August 13, 2025 • 33 mins
GK Technology introduces Surface Shaping and SD Surface (in conjunction with Rust Sales) which offers land managers an innovative approach to field design. Surface Shaping allows for advanced drainage design, giving farmers the ability to design intentional water flow and directionality, above and beyond normal ditching and "land leveling." Kelly Sharpe explains how this new technology preserves valuable topsoil while eliminating problematic water-holding areas through advanced design and precision implementation.
• Surface Shaping differs from land leveling by focusing on water direction rather than just creating flat surfaces
• Surface maps are created within ADMS, producing cut/fill maps showing where soil should be removed and where it should be added (the controller will move the blade to do exactly what the map calls for)
• Preserves agronomic integrity by allowing farmers to limit topsoil removal to prevent exposing clay subsoil
• Implements precise design plans where equipment operators follow color-coded maps until areas turn green
• Requires less technical expertise from equipment operators since the plan guides the entire process
• Focus applications include: Red River Valley field surface modifications, irrigation grade preparation, terrace building, and construction site preparation
• Requires farmer input during mapping stage to ensure the design meets specific field needs
• Can reduce fuel and labor costs by eliminating unnecessary passes across the field
Contact GK Technology to learn more about how Surface Shaping can transform your field's drainage and productivity.
SD Surface will not be available fall 2025, but we will keep you updated on the official release date!
https://gktechinc.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now it's time for a Geek Speak with GK
Technologies, sarah and Jody,friends and I can't wait to get
in the fields again.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
No, I can't wait to get in the fields again.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Welcome back to A Geek Speak, and this week on our
A Geek Speak podcast, we havegot something really exciting to
talk about.
Gk Technology is currently inthe process of developing a new
product called Surface Shaping,and to help us understand that,
(00:54):
we have a guest who needs nointroduction, but we're going to
introduce him anyway becausehe's pretty darn awesome and
that is Mr Kelly Sharp, one ofthe owners of GK Technology, who
has been working a lot with thesurface shaping concept and
especially out in the field tohelp us make it kind of come
(01:15):
alive and honestly, Jodi and Iwere just out yesterday working
with Kelly a little bit aboutthis.
So, Kelly, can you just help usunderstand a little bit about
and I know we've done a podcastwith you in the past about who
you are and what yourexperiences are, but can you
help us remember who are you,Kelly?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I am Kelly Sharp.
I was born and raised in thewonderful city around Shelley,
minnesota, and have a farmsteadout that way still, have a
farmstead out that way still,and my background is have a
degree from the University ofMinnesota, crookston, in
agronomy, and have been with GKsince we started in 2000, in
(01:57):
2005, 2006.
And end result is I then workedin the mapping side.
I do everything, lessprogramming.
I leave Darren and Travis up tothe programming side of things.
But when it comes to the restof what happens in the company,
(02:17):
there isn't much that I don'ttackle as far as items.
So I get involved in newprojects and things like that,
the SD side of the business.
So of course GK does themapping side of things.
We do the software side ofthings for all the wonderful
mapping needs that you need foryour variable rate, for your
drainage needs.
But we also write the SD drain,ditching and tiling packages
(02:43):
for Rust sales.
In that front, in that endeavor, we're always trying to come up
with new ideas and the surfaceshaping component kind of came
into play.
So we write the software sideof it where Rust sales picks up,
the wiring, machine, control,gps side of it and of course,
(03:05):
doing the sales and marketing onthat.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Well, and to that point, you know, and kind of
going back just a little bit,talking about who you are, you
know I had the chance to workwith Kelly before I came to work
for GK Technology and now,honestly, I'm kind of one of his
dudes working right alongsideof him here at GK Technology on
the team and one of the thingsthat Kelly is so good at he's
(03:34):
been with this company so longhe's got a solid base of egg
technology.
You know, kelly, yourbackground with your dad who
used to do equipment.
You know really thinkingthrough different equipment and
how equipment should beengineered.
So he's got a solid base withequipment.
And then, of course, that solidbase of agronomy, that trifecta
(03:55):
.
There is something that'sextremely difficult to find in
this industry today.
And then, with his historyworking with our software, adms,
for all the, for all the years,he's really seen this software
from the ground up.
So all of these tools that havebeen added on over the years,
kelly's seen them all come intothe software and I know when I'm
(04:17):
trying to work and where I'mgoing with this whole thing is
that when I'm trying to workwith software and think about
things in a different way, we'vegot a suite of tools there, but
Kelly is pretty creative intrying to figure out like, okay,
these are the tools we've got,how do we think about using them
in new and different ways toaccomplish new and different
(04:39):
things?
Which is pretty neat, and Ithink sometimes that helps.
Maybe you know, when we'redealing with stuff like surface
shaping, you can take thoseconcepts of surface drainage,
the concepts of tile drainageand all of those things and
think about things in a brandnew way to bring to light some
(04:59):
ways that we can use old toolsthat are in the software but
also to be very imaginative inhow we're bringing about new
products.
But there you go, kelly.
Go with that where you want.
How about that?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I'm going to summarize what Sarah just said
into something really simple,and both Sarah and Jodi have
heard me say this before.
But it's how many ways can youuse a crescent wrench?
But it's how many ways can youuse a crescent wrench?
And really, I mean, at the endof the day, you've got a few
clicks in the software that dothis, and how many different
(05:32):
ways can we do it?
And again, the creativity ofthat.
I'll be honest, I'll be honestwith you, sarah, jody, a lot of
the stuff that we hear, a lot ofthe stuff that's coming back
and ideas that I have.
I have no problem handing itoff and saying, hey, I was
talking to Curt and Elaine downin South Dakota and they said
this and I thought this was areally great idea and I'll give
(05:53):
full credit to some of the ideasthat come at me that other
people have come up with too.
But I mean different ways ofdoing things has been the
creativity of, you know,hundreds of users spread across
the country and listening towhat they're doing too.
So I'd love to say I came upwith a lot of those ideas and I
(06:13):
did come up with a few of themalong the way, but again.
It's like that thing ofsometimes just watch what other
people are doing around you, andthis goes for life.
You might just learn somethingfrom your neighbor down the road
of what they're doing too.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So and and that's the thing too is, though, is like
not only have you gotten theseideas right, but you've also
implemented them.
That's, that's the differencebetween having the idea and
implementing them.
It's a different product thansd ditch and sd tile.
Just go into depth about whatsurface shaping is and help us
understand.
What are the differences hereand what can we do now?
(06:48):
Rust and stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
It goes back to the concept that we had years ago
that you build a plan for afield and you just go to work.
(07:11):
So if you're going to go outand do a ditch, if you're going
to go out and do tile, you builda plan, you build a design, you
build some concepts, but at theend of the day you're going to
go out and drive a survey, turnaround, and then you're going to
go out and drive a survey, turnaround, and then you're going
to install the tile, you'regoing to drive a survey and
you're going to cut a ditch.
