November 6, 2025 • 33 mins
We sit down (again) with Kyle Okke of Agile Agronomy and explore how to make variable-rate residual herbicides actually work, from nozzle physics to dual-tank setups, and why agronomy must lead every tech decision. We also talk PWM (pulse width modulation), drift control, and mapping weed hot spots for smarter applications.
Additionally...
• Limits of conventional pressure-based rate changes
• Why droplet size, pattern, and drift control matter
• PWM and duty cycle basics
• Turn compensation for consistent coverage
• Mixing residuals with post products without losing efficacy
• DIect injection timing challenges at boom length
• Dual-tank, dual-boom systems for split strategies
• Cost and scale drivers for adoption of certain spray systems
• Green-on-brown paired with variable-rate residuals
• Drone mapping kochia and wild oat patches for targeted residuals
• Reducing passes, resistance pressure, and carryover risk
Stick around for the final part of our discussion, part 3!
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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 Ag Geek Speak with GK
Technology's, Sarah and Jodi.
Theme Song (00:10):
In the fields again.
I just can't wait to get in thefields again.
The life I love is spread inproduct for my friends.
And I can't wait to get in thefields again.
No, I can't wait to get in thefields again.
Jodi (00:31):
Welcome back to another episode of Ag Geek Speak.
We are in the second part ofour conversation with Kyle Okke
of Agile Agronomy out ofDickinson, North Dakota.
And in the first part of ourconversation, we really talked
about, you know, what were thecircumstances that prompted Kyle
to start thinking about andimplementing variable rate
(00:52):
herbicide applications,specifically residual
applications to help reduce cropinjury.
And now we're getting into thenitty-gritty details of how we
actually do this because it'snot as simple as just varying
your urea rate.
There are some otherconsiderations that uh that uh
have to be made too.
So with that, Kyle, we werejust talking about, you know, uh
(01:16):
conventional rate controllersand being really cognizant of
droplet sizes when you'rechanging pressure.
What is the ideal system like?
If how have you made this work?
What are you varying?
What's been successful?
And yeah, tell me more.
Kyle Okke (01:36):
Sure.
So the last the last time Ispoke, I think we kind of cut it
off around uh talking aboutlike how conventional spray
systems work and and why theydon't work that great in in a
variable rate sprayingapplication, because you're
you're you're going way outsideof the parameters of normal
operation for spray nozzles whenyou're doing that.
(01:59):
So that the conventionalsystem, even though a variable
rate controller does adjust yourapplied rate through there,
nozzles really weren't meant togo through those biggest swings.
So so what'll happen,especially in these tank mix
scenarios that I was talkingabout before, where you're
(02:20):
having post-emergent andresidual products together,
which isn't ideal, but we can doit.
And there are a lot of nuancesin where to make that work.
But um if you drop to say like15 pounds of pressure to get
your rate down low enough toreduce injury in these, you
know, poor soil areas where youknow you're gonna see crop
(02:42):
injury, well, you're reducingyour tank mix partner too, and
you're collapsing your pattern,you're getting way smaller
droplets with that loweredpressure, and you're not gonna
achieve the post-emergent weedcontrol you're after in those
areas versus like going to theareas that receive the high
rates.
Well, you have the potentialfor over-pressurizing the
(03:05):
system, and now you have a lotof fines, which coverage is
fine, but when you produce a lotof fines, you have a lot of
off-target movement.
And so now you're running therisk of off-target movement.
And I'm not just talking likegoing along a bordering field
that maybe has a sensitive cropand you're you know concerned
about that.
I'm talking about off-targetmovement where you're trying to
(03:27):
apply this applied rate to thisvery area, and then all of a
sudden you get a gust of windand it pushes a lot of that
applied particles that you weretrying to get to land to the
ground.
Now they're not going to theground.
So there's a lot of you canvariable rule apply with a
conventional system, at leastmechanically.
(03:50):
Now, agronomically, does itmake sense?
Like once it leaves thesprayer, that that's where
that's where it kind of lacks.
So so in enters pulse withmodulation.
Sarah (04:01):
Okay, before you say pulse with modulation, which is
super fun to say for everybodyout there, say it with me.
Pulse with modulation.
That's so fun.
Anyway, I want to rememberremind everyone that whenever we
are doing there, there's somuch that we can do mechanically
with precision agriculture.
There's so much that we can dowith computers and precision
(04:23):
agriculture.
But if it doesn't makeagronomic sense, there's no
point doing it.
So I just want to hone thatback in again.
Um, there's there's no point invariable rating if it doesn't
make sense agronomically.
That's the whole thing thatwe're trying to do.
So, okay.
Just had to get that in.
Kyle Okke (04:41):
Um, that's a great point.
I've actually had uh so so myone of my well, both of the the
farms I work with in Montana,they've they both have big
fields, but I've had them askedbefore uh to this exact point
you made.
They'll look at a map like thisone doesn't variable rate at
all.
Why why is that?
(05:01):
And I'm like, do you want me tovariable rate it by 10 pounds
so you have a pretty map?
Sarah (05:05):
Yeah.
Kyle Okke (05:06):
Or or you just go, you have really high phosphate
in this field.
So all we need to do is run abasic starter.
Sarah (05:12):
Yes.
Kyle Okke (05:12):
Across everything.
And and so it's in starterfertility.
Uh and and as soon as I explainthat, they're like, oh, oh,
okay, well, it's good to know.
I just want to know.
It just it didn't, it didn't,it it was in the it was in the
prescription as no rate change.
I'm like, nope, that was onpurpose.
Like we don't need to make itvariable rate if it doesn't need
(05:34):
a variable rate, but you'd makeit a map still because the
standard practice is you're usedto uploading that stuff for
fields.
Jodi (05:41):
So sometimes the variable rate answer is a flat rate.
Kyle Okke (05:44):
Yes.
