October 22, 2025 • 34 mins
Catch the first part of this episode here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2297340/episodes/17664422
In part two of introducing Surface Shaping, Kelly walks us through how to turn a watershed map into a buildable surface shaping plan that automatically controls a scraper. Kelly also shares the ADMS tools, soil insights, controller details, and timing tips that make smarter water movement practical and profitable.
• farmer input on outlets, trouble spots, directionality will be important
• ADMS Surface Shaping tools: build wall, cut‑fill hills, morph
• logistics of dirt sourcing and yardage
• fill percentage to counter soil settling and swell
• Surface Shaping controller needs a prescription map to run
• SD Surface release timing and ditching toggle
• RTK, slope sensors, hardware compatibility
• prep early for support and uptime
• water management ROI across acres
Good water management pays!
*At the time of recording this episode, the original plan was for release of SD Surface mid-September, but we are still doing some tests, so stay tuned for a later release!
https://gktechinc.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah (00:00):
And now it's time for a geek speak with GK Technologies,
Sarah and Jody.
Theme Music (00:13):
I just can't wait to get in on the fields again.
The life I love is red andpotato for my friend.
And I can't wait to get in thefields again.
No, I can't wait to get in thefields again.
Sarah (00:31):
Welcome back to A Geek Speak.
And we are in part two of ourconversation with the great
Kelly Sharp talking about GKTechnology's new product that's
going to be hitting the market,surface shaping.
It is a new concept.
We did have an episode one ofthis series, episode one and
(00:54):
episode two.
And in episode one, you know,we really talked about what is
surface shaping, where does ithave application, and and how
can we apply this into our dailyfarming life, construction
projects, all of those sorts ofthings.
So I'm going to encourage youto go back and check that out.
And today we're going to talk alittle bit about some of what's
(01:17):
going into actually makingsurface shaping a reality.
You know, we do need to thinkabout the digital data a little
bit different to accomplish oursurface or our surface shaping.
And within that, there is adefinite design component that
needs to be there.
And once we have that designcomponent, we need to execute
(01:38):
that in the field.
So that's what we're going totalk about a little bit about
today.
So let's let's think about thatdesign component.
So with surface shaping, one ofthe things that's new in ADMS
software is we've got a newbutton, a new surface shaping
button.
So, Kelly, can you help usunderstand a little bit about
(01:59):
why we have this new button?
What's going on in it?
This is so broad-based, and wecan ask more detailed questions
as we get into it.
But what what are we doing inthere to actually create the
design for a surface shapingmap?
Kelly Sharpe (02:14):
I have to lead off with you had me giggling a
little bit saying, oh, it's anew surface shaping button.
Uh it's that we've had in therefor about three years.
Um and uh to to be to be open,to be open with everybody about
that.
Um we opened up and and putthis button is sitting out there
(02:34):
for everybody to use demo tryat this point in time.
But the concept of it is it'sreally in there as more of a
it's a beta, it's a betaproduct.
It isn't quote unquote readyfor release.
There's there's bugs andfunctions that maybe don't work
exactly as planned.
It's getting really close to to100%.
And when I say really close, Imean really close.
(02:58):
Um, but uh but the end resultof it is, end result of it is,
is that the whole concept of itis again coming up with a plan.
Again, the process lookssomething like do the watershed
modeling on a field, see what'sgoing on, figure out what you
got going, what you got forwater holding areas, things like
that.
And again, I'm approaching thisfrom the surface drainage
(03:18):
standpoint where we're justgonna do some minor reshaping,
uh, get some grade, fill in someholes, and and do stuff like
that.
Again, in the previous episode,we talked about other things
you can do with feedlot designand building pad designs and
getting into uh getting intoterracing and other things like
that.
But again, this conversation, Iwant to focus in on what I see
(03:40):
the most popular thing is hereand in this region coming and
moving soil from a little bit ofa maybe a knoll or hillside and
filling in and giving some ofthese bowl-shaped areas some
directionality for the water.
But the end result is we got tostart with a point.
So the surface drainage partmakes here's your flow patterns,
here's the areas that areholding water, here's your
(04:02):
ponding areas.
Now, what we do with them.
And anyone who's used or seenany of our surface drainage
maps, again, the the bowl-shapedareas are really in your face.
Hey, there's there's you know,six tenths of a foot of water
being held back and held in thisarea.
The items that I want to makereally clear to everybody is
that uh um when when you've seenthe maps, sometimes you'll see
(04:23):
spots on the maps that I callthem freckles or just a bunch of
little minor depressions.
What those areas are a lot oftimes are parts of the field
that are really flat.
They don't have directionality.
Sarah (04:37):
Can I ask uh just a clarifying question here?
So you're talking, I mean, youmean you kind of made it sound
like the way that you'restarting is by making a surface
drainage map, right?
So that you get what we call inthat map the flow accumulation
lines and then the bowl-shapedareas, which in our maps are
called depressions, correct?
(04:58):
Okay, okay.
Just clarifying that, thatmakes a that makes a lot of good
sense.
So when you're looking at thatsurface shaping area, those
little freckle things thatyou're seeing in though, those
are actually part of thedepression layers that are in
there.
They're just those real minorones.
Kelly Sharpe (05:14):
And and when they get grouped together real close,
it probably means that you'vegot a part of a field that's
that's really pretty flat inmost scenarios.
Um, and result of it though isand the result of it though is
putting this back in front ofthe farmer or the landowner,
somebody who knows what's goingon there, and realistically
getting out a Sharpie marker andgoing, yeah, we want to drain
(05:35):
this this way, and we want todrain this this way, and we want
to fill these areas in overhere, and we want directionality
here.
You know, we get stuck with thecombine over here all the time.
You know, get that stuff putdown, and then we can get to the
designing.
On the designing side of it inthe software, then we can come
back and say, okay, we want tobuild this area up.
We want to stop the water fromleaving.
(05:58):
We're gonna fill this ditch,and then the water's not gonna
leave the field over hereanymore.
And and uh once we get allthose directionalities of that,
the the tools and the software,um, again, knowledge of
understanding how to use allthese tools, you you you say
there the di this ditch is gonnadisappear, we're gonna wall
this up, we're gonna do thisover here.
(06:20):
When you get all said and donewith it, all of a sudden that
oxbow that used to be in thefield isn't necessarily gone
100%.
I mean, it's not like you we'rewe're trying to take it back.
And again, if somebody wants totake it to the X extent and
that oxbow now is filled in withtwo feet of fill to make it go
back this way, great, you can dothat.
(06:41):
But realistically, from theagronomic standpoint, we just
want to get those things filledin enough that water's leaving
those areas.
You still might see some ofthat shape, but you're not gonna
be, you know, gouging with theheader when you drive through it
anymore.
Um, that it's gonna have theability to leave, leave the
water will leave the field andbe gone.
(07:03):
So so the end, but the endresult of what we're trying to
get after is to just simply makeit so all these issues that we
want to address are taken careof.
Again, the software tools andstuff like that.
Uh I mean, we've got tools thatwill do cut-fill hills.
It'll uh with a depressionsmap, and it'll basically take
(07:24):
these hills and remove X amountof dirt from the top of it, and
again, take an inch off the topof your hills and put six inches
of fill into your depressionsand give them directionality.
Uh a button that makes everypart of the field go to whatever
minimum grade you want to setit to.
And and again, all thesebuttons and tools and stuff that
(07:45):
have been developed for anyonewho's ever used our software.
I like to make the point tothem that we essentially have
roughly six major, major editingfunctions in the software right
now, and we've found probably athousand or maybe even a
thousand plus different thingswe can do with them uh in
(08:06):
combinations and and ways ofputting stuff together.
But now with these, we've addedanother, we've added another
eight to ten tools, and it it'sjust it's a whole lot of new
ideas and ways of of puttingthings together.
