling them people? Hey, I got a spray Drone.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: That's basically. We've been going to just a bunch of different extension agents. We've been talking to different. I mean, he knows about every person alive.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Because in the department, you probably dealt with local people.
[00:15:40] Speaker C: That. And I'm just. I'm a very social person, so I'm just like, hey, I'll go talk to him.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: That's good.
[00:15:44] Speaker C: See who he knows and then see who he knows.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: I think that people that are wanting to get into this because I get a lot of people coming to me, and that's their. Their. Their question, Mike. How do I get acres? And my biggest thing is if you're not a talker or if you can't sell your service, probably not going to work. Because right now, we're so early in this game that you have to educate, you have to go to the farm, you have to hit the road and door knock and talk to people.
[00:16:08] Speaker C: People.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: And that was my biggest flaw. I'm not a top. Like, I'm pretty reserved. And so that's where he's kind of the strong point in our. Our partnership. But.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: But you'll sure drive him down the road and say, go knock on that door.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: Oh, okay. You need to talk to this person, this person, that person. I'll sit here. I'm. I'm gaining more of a.
[00:16:26] Speaker C: She'll even get out and open the door for me, red carpet and say, here you go.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: I like it. That's cool.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: See?
[00:16:33] Speaker A: I mean, you got it, babe. You got it.
[00:16:35] Speaker C: Thanks, honey.
It's a good partnership, what we have going on, and it's working out. I mean.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:42] Speaker C: But it's definitely about networking, yo.
[00:16:44] Speaker B: It really is.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: So hitting the road now, talking to farmers about their corn fungicide. Hitting the road now, talking about their pasture land. Is that what you guys are doing?
[00:16:53] Speaker C: Yep. Yeah.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: I mean, yeah.
[00:16:55] Speaker C: Just getting in with, like, some of our local co ops.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: Different things like that, though. I mean, right now we're doing a lot of smaller acres just because in our area, we're the first of only a few drones.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: And so people are still out there.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: In the middle of nowhere. I can understand.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Or. Or the people that have them aren't licensed and they're doing personal. Personal stuff.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: So we're just trying to get our name out there right now, but through co ops anyway.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: No, that's good. That's good. That's. I mean, that's valuable. It's. Somebody might be listening that wants to get into it, and they're like, well, what where do you serve? Yeah, co ops. That's a good one. I always tell them. But I will say this is my experience with co ops. If when I first started I had one drone, I had no setup, I had no experience. And I'm going to these co ops and I'm like, hey, I have a drone. I. I'm going to do drone spraying. And they're like, what's your setup? I'm like, well, I just have a one drone. They didn't like that where we're from because when they say, okay, go get this done for this farmer, he expects you to get it done. And if you have one drone and you have a crash or you have had no experience, they're not too comfortable with talking to a guy that has one drone setup. Right. Have you had any pushback like that?
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Actually, no. They've all been pretty excited. They're like, oh, you have a drone.
So that's very receptive, Very receptive. And I think, yeah, that's cool. We haven't had much pushback on that.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Okay, well, that's really good because I will say so. That was year one. Then I got some experience, got a trailer set up, got this whole rig right now I roll into the co ops and I'm like, I, I do drones rang and they're like, I see that. And so I get worse. Like, just be. Because of what it looks like now, because back where I'm from, you know, guys tried it, tried one pickup truck. If you go a little west of where I'm from, they're pretty big. And one drone in that field doesn't feel like it's getting done very quickly. And so them just seeing it and being like, okay, this guy's put in the work, even just the design of the trailer, they started giving us acres. So I tell people, you don't want to look like Chuck in a truck showing up and stuff. Isn't quite figured out. What, what type of setup?
[00:19:03] Speaker C: Are you guys professional?
[00:19:04] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So we, we kind of went against what most people suggested in building your own rig right off the bat because you're going to be changing it so frequently.
We went with an accuspray trailer.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: We had just, I mean, we were.