So so yeah.
So great point.
Sarah (05:48):
But not when it comes to residual herbicides with a lot
of changes and a role.
See how I brought that allback?
Kyle Okke (05:54):
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah.
Sarah (05:56):
So pulse with modulation.
Kyle Okke (05:59):
Yes.
Sarah (06:00):
Super fun words to say.
Talk to us about that.
Kyle Okke (06:03):
So this was probably uh case IH through the AIM
command uh trade name isprobably where this has been the
most popular.
But although every piece ofequipment has it, I think
actually the original uh pulsewith modulation system that
existed was from Capstan.
And they called that asharpshooter.
(06:24):
And and then I believe Case IHjust has licensed that from
Capstan, or at least theiroriginal rendition of that.
And now, and now just aboutevery brand of sprayer has their
own like brand-specific versionof it.
Like John Deere, the other bigone in the game, has has exact
apply.
(06:44):
Um I was gonna say PrecisionPlanting has their own system
now, Capstan continues to dotheir system, and there are
others that exist out there.
But what that is doing is isdecoupling the change in
pressure to the rate that'sbeing pushed through the pump.
(07:05):
So pulse width modulation isdecoupling the pressure change.
So the pressure change remainsstatic, but what is actually
happening in pulse widthmodulation, and I'm sure that I
know this is this isn'tsomething specific to
agriculture.
This is definitely like anengineering thing, and and I
(07:26):
think this gets used a lot inlike pulse width modulation, if
I'm not mistaken, is more aboutlike electricity delivery than
it is about anything else.
But what it means to us andagriculture is that there is an
electrical solenoid on everynozzle body, and it is
controlling a plunger that'sacting like a gate valve for
(07:46):
water flow.
And so this pulse widthmodulation is like intermittent
electricity that's that's cominginto the solenoid and it's
activating and deactivating aplunger.
So it is stopping and startingthe flow of water coming through
the nozzle body, and and how itadjusts the applied volume as
(08:09):
you speed up or slow down ontraditional spraying is that
you're you're setting a uh aduty cycle, they'll call it, of
how many times that electricpulse turns on and off and turns
that plunger on and off on allof those solenoids uh a second.
And so it'll be uh in hertz.
(08:30):
Uh it'll say like how manyhertz are you gonna run?
And and but they'll say youneed to run from somewhere
between like 50 and 70 percentuh duty cycles, saying that like
let's say if the nozzle turnedon 10 times a second at 50% duty
cycle, it's it's plunging inand out five times for for easy
(08:53):
figuring, but it happens a lotfaster than that.
So it's like a lot of times asecond.
It's not just 10 times asecond, it's like 50 times a
second or something like that.
Um it it's crazy fast.
Jodi (09:05):
It's it's so cool.
And like let I want to paint apicture quick because I this
whole concept of like what ispulsive modulation, what does it
look like?
That really made sense in myhead, right?
Because Kyle described it in areally, really great way, right?
There's these plungers thatturn on and off, allowing that
water to flow through.
But what does it actually looklike in person?
I mean, if you think about asprayer like turning a row,
(09:28):
right?
And you've got the inside ofthat sprayer, like if it's
turning right, you've got thatright hand side of the sprayer
that's kind of just staying inplace while the outside side of
that sprayer is moving reallyfast as it whips around that
corner, right?
And so with like pulse withmodulation, the inside nozzles
that aren't moving very quickly,like where you're turning,
they're gonna turn on and offless quickly than the ones on
(09:50):
the outside.
So that even though you've gotdifferent speeds at different
sides of the boom, you're stillapplying the same amount of
water volume over the acreagesthat you're covering.
So, like if you're goingslower, you're gonna have slower
pulses.
Like you're gonna, you can seelike the droplets coming out of
the sprayer.
And then like as you speed up,you can hear those like
(10:10):
solenoids going on and off, andyou can hear it go faster.
Like, is that painted picture?
It it's you can see it inaction when you speed up and
slow down.
Kyle Okke (10:20):
Anyone that uses that sprayer and is applied with it
or watched it go, you you seeexactly what it is because you
can you can hear the sprayturning on and off.
Yeah.
Um, you you see it.
What you just explained, Jody,is turn compensation.
Yeah, much like using usingusing pulse width modulation.
And there are pulse widthmodulation systems that only
(10:41):
work by the boom section.
So they don't necessarily havenozzle by nozzle control.
And so you have to the that'son unfortunately to the farmer,
that is technology you have topay more for to have, but it it
it does, it's there and and allthat.
So depending on, but but theoverall, let's just pretend the
whole boom is using pulse widthmodulation still.
(11:03):
When when you speed up andyou're applying your static
rate, you need to increase yourpressure on a standard system.
Well, now it's just it's it'salready pressurized, and all
that's changing is the dutycycle increases.
So it's just turning on and offmore times a second to get that
(11:25):
extra water volume applied sothat it's still applying the
target rate.
When you slow down, and this iswhere anyone that uses a
sprayer with the system reallysees it, you get into that
classic field border situationwhere you lower your booms and
you slow down because you don'twant to drift, it's
automatically compensating whenyou slow down to a crawl.
(11:48):
All of a sudden, you see thoseyou can see how many times it's
turning on and off because itit's like, whoa, okay, we got to
go down to like 10% duty cycleto get our water volume right,
and then you just see thesepoof, poof, poof, poof, you
know, like it's going in slowmotion on the on and off of the
nozzles.
And and then that's generallyalso where you see uh poor
(12:12):
control like your field bordersand some because you're not
getting the coverage you youneed to get out in that
situation.
So those those nozzle bodiesare all they're designed to be
run at least, you know, at likethat 40 to 70 percent duty
cycle.
I mean they have to.
Sarah (12:30):
But at the same time, your spray pattern is always
going to be consistent.
Yes, because you've got thatconsistent pressure of going
through the nozzle every time.