And and again, back to the theidea, new ways to use a crescent
wrench.
Sarah (08:25):
So you know, and in our last podcast, we kind of visited
this a little about thisconcept just a little bit as
well, but you know, you weretalking about that input portion
of it where you make thatsurface drainage map, and then
you actually sit down with afarmer and and uh given the
sharpie, you know, and draw likewhat what do you want going on
(08:48):
here?
So that I mean, really, when wetalk about doing this design
phase and and you've talkedabout the need for that input,
you know, a number of differenttimes, that that's probably the
place where we really gotta hitthat because you know, if we're
gonna if if the farmer is gonnabe working with a design expert
who can create the design in thedigital sense in ADMS software,
(09:12):
that you know, whether it's me,whether it's Jody, whether it's
you, Kelly, or anybody else onour team, we have to know what
that farmer wants.
And so that sitting down with aSharpie and actually figuring
out where stuff needs to go,where water needs to go across
that landscape, that's that's apretty important part, isn't it?
Kelly Sharpe (09:31):
Absolutely.
I I have yet to I have yet tofind the employee to to hire or
the person to go out there andthat has really, really good
telepathy skills.
Um the mind reading, uh, themind reading functions.
We ain't got them yet.
But uh again, we're trying todo that.
Sarah (09:48):
He did not hire me for that.
He did not hire me for thatskill at all.
Kelly Sharpe (09:54):
But but it's but it's a very it's a very true
thing, though.
I mean, you got you we've gotideas, we've got ideas of what
we want to do.
And if you don't vocalize whatthey are, it's really hard to
help you do them.
Jodi (10:06):
Let me ask you a question on this, Kelly, because I want
to be clear to you, like, say ifyou're somebody that's never
gotten a map to do with drainageor a watershed modeling map
from GK, I want to make surethat you know that if you
haven't done major work in thatfield, there's a good chance
that we've got LiDAR data thatwe can use to pull in and make
that map for you.
And so I want to make sure thatyou if you're someone looking
(10:28):
for a surface shaping map for inthis instance, you don't need
to bring us with like RTK dataor LIDAR data for your field.
There may be extenuatingcircumstances, but we'll help
you figure that out.
Sarah (10:39):
So to that point, I just have to say, if you have never
tried one of our surfacedrainage maps, I highly suggest
it.
Just beware because they arevery addictive for farmers.
You might get one, but thenbefore you know it, you're gonna
have your whole farm done.
Farmers love those.
I've I have actually worked outdeals with with prospect
customers where I'm like, I'llmake you a deal.
(11:00):
I'll make you a map for free.
If you don't use it, you canjust we'll just you know, we'll
go our separate ways, no bigdeal.
If you use it, you pay me forit.
I have yet to not be paid forone of those.
Jodi (11:11):
Right.
It's it's such a great startingpoint of really getting a feel
for the field, right?
And that's why Kelly mentionedthat as you know, that's where
we're gonna start.
We need to know how things workon that field in the first
place.
But what I want to ask you,Kelly, is as someone that's
coming or planning to come toyou to get a map made for this,
what are some things that weneed to communicate with you?
Um, like how do we what do youneed to know from us?
(11:34):
Like, what are you trying toextract from us and how can we
better communicate that to youso that we can get a better map
at the end?
Kelly Sharpe (11:40):
Sure, sure.
Uh obviously the the simplestone is I we need to know a field
location, uh, common name,tellable acres, uh, are all
things that are that that I wantfor basic starting information
at that point.
Uh at that point, then I'mgonna make the watershed, the
the surface watershed as itstands today.
You're gonna get a map back,and that's what Sarah was just
(12:01):
alluding to is making thesurface drainage maps as as they
show in the the the latest andgreatest LIDAR data.
And and then at that point,then we're gonna come back and
and have that conversation aboutnow, hey, where where do we
want to have outlets?
What what areas are your areasof concern?
You know, do we want do we wantthis water to run east or west,
(12:22):
this hole that's in betweenthese two ditches, do you want
it to go east or west?
Then it's just gonna get to bebe that portion of it.
And and if there's specificthings that you're like, no, I
want to get more water overhere, things like that, uh
again, uh the more informationthat we have, the more that we
can help you to achieve withwhat what you're trying to uh
trying to come up with.
(12:43):
Uh at the end of the day, umlike say just getting the field
in front of us uh is is the bigstarting point and getting that.
And after that, like say it'sreally just talking about
outlets and trouble spots andand what parts are we wanting to
are are we okay with filling inthis ditch?
Are we okay with getting this?
Are we okay with adding a ditchover here?
(13:04):
Uh, there may be, like I say,there may be solutions there
that uh that you don'tnecessarily uh necessarily see.
And the other last item to noteis there's a lot of ditches in
the in the Red River Valley thathave been put in that are just
too deep, and we're not going tofill them in completely, but we
may be raising the raising thebottoms of them up uh because
now they've been cut so low thatevery time the township ditch
(13:24):
gets water in it, it runs backout into the field.
There's water in the township,there's water in the field.
It's it's it and again, thoseare things that have happened
over time.
Sarah (13:34):
Awesome.
Thank you.
So okay, so now we've had thatconversation, we we've got an
idea of what we want to do withthe design.
What are some of the fun thingsin the in the new been around
for three years?
Shaping surface shaping buttonin in the software.
What what are some of thosetools that are new and unique to
(13:57):
the concept of surface shapingfrom from a mapping standpoint?
Kelly Sharpe (14:02):
From the mapping standpoint.
For those of you guys that arerunning ADMS and you jump in
there, oh there's a few of themthat are just really simple and
simple and cool.
Obviously, the build wall,there's a build wall tool for
anyone who's used it.
Um if you don't water wantwater going off of end of a
field or an edge of a field, andand and we want to make sure it
(14:22):
goes a specific way type ofthing.
You draw a line along and it'llput a wall on around the outer
wherever you drew outside thefield, it just puts an outer
wall on it to stopping waterfrom going a specific direction.
Again, for those of you guysthat don't use the software, it
doesn't make a lot of sense.
Uh, but from the next part isis the the cut fill hills tool.
(14:42):
Uh, it's really cool.
You see every depression, yousee every hill, and you can
click and say, put this hillinto here, put this hill into
here, but you also get to choosehow much cut you're gonna be
getting off of that.
So say you got a hill that isuh an acre, hypothetically.
One inch, if you said you wereable to do one inch of cut, it
(15:03):
would say over that one acrearea now.
I can do one inch of cut.
And it won't take any more thanthat.
It won't take it's gonna takethat one inch of cut, but it'll
tell you how many yards of dirtare on that to be moved now, and
you got a hole to fill overhere, and that hole could be you
know six inches, it could be afoot deep.
And it's gonna tell you, man,you need 300 yards of dirt to
(15:23):
fill this hole.
But this hill over here has 125yards, and this hill over here
has another 150 yards.
Well, if I put those two hillshere, I can fill that hole over
here.
So you get to have control ofwhere you're grabbing your dirt
from.
And and uh again, from thestandpoint of logistics, you
(15:43):
know, you don't want to go getdirt from a half mile away to go
fill fill this hole in.
You want to get that dirt fromas far or as nearby as we
possibly can.
Second item of note that goeswith that, so many of these
ditches that have been put inwere put in on the 40 rod
system.
So every 40 rods, we're gonnaput a straight line ditch
running north-south, runningeast-west.
And then because they weresitting in their cat or in their
(16:07):
versatile and you know, gearone, two driving at 1.3 miles an
hour and dumping the dirt 100feet away from the ditch and
turning and coming back in andcutting and 100 feet away from
the ditch.
You see it on the ditches allthe time that there's a ditch
that was put in, and thenthere's hills on each side of
the ditch.