So that location of that ditch,you can do some pre-planning
(07:31):
and stuff like that, but youstill have to survey it in the
field.
And the benefits of surveyingit in the field is you don't
need to worry so much aboutbenchmarks, exact perfections or
imperfections from the field tothe or from the office to the
field.
So so the but the benchmarkcomponent gets to be so
important if you're going to bedoing those those types of
(07:57):
things.
But again, with a ditch, withtile, with things like that,
when you set it up in the office, when they hit the field they
may be like oh you know, we wantto have it just a little bit
this way or a little bit thatway and you don't, you know,
trying to have the tools tochange that stuff on the fly in
the field are.
We're just going to call.
If you're going to the planportion of it, it's kind of
pertinent or impossible.
So the idea is that you know theguy in the tractor.
(08:18):
Just like planting, just likeanything else, the guy in the
tractor has to have some insight, some knowledge, some
understanding of what's tryingto happen here.
So when you're ditching andtiling, you need somebody that's
got a head on their shoulders,that's sitting in the tractor to
make sure that everything isgetting done correctly.
When you get into the surfaceshaping portion of things, we
take it to the next level, wherewe need some input from the
(08:42):
customer.
We need some input from thecustomer.
Basically, we're engineering,we're redesigning the field.
So we're going to fill in thisditch, we're going to change the
shape and layout of this field,we're going to move X amount of
dirt from here to here andwe'll get deeper into that in a
(09:03):
second.
But the base concept of it isis that all of a sudden you hit
the field where it's completelypre-planned.
You go to a benchmark, youtouch off on it, you put your
machine into a auto blade, ifyou will, or auto cutting, and
you drive until all the areasare cut, all the areas are
(09:24):
filled, and you go on to thenext field.
You don't need somebody insidethe tractor necessarily that has
a lot of understanding ofwhat's going on here other than
is the blade going up and downand are things responding, and
if all those, if those twocriteria are met, keep on
(09:46):
driving until this map is green.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
So there's, there's so much there that we could talk
about and I and, and we'll justlet this conversation roll, but
first I got to ask a question.
So you know, back in the day,years ago, there was this
concept of land leveling, and sowhen we start talking about,
you know, cutting ditches andfilling in low spots and all of
that, are we making this level?
(10:10):
Or help Kelly, help usunderstand what's the difference
between land shaping and landleveling?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Sure, and it's one of the huge parts that we want to
make sure we're really clear onupfront about this.
This is not land leveling.
The old theory of land levelingwas exactly that leveling the
land out.
You were going to go acrosswith this big, long blade that
was going to take all theselittle imperfections out of your
(10:37):
field, but it didn't reallyhave the concept of I want a
ditch here, I want this or,better yet, I want this area
that is maybe bowl-shaped tohave directionality.
Land shaping concept that we'regoing after here and I want to
kind of think about this in fourdifferent parts.
On the land shaping part, butjust the number one is we're
(11:01):
going to use kind of the RedRiver Valley to the land
leveling component that Sarahjust brought up there.
But using that concept of theland leveling in the Red River
Valley flat ground that hasundulations and ditches in it is
the simplest way I can put itis you know it's not like you
have 20, 30 feet of fallenfields, it's a lot of stuff
that's.
You know it's not like you have20, 30 feet of fallen fields,
it's a lot of stuff, that's youknow, three, four feet of fallen
(11:22):
, a whole quarter, and you'rejust trying to get these little
imperfections out.
But we have plenty of spotsthat are bowl shaped.
Well, the land leveling did agreat job of getting rid of all
the plow furrows and one waydisc ridges and stuff in the
field.
But you still were left withthese bowl-shaped areas and then
(11:42):
when you got all done landleveling, then you had to cut a
ditch to that spot so it didn'thold water.
But you got rid of all theseminor imperfections that were
over.
You know, call it the 80-foot,60-foot patterns, 40-foot
patterns of the one-way discsand the plows and some other
minor infections that way.
Other part of it is is you hadno control over how much dirt
(12:05):
came off of some of the morepronounced ridges and stuff like
that.
So you may have taken areasthat had six inches of topsoil
or three inches of topsoil andtaken an inch or two off of
those areas and some of the lowareas you maybe have filled in
more and all of a sudden youwent from six inches and ended
up with eight inches down there.
So that was some stuff thathappened there In the surface
(12:27):
shaping portion on the Red RiverValley stuff.
If we'll example one, we wouldbe taking that soil and in the
planning and design portionyou're going to tell us I don't
want to move more than twoinches of soil at any spot in my
field.
Perfect, we're not going toremove anything more than two
inches.
So that's part of the designprocess.
(12:49):
So then we might have a holeover here that's a foot deep, or
this bowl shaped area that weneed to put a foot of fill on
this side.
But we're not going to changethe output side.
The output side is going to stayat the same elevation.
But we might put a foot of fillover, you know, 300, 400 feet
(13:10):
away to get that grade to comethe right direction, to get you
to an 05 grade or whatnot.
But the idea of it is is thatin the designing process we
never cut a foot off of thathilltop to put a foot of fill in
here.
We grabbed a whole bunch ofsoil from all over here to fill
in this little area that needs afoot of fill to give it
directionality.
So that's the big differencebetween the surface shaping and
(13:33):
the old land leveling process isthat the design.
We have that ability to controlwhat we're getting from where.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
And just to kind of help maybe frame up what I think
I heard you just say again thatland leveling.
The whole concept was just tolevel it.
It doesn't necessarily givewater a direction where it
should go once it hits the soilsurface.
So ponding was still very, verypossible.
As a matter of fact, some ofthe guys that I heard talk about
(14:05):
that did land leveling tofields.
They talked about how it wouldalmost turn into like mush when
it would rain, because, again,that water just kind of sat,
whereas the surface shaping thatwe're talking about and that
I'm hearing you describe shapingthat we're talking about and
that I'm hearing you describeit's really helping us give
overall directionality to waterwhen it falls on the surface.
(14:27):
So whether we're improvingditches or whether we are
filling in low spots, the wholeconcept is that when that water
droplet hits the surface it hasa way to escape off the field,
if that's our desire Exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yesterday, Kelly, we talked a little bit about this
and I really like the way thatyou put this, and there's many
uses to surface shaping, notjust looking at it from a way of
managing the shape of a fieldto manage water.
There's a lot of other thingstoo and it's a good use for it,
but it's almost like we're doingadvanced drainage.
(15:05):
We now have the keys to a wayto more precise or more advanced
ways of shaping our fields tomeet the demands of our water
management plans.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
And that was an excellent term.
Advanced water management isreally.
It's a great term there, jody.
That really does drive homewhat we're doing.