[00:19:18] Speaker C: Just, we gotta go, it's go time.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: We gotta have everything ready. Like, you know, I just did one of the things thinking you're like, big, big dreams. You're gonna have all the acres right off the bat. Like, we need it ready to go. You know, not realizing that, no, it's gonna Be a slow trickle.
[00:19:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: And we would have had time. Not that we love the Accuspray trailer, so nothing against that, but. So that's what. We have an enclosed cab up front and then the flatbed and then the overlook up top.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: So that's kind of what we're.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Did you look at any other options prior to that? Or it was just like, we got to get this rolling.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: No, I think. I mean, we. We kind of rushed it.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. And you bought that in 2024.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: Very first part of 24.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: Did you ever stumble across like a new bay trailer?
[00:19:58] Speaker B: I think we did. After.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: Afterwards.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: After.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:01] Speaker C: Y.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Do you wish that you would have seen the new way trailer before that one?
[00:20:04] Speaker B: I don't know if Accu accuse is listening right now.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: It doesn't matter. It's just from practical look, looking at it like.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: No, like it looks legit. Like, would have totally went with something like that because we do have a lot of corn in our area and the double decker. And our dream was multiple drones, so, you know, that would definitely fit what we're looking at now. Currently, we can't land our drone on the trailer, so.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Well, there you go. It's a goal to scale, obviously. If it takes off for you and you need more than one trailer, you can do that.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: We'll give you a call.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: So out there, the fields would be flat, right? Right. Oh, yeah, because they're in the bottoms. Would you do anything in the mountains out there?
[00:20:44] Speaker B: There's a lot of like, conservation work up in the mountains, but a lot of it would require a lot of ferrying. Longer distances and battery life I don't think will warrant that. But rangeland though, like, if you can get up there on the sides of the mountains, there's going to be a lot of that in the. The lower parts.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, I'm. I'm trying to figure out, like, what type of issues you might have with a terrain. Flatland not going to be a problem. Rolling hills or mountains. I wonder if you're going to have a reception issue, because where we're spraying.
You've already tried it.
[00:21:15] Speaker C: Well, your reception issue, I mean, we. We don't get cell phone service up in there, period.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: But I'm not talking that. I'm talking a connection between your controller and your drone. Like if it. If there's a bunch of trees that the drone's maneuvering around. If, if you'll have that. If. When I'm looking at that aerial that you just showed me, I don't know that you'll have problems other than if you're going a long way. Like you're saying, fairing a long way. Energy management. If you're ferrying a long way, you'll learn that real quick. It's like, okay, I can't fill the tank completely full, baby. By the time I get there and it starts a couple rows now, I like, oh, the battery's low. Yep, 40. I got eight gallons. I better get back. Yeah, that's cool.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: Take out a half a load if you're going far away.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
So how would you guys boundary say. Say a farmer calls you and has a.
A pivot? I don't know. Are all pivot? They're not all the same size.
[00:22:06] Speaker C: No.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: So but they just call it a pivot. I don't know if there's a special name for it.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: I'm sure they all have names for their different sizes and different things, but I'm not in on that.
[00:22:15] Speaker A: So would it be like I have an 80, like an 80 circle? I don't know.
[00:22:19] Speaker B: Yes, I think there is some sort like there's that.
[00:22:21] Speaker C: Or I got a half a pivot. Or I got a full pivot, a pull pivot. So it's like, all right, so how many acres you have? About 48.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: Okay.
Because they would just call it by I have a half a pivot.
A half a pivot could be.
[00:22:34] Speaker C: So just a lot of follow up questions.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Every pivot's different lengths different. Yeah.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: Okay, so you go out there. How do you boundary that field? How were you taught?
[00:22:44] Speaker C: Send a. Send a little M3M up and I map it.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: Oh, so you map. You actually ortho mosaic map everyone.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: We try to. Not every single one.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: Why. Why do that?