(16:27):
And again, most common thingthat I see where we put these
ditches in and stuff, it wouldhave been great if that soil
would have been hauled overanother 500 feet and put in
between, and now we would havehad a mound running it down to
the ditch.
But uh again, you guys thathave built maps in the Red River
Valley have all seen this, uhseen this happen over and over
(16:48):
again.
So, but tools, some other toolsin there.
There's some other tools inthere that are just uh really,
really interesting.
With um there's a morph tool,and uh when you get towards the
end of the project, it gets ridof every little pixel up down,
and it gets rid of, if you will,what we call little dams in the
process, and it lets you get sothat the water has a way to uh
(17:11):
exit the field without havingany any dams on there.
And again, it's it's a minor,if you will, finishing tool, but
it's super cool because you runit and all of a sudden you're
trying to run it and get flowpatterns to run, and nothing's
working, nothing's working, yourun the morph tool, and all of a
sudden everything works.
And it's like super cool.
Sarah (17:29):
And that's it's just getting rid of like the micro
stuff in your design that'sthat's inhibiting the actual
water from going where it'ssupposed to go.
Almost like a smoothing tool ina in a sort of a way, except
that it's just putting together,literally morphing, if you
will, everything together in asmooth sort of a way.
Kelly Sharpe (17:47):
Exactly.
Exactly.
So that the the the there'sjust uh has some weird names to
some of the buttons, but the themorph tool is super uh is super
cool.
There's there's another fillpercentage uh um in and that
that fill percentage portion.
So you get a design built andit says that over in this spot
you need a foot of fill.
Well, anyone who's ever beenaround soil and and tried to
(18:10):
fill a hole, that you got thesoil settling component of it.
And and again, you can decidewhat ratio that is and what
methods you're using for doingyour filling methods.
Uh, but then you can say, oh, Iwant to give myself 20% extra
fill in that area.
Uh so when you get all yourplan done, you come back and run
the run that tool on it, andbasically it multiplies all your
(18:33):
values on the fill side, not onthe cut side, but on the fill
side, it adds it by 20%.
Sarah (18:41):
Okay, I want to talk about this again because I just
we were talking about thisyesterday when we were out in
the field, and I think this fillconcept for quote unquote
fluffy soil is just it is socool.
Okay, I'm not I'm not makingthis up, but okay, we all know
that soil is sand, silt, andclay, right?
And and they've got differentsize particles.
(19:03):
We all know that soil's gotdifferent aggregation, we all
know that we end up withdifferent pore space, different
amount of air in there atdifferent times, um, different
compaction levels.
And so really, this this fillconcept of allowing for a little
bit more fill is allowing forthat difference so that when you
get that settling going on, youdon't end up with a pond or a
(19:26):
depression where you were tryingto fill in a depression.
So you should be able to sortof like think that through,
right?
Kelly Sharpe (19:34):
For sure, for sure.
And and making the point, wouldwould a pile of you got a pile
of sand and you dig it up andyou set it back down and you dig
it up and you set it back down,your your fill compaction ratio
is maybe going to be 5%, maybe10%.
It will settle a little bit.
You know, you put a littlewater to it, you put a little
vibration to it and pack it downor pat tamp it down, it'll go
(19:55):
down a little bit.
But all of a sudden you take ayou take a heavy Fargo clay and
you go dig it up and disturb itand try to put it back into a
pile again.
And and again, depending on thecondition it's in.
Man, you you you dug up a footdeep of dirt, and now when you
try to stack it up again, yougot a foot and a half of dirt.
Sarah (20:13):
And and that is just so cool.
I don't care who you are.
That's awesome.
Kelly Sharpe (20:18):
But it gets really tricky from the standpoint of
what methodology are you movingyour dirt around by.
So if you're picking it up witha scraper and setting it back
down versus dragging it aroundwith a box blade, you know,
there's all kinds of differentcomponents here.
You know, if you're dragging itaround with a scraper, maybe
you want to have a 50% fillbecause you got these pore
(20:39):
spaces, big pore spaces inbetween there, and they aren't
really getting compacted.
And and uh um uh again, there'sjust all kinds of stuff here.
And I'm gonna tell you flat outat the end of the day, do I
have an answer for what thatright number is for you know any
one of those scenarios?
No, I do not.
I don't know exactly what thatright number is uh for what that
(21:02):
fill ratio percentage is goingto be when you get to that
point.
But uh but it's gonna be it'sgonna be a learning, it's gonna
be a little bit of a learningthing because that same Fargo
clay in a dry condition versus awet condition could be totally
different, uh totally differentvalues.
Jodi (21:18):
Yeah, and every field has a different, like you know, just
bulk density in the firstplace, right?
Yeah and then if you're usingdifferent equipment, that's
gonna change how that soil worksup and how that moves and how
much space it takes up and howit settles.
And like we were mentioningyesterday, too, right?
Before and after a rain.
If it's a Fargo clay and you'vegot clumps, um, it's gonna have
(21:39):
a different way that it's gonnawant to settle.
But if it rains, those clumpslook a lot different and you
have a much different volume ofthe soil than before it was
clumps.
So yeah, it's gonna takeexperimenting, but it this gives
you the control to actuallycalculate for that and save you
some time, hopefully, of havingto go back and put more fill
material where um things settledout over time when we were
(22:02):
filling stuff in the field.
Kelly (22:03):
Yeah.
Kelly Sharpe (22:04):
And I I realistically, I mean, I've even
seen this on ditches that wecut that are oh five, less than
05 grades, but uh where you comeacross a headland where that
bulk density is is increasedbecause of traffic patterns and
stuff like that.
Uh, but but uh then we havethese wonderful, you know,
Slingswell clays that we have inthe in the around this area,
(22:25):
and and all of a sudden you cutthis beautiful ditch when it was
nice and dry out there, andthen all of a sudden, all of a
sudden you get just a little bitof rain on it.
And why is that that ditch thatwas was working beautifully?
I got that first little bit ofrain that ran off beautifully,
and the next rain came throughand it's not flowing anymore.
And that soil swelled more onthe headland than it did out in
(22:50):
the field.
So it's it's making a it'smaking a dam at the end of the
ditch.
And you see it, you see it allthe time, and people come back
and say, well, you know, itlooked good the first day after
that first rain, but now now ituh you know it seems like it
seems like, you know, didsomething blow in there?
Did you know what happened?
And it's and that's exactlywhat happened.
(23:10):
And and again, it's not thatit's put a foot down at the end
of the ditch, but it swelledjust another half inch more.
Jodi (23:19):
Ah, smectitic clays, engineer's worst nightmares
since ever.
Ever.
And and just to comment quickon like these buttons and like
what they do for anybody that iscurious of like wanting to use
these buttons in ADMS right now.
Um I'll just say it wasenlightening me or it's like
(23:39):
enlightening for me to rememberthat you know when we're working
with like LiDAR data in ADMSand using these buttons to
modify things, you know, we'rewe're what we're trying to do is
we're trying to modify pixels.
And those pixels are a datapoint or a number, right?
So like these buttons help uschange the numbers across the
field in order to achieve whatwe want.
So I don't know.
(24:00):
I just like to remember like toremind people that what we're
doing is we're modifying thosenumbers.
And I don't know, for me thathelps me simplify, you know, and
it looks like there's a lot ofbuttons.
Just remember for just doingsome math here and and making
changes, yeah.
Kelly Sharpe (24:16):
Which probably isn't even simpler either, but
and more importantly, and moreimportantly, Jody, is remember,
remember for all you ADMS users,jump online and check out the
online videos.
Um, this all these surfacebuttons and stuff are well very,
very well documented in boththe user manual and also on the
on the uh um ADMS online uhwebsite too.
Jodi (24:35):
So you know that's that is the nice thing about um it
having been quote unquote outfor three years.