And with that being said, Imentioned that there's kind of
four in my mind.
Again, we're at the point rightnow where things are functioning
(15:38):
and we're trying to get intothe kind of the the marketing
side of things a little.
You know, getting closer to themarketing side of things, and I
kind of see it in fourdifferent, four different
concepts at Red River Valley,you know, cut a little dirt from
here, fill in the spot here,and then there's truly, truly
the, the more, the land levelingconcept, the laser leveling, if
you will, that you get intowith the guys when you move out
(15:59):
west and get into guys doinglike furrow irrigation and
things like that, where we'rejust going to put a grade from
one end of the field to theother so we can open up this,
ditch this canal and dump waterin there, and it's going to go
uniformly down the field at aspecific rate.
And again, at that point you'renot worried about how much I
removed from this hill, how muchI filled here.
(16:19):
It's just a matter of we'regoing to make it like this, no
matter what.
And then the third option wouldbe more would be more the
terrace shaping or rice paddybuilding type stuff where you're
going to potentially, you know,put stuff and drop stuff and
put stuff and drop stuff onto toterrace type things.
(16:42):
And the final option would befinal option that I would see
would be more the the buildingpad, the building pad type type
designing where you're going tocome in and and and you know,
maybe put in a new, you know bebuilding new cattle, bunkers or
things along those lines,building a design to say we're
going to come here and we'regoing to put a pit over here and
(17:03):
we're going to, you know, putthis up and dike over here, and
getting more into theconstruction phase of things.
And again, at the end of theday, at the end of the day, all
of these things that I'm talkingabout, all these things that
I'm talking about, come with acertain level of complexity to
them from the standpoint ofwe're really kind of wandering
(17:25):
into the concept of constructionmanagement.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah, you know, I think that's so interesting when
you know, really, thebackground of GK technology has
its foundations in agronomy,right.
And yet here we are and we'restarting to think about
construction, and there's somany places where this could be.
I know I worked with a farmeronce upon a time who was doing
(17:51):
just what you were talking about.
He was setting up a feed lotfor cattle and he needed to like
be filling places in and makingbetter ditches in certain
places, and those kinds ofthings.
This would have been theperfect tool to be using for
that.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
And, with that being said, though, so if you go hire
a construction firm to do this,what's really important is that
they know that we're not justgoing to go out there with a
dozer and make this shape.
They're not just going to goand say, boom, boom, here, we
filled that hole, we put thisover there, we're done.
(18:30):
They're going to oh, that holethat's going to be filled right
there, we're going to peel backthe black dirt there, get it
down to clay, push in some newclay level that out, put some
black dirt back over the top ofit.
This is one of the conceptswith the soils that we have here
.
You take yourself down to.
(18:50):
You take yourself down to someof the things we've all seen on
the internet, watching these big, big tractors pulling two
scrapers and moving dirt.
You know they got six tractorsout there.
You know they run 12 scraperson six tractors and, anyways, we
watch these systems and whatthey're moving soil around on.
These guys are farming, and I'mnot saying 100%, but a lot of
(19:10):
these guys are farming,basically, in the sand.
You know they're not hittingthe, you know their A horizons
and B horizons and you knowtillable soils and stuff like
that.
Again we start doing that inthe soils.
Here in the Red River Valley weknow what happens when you hit
(19:31):
the blue clay layers, when yougo from your nice black, rich
topsoil and you start gettingdown into that, that bee horizon
, and all of a sudden it's likethat stuff.
If you have to plant and putcrop into it, you'll get a crop
to pop up.
But you know you're going to be200 bushel corn over here and
50 bushel corn over here and atthe end of the day you guys hit
(19:53):
it on the head.
At the end of the day, we're anagronomy company.
Where we're under, we're tryingto approach this with good
agronomic knowledge and goodagronomic experience going, hey,
we don't want to rip six inchesof topsoil off of your Red
River Valley fields from thestandpoint of if we do, we're
going to start getting down intothat clay.
(20:14):
We want to be cognizant of howfragile that ecosystem is, that
topsoil is that we're workingwith, and make sure that we're
not getting you into scenarioslike that.
And again, for any of you guysthat have been out ditching, any
of you guys that have been outworking on stuff, you've pulled
up some blue clay and evendumped some into a dirt pile and
noticed the yield differenceseven where you dump some of that
(20:35):
stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yep, even where you dump some of that stuff?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yep, this is a perfect segue to what I want to
ask, kelly, because, thinkingback to GK as an agronomy
company and also thinking aboutconstruction, I mean we're kind
of playing in a really specialarea, because I think, you know,
farmers want to do these thingswith more precision, right, to
get better at reclaiminghilltops or building sites for
(21:04):
their farm or doing these thingsthat they know require more
precision.
But there just is no way thatfarmers are going to fork out,
for the most part, the moneythat is required to get this
construction equipment, and itdoesn't make sense, right, like,
to invest in that expensive ofequipment for something that
you're going to use, you know,one time it just doesn't pay for
(21:24):
itself.
Um, but we're on the agronomicside, right, and so this gives
you this higher level of controlwhile also having that
agronomic consideration.
Like I, it's a reallyinteresting and, I think, really
cool place to be in.
But my question of what Iwanted to ask too is, speaking
of like construction and whatwe're doing here and what
(21:47):
concepts we're using, can youtalk more about cutting and
filling and you know how we takeinto consideration these
agronomic pieces too, to makesure that we're not cutting too
deep and that we're doing a goodjob and getting to the map that
we want to get to.
We're getting to the finalproduct.
We're getting to.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Very good, very good question there, jodi, about the
cut fill.
The cut fill part of this getsto be a thing that again,
looking at and this doesn'tnecessarily have to be a valley
field, this can be rolling hills, this can be anywhere in the
country but you start gettingbowl-shaped areas of fields and
I want people to think about it.
Just think about a bowl or evena plate on a table.
(22:30):
Now if you were to just takethat plate and tip it a little
bit, does water drain out of it?
No, it doesn't.
It still has a little bit.
You know, if we just took thatshape and tipped it, you're
still going to get a little bitof water ponding on the bottom
side of the bowl, if you will.
So the idea here gets to bethat we're going to take the
whole bottom of that bowl, fillit in.
(22:52):
But we don't just want to fillit in, we want to give it all
direction.
Hey, do we want the flatestareas in the field to be at a
(23:12):
0.03 grade, which a 0.03 gradewould be three-tenths of a foot
of drop on 1,000 feet, and theygo.
You know, I'd like to have alittle more grade than that.
Let's shoot for a 0.05.
So now that's a half a foot ofdrop, six inches of drop on
1,000 feet.