Kyle Okke (12:40):
Yes, the pattern on the nozzle is consistent because
it's always running at thepressure you set it for.
So it's never lowering, it'snever going higher, so you don't
get the driftable finds, youdon't get the collapse pattern.
So so that's so that's that'sthe concept behind that.
And so when it comes tovariable rating, then the
(13:01):
herbicide, where now we'retalking from five to ten
gallons, we don't have thiscrazy like slow down, speed up
kind of thing that happens whenwe're lowering the applied
volume or raising the appliedvolume.
The duty cycle is compensatingthere, so you can still just
maintain for the most part youraverage speed, and the duty
(13:23):
cycle is what's changing whenit's variable rating to
compensate for that.
Jodi (13:30):
Beautiful.
Kyle Okke (13:30):
So that's so that's how it's accomplishing that.
And then you don't change sprayquality, pattern quality, and
you're still achieving as goodof a post-emergent spray pattern
as you possibly can get.
And and then less strain onequipment and all that of it,
the speeding up and slowing downand all that kind of stuff.
Jodi (13:50):
So in this case that you're talking about with pulse
with modulation, you arechanging the rate of your tank
mix, whatever you've got inthere, whether it be the
residual herbicide or a that anda partner, you're changing the
rate of that application basedon gallons per acre applied.
Kyle Okke (14:08):
Correct.
Yep.
Jodi (14:10):
And then you can keep a consistent pattern with the
pulse with modulation.
Kyle Okke (14:13):
Yep.
Jodi (14:14):
So Do you have any or go ahead?
Kyle Okke (14:16):
Or no, you you ask, and then we'll go.
Jodi (14:18):
Do you have any sprayers where you have direct injection
where you can change the rate ofwhat that herbicide is?
Kyle Okke (14:25):
Unfortunately, I do not.
Because that uh I'm glad thatyou brought that up because that
was kind of the direction I wasgonna go.
There is uh direct injectionwhere that is tied to a rate
controller, and you could haveuh, you know, where the sprayer
is constantly doing the targetrate.
So let's just say it's 10gallons per acre or 15 gallons
(14:46):
per acre, whatever the standardtarget rate is.
It will keep that standardtarget rate, and then it's going
to direct inject at variablerates into the spray boom.
Now, I don't have the thefortune of working with anyone
that has those systems.
That type of system shouldwork.
I've certainly thought aboutthat too.
(15:08):
Um, I'm sure there's kind ofgrowing pains with learning what
to do there because I'm surethere's like a look-ahead time
that you really have to befocused on on that because it it
does take time if a directinjection system is hitting like
your main hose coming into theboom, and you have a hundred
feet, 120 feet, or hell, some ofthese sprayers are out like 160
(15:31):
feet now.
So it takes it takes time toget that rate all the way up to
the end of the booms, and sothat's I I wonder how well
variable rate would work on adirect inject system because of
the amount of a lot of sprayersare going 15 plus miles an hour.
Is it going to compensate it ittakes it's gonna take seconds
(15:56):
to well, probably more thanseconds, maybe like a dozen
seconds or something like thatto get spray from the center of
the boom all the way to the outto the edges, and so barrel
barating something you might endup with like these weird like
of the pattern triangle patternscoming in and out, and so that
might not be the the answer, andand you don't see those systems
(16:23):
necessarily used toostreamlined, anyways, but I'll
bring up another system, and andJohn Deere's the one that's
paving the way there, but theyare not the only one that's out
there.
There are other sprayermanufacturers that have dual
tank systems that could havedual plumbing, could have dual
(16:44):
wet booms, all that.
But oh, so now you're talkingabout actual dual dual tanks and
dual um so so let's let's talklike a John Deere C and spray
ultimate, not not nonenecessarily the C and spray part
of it, but that's what theycall it.
Okay, so when you buy a sprayerwith the C and Spray Ultimate
(17:06):
kit installed in it, that hastwo tanks, it has two tank
fills, it has two live booms onit, and so on that whole boom,
there's two wet kits, two setsof nozzles, everything on that
sprayer.
And so I think those tanks areset up in like a 60-40
configuration.
So let's just do for easyfiguring.
(17:27):
If you're running athousand-gallon tank, which I
think they're a lot bigger thanthat, but you're you're running
a 600-gallon tank and a400-gallon tank, and then they
have dedicated plumbing to goout to individual nozzle bodies.
Now you have the ability tokeep something like
sulfentrazone in a tank byitself, and that can variable
(17:49):
rate your water volume as asyou're going through the field,
and you don't have to worryabout the tank mix partner
because a tank mix partner canbe in their very own tank and be
independently run.
Sarah (18:03):
And you could maintain that con if it's a post-emerged
herbicide, for example, youcould keep that constant um
water volume in there.
That that sounds like a systemthat could actually work out
pretty darn good.
That's pretty fun.
Kyle Okke (18:17):
Yep.
And so I think uh I thinkthat's something that could work
out really, really well.
And and then you could takethat a step further too.
And if if you're going afterthe green on brown, you know,
kind of thing, you could haveyou could have that, you know,
running at a static rate, at astatic pressure with a tank mix
(18:39):
that you're doing an on and offgreen on brown sea and spray,
and then you're just on thewhole background side on that
second tank, be running avariable rate residual.
So, so that's like the ultimatetech that that comes there.
And and so uh, you know, Ithink John Deere on the
equipment side is so focused onjust the the sea and spray part
(19:03):
and like a static residual.
And they're and I think they'vebeen focused heavily on like
the in-crop part of it, but Ithink what you'll see come into
play, especially is like I mean,these systems are expensive,
right?
And so it and so interestinglyenough, um, we have more of
(19:23):
those types of systems in NorthDakota now, but actually the
place that adopted a a heavy useof those is Western Kansas.