[00:22:54] Speaker B: It was just more accurate boundaries. The GPs out there in satellite isn't as great as we'd hope. So the. The actual data on the drone and we don't have a dongle or anything like that, so it's really. I could be outdated. Very outdated. And we ran into that. The correct two image.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: Now we've watched like I could fly it manually, but I don't necessarily love doing that because I would. I hate to wreck the drone before I even start the job mapping with the big drone. But. And maybe I haven't found a great way to do that yet that I'm comfortable with. But so far it's just accuracy I feel like is way better when we go up and map it with the Mavic.
[00:23:30] Speaker A: I mean, definitely solid accuracy just takes more time to do it. It does Just trying to figure out. So if it's a circle pivot and flying around the edge, there's not going to be trees, right?
[00:23:40] Speaker B: Not typically, no.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: So what are you going to crash into?
[00:23:43] Speaker B: No, I guess. See, not every job do we do that. Like, if it's an easy boundary, then I'll just plop lines right on it.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: On the controller, rather than flying it around.
That's cool.
[00:23:52] Speaker C: But if, I mean, you know, you go out and you look at it, I'll just pull it up.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm looking at those circles because I'm trying to figure out what would be the most efficient way to get it done. Yeah, I'm thinking I've hotkeys set up on my controller. We launch it, I don't even have to have a satellite image up. I just start dropping points, flying around it. Then I fly to the pivot, run out the row, wherever the pivot is sitting, create that as an obstacle, and then send it in there.
[00:24:17] Speaker C: Like this one.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:24:18] Speaker C: You know, let's pivot right here.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: We're looking at it.
[00:24:20] Speaker C: I mean, we have a bunch of trees right here, a house. So there were obstacles long here, power lines.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: So yeah, there, there are definitely some obstacles.
[00:24:26] Speaker C: It's just that. It's just. It makes a lot easier.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Yep. No, and it's totally fine. I'm just trying to figure out like how people do their operations. So you guys are setting up a mavic. You're orthomosaic.
[00:24:37] Speaker C: It's like here's another one that we did. You know, it was.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: That's look like a half pivot.
[00:24:40] Speaker C: Yeah, well, yeah, half pivot, quarter pivot is all this. So we had this one, this one, and this one that was, you know, 150 acres flat land, you know. Well, that part was flat and then some of the other one was just up on the bench.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: Okay. So, yeah, but yeah, we'll, we'll throw.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: That up there on some of them just to make sure that we're getting accurate boundaries. And then others it will just be.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: A simple Y flying around and. Or doing it on your controller. Have you tried building boundaries with flying around it?
[00:25:07] Speaker B: I have, I have. And like what? I guess it's been a while since I've done that. So it's just because I got out there and I'm like, I can't actually, like, I don't feel confident in. And maybe I was just. Because I didn't feel confident in my abilities quite yet.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Yeah. So there's some guys that shared the way that they like building their boundaries is they would put it in manual plus and actually be spraying around the boundary. And then they get done with that. Now they've created a field and they spread. They've already sprayed the edge and now you can go into an automation in that field and you got straight lines. Does that make sense? Yeah. So I was like, oh, didn't even know I could do that.
[00:25:44] Speaker B: I heard that earlier too.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: So here I am. I'm learning.
[00:25:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: I mean, I thought, you know, I'm. I'm spraying. There's so much to learn that I don't think we'll ever know at all.
[00:25:53] Speaker C: Oh, no.
[00:25:54] Speaker B: Everybody has such different circumstances that they're going to learn something that's so valuable that y. That we would. I don't know how to even say that. But everybody's doing different things, so they're going to learn different things.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: You know, challenges.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: Yeah. For an example.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: I was talking to the guy that does all that pasture land and he's like, we won't build all the obstacles. Like, so I would look at it and there's a tree here, there and there. And he's like, no, we won't build those as an obstacle because it'll take longer to build them. We'll just send the drone into it. Don't let it auto obstacle avoid. And it'll break and then the operator will slide it to the side, fly around it. Because now you have a break point. You know, break point one or two and you just use that and it was faster for the operator to just fly around it and then hit break point two and then it goes. Really never even thought about it.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: I never would have thought of that either.