But when we get done with thedesign, when we get done with
(23:35):
building the project for them,these bowl-shaped areas now the
top side of them are going to beraised up and it's going to,
(23:57):
every foot of that field isgoing to have at least a 0.05
grade heading towards whateveroutlet or whatever ditch is
airstriped by, and then thatditch will take it to here and
here and here and leave thefield.
In that process, though, we'retaking and building a plan.
We're building a plan that'sgoing to say that in these areas
, when we get all said and donewith it, we've got the original
elevation, we got the, theshaped elevation, and we're
(24:18):
going to make a difference map.
That difference map is going tobe the map that you're going to
watch in the, in the field, andyou're going to see these green
areas saying everything here ison grade and everything here
does not to be, does not need tobe touched by a scraper.
Now, the areas that are in thered are hilltops or hill-shaped
(24:41):
areas that we're going to beremoving soil from, and the
areas that are in blue are thewater holding areas that we're
going to be filling back in.
So you'll be grabbing soil fromthe red areas and going to the
blue areas.
When you get done cutting hill,the map will turn green you're
done there.
You're going to go over to here, where you're blue, dump the
soil and when you get thatloaded up to a elevation it'll
(25:03):
turn green and say, hey, you'redone filling over here.
So you're not just going to bedriving back and forth, back and
forth.
And in the construction world alot of that is what is happening
in the construction world rightnow is that they just drive
back and forth, back and forth,back and forth.
They're not really documentingcut or fill, they're just
getting to a grade.
But the point is is that youknow when they build the highway
, how many times does that dozerdrive over?
(25:26):
You know that square footProbably half dozen times foot,
probably half dozen times, maybea dozen times, that dozer will
drive over that same spot overand over and over again.
And from a farm agronomystandpoint, guys, the amount of
fuel you're going to use up, ifwe're going to use that theory
that you don't know if you'redone yet or not, we could burn a
lot of fuel and this is goingto be a labor-intensive,
(25:49):
fuel-intensive process.
But trying to limit that andsay, hey, you're done over in
this quadrant, go to this nextarea, go to this next area, go
to this next area.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Kelly, one of the things that I love about this
concept too, is when you makethis map, you've got your red
areas or your orange areas andyou've got your blue areas that
need.
You know, blue areas need toget filled in red and orange
(26:19):
needs to get cut.
And the whole concept is onceyou just like you said and I'm
repeating what you said and Iapologize for that, but your map
turns green once you'veaccomplished what you need to
accomplish out there and onceyou've got your plan so that
you've got that directionalitybuilt in, once you've filled in
those spots, the way they shouldbe filled in, or once you've
got the cuts made, where thosecuts need to be made, your map
turns green.
So often when we've had farmersdoing surface drainage out
(26:45):
there, they take it uponthemselves to go out to that
field and make sure that they'rethe ones who are doing the
surface drainage and cuttingthose ditches, because they
don't trust other people to knowwhere the water is supposed to
be flowing and how those cutsshould be made and how those
(27:05):
back slopes should be made.
But with this we're actuallygoing to have a plan that's in
place.
So, theoretically, if you havea somewhat of a half decent
equipment operator out there ifthey don't know where the water
goes, if they don't know whatyou know.
Oftentimes the way the farmerthinks about that drainage in
(27:26):
those ditches it's so personalto them that trying to trust
somebody else to make that cometo life is really hard.
So if we've got that built intoa plan and you've got an
equipment operator that can goout there and just focus on
driving back and forth makingsure that it's cutting where
it's supposed to cut and doingwhat the plan says, when you get
(27:47):
that map turned green, you'redone.
So essentially I think thiscould actually help quite a bit
with labor because we won't haveto have the technical training
for somebody out there to beoperating this who's been
farming that land for 30 yearsbefore they've got it figured
out where the water is supposedto go.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I think the word that was said yesterday is that you
pop in the tractor and you don'tstop until the map turns green
and that's it Like.
You get into gear and then youdon't have to touch the
hydraulic controls, you can turnaround, you don't have to lift
anything up, it just works itreally cool.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
And again, at the end of the day, you're going to try
to move that cut area to thenearest fill area and that's
really the only decision.
That's really the I shouldn'tsay the only but really the
major decisions that are goingto be made when you're in the
field is I need to move thatsoil into that red, needs to go
into a blue, and these two arenear to each other.
(28:49):
These two are near to eachother and and away you go and
anyways, it's, it really is.
It really is a game changer.
And and again, at the end of theday, for me, what really drove
this concept and what reallymade me think that this was was
something we needed was watchingsome of the people either doing
the land or doing the the thegrabbing the land planes and
(29:13):
running around out there, orpeople that just went out there
and did some laser grading ontheir fields and put one
elevation to another, and I canthink of a few fields around the
area that I watched this on andit just was so painful to watch
.
And again, they got all saidand done with it.
And the laser one, they gotdone with it and everything was
great and wonderful, but theyhad so much clay exposed and the
(29:34):
guy that went out with landshaping, he got all said and
done with it and then theywaited for the next rain and
said, oh, there's all the dotsof the spots that aren't
draining now.
Now we got to go ditching again.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
And.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
I mean that was kind of the premises that I watched
and I just said there's got tobe something better than this.
And again, it's the same stuffthat Darren saw, it's the same
things that the guys that TerryRust and Chris Morricourt and
Luke and all the guys out atRust Sales saw, and just going
(30:10):
there's got to.
We've got the tools.
And a reminder to everybody.
A reminder to everybody this issomething that requires a
design before you go to thefield, meaning that somebody has
to create that and for the mostpart, it's probably going to be
us.
You can buy our software and doit yourself, or you can work
with us.
Again, when I say work with us,it means we need input from you
(30:33):
.
Don't just walk in the door andtell us to build a plan.
Come in the door and say, hey,build a plan, but I'm here to
give you some input, becauseit's not our job to tell you
know, to say we want to fill in.
If we say we're going to fill inthis ditch and you're going to
be like you can't fill in thatditch, my dad put that ditch in
and it's going to be like, oh, Idon't care who put it in, it's
in a dumb place and there'splenty of those ditches and
(30:56):
things like that that havehappened in fields.
And I use this Shelley 8example in our training class
all the time, and let's call itwhat it is.
It's a disaster.
I mean, just with the layout ofthe drainage on that thing
(31:17):
there's some ditches that youjust look at it and go.
I don't know, those guys musthave been like reading Braille
or or I don't know, they musthave been totally blind because
they got water going in circlesand and, like I said, those are
the types of things that you gotto just work with.
We need the input to say whatparts of this do we want to fill
in, which parts of this do wewant to cut and get rough
designs, and from there we canmake magical things happen.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
And to that point, Kelly, when I was just talking
about having somebody that isn'tnecessarily the farmer, with
those ideas of how to makethings go actually in the
tractor, because the plan isthere, you have to have that
operator, that farmer, thatlandowner involved in that
planning process developing theland so you get the product that
(32:00):
you want out there At somepoint in time.