Sarah (19:32):
Really?
Yep, and you're talking aboutthe C and spray technology, just
C and spray in general.
Okay, yeah.
Kyle Okke (19:40):
Um, I don't know necessarily the the ultimate,
okay, but no matter what, likeyou're you're talking a pretty
substantial upgrade.
Like the cost of that system,you could buy a used sprayer in
all that.
Sarah (19:57):
Right.
Absolutely.
Kyle Okke (19:59):
That that you know, you couldn't buy a brand new
sprayer, but you could buy apretty decent use, high, high,
high clearance self-propelledsprayer for the cost of these
upgrades, but as but it's all aneconomy of scale, and so why I
say like you know, like it wasuh oh uh I'm trying to think of
who was talking about this.
Jodi (20:17):
Uh Josh Sherman.
Kyle Okke (20:20):
No, we yes, we've uh we've all talked to Josh.
I know you guys have.
I've listened to your podcastwith Josh on on these things,
but um uh Sarah Lancaster fromKansas State.
Sarah (20:32):
Oh sure.
Kyle Okke (20:33):
Um Ed actually Ed actually showed up to uh our
Wild World of Weeds seminar,talked about this and shared
about those systems.
And basically, as you travelwest in any state, you have uh
the farms get bigger, the scalesbigger, and then like we talked
in the previous section of thispodcast, that the bigger the
(20:57):
fields are, the more variabilityyou do inherently end up
seeing, and where variable rateends up making more sense.
Well, just the bigger the farm,having those it it just makes
financially more sense if youhave more acres around across on
that piece of machinery, andall of a sudden you see the
savings, you know, to runningthat type of a system, you know,
(21:19):
where a where a traditionalsmaller farm or or maybe just
more of your traditional farmsize can't stomach you know that
that kind of a cost initially.
So so I think I I think thosesystems will probably come
online more with some of thesebigger farms further west, and
we'll see more use of like thesedual tank systems and what was
(21:40):
the big cost-saving driver forthe Kansas farmers?
Jodi (21:44):
I mean, I remember a couple years ago when John Deere
and I think there was anothercompany that introduced like the
picture-taking capability on umbooms in order to do like the
the green on brown.
And I think farmers in Montanaat that time were saving, you
know, thousands of dollars ontheir acres covering summer
(22:05):
follow, um, just doing the greenon brown.
And I quite say cost at thattime was really expensive too.
So really did a great job ofsaving.
What is the driver down therethat helps them get that saving
for I I think there's plenty oflike fallow situation that they
have there?
Kyle Okke (22:24):
Or well, you think, okay, so lot like Kansas right
now, a lot of their harvest ishappening right now.
Well, they're they're notnecessarily double cropping
soybeans into those acres,especially western Kansas.
It likely sits idle now therest of the year until they
plant corn the next spring.
And so that's very similar asyou get north to like a Montana
(22:47):
area, and they do a lot ofsummer fellow.
Or you get, you know, parts ofWestern Canada and they do
summerfellow.
Um, the cost savings areprobably more from not having to
make repeat trips.
So those dual tank systems, youhave the ability to run a green
on brown spray.
So you're only sprayingglyphosate where it needs to,
(23:08):
but you don't have to make asecond pass on those acres as
you're laying down residuals totry to reduce the amount of
passes you make.
Because that's that's a bigchem fallow play, is let's just
not keep spraying glyphosateover and over and over again.
That's a great way to make itnot work, which unfortunately
they've discovered that thatyeah, it it's already like that.
And and same thing if you'readding like dicamba and all
(23:30):
those, like the the originaldicamba resistance in kosher
actually comes out of Montana,out of farms in like that that
uh uh you know, just like northof Great Falls, Fort Benton,
Haver, that area.
Um, it it wasn't from peopleapplying it to Dicamba toller
(23:51):
and soybeans here.
Although they're finding outthat too, you know, that camba
is building resistance a lot.
Probably already had someselection pressure exposed to
it.
But I think that's I thinkthat's the driver for the these
western uh if I'm gonnaspeculate, these western Kansas
farms, because that's how Iwould see it with anyone I work
(24:13):
with, is if we had a lot of chemfallow or post winter weed,
where we want to keep that weedfree, you know, for the
remainder of the season, whichthey're they generally don't see
that much snow in the winterbecause of how much further
south they are, and so you'reyou're just trying to keep any
kind of weeds from growing andpulling through.
(24:35):
So you you have to rely, andyou don't want to do actual
tillage in a lot of cases if youdon't have to.
And so it's chem fallow.
And so you're applying aresidual to keep the amount of
passes you make.
So if you're able to do greenon brown spraying and laying a
residual at the same time, andthat reduces the amount of times
the sprayer has to be in thefield, that's a big win.
(24:57):
That's a pretty that's that'smy speculation why it's more
popular.
Jodi (25:04):
Yeah, no, that's that makes a lot of sense.
And I think what I'm hearingyou say is that folks that are
looking at doing getting intothese bigger systems, the CN
spray systems, etc., and if theydo have the two wet boom kits,
don't sleep on the variable ratecapability for the residuals,
because not only would you beable to potentially cost save
(25:25):
for chem thallow rate likeoverall herbicide reduction, but
and pass reduction, but youcould be reducing the amount of
carryover for and crop responsefrom herbicide applications if
you variable rate that too, theresidual side.
Kyle Okke (25:41):
Yep.
So here's here's some bonusstuff for you guys.
In in so I'm coming out of leftfield here, but you're gonna
like this, and it's not gonnasurprise you.
Um so this still falls underprecision application of
residual ingredients, but I Ithink there's one one another
(26:03):
use or another future in in thisthat's not just a row crop
situation, okay?
So the C and spray systems arefocused on corn soybean row
crops.
Eventually they're gonna getinto like real-time detection on
wheat, I think, and some ofthese other crops.