Um and and my I guess myquestion now is you know, the
component you mentioned beforein the first episode that to get
these things done, we need tohave you know the equipment and
(24:55):
the controller to control themachine, but then we also need
to have that map in thebackground.
And so we have the softwareavailable to do it, we can make
these maps.
Um can you tell us a little bitmore about when we might be
able to, or like when we shouldbe looking for this controller
from Rust sales?
And then, you know, is there anofficial name for the
(25:18):
controller?
And then when we might be ableto get these in our tractors at
home.
Kelly Sharpe (25:24):
For sure.
Uh a couple of a couple itemsgo along with that, first and
foremost.
Uh um, before we even jump intothe dates, remember the system
for it to work.
You go by by the system andyay, look, I bought some some
hardware.
The hardware really just makesthe machine go up and down.
We need the map to make itdrive.
So if you're looking at doingthis, this mapping component
(25:46):
that we're talking about is theessential component to make it
do what it needs to do.
Um, the the controller thatwe're talking about and that
we're going to be finishing upwith here, the controller part
doesn't make the maps.
It receives the map.
It's no different than theverberate controller uh for your
planting and seeding andfertilizing.
(26:07):
Those controllers don'tmagically make a verborate map
for you.
You need to supply them withdata.
So this is much more along thatconcept where the ditching and
tiling stuff people have boughtin the past, they go out in the
field, drive it, survey it, andcut a ditch.
Doesn't do any of that stuff.
The controller is going to needa plan to go in the background.
Sarah (26:28):
And you just kind of said this, okay.
But, you know, with with peoplewho have done drainage in the
past, you go out and you don'tneed to have a map in the back.
People who have, you know,purchased surface drainage maps
from us have enjoyed thatproduct as a background map, but
they haven't necessarily neededthat in order to do drainage.
But you will not be able to doto do surface shaping without a
(26:53):
map.
It will have to have a mapbecause that is essentially what
is controlling the equipment.
Kelly Sharpe (27:01):
Yep.
And it's exactly like yourvariable rate controllers from
that standpoint.
Again, they don't make thevariable rate maps for you.
They just read what you givethem for data.
So I mean it's a good parallelthere that, hey, look, I got a
variable rate controller.
But it doesn't variable rate.
Sarah (27:18):
But the only thing that's it that's different with a
variable rate controller is alot of times you can actually
make that a flat rate.
You can just shut off thevariable rate, and then you're
doing flat rate, right?
There is no way to do a flatrate with this.
There's no way to operate thiswithout a map.
Kelly Sharpe (27:32):
Well, tech technically, technically,
technically, you could go inthere and just set it to a flat
grade and go drive and cut on aflat grade.
Jodi (27:40):
You could just use the hydraulics with the box scraper,
but yeah.
Sarah (27:43):
Oh, but then you're doing land, but then you're doing um
um land leveling, right?
Yeah.
Kelly Sharpe (27:50):
Not uh it's nothing exciting.
Yeah, yeah.
It's not it's not doing it'snot doing, I mean, we're not
doing land shaping, if you will.
So I mean it would have somereally basic again, you could do
that, but it's really, reallyuh again, you're not you're not
uh again, you're back to justcontrolling uh make making a
flat grade, or you're setting itto a whatever.
(28:13):
So again, you could do youcould you could do that if that
was all you wanted to do.
You can you can do that part ofit.
But make the point if you wantto do what we're really speaking
about here, you need the youneed the maps to make it drive.
Second item that we weregetting into though, we need the
maps to make it drive.
Once you've got that, um, we'relooking at uh we're looking at
releasing the product is goingto be called SD Surface.
(28:37):
And um right now our plan iswe're hoping to have it released
somewhere around uh uhmid-September around the big
iron uh big iron time.
Rust Sales has uh has a a boothin the in out at uh out at Big
Iron, and uh we're hoping hopingto be releasing around Big Iron
time.
Uh the end result of it is isthat uh it's going to be for
(29:02):
those those people.
I I don't know anything onpricing, I don't know anything
on those components right now.
Um but basically if you arerunning SD SD Ditch, um it's
going to be basically anupgrade, uh, an upgrade for for
SD Ditch.
SD tile or SD surface has SDSurface has a ditch module built
(29:25):
into it.
So you can toggle betweensurface shaping and then turn
off surface shaping and go backand just do regular ditching
functions also.
Sarah (29:35):
That that's very cool.
And you know, you mentionedthat we don't have pricing
available, but I just want toremind our entire audience out
there that good water managementin a field doesn't cost, it
pays.
Kelly Sharpe (29:46):
Amen.
Sarah (29:48):
It's okay.
Kelly Sharpe (29:49):
It does, though.
Sarah (29:51):
I mean, it does.
And every farmer that's outthere listening to this right
now is laughing.
It's funny because it's true.
Kelly Sharpe (29:59):
Yeah, it's It's it's uh at the end of the day
when you start looking at thenumbers of what lost, lost, you
know, revenue gains and stufflike that, it pays for itself
time and time and time again.
It's the it's the gift thatkeeps on giving.
Sarah (30:13):
Amen.
Kelly Sharpe (30:15):
So so um and last uh last items, last items uh for
for you guys on this.
The parts on when you hit it,hit the field, all of this stuff
is is is RTK based, um, soldthrough Rust sales.
The parts and components thatyou're gonna be needing on
there, you'll be needing an RTKsystem.
You can use their RTKs, you canbuy their RTKs, you can use
(30:37):
your existing RTK systems.
Um, the the hardware and stuffthat's inside the cab.
Um we can use slope sensors uhif you want to control your
blade left to right, if you'vegot the ability to do that on
your equipment.
Uh, there's some hardwarecomponents there.
Um we talked to pretty muchmost of the modern tractors.
Uh, you may have to add in someexternal valves.
(31:00):
The guys out at Rust are gonnatell you what you need and don't
need for that side of it.
Uh, but realistically, thispretty much is gonna tie into
any scraper, any any any bladeuh type systems and and do
everything that you want to do.
Sarah (31:17):
So and I do think it's important to give a big shout
out to Rust Sales.
You know, we want to talk aboutlike what customer uh service
is.
Holy buckets, those guys do agreat job of taking care of
customers all over the place.
And so if you if you reallywant help getting this thing set
up, getting it to work right,highly suggest you know, giving
(31:41):
them a shout because theythey're they're super awesome to
work with.
Kelly Sharpe (31:46):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And a reminder to everybody outthere too, and I'm I'm gonna
say this, I don't care if you'retalking about a planter, a
fertilizer applicator, or ascraper setup, but if you try to
get a hold of John Deere incase in the middle of the,
you're sitting at the end of thefield, you know, the odds of
getting that technician out toyour field today on, you know,
May 1st when you're trying toget your planter going, you're
(32:09):
probably gonna have to wait alittle bit to get a hold of
somebody or get somebody outthere.
Uh so when you're getting yourscrapers and stuff ready here,
when you're getting equipmentready to go to the field, if you
wait till, if you wait tillAugust 15th, August 20th, you're
probably gonna be waiting alittle while to get somebody.
So I mean, right now is areally good time.
Reminder to everybody, July,you know, is a really good time
(32:30):
to go through that stuff, checkout all your hardware, check
stuff out, make sure it's alltalking.
It it really is.
I mean, you may hook up to itand unhook from it, but just
make sure your stuff is all upto date.
Um, if you wait till you'resitting at the end of the field,
again, everybody's support getsa little tough to have somebody
out there when everybody waitstill August 20th to go to the
(32:53):
field.
Jodi (32:54):
That's a great reminder, Kelly.
And again, thank you so muchfor your time today sharing with
us the new tool in SurfaceShaping.
And no, we are really we arereally looking forward to this
um as a company, and we thinkthat this will really fit with
what our customers are lookingfor and what they need.