If you know where you want thatwater to go, if you know how
you want that land to be and act, you have to be involved in
that conversation at some point.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
So this is super exciting and I think this is a
really good place to stop ourfirst part of our conversation
today.
Surface Shaping is a reallyexciting product that we are
putting out, and again it comesback to what Sarah just said is
at GK, we're here to help youput your thoughts of what you
want to do in your field into adigitized form that you can then
(32:34):
go out and implement.
And this is just another stepof doing that, of giving you
tools that can take what youwant to do and actually get it
done in the field.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
And this is a really exciting thing Is that why at GK
Technology we say we have a mapand an app for that.
And now it's time for a Geek Speak with GK
Technologies, sarah and Jody,friends and I can't wait to get
in the fields again.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
No, I can't wait to get in the fields again.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Welcome back to A Geek Speak, and this week on our
A Geek Speak podcast, we havegot something really exciting to
talk about.
Gk Technology is currently inthe process of developing a new
product called Surface Shaping,and to help us understand that,
(00:54):
we have a guest who needs nointroduction, but we're going to
introduce him anyway becausehe's pretty darn awesome and
that is Mr Kelly Sharp, one ofthe owners of GK Technology, who
has been working a lot with thesurface shaping concept and
especially out in the field tohelp us make it kind of come
(01:15):
alive and honestly, Jodi and Iwere just out yesterday working
with Kelly a little bit aboutthis.
So, Kelly, can you just help usunderstand a little bit about
and I know we've done a podcastwith you in the past about who
you are and what yourexperiences are, but can you
help us remember who are you,Kelly?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I am Kelly Sharp.
I was born and raised in thewonderful city around Shelley,
minnesota, and have a farmsteadout that way still, have a
farmstead out that way still,and my background is have a
degree from the University ofMinnesota, crookston, in
agronomy, and have been with GKsince we started in 2000, in
(01:57):
2005, 2006.
And end result is I then workedin the mapping side.
I do everything, lessprogramming.
I leave Darren and Travis up tothe programming side of things.
But when it comes to the restof what happens in the company,
(02:17):
there isn't much that I don'ttackle as far as items.
So I get involved in newprojects and things like that,
the SD side of the business.
So of course GK does themapping side of things.
We do the software side ofthings for all the wonderful
mapping needs that you need foryour variable rate, for your
drainage needs.
But we also write the SD drain,ditching and tiling packages
(02:43):
for Rust sales.
In that front, in that endeavor, we're always trying to come up
with new ideas and the surfaceshaping component kind of came
into play.
So we write the software sideof it where Rust sales picks up,
the wiring, machine, control,gps side of it and of course,
(03:05):
doing the sales and marketing onthat.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Well, and to that point, you know, and kind of
going back just a little bit,talking about who you are, you
know I had the chance to workwith Kelly before I came to work
for GK Technology and now,honestly, I'm kind of one of his
dudes working right alongsideof him here at GK Technology on
the team and one of the thingsthat Kelly is so good at he's
(03:34):
been with this company so longhe's got a solid base of egg
technology.
You know, kelly, yourbackground with your dad who
used to do equipment.
You know really thinkingthrough different equipment and
how equipment should beengineered.
So he's got a solid base withequipment.
And then, of course, that solidbase of agronomy, that trifecta
(03:55):
.
There is something that'sextremely difficult to find in
this industry today.
And then, with his historyworking with our software, adms,
for all the, for all the years,he's really seen this software
from the ground up.
So all of these tools that havebeen added on over the years,
kelly's seen them all come intothe software and I know when I'm
(04:17):
trying to work and where I'mgoing with this whole thing is
that when I'm trying to workwith software and think about
things in a different way, we'vegot a suite of tools there, but
Kelly is pretty creative intrying to figure out like, okay,
these are the tools we've got,how do we think about using them
in new and different ways toaccomplish new and different
(04:39):
things?
Which is pretty neat, and Ithink sometimes that helps.
Maybe you know, when we'redealing with stuff like surface
shaping, you can take thoseconcepts of surface drainage,
the concepts of tile drainageand all of those things and
think about things in a brandnew way to bring to light some
(04:59):
ways that we can use old toolsthat are in the software but
also to be very imaginative inhow we're bringing about new
products.
But there you go, kelly.
Go with that where you want.
How about that?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I'm going to summarize what Sarah just said
into something really simple,and both Sarah and Jodi have
heard me say this before.
But it's how many ways can youuse a crescent wrench?
But it's how many ways can youuse a crescent wrench?
And really, I mean, at the endof the day, you've got a few
clicks in the software that dothis, and how many different
(05:32):
ways can we do it?
And again, the creativity ofthat.
I'll be honest, I'll be honestwith you, sarah, jody, a lot of
the stuff that we hear, a lot ofthe stuff that's coming back
and ideas that I have.
I have no problem handing itoff and saying, hey, I was
talking to Curt and Elaine downin South Dakota and they said
this and I thought this was areally great idea and I'll give
(05:53):
full credit to some of the ideasthat come at me that other
people have come up with too.
But I mean different ways ofdoing things has been the
creativity of, you know,hundreds of users spread across
the country and listening towhat they're doing too.
So I'd love to say I came upwith a lot of those ideas and I
(06:13):
did come up with a few of themalong the way, but again.
It's like that thing ofsometimes just watch what other
people are doing around you, andthis goes for life.
You might just learn somethingfrom your neighbor down the road
of what they're doing too.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So and and that's the thing too is, though, is like
not only have you gotten theseideas right, but you've also
implemented them.
That's, that's the differencebetween having the idea and
implementing them.
It's a different product thansd ditch and sd tile.
Just go into depth about whatsurface shaping is and help us
understand.
What are the differences hereand what can we do now?
(06:48):
Rust and stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
It goes back to the concept that we had years ago
that you build a plan for afield and you just go to work.
(07:11):
So if you're going to go outand do a ditch, if you're going
to go out and do tile, you builda plan, you build a design, you
build some concepts, but at theend of the day you're going to
go out and drive a survey, turnaround, and then you're going to
go out and drive a survey, turnaround, and then you're going
to install the tile, you'regoing to drive a survey and
you're going to cut a ditch.
So that location of that ditch,you can do some pre-planning
(07:31):
and stuff like that, but youstill have to survey it in the
field.
And the benefits of surveyingit in the field is you don't
need to worry so much aboutbenchmarks, exact perfections or
imperfections from the field tothe or from the office to the
field.
So so the but the benchmarkcomponent gets to be so
important if you're going to bedoing those those types of
(07:57):
things.
But again, with a ditch, withtile, with things like that,
when you set it up in the office, when they hit the field they
may be like oh you know, we wantto have it just a little bit
this way or a little bit thatway and you don't, you know,
trying to have the tools tochange that stuff on the fly in
the field are.