But I think there's a good likeutility use of drones when you
(26:26):
uh run into certain situations,okay?
So here's here's kind of twosituations that come to mind for
me.
Okay, first one where uh eventhough kosher is a tumbleweed,
everyone that deals with kosheras a problem could probably all
agree with me on this generalsentiment, is that it seems like
(26:49):
it comes up in the same placesover and over and over.
Like there's always perpetualproblem areas, even though in
the winter time that's mechanismof dispersal is tumbling across
the countryside and dispersingits seed.
That's how it spreads newstuff.
But where it is a perpetualproblem, it always is a problem.
Sarah (27:08):
Yeah, like in the salty areas.
I you know, I see it in acouple of salty areas and it
concentrates in there in acouple fields.
Jodi (27:15):
So okay, you have it in a video game, it always spawns in
the same place.
Kyle Okke (27:18):
Yes, and and it's not and and and sometimes those
salty areas aren't visiblyevident, you know.
Like I've had these very gooddiscussions with uh the farms I
work with too, and I go, theseshow up in the same spots every
year, and they're like, oh no, Idon't think that zone's as bad
as it is.
And I'm like, no, no, it is.
It just just because it's notwhite doesn't mean that it
doesn't produce a poor crop.
(27:39):
And and there's a really goodexample of that.
So we actually put a uh a cornhybrid trial, just a small strip
trial.
We just we just took the thethree hybrids he was growing on
his farm, and then I added uhtwo other hybrids from another
farm and that that they had thathe was interested in, and we
did it in a strip trial.
Well, as we're putting stakesin the ground, we were at the
(28:01):
headlands of this field, we'rein a poor area based on the zone
map.
Well, I had the damnedest timepunching stakes into the ground.
The ground is so hard, visiblydoesn't look that bad.
Those are the same areas thatwe have a lot of the perpetual
kosher issues.
Guess what?
You have higher elevatedsoluble salts.
The ground is like very justlike the soil structure is
(28:25):
degraded where you don't getgood water infiltration, so you
get this buildup of salts.
It isn't physically white, butthe crop never canopies very
good, the roots never grow good,the the crop never yields that
great, and so it leads theseperpetual kosher spots year over
year for-wheeling these fields.
I see them in the same over andover and over again.
(28:47):
So uh now I own a little DGIMavic 3 Enterprise with a
multi-spectral camera.
One of my goals with that is tofly over these fields when
there's no crop and those weedsare coming there.
I want to map these populationswith the goal of having an or
(29:08):
of potentially just even avariable rate fall residual map.
So and so fall residual, wehaven't been variable rating.
Fall residual, we've just beenputting out a static rate across
everything.
And there on fall residual,everything else is dead.
So all we're doing is waterresidual, variable rate, the the
water volume, no real likeimplications to that.
(29:31):
But if we know where we havethe issue areas, and we also
know the other parametersinvolved, and then plus it's
fall, like we got a long timefor things to kind of you know
cool off and and not cause asmuch crop injury.
I want to hammer on those areaseven harder with with higher.
Jodi (29:51):
Yes, spawn sites.
Kyle Okke (29:52):
Yes, try, yes, trying to get rid of the respawn sites
because those are the pointsources of the damn weeds.
Sarah (30:00):
I love it.
Kyle Okke (30:01):
Yeah.
So so that's that's that's oneuse.
Another one that I wish I wouldhave had this year is think
about every time in a wheat cropwhen wild oats come out.
Sarah (30:12):
Yes.
Kyle Okke (30:12):
It's the grass that falls in between the rows of the
rest of the grass that'sgrowing in the field.
That with good high resolutionimagery would be extremely easy
to detect.
And wild oats, their mechanismof dispersal, they're not
necessarily going into thecombine, getting ground up and
spit back out.
They're dropping beforeharvest.
(30:36):
And so wild oats typicallydon't end up being super duper
widespread across the fieldunless it ends up getting
really, really bad over time.
But if you get it on earlierdetection, you can you can get
these wild oats patches wherethey don't grow and they just
keep staying in the same spots.
And so now we take like yourproducts like Zidua that have
(30:59):
really, really awesome or Fargo,yeah.
Yeah.
If if tillage enters the chatand you can do incorporation,
um, but but you take okay, sothere's multiple residual
products for wild oats, and andfor us in you know, 50 bushel
wheat country, um a $20application across the board of
(31:23):
a wild oats residual is is atough pill to swallow at the
price of wheat right now.
Sarah (31:28):
Yeah.
Kyle Okke (31:28):
But if you could identify where those wild oat
patches are at and predict wherethey're going to come up
because they are predictablewhere they'll come up.
And now you can apply that toonly 20% of the field where it
needs to be, and you could do itat a higher rate.
Not only can you put it at ahigher rate to prevent that
(31:49):
patch from you know getting outof control, but you can also do
it at a higher rate to reallyprevent that from happening and
do it uh economically across theacres.
So you're still applying lessthan you would have to begin
with.
So maybe you can take that $20application and make it a $10
application.
Sarah (32:08):
So this has been a fabulous conversation with Kyle
about a lot of the actualequipment concepts that go into
um making variable rate uhherbicide applications actually
work both from an agronomic andan equipment standpoint in the
field.
And and so we've talked of thisthis podcast has actually gone
(32:31):
quite a bit longer than what wethought it was going to.
You know, we started talkingabout in the previous episode
about general concepts of thewhole residual uh variable rate
residual herbicide concept, andthis time it was all about the
equipment, and we haven't eventalked about mapping yet.
So we're sitting here and Ithink we're going to have Kyle
(32:52):
back again because we're alreadyabout the end of this uh end of
our time here, and we'll we'llcome back and and chat again
about actually mapping thisstuff because hey, that's what
we actually do here at GKTechnology.
Um because at GK Technology, wehave a map and an app for that.