(33:15):
And so as you move forward withthis, reach out.
Um, for those of you that wantto use this as a software
package and makes maps for folksfor when you know the
controller is out later thisyear, give us a call.
Uh, we're happy to chat aboutit and continue to help digitize
what you want done in yourfields and get it done.
So, again, thanks for listeningtoday, everybody.
(33:37):
And remember with GKTechnology, we have a map and an
app for that.
Theme Music (33:43):
No, I can't wait to get in the fields again.
And now it's time for a geek speak with GK Technologies,
Sarah and Jody.
Theme Music (00:13):
I just can't wait to get in on the fields again.
The life I love is red andpotato for my friend.
And I can't wait to get in thefields again.
No, I can't wait to get in thefields again.
Sarah (00:31):
Welcome back to A Geek Speak.
And we are in part two of ourconversation with the great
Kelly Sharp talking about GKTechnology's new product that's
going to be hitting the market,surface shaping.
It is a new concept.
We did have an episode one ofthis series, episode one and
(00:54):
episode two.
And in episode one, you know,we really talked about what is
surface shaping, where does ithave application, and and how
can we apply this into our dailyfarming life, construction
projects, all of those sorts ofthings.
So I'm going to encourage youto go back and check that out.
And today we're going to talk alittle bit about some of what's
(01:17):
going into actually makingsurface shaping a reality.
You know, we do need to thinkabout the digital data a little
bit different to accomplish oursurface or our surface shaping.
And within that, there is adefinite design component that
needs to be there.
And once we have that designcomponent, we need to execute
(01:38):
that in the field.
So that's what we're going totalk about a little bit about
today.
So let's let's think about thatdesign component.
So with surface shaping, one ofthe things that's new in ADMS
software is we've got a newbutton, a new surface shaping
button.
So, Kelly, can you help usunderstand a little bit about
(01:59):
why we have this new button?
What's going on in it?
This is so broad-based, and wecan ask more detailed questions
as we get into it.
But what what are we doing inthere to actually create the
design for a surface shapingmap?
Kelly Sharpe (02:14):
I have to lead off with you had me giggling a
little bit saying, oh, it's anew surface shaping button.
Uh it's that we've had in therefor about three years.
Um and uh to to be to be open,to be open with everybody about
that.
Um we opened up and and putthis button is sitting out there
(02:34):
for everybody to use demo tryat this point in time.
But the concept of it is it'sreally in there as more of a
it's a beta, it's a betaproduct.
It isn't quote unquote readyfor release.
There's there's bugs andfunctions that maybe don't work
exactly as planned.
It's getting really close to to100%.
And when I say really close, Imean really close.
(02:58):
Um, but uh but the end resultof it is, end result of it is,
is that the whole concept of itis again coming up with a plan.
Again, the process lookssomething like do the watershed
modeling on a field, see what'sgoing on, figure out what you
got going, what you got forwater holding areas, things like
that.
And again, I'm approaching thisfrom the surface drainage
(03:18):
standpoint where we're justgonna do some minor reshaping,
uh, get some grade, fill in someholes, and and do stuff like
that.
Again, in the previous episode,we talked about other things
you can do with feedlot designand building pad designs and
getting into uh getting intoterracing and other things like
that.
But again, this conversation, Iwant to focus in on what I see
(03:40):
the most popular thing is hereand in this region coming and
moving soil from a little bit ofa maybe a knoll or hillside and
filling in and giving some ofthese bowl-shaped areas some
directionality for the water.
But the end result is we got tostart with a point.
So the surface drainage partmakes here's your flow patterns,
here's the areas that areholding water, here's your
(04:02):
ponding areas.
Now, what we do with them.
And anyone who's used or seenany of our surface drainage
maps, again, the the bowl-shapedareas are really in your face.
Hey, there's there's you know,six tenths of a foot of water
being held back and held in thisarea.
The items that I want to makereally clear to everybody is
that uh um when when you've seenthe maps, sometimes you'll see
(04:23):
spots on the maps that I callthem freckles or just a bunch of
little minor depressions.
What those areas are a lot oftimes are parts of the field
that are really flat.
They don't have directionality.
Sarah (04:37):
Can I ask uh just a clarifying question here?
So you're talking, I mean, youmean you kind of made it sound
like the way that you'restarting is by making a surface
drainage map, right?
So that you get what we call inthat map the flow accumulation
lines and then the bowl-shapedareas, which in our maps are
called depressions, correct?
(04:58):
Okay, okay.
Just clarifying that, thatmakes a that makes a lot of good
sense.
So when you're looking at thatsurface shaping area, those
little freckle things thatyou're seeing in though, those
are actually part of thedepression layers that are in
there.
They're just those real minorones.
Kelly Sharpe (05:14):
And and when they get grouped together real close,
it probably means that you'vegot a part of a field that's
that's really pretty flat inmost scenarios.
Um, and result of it though isand the result of it though is
putting this back in front ofthe farmer or the landowner,
somebody who knows what's goingon there, and realistically
getting out a Sharpie marker andgoing, yeah, we want to drain
(05:35):
this this way, and we want todrain this this way, and we want
to fill these areas in overhere, and we want directionality
here.
You know, we get stuck with thecombine over here all the time.
You know, get that stuff putdown, and then we can get to the
designing.
On the designing side of it inthe software, then we can come
back and say, okay, we want tobuild this area up.
We want to stop the water fromleaving.
(05:58):
We're gonna fill this ditch,and then the water's not gonna
leave the field over hereanymore.
And and uh once we get allthose directionalities of that,
the the tools and the software,um, again, knowledge of
understanding how to use allthese tools, you you you say
there the di this ditch is gonnadisappear, we're gonna wall
this up, we're gonna do thisover here.
(06:20):
When you get all said and donewith it, all of a sudden that
oxbow that used to be in thefield isn't necessarily gone
100%.
I mean, it's not like you we'rewe're trying to take it back.
And again, if somebody wants totake it to the X extent and
that oxbow now is filled in withtwo feet of fill to make it go
back this way, great, you can dothat.
(06:41):
But realistically, from theagronomic standpoint, we just
want to get those things filledin enough that water's leaving
those areas.
You still might see some ofthat shape, but you're not gonna
be, you know, gouging with theheader when you drive through it
anymore.
Um, that it's gonna have theability to leave, leave the
water will leave the field andbe gone.
(07:03):
So so the end, but the endresult of what we're trying to
get after is to just simply makeit so all these issues that we
want to address are taken careof.
Again, the software tools andstuff like that.
Uh I mean, we've got tools thatwill do cut-fill hills.
It'll uh with a depressionsmap, and it'll basically take
(07:24):
these hills and remove X amountof dirt from the top of it, and
again, take an inch off the topof your hills and put six inches
of fill into your depressionsand give them directionality.
Uh a button that makes everypart of the field go to whatever
minimum grade you want to setit to.
And and again, all thesebuttons and tools and stuff that
(07:45):
have been developed for anyonewho's ever used our software.
I like to make the point tothem that we essentially have
roughly six major, major editingfunctions in the software right
now, and we've found probably athousand or maybe even a
thousand plus different thingswe can do with them uh in
(08:06):
combinations and and ways ofputting stuff together.
But now with these, we've addedanother, we've added another
eight to ten tools, and it it'sjust it's a whole lot of new
ideas and ways of of puttingthings together.
And and again, back to the theidea, new ways to use a crescent
wrench.
Sarah (08:25):
So you know, and in our last podcast, we kind of visited
this a little about thisconcept just a little bit as
well, but you know, you weretalking about that input portion
of it where you make thatsurface drainage map, and then
you actually sit down with afarmer and and uh given the
sharpie, you know, and draw likewhat what do you want going on
(08:48):
here?