We're just going to call.
If you're going to the planportion of it, it's kind of
pertinent or impossible.
So the idea is that you know theguy in the tractor.
(08:18):
Just like planting, just likeanything else, the guy in the
tractor has to have some insight, some knowledge, some
understanding of what's tryingto happen here.
So when you're ditching andtiling, you need somebody that's
got a head on their shoulders,that's sitting in the tractor to
make sure that everything isgetting done correctly.
When you get into the surfaceshaping portion of things, we
take it to the next level, wherewe need some input from the
(08:42):
customer.
We need some input from thecustomer.
Basically, we're engineering,we're redesigning the field.
So we're going to fill in thisditch, we're going to change the
shape and layout of this field,we're going to move X amount of
dirt from here to here andwe'll get deeper into that in a
(09:03):
second.
But the base concept of it isis that all of a sudden you hit
the field where it's completelypre-planned.
You go to a benchmark, youtouch off on it, you put your
machine into a auto blade, ifyou will, or auto cutting, and
you drive until all the areasare cut, all the areas are
(09:24):
filled, and you go on to thenext field.
You don't need somebody insidethe tractor necessarily that has
a lot of understanding ofwhat's going on here other than
is the blade going up and downand are things responding, and
if all those, if those twocriteria are met, keep on
(09:46):
driving until this map is green.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
So there's, there's so much there that we could talk
about and I and, and we'll justlet this conversation roll, but
first I got to ask a question.
So you know, back in the day,years ago, there was this
concept of land leveling, and sowhen we start talking about,
you know, cutting ditches andfilling in low spots and all of
that, are we making this level?
(10:10):
Or help Kelly, help usunderstand what's the difference
between land shaping and landleveling?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Sure, and it's one of the huge parts that we want to
make sure we're really clear onupfront about this.
This is not land leveling.
The old theory of land levelingwas exactly that leveling the
land out.
You were going to go acrosswith this big, long blade that
was going to take all theselittle imperfections out of your
(10:37):
field, but it didn't reallyhave the concept of I want a
ditch here, I want this or,better yet, I want this area
that is maybe bowl-shaped tohave directionality.
Land shaping concept that we'regoing after here and I want to
kind of think about this in fourdifferent parts.
On the land shaping part, butjust the number one is we're
(11:01):
going to use kind of the RedRiver Valley to the land
leveling component that Sarahjust brought up there.
But using that concept of theland leveling in the Red River
Valley flat ground that hasundulations and ditches in it is
the simplest way I can put itis you know it's not like you
have 20, 30 feet of fallenfields, it's a lot of stuff
that's.
You know it's not like you have20, 30 feet of fallen fields,
it's a lot of stuff, that's youknow, three, four feet of fallen
(11:22):
, a whole quarter, and you'rejust trying to get these little
imperfections out.
But we have plenty of spotsthat are bowl shaped.
Well, the land leveling did agreat job of getting rid of all
the plow furrows and one waydisc ridges and stuff in the
field.
But you still were left withthese bowl-shaped areas and then
(11:42):
when you got all done landleveling, then you had to cut a
ditch to that spot so it didn'thold water.
But you got rid of all theseminor imperfections that were
over.
You know, call it the 80-foot,60-foot patterns, 40-foot
patterns of the one-way discsand the plows and some other
minor infections that way.
Other part of it is is you hadno control over how much dirt
(12:05):
came off of some of the morepronounced ridges and stuff like
that.
So you may have taken areasthat had six inches of topsoil
or three inches of topsoil andtaken an inch or two off of
those areas and some of the lowareas you maybe have filled in
more and all of a sudden youwent from six inches and ended
up with eight inches down there.
So that was some stuff thathappened there In the surface
(12:27):
shaping portion on the Red RiverValley stuff.
If we'll example one, we wouldbe taking that soil and in the
planning and design portionyou're going to tell us I don't
want to move more than twoinches of soil at any spot in my
field.
Perfect, we're not going toremove anything more than two
inches.
So that's part of the designprocess.
(12:49):
So then we might have a holeover here that's a foot deep, or
this bowl shaped area that weneed to put a foot of fill on
this side.
But we're not going to changethe output side.
The output side is going to stayat the same elevation.
But we might put a foot of fillover, you know, 300, 400 feet
(13:10):
away to get that grade to comethe right direction, to get you
to an 05 grade or whatnot.
But the idea of it is is thatin the designing process we
never cut a foot off of thathilltop to put a foot of fill in
here.
We grabbed a whole bunch ofsoil from all over here to fill
in this little area that needs afoot of fill to give it
directionality.
So that's the big differencebetween the surface shaping and
(13:33):
the old land leveling process isthat the design.
We have that ability to controlwhat we're getting from where.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
And just to kind of help maybe frame up what I think
I heard you just say again thatland leveling.
The whole concept was just tolevel it.
It doesn't necessarily givewater a direction where it
should go once it hits the soilsurface.
So ponding was still very, verypossible.
As a matter of fact, some ofthe guys that I heard talk about
(14:05):
that did land leveling tofields.
They talked about how it wouldalmost turn into like mush when
it would rain, because, again,that water just kind of sat,
whereas the surface shaping thatwe're talking about and that
I'm hearing you describe shapingthat we're talking about and
that I'm hearing you describeit's really helping us give
overall directionality to waterwhen it falls on the surface.
(14:27):
So whether we're improvingditches or whether we are
filling in low spots, the wholeconcept is that when that water
droplet hits the surface it hasa way to escape off the field,
if that's our desire Exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yesterday, Kelly, we talked a little bit about this
and I really like the way thatyou put this, and there's many
uses to surface shaping, notjust looking at it from a way of
managing the shape of a fieldto manage water.
There's a lot of other thingstoo and it's a good use for it,
but it's almost like we're doingadvanced drainage.
(15:05):
We now have the keys to a wayto more precise or more advanced
ways of shaping our fields tomeet the demands of our water
management plans.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
And that was an excellent term.
Advanced water management isreally.
It's a great term there, jody.
That really does drive homewhat we're doing.
And with that being said, Imentioned that there's kind of
four in my mind.
Again, we're at the point rightnow where things are functioning
(15:38):
and we're trying to get intothe kind of the the marketing
side of things a little.
You know, getting closer to themarketing side of things, and I
kind of see it in fourdifferent, four different
concepts at Red River Valley,you know, cut a little dirt from
here, fill in the spot here,and then there's truly, truly
the, the more, the land levelingconcept, the laser leveling, if
you will, that you get intowith the guys when you move out
(15:59):
west and get into guys doinglike furrow irrigation and
things like that, where we'rejust going to put a grade from
one end of the field to theother so we can open up this,
ditch this canal and dump waterin there, and it's going to go
uniformly down the field at aspecific rate.