(33:13):
See ya next time.
And now it's time for Ag Geek Speak with GK
Technology's, Sarah and Jodi.
Theme Song (00:10):
In the fields again.
I just can't wait to get in thefields again.
The life I love is spread inproduct for my friends.
And I can't wait to get in thefields again.
No, I can't wait to get in thefields again.
Jodi (00:31):
Welcome back to another episode of Ag Geek Speak.
We are in the second part ofour conversation with Kyle Okke
of Agile Agronomy out ofDickinson, North Dakota.
And in the first part of ourconversation, we really talked
about, you know, what were thecircumstances that prompted Kyle
to start thinking about andimplementing variable rate
(00:52):
herbicide applications,specifically residual
applications to help reduce cropinjury.
And now we're getting into thenitty-gritty details of how we
actually do this because it'snot as simple as just varying
your urea rate.
There are some otherconsiderations that uh that uh
have to be made too.
So with that, Kyle, we werejust talking about, you know, uh
(01:16):
conventional rate controllersand being really cognizant of
droplet sizes when you'rechanging pressure.
What is the ideal system like?
If how have you made this work?
What are you varying?
What's been successful?
And yeah, tell me more.
Kyle Okke (01:36):
Sure.
So the last the last time Ispoke, I think we kind of cut it
off around uh talking aboutlike how conventional spray
systems work and and why theydon't work that great in in a
variable rate sprayingapplication, because you're
you're you're going way outsideof the parameters of normal
operation for spray nozzles whenyou're doing that.
(01:59):
So that the conventionalsystem, even though a variable
rate controller does adjust yourapplied rate through there,
nozzles really weren't meant togo through those biggest swings.
So so what'll happen,especially in these tank mix
scenarios that I was talkingabout before, where you're
(02:20):
having post-emergent andresidual products together,
which isn't ideal, but we can doit.
And there are a lot of nuancesin where to make that work.
But um if you drop to say like15 pounds of pressure to get
your rate down low enough toreduce injury in these, you
know, poor soil areas where youknow you're gonna see crop
(02:42):
injury, well, you're reducingyour tank mix partner too, and
you're collapsing your pattern,you're getting way smaller
droplets with that loweredpressure, and you're not gonna
achieve the post-emergent weedcontrol you're after in those
areas versus like going to theareas that receive the high
rates.
Well, you have the potentialfor over-pressurizing the
(03:05):
system, and now you have a lotof fines, which coverage is
fine, but when you produce a lotof fines, you have a lot of
off-target movement.
And so now you're running therisk of off-target movement.
And I'm not just talking likegoing along a bordering field
that maybe has a sensitive cropand you're you know concerned
about that.
I'm talking about off-targetmovement where you're trying to
(03:27):
apply this applied rate to thisvery area, and then all of a
sudden you get a gust of windand it pushes a lot of that
applied particles that you weretrying to get to land to the
ground.
Now they're not going to theground.
So there's a lot of you canvariable rule apply with a
conventional system, at leastmechanically.
(03:50):
Now, agronomically, does itmake sense?
Like once it leaves thesprayer, that that's where
that's where it kind of lacks.
So so in enters pulse withmodulation.
Sarah (04:01):
Okay, before you say pulse with modulation, which is
super fun to say for everybodyout there, say it with me.
Pulse with modulation.
That's so fun.
Anyway, I want to rememberremind everyone that whenever we
are doing there, there's somuch that we can do mechanically
with precision agriculture.
There's so much that we can dowith computers and precision
(04:23):
agriculture.
But if it doesn't makeagronomic sense, there's no
point doing it.
So I just want to hone thatback in again.
Um, there's there's no point invariable rating if it doesn't
make sense agronomically.
That's the whole thing thatwe're trying to do.
So, okay.
Just had to get that in.
Kyle Okke (04:41):
Um, that's a great point.
I've actually had uh so so myone of my well, both of the the
farms I work with in Montana,they've they both have big
fields, but I've had them askedbefore uh to this exact point
you made.
They'll look at a map like thisone doesn't variable rate at
all.
Why why is that?
(05:01):
And I'm like, do you want me tovariable rate it by 10 pounds
so you have a pretty map?
Sarah (05:05):
Yeah.
Kyle Okke (05:06):
Or or you just go, you have really high phosphate
in this field.
So all we need to do is run abasic starter.
Sarah (05:12):
Yes.
Kyle Okke (05:12):
Across everything.
And and so it's in starterfertility.
Uh and and as soon as I explainthat, they're like, oh, oh,
okay, well, it's good to know.
I just want to know.
It just it didn't, it didn't,it it was in the it was in the
prescription as no rate change.
I'm like, nope, that was onpurpose.
Like we don't need to make itvariable rate if it doesn't need
(05:34):
a variable rate, but you'd makeit a map still because the
standard practice is you're usedto uploading that stuff for
fields.
Jodi (05:41):
So sometimes the variable rate answer is a flat rate.
Kyle Okke (05:44):
Yes.
So so yeah.
So great point.
Sarah (05:48):
But not when it comes to residual herbicides with a lot
of changes and a role.
See how I brought that allback?
Kyle Okke (05:54):
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah.
Sarah (05:56):
So pulse with modulation.
Kyle Okke (05:59):
Yes.
Sarah (06:00):
Super fun words to say.
Talk to us about that.
Kyle Okke (06:03):
So this was probably uh case IH through the AIM
command uh trade name isprobably where this has been the
most popular.
But although every piece ofequipment has it, I think
actually the original uh pulsewith modulation system that
existed was from Capstan.
And they called that asharpshooter.
(06:24):
And and then I believe Case IHjust has licensed that from
Capstan, or at least theiroriginal rendition of that.
And now, and now just aboutevery brand of sprayer has their
own like brand-specific versionof it.
Like John Deere, the other bigone in the game, has has exact
apply.