[00:26:42] Speaker C: The things you learn.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So just sharing right where we're spraying, what we're spraying, how we're doing it, can maybe help somebody else. I know that helped me now.
[00:26:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: Well, it can open up the eyes like some. Just a simple little tick tip can change the entire way you do things. And it's like it opens up an entirely new world for you, like as a. An operator.
[00:27:03] Speaker A: But if you guys would forecast how many acres do you think are in your area that you could spray? Did you use chat GPT at all to figure that out?
[00:27:12] Speaker B: No, I haven't actually. I have not thought about it.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: Okay. I'm going to bring it up on this podcast because I do on other ones. I think that anybody that has a drone spray business has to utilize AI has to, because it. If you guys don't, you Guys have iPhones. You can get GRO3 on that. And you can do something like this. You can give it to your town and tell it with all the data that you have available, what is the, you know, the biggest crop grown in this area and how many acres? Because a lot of that data is actually sent to the. The local state. Oh, why can't I say it like agricultural extension, office extension. Because of pesticides. Right. So we have to keep record of it. And so they actually know all these acres or how many. How many of this pesticide was. Right. So Gro collects that. You tell it to tell you how many are there. And then it gives you a business or it gives you an idea of.
[00:28:06] Speaker C: How much business is kind of a forecast.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: And which.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: Which it's Elon's. It's called Gro.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: Gro.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's G R O K. Interesting. Yeah. So I really like. Dude, I. I think it's very important. I'm going to put a video out there that anybody that is using or is going to do it, like, should use this. So I can give you guys an example. What was the town that you guys are in?
[00:28:31] Speaker C: Axtel.
[00:28:32] Speaker B: Axl.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: Okay, so let's just do this with all the data that you have available. What is the biggest crop grown in Utah? So I just told it that, and it's going to. So it searches all this stuff based on the available information. Biggest crop grown in Utah is hay. Alfalfa. Okay. So now I'm going to ask it if I have a drone spray business, what could I spray for that farmer on that alfalfa to be helpful to him?
So then you just give it that information. And now it's going to search the Internet and figure out what is spraying on alfalfa. Okay. So insects. So now I know that it has insects. So I can approach the farmer and be like, you know what? Oh, it even needs fungicide. Fungicide on alfalfa. It's interesting. So you can.
Whatever you think of that you might be able to use, like, use this.
[00:29:24] Speaker B: They're your mentor.
[00:29:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Because it's. It has infinite data that has already been put into the system and then just start going down. Right. Like, so just if it has fungicide, it'd be like, with the data that you have available, do you know how much fungicide was applied in my area on hay? And you know. Okay, so let's do that. Do you have any data available that would say how much alfalfa is ruined by running over it? Right. Because it's he's going to have to run over it. So it's something to check out. I'm telling you, I like it.
[00:29:53] Speaker B: That's one of those tips.
[00:29:54] Speaker A: I'm telling you that AI will help new entrepreneurs grow a business faster than ever before.
And if you don't utilize it and other people are, you will be left behind. Like it's unreal.
[00:30:07] Speaker B: Oh, there's a saying about it. But if you're not, what is it? You're. If you're not using AI, you're going to be obsolete.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So I was not using it myself. I was like, I don't want to use, I don't want to use it. And finally I was like a guy explaining like, like this. Like it was like the people that didn't want to start using computers like to make their job easier, but the people that did advance faster and those guys never were able to catch up because by the time that they wanted to use the computers, they were already further ahead.
There you go.
[00:30:36] Speaker C: So crazy.
[00:30:37] Speaker B: Yeah, we better get on that. Yeah, I mean I've been using it, but not for that reason. Like I use it for a lot of other things but. But not like actually doing the actual data and research.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: It is so awesome.
[00:30:48] Speaker C: And I'm just the old fashioned dude. No pen and paper.