And again, at that point you'renot worried about how much I
removed from this hill, how muchI filled here.
(16:19):
It's just a matter of we'regoing to make it like this, no
matter what.
And then the third option wouldbe more would be more the
terrace shaping or rice paddybuilding type stuff where you're
going to potentially, you know,put stuff and drop stuff and
put stuff and drop stuff onto toterrace type things.
(16:42):
And the final option would befinal option that I would see
would be more the the buildingpad, the building pad type type
designing where you're going tocome in and and and you know,
maybe put in a new, you know bebuilding new cattle, bunkers or
things along those lines,building a design to say we're
going to come here and we'regoing to put a pit over here and
(17:03):
we're going to, you know, putthis up and dike over here, and
getting more into theconstruction phase of things.
And again, at the end of theday, at the end of the day, all
of these things that I'm talkingabout, all these things that
I'm talking about, come with acertain level of complexity to
them from the standpoint ofwe're really kind of wandering
(17:25):
into the concept of constructionmanagement.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah, you know, I think that's so interesting when
you know, really, thebackground of GK technology has
its foundations in agronomy,right.
And yet here we are and we'restarting to think about
construction, and there's somany places where this could be.
I know I worked with a farmeronce upon a time who was doing
(17:51):
just what you were talking about.
He was setting up a feed lotfor cattle and he needed to like
be filling places in and makingbetter ditches in certain
places, and those kinds ofthings.
This would have been theperfect tool to be using for
that.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
And, with that being said, though, so if you go hire
a construction firm to do this,what's really important is that
they know that we're not justgoing to go out there with a
dozer and make this shape.
They're not just going to goand say, boom, boom, here, we
filled that hole, we put thisover there, we're done.
(18:30):
They're going to oh, that holethat's going to be filled right
there, we're going to peel backthe black dirt there, get it
down to clay, push in some newclay level that out, put some
black dirt back over the top ofit.
This is one of the conceptswith the soils that we have here
.
You take yourself down to.
(18:50):
You take yourself down to someof the things we've all seen on
the internet, watching these big, big tractors pulling two
scrapers and moving dirt.
You know they got six tractorsout there.
You know they run 12 scraperson six tractors and, anyways, we
watch these systems and whatthey're moving soil around on.
These guys are farming, and I'mnot saying 100%, but a lot of
(19:10):
these guys are farming,basically, in the sand.
You know they're not hittingthe, you know their A horizons
and B horizons and you knowtillable soils and stuff like
that.
Again we start doing that inthe soils.
Here in the Red River Valley weknow what happens when you hit
(19:31):
the blue clay layers, when yougo from your nice black, rich
topsoil and you start gettingdown into that, that bee horizon
, and all of a sudden it's likethat stuff.
If you have to plant and putcrop into it, you'll get a crop
to pop up.
But you know you're going to be200 bushel corn over here and
50 bushel corn over here and atthe end of the day you guys hit
(19:53):
it on the head.
At the end of the day, we're anagronomy company.
Where we're under, we're tryingto approach this with good
agronomic knowledge and goodagronomic experience going, hey,
we don't want to rip six inchesof topsoil off of your Red
River Valley fields from thestandpoint of if we do, we're
going to start getting down intothat clay.
(20:14):
We want to be cognizant of howfragile that ecosystem is, that
topsoil is that we're workingwith, and make sure that we're
not getting you into scenarioslike that.
And again, for any of you guysthat have been out ditching, any
of you guys that have been outworking on stuff, you've pulled
up some blue clay and evendumped some into a dirt pile and
noticed the yield differenceseven where you dump some of that
(20:35):
stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yep, even where you dump some of that stuff?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yep, this is a perfect segue to what I want to
ask, kelly, because, thinkingback to GK as an agronomy
company and also thinking aboutconstruction, I mean we're kind
of playing in a really specialarea, because I think, you know,
farmers want to do these thingswith more precision, right, to
get better at reclaiminghilltops or building sites for
(21:04):
their farm or doing these thingsthat they know require more
precision.
But there just is no way thatfarmers are going to fork out,
for the most part, the moneythat is required to get this
construction equipment, and itdoesn't make sense, right, like,
to invest in that expensive ofequipment for something that
you're going to use, you know,one time it just doesn't pay for
(21:24):
itself.
Um, but we're on the agronomicside, right, and so this gives
you this higher level of controlwhile also having that
agronomic consideration.
Like I, it's a reallyinteresting and, I think, really
cool place to be in.
But my question of what Iwanted to ask too is, speaking
of like construction and whatwe're doing here and what
(21:47):
concepts we're using, can youtalk more about cutting and
filling and you know how we takeinto consideration these
agronomic pieces too, to makesure that we're not cutting too
deep and that we're doing a goodjob and getting to the map that
we want to get to.
We're getting to the finalproduct.
We're getting to.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Very good, very good question there, jodi, about the
cut fill.
The cut fill part of this getsto be a thing that again,
looking at and this doesn'tnecessarily have to be a valley
field, this can be rolling hills, this can be anywhere in the
country but you start gettingbowl-shaped areas of fields and
I want people to think about it.
Just think about a bowl or evena plate on a table.
(22:30):
Now if you were to just takethat plate and tip it a little
bit, does water drain out of it?
No, it doesn't.
It still has a little bit.
You know, if we just took thatshape and tipped it, you're
still going to get a little bitof water ponding on the bottom
side of the bowl, if you will.
So the idea here gets to bethat we're going to take the
whole bottom of that bowl, fillit in.
(22:52):
But we don't just want to fillit in, we want to give it all
direction.
Hey, do we want the flatestareas in the field to be at a
(23:12):
0.03 grade, which a 0.03 gradewould be three-tenths of a foot
of drop on 1,000 feet, and theygo.
You know, I'd like to have alittle more grade than that.
Let's shoot for a 0.05.
So now that's a half a foot ofdrop, six inches of drop on
1,000 feet.
But when we get done with thedesign, when we get done with
(23:35):
building the project for them,these bowl-shaped areas now the
top side of them are going to beraised up and it's going to,
(23:57):
every foot of that field isgoing to have at least a 0.05
grade heading towards whateveroutlet or whatever ditch is
airstriped by, and then thatditch will take it to here and
here and here and leave thefield.
In that process, though, we'retaking and building a plan.
We're building a plan that'sgoing to say that in these areas
, when we get all said and donewith it, we've got the original
elevation, we got the, theshaped elevation, and we're
(24:18):
going to make a difference map.
That difference map is going tobe the map that you're going to
watch in the, in the field, andyou're going to see these green
areas saying everything here ison grade and everything here
does not to be, does not need tobe touched by a scraper.