(06:44):
Um I was gonna say PrecisionPlanting has their own system
now, Capstan continues to dotheir system, and there are
others that exist out there.
But what that is doing is isdecoupling the change in
pressure to the rate that'sbeing pushed through the pump.
(07:05):
So pulse width modulation isdecoupling the pressure change.
So the pressure change remainsstatic, but what is actually
happening in pulse widthmodulation, and I'm sure that I
know this is this isn'tsomething specific to
agriculture.
This is definitely like anengineering thing, and and I
(07:26):
think this gets used a lot inlike pulse width modulation, if
I'm not mistaken, is more aboutlike electricity delivery than
it is about anything else.
But what it means to us andagriculture is that there is an
electrical solenoid on everynozzle body, and it is
controlling a plunger that'sacting like a gate valve for
(07:46):
water flow.
And so this pulse widthmodulation is like intermittent
electricity that's that's cominginto the solenoid and it's
activating and deactivating aplunger.
So it is stopping and startingthe flow of water coming through
the nozzle body, and and how itadjusts the applied volume as
(08:09):
you speed up or slow down ontraditional spraying is that
you're you're setting a uh aduty cycle, they'll call it, of
how many times that electricpulse turns on and off and turns
that plunger on and off on allof those solenoids uh a second.
And so it'll be uh in hertz.
(08:30):
Uh it'll say like how manyhertz are you gonna run?
And and but they'll say youneed to run from somewhere
between like 50 and 70 percentuh duty cycles, saying that like
let's say if the nozzle turnedon 10 times a second at 50% duty
cycle, it's it's plunging inand out five times for for easy
(08:53):
figuring, but it happens a lotfaster than that.
So it's like a lot of times asecond.
It's not just 10 times asecond, it's like 50 times a
second or something like that.
Um it it's crazy fast.
Jodi (09:05):
It's it's so cool.
And like let I want to paint apicture quick because I this
whole concept of like what ispulsive modulation, what does it
look like?
That really made sense in myhead, right?
Because Kyle described it in areally, really great way, right?
There's these plungers thatturn on and off, allowing that
water to flow through.
But what does it actually looklike in person?
I mean, if you think about asprayer like turning a row,
(09:28):
right?
And you've got the inside ofthat sprayer, like if it's
turning right, you've got thatright hand side of the sprayer
that's kind of just staying inplace while the outside side of
that sprayer is moving reallyfast as it whips around that
corner, right?
And so with like pulse withmodulation, the inside nozzles
that aren't moving very quickly,like where you're turning,
they're gonna turn on and offless quickly than the ones on
(09:50):
the outside.
So that even though you've gotdifferent speeds at different
sides of the boom, you're stillapplying the same amount of
water volume over the acreagesthat you're covering.
So, like if you're goingslower, you're gonna have slower
pulses.
Like you're gonna, you can seelike the droplets coming out of
the sprayer.
And then like as you speed up,you can hear those like
(10:10):
solenoids going on and off, andyou can hear it go faster.
Like, is that painted picture?
It it's you can see it inaction when you speed up and
slow down.
Kyle Okke (10:20):
Anyone that uses that sprayer and is applied with it
or watched it go, you you seeexactly what it is because you
can you can hear the sprayturning on and off.
Yeah.
Um, you you see it.
What you just explained, Jody,is turn compensation.
Yeah, much like using usingusing pulse width modulation.
And there are pulse widthmodulation systems that only
(10:41):
work by the boom section.
So they don't necessarily havenozzle by nozzle control.
And so you have to the that'son unfortunately to the farmer,
that is technology you have topay more for to have, but it it
it does, it's there and and allthat.
So depending on, but but theoverall, let's just pretend the
whole boom is using pulse widthmodulation still.
(11:03):
When when you speed up andyou're applying your static
rate, you need to increase yourpressure on a standard system.
Well, now it's just it's it'salready pressurized, and all
that's changing is the dutycycle increases.
So it's just turning on and offmore times a second to get that
(11:25):
extra water volume applied sothat it's still applying the
target rate.
When you slow down, and this iswhere anyone that uses a
sprayer with the system reallysees it, you get into that
classic field border situationwhere you lower your booms and
you slow down because you don'twant to drift, it's
automatically compensating whenyou slow down to a crawl.
(11:48):
All of a sudden, you see thoseyou can see how many times it's
turning on and off because itit's like, whoa, okay, we got to
go down to like 10% duty cycleto get our water volume right,
and then you just see thesepoof, poof, poof, poof, you
know, like it's going in slowmotion on the on and off of the
nozzles.
And and then that's generallyalso where you see uh poor
(12:12):
control like your field bordersand some because you're not
getting the coverage you youneed to get out in that
situation.
So those those nozzle bodiesare all they're designed to be
run at least, you know, at likethat 40 to 70 percent duty
cycle.
I mean they have to.
Sarah (12:30):
But at the same time, your spray pattern is always
going to be consistent.
Yes, because you've got thatconsistent pressure of going
through the nozzle every time.
Kyle Okke (12:40):
Yes, the pattern on the nozzle is consistent because
it's always running at thepressure you set it for.
So it's never lowering, it'snever going higher, so you don't
get the driftable finds, youdon't get the collapse pattern.
So so that's so that's that'sthe concept behind that.
And so when it comes tovariable rating, then the
(13:01):
herbicide, where now we'retalking from five to ten
gallons, we don't have thiscrazy like slow down, speed up
kind of thing that happens whenwe're lowering the applied
volume or raising the appliedvolume.
The duty cycle is compensatingthere, so you can still just
maintain for the most part youraverage speed, and the duty
(13:23):
cycle is what's changing whenit's variable rating to
compensate for that.
Jodi (13:30):
Beautiful.
Kyle Okke (13:30):
So that's so that's how it's accomplishing that.