[00:30:51] Speaker A: Yeah, but, but like get it, like use it that way. Okay. For spraying even. Like you don't know how to quote a job. That guy calls you and is like, I want, say he's like, I wanted to put 140 pounds of fertilizer per acre on this. So we could do it in our mind. But if you tell a hi, I have to spread 140 acres or 140 pounds per acre, I can carry this much in my drone. My swath is this much. Approximately how long is it going to take me to do the job at this speed? And it'll throw it out, spit it out for you. So now you can use it as a way to quote jobs. Like if you've never done it. Like a guy called me and wanted that done. I was like, well, how long is it going to take me? I have no idea. Let's just go and try. And then I'm out there. And I'm out there for eight hours. I'm like, okay, let's try this in gro. And then I put it in here and it told me exactly how long it would take me.
[00:31:44] Speaker B: So.
[00:31:44] Speaker A: And it was pretty accurate.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: I was going to ask how accurate was it?
[00:31:47] Speaker A: No, I could have quoted the job differently. Jeez.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: Really?
[00:31:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, so that's something to think.
[00:31:54] Speaker C: Implemented now. Policy, use gro.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: I wish I would own it, but no, it's helping me. It's helping my business grow. And I just want to help people in this industry to use, leverage what we have.
Just use it to leverage that. It's really cool. So what are you guys most excited about?
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Oh, man.
[00:32:19] Speaker C: Using AI now.
[00:32:24] Speaker A: It's crazy because it's actually so easy. You see me, I'm just talking into it.
You ask it for data, and then if it throws something wrong at you, you just say, well, that's not what I meant.
[00:32:34] Speaker B: You got to make sure your words.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: Are, yeah, well, you just tell AI. Well, that's not what I meant. I went do this right. Start talking to it like that. It's kind of a little weird because it's like you're talking to a person that's not a person.
[00:32:45] Speaker B: But am I the only weirdo that says, please do this? Thank you?
[00:32:50] Speaker A: No.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: Are you? I'm weird. I always say please and thank you.
[00:32:53] Speaker A: If you do that, it'll. It'll respond back to you. No problem. My pleasure.
[00:32:56] Speaker B: I'm like, but if they become, like, crazy, maybe they'll still have respect for me.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: When the world's taken by robots, what'll happen is they'll take all that information and Elon's, you know, making its own robot that walks around. That robot's going to be swapping your battery for you.
[00:33:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: And filling your drone, right? Yeah.
[00:33:13] Speaker B: The one walking around the hallways right here.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: Battery, yeah. Yeah. That's cool. No. Anything else that you guys are excited about to just get this thing started? I mean, you got to be. There's got to be a lot of things.
[00:33:24] Speaker C: Just the potential. There's so much potential there.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: But, yeah, the precision application is what we're really excited about.
But just really getting in and learning everything right now. I mean, there's a lot to be excited for, but the knowledge and learning, that's what I'm most excited for.
[00:33:39] Speaker A: How hard is it to get your pesticide license in Utah?
[00:33:43] Speaker B: It's not terribly hard. So.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: So they don't have this program where you need a certain amount of experience before you can get. Get in.
[00:33:49] Speaker B: They do have. They do have requirements like that you have to have so many hours or years of experience of pesticide application or like, a degree. A degree in certain. Like that deals with, like, human health and making sure that you take into consideration what pesticides and herbicides and all the things can do. The environment and different things like that.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: Okay. So I was just informed today that Nevada would. You would need a minimum of two years experience just to apply for it. Is it something like that?
[00:34:17] Speaker B: So Utah. Yeah, probably. Like I said, you have to have. They, they have. So to own your own business, you have to have your master applicator and then all your applicators underneath you. For Utah you have to have. They have all these stipulations, five years of experience doing pesticide or herbicide, all of that type of application.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: So. But how does somebody get that if they've never been in the, in the business or around farms or.
[00:34:39] Speaker B: They don't. They either have to have. Find somebody that has that experience or do the time. But that's where we have degrees in paramedicine and different things like that. So we, we understand the like multi systemic just how it can affect the environment and all the different things.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: You have that degree and you have that experience. You were able to use that to get your pesticides sooner. Okay.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: It was interesting. I mean they were kind of hesitant at first, but they understand that we're, you know, we're. Yeah, we're not just going to be out there haphazardly applying it. We're going to be taking the environment, the people surrounding it into consideration.