Now, the areas that are in thered are hilltops or hill-shaped
(24:41):
areas that we're going to beremoving soil from, and the
areas that are in blue are thewater holding areas that we're
going to be filling back in.
So you'll be grabbing soil fromthe red areas and going to the
blue areas.
When you get done cutting hill,the map will turn green you're
done there.
You're going to go over to here, where you're blue, dump the
soil and when you get thatloaded up to a elevation it'll
(25:03):
turn green and say, hey, you'redone filling over here.
So you're not just going to bedriving back and forth, back and
forth.
And in the construction world alot of that is what is happening
in the construction world rightnow is that they just drive
back and forth, back and forth,back and forth.
They're not really documentingcut or fill, they're just
getting to a grade.
But the point is is that youknow when they build the highway
, how many times does that dozerdrive over?
(25:26):
You know that square footProbably half dozen times foot,
probably half dozen times, maybea dozen times, that dozer will
drive over that same spot overand over and over again.
And from a farm agronomystandpoint, guys, the amount of
fuel you're going to use up, ifwe're going to use that theory
that you don't know if you'redone yet or not, we could burn a
lot of fuel and this is goingto be a labor-intensive,
(25:49):
fuel-intensive process.
But trying to limit that andsay, hey, you're done over in
this quadrant, go to this nextarea, go to this next area, go
to this next area.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Kelly, one of the things that I love about this
concept too, is when you makethis map, you've got your red
areas or your orange areas andyou've got your blue areas that
need.
You know, blue areas need toget filled in red and orange
(26:19):
needs to get cut.
And the whole concept is onceyou just like you said and I'm
repeating what you said and Iapologize for that, but your map
turns green once you'veaccomplished what you need to
accomplish out there and onceyou've got your plan so that
you've got that directionalitybuilt in, once you've filled in
those spots, the way they shouldbe filled in, or once you've
got the cuts made, where thosecuts need to be made, your map
turns green.
So often when we've had farmersdoing surface drainage out
(26:45):
there, they take it uponthemselves to go out to that
field and make sure that they'rethe ones who are doing the
surface drainage and cuttingthose ditches, because they
don't trust other people to knowwhere the water is supposed to
be flowing and how those cutsshould be made and how those
(27:05):
back slopes should be made.
But with this we're actuallygoing to have a plan that's in
place.
So, theoretically, if you havea somewhat of a half decent
equipment operator out there ifthey don't know where the water
goes, if they don't know whatyou know.
Oftentimes the way the farmerthinks about that drainage in
(27:26):
those ditches it's so personalto them that trying to trust
somebody else to make that cometo life is really hard.
So if we've got that built intoa plan and you've got an
equipment operator that can goout there and just focus on
driving back and forth makingsure that it's cutting where
it's supposed to cut and doingwhat the plan says, when you get
(27:47):
that map turned green, you'redone.
So essentially I think thiscould actually help quite a bit
with labor because we won't haveto have the technical training
for somebody out there to beoperating this who's been
farming that land for 30 yearsbefore they've got it figured
out where the water is supposedto go.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I think the word that was said yesterday is that you
pop in the tractor and you don'tstop until the map turns green
and that's it Like.
You get into gear and then youdon't have to touch the
hydraulic controls, you can turnaround, you don't have to lift
anything up, it just works itreally cool.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
And again, at the end of the day, you're going to try
to move that cut area to thenearest fill area and that's
really the only decision.
That's really the I shouldn'tsay the only but really the
major decisions that are goingto be made when you're in the
field is I need to move thatsoil into that red, needs to go
into a blue, and these two arenear to each other.
(28:49):
These two are near to eachother and and away you go and
anyways, it's, it really is.
It really is a game changer.
And and again, at the end of theday, for me, what really drove
this concept and what reallymade me think that this was was
something we needed was watchingsome of the people either doing
the land or doing the the thegrabbing the land planes and
(29:13):
running around out there, orpeople that just went out there
and did some laser grading ontheir fields and put one
elevation to another, and I canthink of a few fields around the
area that I watched this on andit just was so painful to watch
.
And again, they got all saidand done with it.
And the laser one, they gotdone with it and everything was
great and wonderful, but theyhad so much clay exposed and the
(29:34):
guy that went out with landshaping, he got all said and
done with it and then theywaited for the next rain and
said, oh, there's all the dotsof the spots that aren't
draining now.
Now we got to go ditching again.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
And.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
I mean that was kind of the premises that I watched
and I just said there's got tobe something better than this.
And again, it's the same stuffthat Darren saw, it's the same
things that the guys that TerryRust and Chris Morricourt and
Luke and all the guys out atRust Sales saw, and just going
(30:10):
there's got to.
We've got the tools.
And a reminder to everybody.
A reminder to everybody this issomething that requires a
design before you go to thefield, meaning that somebody has
to create that and for the mostpart, it's probably going to be
us.
You can buy our software and doit yourself, or you can work
with us.
Again, when I say work with us,it means we need input from you
(30:33):
.
Don't just walk in the door andtell us to build a plan.
Come in the door and say, hey,build a plan, but I'm here to
give you some input, becauseit's not our job to tell you
know, to say we want to fill in.
If we say we're going to fill inthis ditch and you're going to
be like you can't fill in thatditch, my dad put that ditch in
and it's going to be like, oh, Idon't care who put it in, it's
in a dumb place and there'splenty of those ditches and
(30:56):
things like that that havehappened in fields.
And I use this Shelley 8example in our training class
all the time, and let's call itwhat it is.
It's a disaster.
I mean, just with the layout ofthe drainage on that thing
(31:17):
there's some ditches that youjust look at it and go.
I don't know, those guys musthave been like reading Braille
or or I don't know, they musthave been totally blind because
they got water going in circlesand and, like I said, those are
the types of things that you gotto just work with.
We need the input to say whatparts of this do we want to fill
in, which parts of this do wewant to cut and get rough
designs, and from there we canmake magical things happen.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
And to that point, Kelly, when I was just talking
about having somebody that isn'tnecessarily the farmer, with
those ideas of how to makethings go actually in the
tractor, because the plan isthere, you have to have that
operator, that farmer, thatlandowner involved in that
planning process developing theland so you get the product that
(32:00):
you want out there At somepoint in time.
If you know where you want thatwater to go, if you know how
you want that land to be and act, you have to be involved in
that conversation at some point.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
So this is super exciting and I think this is a
really good place to stop ourfirst part of our conversation
today.
Surface Shaping is a reallyexciting product that we are
putting out, and again it comesback to what Sarah just said is
at GK, we're here to help youput your thoughts of what you
want to do in your field into adigitized form that you can then
(32:34):
go out and implement.
And this is just another stepof doing that, of giving you
tools that can take what youwant to do and actually get it
done in the field.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
And this is a really exciting thing Is that why at GK
Technology we say we have a mapand an app for that.
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