So that I mean, really, when wetalk about doing this design
phase and and you've talkedabout the need for that input,
you know, a number of differenttimes, that that's probably the
place where we really gotta hitthat because you know, if we're
gonna if if the farmer is gonnabe working with a design expert
who can create the design in thedigital sense in ADMS software,
(09:12):
that you know, whether it's me,whether it's Jody, whether it's
you, Kelly, or anybody else onour team, we have to know what
that farmer wants.
And so that sitting down with aSharpie and actually figuring
out where stuff needs to go,where water needs to go across
that landscape, that's that's apretty important part, isn't it?
Kelly Sharpe (09:31):
Absolutely.
I I have yet to I have yet tofind the employee to to hire or
the person to go out there andthat has really, really good
telepathy skills.
Um the mind reading, uh, themind reading functions.
We ain't got them yet.
But uh again, we're trying todo that.
Sarah (09:48):
He did not hire me for that.
He did not hire me for thatskill at all.
Kelly Sharpe (09:54):
But but it's but it's a very it's a very true
thing, though.
I mean, you got you we've gotideas, we've got ideas of what
we want to do.
And if you don't vocalize whatthey are, it's really hard to
help you do them.
Jodi (10:06):
Let me ask you a question on this, Kelly, because I want
to be clear to you, like, say ifyou're somebody that's never
gotten a map to do with drainageor a watershed modeling map
from GK, I want to make surethat you know that if you
haven't done major work in thatfield, there's a good chance
that we've got LiDAR data thatwe can use to pull in and make
that map for you.
And so I want to make sure thatyou if you're someone looking
(10:28):
for a surface shaping map for inthis instance, you don't need
to bring us with like RTK dataor LIDAR data for your field.
There may be extenuatingcircumstances, but we'll help
you figure that out.
Sarah (10:39):
So to that point, I just have to say, if you have never
tried one of our surfacedrainage maps, I highly suggest
it.
Just beware because they arevery addictive for farmers.
You might get one, but thenbefore you know it, you're gonna
have your whole farm done.
Farmers love those.
I've I have actually worked outdeals with with prospect
customers where I'm like, I'llmake you a deal.
(11:00):
I'll make you a map for free.
If you don't use it, you canjust we'll just you know, we'll
go our separate ways, no bigdeal.
If you use it, you pay me forit.
I have yet to not be paid forone of those.
Jodi (11:11):
Right.
It's it's such a great startingpoint of really getting a feel
for the field, right?
And that's why Kelly mentionedthat as you know, that's where
we're gonna start.
We need to know how things workon that field in the first
place.
But what I want to ask you,Kelly, is as someone that's
coming or planning to come toyou to get a map made for this,
what are some things that weneed to communicate with you?
Um, like how do we what do youneed to know from us?
(11:34):
Like, what are you trying toextract from us and how can we
better communicate that to youso that we can get a better map
at the end?
Kelly Sharpe (11:40):
Sure, sure.
Uh obviously the the simplestone is I we need to know a field
location, uh, common name,tellable acres, uh, are all
things that are that that I wantfor basic starting information
at that point.
Uh at that point, then I'mgonna make the watershed, the
the surface watershed as itstands today.
You're gonna get a map back,and that's what Sarah was just
(12:01):
alluding to is making thesurface drainage maps as as they
show in the the the latest andgreatest LIDAR data.
And and then at that point,then we're gonna come back and
and have that conversation aboutnow, hey, where where do we
want to have outlets?
What what areas are your areasof concern?
You know, do we want do we wantthis water to run east or west,
(12:22):
this hole that's in betweenthese two ditches, do you want
it to go east or west?
Then it's just gonna get to bebe that portion of it.
And and if there's specificthings that you're like, no, I
want to get more water overhere, things like that, uh
again, uh the more informationthat we have, the more that we
can help you to achieve withwhat what you're trying to uh
trying to come up with.
(12:43):
Uh at the end of the day, umlike say just getting the field
in front of us uh is is the bigstarting point and getting that.
And after that, like say it'sreally just talking about
outlets and trouble spots andand what parts are we wanting to
are are we okay with filling inthis ditch?
Are we okay with getting this?
Are we okay with adding a ditchover here?
(13:04):
Uh, there may be, like I say,there may be solutions there
that uh that you don'tnecessarily uh necessarily see.
And the other last item to noteis there's a lot of ditches in
the in the Red River Valley thathave been put in that are just
too deep, and we're not going tofill them in completely, but we
may be raising the raising thebottoms of them up uh because
now they've been cut so low thatevery time the township ditch
(13:24):
gets water in it, it runs backout into the field.
There's water in the township,there's water in the field.
It's it's it and again, thoseare things that have happened
over time.
Sarah (13:34):
Awesome.
Thank you.
So okay, so now we've had thatconversation, we we've got an
idea of what we want to do withthe design.
What are some of the fun thingsin the in the new been around
for three years?
Shaping surface shaping buttonin in the software.
What what are some of thosetools that are new and unique to
(13:57):
the concept of surface shapingfrom from a mapping standpoint?
Kelly Sharpe (14:02):
From the mapping standpoint.
For those of you guys that arerunning ADMS and you jump in
there, oh there's a few of themthat are just really simple and
simple and cool.
Obviously, the build wall,there's a build wall tool for
anyone who's used it.
Um if you don't water wantwater going off of end of a
field or an edge of a field, andand and we want to make sure it
(14:22):
goes a specific way type ofthing.
You draw a line along and it'llput a wall on around the outer
wherever you drew outside thefield, it just puts an outer
wall on it to stopping waterfrom going a specific direction.
Again, for those of you guysthat don't use the software, it
doesn't make a lot of sense.
Uh, but from the next part isis the the cut fill hills tool.
(14:42):
Uh, it's really cool.
You see every depression, yousee every hill, and you can
click and say, put this hillinto here, put this hill into
here, but you also get to choosehow much cut you're gonna be
getting off of that.
So say you got a hill that isuh an acre, hypothetically.
One inch, if you said you wereable to do one inch of cut, it
(15:03):
would say over that one acrearea now.
I can do one inch of cut.
And it won't take any more thanthat.
It won't take it's gonna takethat one inch of cut, but it'll
tell you how many yards of dirtare on that to be moved now, and
you got a hole to fill overhere, and that hole could be you
know six inches, it could be afoot deep.
And it's gonna tell you, man,you need 300 yards of dirt to
(15:23):
fill this hole.
But this hill over here has 125yards, and this hill over here
has another 150 yards.
Well, if I put those two hillshere, I can fill that hole over
here.
So you get to have control ofwhere you're grabbing your dirt
from.
And and uh again, from thestandpoint of logistics, you
(15:43):
know, you don't want to go getdirt from a half mile away to go
fill fill this hole in.
You want to get that dirt fromas far or as nearby as we
possibly can.
Second item of note that goeswith that, so many of these
ditches that have been put inwere put in on the 40 rod
system.
So every 40 rods, we're gonnaput a straight line ditch
running north-south, runningeast-west.
And then because they weresitting in their cat or in their
(16:07):
versatile and you know, gearone, two driving at 1.3 miles an
hour and dumping the dirt 100feet away from the ditch and
turning and coming back in andcutting and 100 feet away from
the ditch.
You see it on the ditches allthe time that there's a ditch
that was put in, and thenthere's hills on each side of
the ditch.
(16:27):
And again, most common thingthat I see where we put these
ditches in and stuff, it wouldhave been great if that soil
would have been hauled overanother 500 feet and put in
between, and now we would havehad a mound running it down to
the ditch.
But uh again, you guys thathave built maps in the Red River
Valley have all seen this, uhseen this happen over and over
(16:48):
again.
So, but tools, some other toolsin there.
There's some other tools inthere that are just uh really,
really interesting.