[00:35:15] Speaker A: Yeah. So you guys still had to go to a class that they were offering.
[00:35:18] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:35:18] Speaker B: So we had to take the national core pesticide applicator exam. And then in Utah they have different. I don't know if they're subcategories. Subcategories. So like agricultural plant. Agricultural animal, animals. All the, you know, all the things. All the things.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: So in Ohio we have to have corn aerial.
[00:35:36] Speaker B: Yeah, we have to have.
[00:35:37] Speaker A: That aerial will cover almost everything.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: So we have to have. Yeah, the aerial. The agricultural. I think it was agricultural. One of the agricultural. Yeah.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: So. And then the core. But it was. It's not too terribly hard.
[00:35:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:51] Speaker B: I mean.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: So what type of tank is on your trailer currently? Like how big is the, the tank?
[00:35:56] Speaker B: We have a 500 gallon tank.
[00:35:58] Speaker A: So 500 gallon clean or like water tank. And then do you have a mixing cone on there?
[00:36:03] Speaker B: Yeah, we have a 60 gallon mixing cone.
[00:36:05] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: Yep. And then just the hose rail. Your gas filler.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: I don't know the technical term for.
[00:36:11] Speaker C: That, but gas nozzle.
[00:36:12] Speaker B: Gas nozzle. Thank you for that.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: Or filler nozzle.
We're definitely not putting gas in there.
If you're listening.
[00:36:20] Speaker B: We are not putting, not putting gas in there. It is.
[00:36:25] Speaker C: And the Thing was, we had, like, the auto shut off for the gas nozzle.
[00:36:28] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that.
[00:36:28] Speaker C: And it broke.
[00:36:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it broke.
[00:36:30] Speaker C: I was like, you know what went now? Tractor supply Just got the.
[00:36:32] Speaker B: Hopefully.
[00:36:33] Speaker C: Yeah, the straight. Straight nozzle, man, it works.
[00:36:36] Speaker A: Yeah. So on our trailers, we remove that whole mechanism, but we also remove the part where you can't, like, set it and then walk away.
[00:36:43] Speaker C: Set it and forget it.
[00:36:44] Speaker B: Yeah, you don't wanna.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: Yeah, no, you definitely don't want to stick the nozzle in there and walk away, because she'll run over, but yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool. All right, well, what else would you want to share with somebody that's wanting to get into it? I know you guys are just fresh and new, but I think that's good to help somebody.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: I don't know. Just put your mind to it. If you're gonna do it, you got to do it.
[00:37:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:04] Speaker B: You're gonna be out of your comfort zone no matter what you're doing.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: Oh, here's a question. The financing, maybe you guys were able to cash this off, but a lot of guys come to me, and they're like, I want to get into it, but I don't have the cash. Did you guys have to do any loans?
[00:37:16] Speaker B: So we actually. We didn't.
We were able to find an investor that was interested in partnering with us, so that's what. We ended up going that route.
[00:37:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Because good for you guys. I thought maybe if. If you did have a loan, how. How that process was, because with this technology be so new, the banks are like, what?
[00:37:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: A loan or a drone that costs this much, so.
[00:37:37] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:37:38] Speaker A: Interesting. Good for you guys. Okay, well, that's all I got. It's a little chat. I appreciate the time. That's cool.
[00:37:44] Speaker B: Appreciate you.
[00:37:45] Speaker A: All right.
[00:37:45] Speaker B: Having us on here, so.
[00:37:46] Speaker A: No problem.
[00:37:48] Speaker C: Told you. She does all the talking. She's perfect.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: No, I'm not. Good. I don't know half the words.
[00:37:53] Speaker A: I see you over here thinking about grock already.
[00:37:55] Speaker C: Yes, I am. I'm like.
[00:37:59] Speaker A: All righty. See you.
[00:38:00] Speaker C: Thank you.