With um there's a morph tool,and uh when you get towards the
end of the project, it gets ridof every little pixel up down,
and it gets rid of, if you will,what we call little dams in the
process, and it lets you get sothat the water has a way to uh
(17:11):
exit the field without havingany any dams on there.
And again, it's it's a minor,if you will, finishing tool, but
it's super cool because you runit and all of a sudden you're
trying to run it and get flowpatterns to run, and nothing's
working, nothing's working, yourun the morph tool, and all of a
sudden everything works.
And it's like super cool.
Sarah (17:29):
And that's it's just getting rid of like the micro
stuff in your design that'sthat's inhibiting the actual
water from going where it'ssupposed to go.
Almost like a smoothing tool ina in a sort of a way, except
that it's just putting together,literally morphing, if you
will, everything together in asmooth sort of a way.
Kelly Sharpe (17:47):
Exactly.
Exactly.
So that the the the there'sjust uh has some weird names to
some of the buttons, but the themorph tool is super uh is super
cool.
There's there's another fillpercentage uh um in and that
that fill percentage portion.
So you get a design built andit says that over in this spot
you need a foot of fill.
Well, anyone who's ever beenaround soil and and tried to
(18:10):
fill a hole, that you got thesoil settling component of it.
And and again, you can decidewhat ratio that is and what
methods you're using for doingyour filling methods.
Uh, but then you can say, oh, Iwant to give myself 20% extra
fill in that area.
Uh so when you get all yourplan done, you come back and run
the run that tool on it, andbasically it multiplies all your
(18:33):
values on the fill side, not onthe cut side, but on the fill
side, it adds it by 20%.
Sarah (18:41):
Okay, I want to talk about this again because I just
we were talking about thisyesterday when we were out in
the field, and I think this fillconcept for quote unquote
fluffy soil is just it is socool.
Okay, I'm not I'm not makingthis up, but okay, we all know
that soil is sand, silt, andclay, right?
And and they've got differentsize particles.
(19:03):
We all know that soil's gotdifferent aggregation, we all
know that we end up withdifferent pore space, different
amount of air in there atdifferent times, um, different
compaction levels.
And so really, this this fillconcept of allowing for a little
bit more fill is allowing forthat difference so that when you
get that settling going on, youdon't end up with a pond or a
(19:26):
depression where you were tryingto fill in a depression.
So you should be able to sortof like think that through,
right?
Kelly Sharpe (19:34):
For sure, for sure.
And and making the point, wouldwould a pile of you got a pile
of sand and you dig it up andyou set it back down and you dig
it up and you set it back down,your your fill compaction ratio
is maybe going to be 5%, maybe10%.
It will settle a little bit.
You know, you put a littlewater to it, you put a little
vibration to it and pack it downor pat tamp it down, it'll go
(19:55):
down a little bit.
But all of a sudden you take ayou take a heavy Fargo clay and
you go dig it up and disturb itand try to put it back into a
pile again.
And and again, depending on thecondition it's in.
Man, you you you dug up a footdeep of dirt, and now when you
try to stack it up again, yougot a foot and a half of dirt.
Sarah (20:13):
And and that is just so cool.
I don't care who you are.
That's awesome.
Kelly Sharpe (20:18):
But it gets really tricky from the standpoint of
what methodology are you movingyour dirt around by.
So if you're picking it up witha scraper and setting it back
down versus dragging it aroundwith a box blade, you know,
there's all kinds of differentcomponents here.
You know, if you're dragging itaround with a scraper, maybe
you want to have a 50% fillbecause you got these pore
(20:39):
spaces, big pore spaces inbetween there, and they aren't
really getting compacted.
And and uh um uh again, there'sjust all kinds of stuff here.
And I'm gonna tell you flat outat the end of the day, do I
have an answer for what thatright number is for you know any
one of those scenarios?
No, I do not.
I don't know exactly what thatright number is uh for what that
(21:02):
fill ratio percentage is goingto be when you get to that
point.
But uh but it's gonna be it'sgonna be a learning, it's gonna
be a little bit of a learningthing because that same Fargo
clay in a dry condition versus awet condition could be totally
different, uh totally differentvalues.
Jodi (21:18):
Yeah, and every field has a different, like you know, just
bulk density in the firstplace, right?
Yeah and then if you're usingdifferent equipment, that's
gonna change how that soil worksup and how that moves and how
much space it takes up and howit settles.
And like we were mentioningyesterday, too, right?
Before and after a rain.
If it's a Fargo clay and you'vegot clumps, um, it's gonna have
(21:39):
a different way that it's gonnawant to settle.
But if it rains, those clumpslook a lot different and you
have a much different volume ofthe soil than before it was
clumps.
So yeah, it's gonna takeexperimenting, but it this gives
you the control to actuallycalculate for that and save you
some time, hopefully, of havingto go back and put more fill
material where um things settledout over time when we were
(22:02):
filling stuff in the field.
Kelly (22:03):
Yeah.
Kelly Sharpe (22:04):
And I I realistically, I mean, I've even
seen this on ditches that wecut that are oh five, less than
05 grades, but uh where you comeacross a headland where that
bulk density is is increasedbecause of traffic patterns and
stuff like that.
Uh, but but uh then we havethese wonderful, you know,
Slingswell clays that we have inthe in the around this area,
(22:25):
and and all of a sudden you cutthis beautiful ditch when it was
nice and dry out there, andthen all of a sudden, all of a
sudden you get just a little bitof rain on it.
And why is that that ditch thatwas was working beautifully?
I got that first little bit ofrain that ran off beautifully,
and the next rain came throughand it's not flowing anymore.
And that soil swelled more onthe headland than it did out in
(22:50):
the field.
So it's it's making a it'smaking a dam at the end of the
ditch.
And you see it, you see it allthe time, and people come back
and say, well, you know, itlooked good the first day after
that first rain, but now now ituh you know it seems like it
seems like, you know, didsomething blow in there?
Did you know what happened?
And it's and that's exactlywhat happened.
(23:10):
And and again, it's not thatit's put a foot down at the end
of the ditch, but it swelledjust another half inch more.
Jodi (23:19):
Ah, smectitic clays, engineer's worst nightmares
since ever.
Ever.
And and just to comment quickon like these buttons and like
what they do for anybody that iscurious of like wanting to use
these buttons in ADMS right now.
Um I'll just say it wasenlightening me or it's like
(23:39):
enlightening for me to rememberthat you know when we're working
with like LiDAR data in ADMSand using these buttons to
modify things, you know, we'rewe're what we're trying to do is
we're trying to modify pixels.
And those pixels are a datapoint or a number, right?
So like these buttons help uschange the numbers across the
field in order to achieve whatwe want.
So I don't know.
(24:00):
I just like to remember like toremind people that what we're
doing is we're modifying thosenumbers.
And I don't know, for me thathelps me simplify, you know, and
it looks like there's a lot ofbuttons.
Just remember for just doingsome math here and and making
changes, yeah.
Kelly Sharpe (24:16):
Which probably isn't even simpler either, but
and more importantly, and moreimportantly, Jody, is remember,
remember for all you ADMS users,jump online and check out the
online videos.
Um, this all these surfacebuttons and stuff are well very,
very well documented in boththe user manual and also on the
on the uh um ADMS online uhwebsite too.
Jodi (24:35):
So you know that's that is the nice thing about um it
having been quote unquote outfor three years.
Um and and my I guess myquestion now is you know, the
component you mentioned beforein the first episode that to get
these things done, we need tohave you know the equipment and
(24:55):
the controller to control themachine, but then we also need
to have that map in thebackground.
And so we have the softwareavailable to do it, we can make
these maps.
Um can you tell us a little bitmore about when we might be
able to, or like when we shouldbe looking for this controller
from Rust sales?
And then, you know, is there anofficial name for the
(25:18):
controller?
And then when we might be ableto get these in our tractors at
home.
Kelly Sharpe (25:24):
For sure.
Uh a couple of a couple itemsgo along with that, first and
foremost.
Uh um, before we even jump intothe dates, remember the system
for it to work.
You go by by the system andyay, look, I bought some some
hardware.
The hardware really just makesthe machine go up and down.
We need the map to make itdrive.
So if you're looking at doingthis, this mapping component
(25:46):
that we're talking about is theessential component to make it
do what it needs to do.
Um, the the controller thatwe're talking about and that
we're going to be finishing upwith here, the controller part
doesn't make the maps.
It receives the map.
It's no different than theverberate controller uh for your
planting and seeding andfertilizing.
(26:07):
Those controllers don'tmagically make a verborate map
for you.
You need to supply them withdata.
So this is much more along thatconcept where the ditching and
tiling stuff people have boughtin the past, they go out in the
field, drive it, survey it, andcut a ditch.
Doesn't do any of that stuff.
The controller is going to needa plan to go in the background.
Sarah (26:28):
And you just kind of said this, okay.
But, you know, with with peoplewho have done drainage in the
past, you go out and you don'tneed to have a map in the back.
People who have, you know,purchased surface drainage maps
from us have enjoyed thatproduct as a background map, but
they haven't necessarily neededthat in order to do drainage.
But you will not be able to doto do surface shaping without a
(26:53):
map.
It will have to have a mapbecause that is essentially what
is controlling the equipment.
Kelly Sharpe (27:01):
Yep.
And it's exactly like yourvariable rate controllers from
that standpoint.
Again, they don't make thevariable rate maps for you.
They just read what you givethem for data.
So I mean it's a good parallelthere that, hey, look, I got a
variable rate controller.
But it doesn't variable rate.
Sarah (27:18):
But the only thing that's it that's different with a
variable rate controller is alot of times you can actually
make that a flat rate.
You can just shut off thevariable rate, and then you're
doing flat rate, right?
There is no way to do a flatrate with this.
There's no way to operate thiswithout a map.
Kelly Sharpe (27:32):
Well, tech technically, technically,
technically, you could go inthere and just set it to a flat
grade and go drive and cut on aflat grade.
Jodi (27:40):
You could just use the hydraulics with the box scraper,
but yeah.
Sarah (27:43):
Oh, but then you're doing land, but then you're doing um
um land leveling, right?
Yeah.
Kelly Sharpe (27:50):
Not uh it's nothing exciting.
Yeah, yeah.
It's not it's not doing it'snot doing, I mean, we're not
doing land shaping, if you will.
So I mean it would have somereally basic again, you could do
that, but it's really, reallyuh again, you're not you're not
uh again, you're back to justcontrolling uh make making a
flat grade, or you're setting itto a whatever.
(28:13):
So again, you could do youcould you could do that if that
was all you wanted to do.
You can you can do that part ofit.
But make the point if you wantto do what we're really speaking
about here, you need the youneed the maps to make it drive.
Second item that we weregetting into though, we need the
maps to make it drive.
Once you've got that, um, we'relooking at uh we're looking at
releasing the product is goingto be called SD Surface.
(28:37):
And um right now our plan iswe're hoping to have it released
somewhere around uh uhmid-September around the big
iron uh big iron time.
Rust Sales has uh has a a boothin the in out at uh out at Big
Iron, and uh we're hoping hopingto be releasing around Big Iron
time.
Uh the end result of it is isthat uh it's going to be for
(29:02):
those those people.
I I don't know anything onpricing, I don't know anything
on those components right now.
Um but basically if you arerunning SD SD Ditch, um it's
going to be basically anupgrade, uh, an upgrade for for
SD Ditch.
SD tile or SD surface has SDSurface has a ditch module built
(29:25):
into it.
So you can toggle betweensurface shaping and then turn
off surface shaping and go backand just do regular ditching
functions also.
Sarah (29:35):
That that's very cool.
And you know, you mentionedthat we don't have pricing
available, but I just want toremind our entire audience out
there that good water managementin a field doesn't cost, it
pays.
Kelly Sharpe (29:46):
Amen.
Sarah (29:48):
It's okay.
Kelly Sharpe (29:49):
It does, though.
Sarah (29:51):
I mean, it does.
And every farmer that's outthere listening to this right
now is laughing.
It's funny because it's true.
Kelly Sharpe (29:59):
Yeah, it's It's it's uh at the end of the day
when you start looking at thenumbers of what lost, lost, you
know, revenue gains and stufflike that, it pays for itself
time and time and time again.
It's the it's the gift thatkeeps on giving.
Sarah (30:13):
Amen.
Kelly Sharpe (30:15):
So so um and last uh last items, last items uh for
for you guys on this.
The parts on when you hit it,hit the field, all of this stuff
is is is RTK based, um, soldthrough Rust sales.
The parts and components thatyou're gonna be needing on
there, you'll be needing an RTKsystem.
You can use their RTKs, you canbuy their RTKs, you can use
(30:37):
your existing RTK systems.
Um, the the hardware and stuffthat's inside the cab.
Um we can use slope sensors uhif you want to control your
blade left to right, if you'vegot the ability to do that on
your equipment.
Uh, there's some hardwarecomponents there.
Um we talked to pretty muchmost of the modern tractors.
Uh, you may have to add in someexternal valves.
(31:00):
The guys out at Rust are gonnatell you what you need and don't
need for that side of it.
Uh, but realistically, thispretty much is gonna tie into
any scraper, any any any bladeuh type systems and and do
everything that you want to do.
Sarah (31:17):
So and I do think it's important to give a big shout
out to Rust Sales.
You know, we want to talk aboutlike what customer uh service
is.
Holy buckets, those guys do agreat job of taking care of
customers all over the place.
And so if you if you reallywant help getting this thing set
up, getting it to work right,highly suggest you know, giving
(31:41):
them a shout because theythey're they're super awesome to
work with.
Kelly Sharpe (31:46):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And a reminder to everybody outthere too, and I'm I'm gonna
say this, I don't care if you'retalking about a planter, a
fertilizer applicator, or ascraper setup, but if you try to
get a hold of John Deere incase in the middle of the,
you're sitting at the end of thefield, you know, the odds of
getting that technician out toyour field today on, you know,
May 1st when you're trying toget your planter going, you're
(32:09):
probably gonna have to wait alittle bit to get a hold of
somebody or get somebody outthere.
Uh so when you're getting yourscrapers and stuff ready here,
when you're getting equipmentready to go to the field, if you
wait till, if you wait tillAugust 15th, August 20th, you're
probably gonna be waiting alittle while to get somebody.
So I mean, right now is areally good time.
Reminder to everybody, July,you know, is a really good time
(32:30):
to go through that stuff, checkout all your hardware, check
stuff out, make sure it's alltalking.
It it really is.
I mean, you may hook up to itand unhook from it, but just
make sure your stuff is all upto date.
Um, if you wait till you'resitting at the end of the field,
again, everybody's support getsa little tough to have somebody
out there when everybody waitstill August 20th to go to the
(32:53):
field.
Jodi (32:54):
That's a great reminder, Kelly.
And again, thank you so muchfor your time today sharing with
us the new tool in SurfaceShaping.
And no, we are really we arereally looking forward to this
um as a company, and we thinkthat this will really fit with
what our customers are lookingfor and what they need.
(33:15):
And so as you move forward withthis, reach out.
Um, for those of you that wantto use this as a software
package and makes maps for folksfor when you know the
controller is out later thisyear, give us a call.
Uh, we're happy to chat aboutit and continue to help digitize
what you want done in yourfields and get it done.
So, again, thanks for listeningtoday, everybody.
(33:37):
And remember with GKTechnology, we have a map and an
app for that.
Theme Music (33:43):
No, I can't wait to get in the fields again.
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