And then you don't change sprayquality, pattern quality, and
you're still achieving as goodof a post-emergent spray pattern
as you possibly can get.
And and then less strain onequipment and all that of it,
the speeding up and slowing downand all that kind of stuff.
Jodi (13:50):
So in this case that you're talking about with pulse
with modulation, you arechanging the rate of your tank
mix, whatever you've got inthere, whether it be the
residual herbicide or a that anda partner, you're changing the
rate of that application basedon gallons per acre applied.
Kyle Okke (14:08):
Correct.
Yep.
Jodi (14:10):
And then you can keep a consistent pattern with the
pulse with modulation.
Kyle Okke (14:13):
Yep.
Jodi (14:14):
So Do you have any or go ahead?
Kyle Okke (14:16):
Or no, you you ask, and then we'll go.
Jodi (14:18):
Do you have any sprayers where you have direct injection
where you can change the rate ofwhat that herbicide is?
Kyle Okke (14:25):
Unfortunately, I do not.
Because that uh I'm glad thatyou brought that up because that
was kind of the direction I wasgonna go.
There is uh direct injectionwhere that is tied to a rate
controller, and you could haveuh, you know, where the sprayer
is constantly doing the targetrate.
So let's just say it's 10gallons per acre or 15 gallons
(14:46):
per acre, whatever the standardtarget rate is.
It will keep that standardtarget rate, and then it's going
to direct inject at variablerates into the spray boom.
Now, I don't have the thefortune of working with anyone
that has those systems.
That type of system shouldwork.
I've certainly thought aboutthat too.
(15:08):
Um, I'm sure there's kind ofgrowing pains with learning what
to do there because I'm surethere's like a look-ahead time
that you really have to befocused on on that because it it
does take time if a directinjection system is hitting like
your main hose coming into theboom, and you have a hundred
feet, 120 feet, or hell, some ofthese sprayers are out like 160
(15:31):
feet now.
So it takes it takes time toget that rate all the way up to
the end of the booms, and sothat's I I wonder how well
variable rate would work on adirect inject system because of
the amount of a lot of sprayersare going 15 plus miles an hour.
Is it going to compensate it ittakes it's gonna take seconds
(15:56):
to well, probably more thanseconds, maybe like a dozen
seconds or something like thatto get spray from the center of
the boom all the way to the outto the edges, and so barrel
barating something you might endup with like these weird like
of the pattern triangle patternscoming in and out, and so that
might not be the the answer, andand you don't see those systems
(16:23):
necessarily used toostreamlined, anyways, but I'll
bring up another system, and andJohn Deere's the one that's
paving the way there, but theyare not the only one that's out
there.
There are other sprayermanufacturers that have dual
tank systems that could havedual plumbing, could have dual
(16:44):
wet booms, all that.
But oh, so now you're talkingabout actual dual dual tanks and
dual um so so let's let's talklike a John Deere C and spray
ultimate, not not nonenecessarily the C and spray part
of it, but that's what theycall it.
Okay, so when you buy a sprayerwith the C and Spray Ultimate
(17:06):
kit installed in it, that hastwo tanks, it has two tank
fills, it has two live booms onit, and so on that whole boom,
there's two wet kits, two setsof nozzles, everything on that
sprayer.
And so I think those tanks areset up in like a 60-40
configuration.
So let's just do for easyfiguring.
(17:27):
If you're running athousand-gallon tank, which I
think they're a lot bigger thanthat, but you're you're running
a 600-gallon tank and a400-gallon tank, and then they
have dedicated plumbing to goout to individual nozzle bodies.
Now you have the ability tokeep something like
sulfentrazone in a tank byitself, and that can variable
(17:49):
rate your water volume as asyou're going through the field,
and you don't have to worryabout the tank mix partner
because a tank mix partner canbe in their very own tank and be
independently run.
Sarah (18:03):
And you could maintain that con if it's a post-emerged
herbicide, for example, youcould keep that constant um
water volume in there.
That that sounds like a systemthat could actually work out
pretty darn good.
That's pretty fun.
Kyle Okke (18:17):
Yep.
And so I think uh I thinkthat's something that could work
out really, really well.
And and then you could takethat a step further too.
And if if you're going afterthe green on brown, you know,
kind of thing, you could haveyou could have that, you know,
running at a static rate, at astatic pressure with a tank mix
(18:39):
that you're doing an on and offgreen on brown sea and spray,
and then you're just on thewhole background side on that
second tank, be running avariable rate residual.
So, so that's like the ultimatetech that that comes there.
And and so uh, you know, Ithink John Deere on the
equipment side is so focused onjust the the sea and spray part
(19:03):
and like a static residual.
And they're and I think they'vebeen focused heavily on like
the in-crop part of it, but Ithink what you'll see come into
play, especially is like I mean,these systems are expensive,
right?
And so it and so interestinglyenough, um, we have more of
(19:23):
those types of systems in NorthDakota now, but actually the
place that adopted a a heavy useof those is Western Kansas.
Sarah (19:32):
Really?
Yep, and you're talking aboutthe C and spray technology, just
C and spray in general.
Okay, yeah.
Kyle Okke (19:40):
Um, I don't know necessarily the the ultimate,
okay, but no matter what, likeyou're you're talking a pretty
substantial upgrade.
Like the cost of that system,you could buy a used sprayer in
all that.
Sarah (19:57):
Right.
Absolutely.
Kyle Okke (19:59):
That that you know, you couldn't buy a brand new
sprayer, but you could buy apretty decent use, high, high,
high clearance self-propelledsprayer for the cost of these
upgrades, but as but it's all aneconomy of scale, and so why I
say like you know, like it wasuh oh uh I'm trying to think of
who was talking about this.
Jodi (20:17):
Uh Josh Sherman.
Kyle Okke (20:20):
No, we yes, we've uh we've all talked to Josh.
I know you guys have.
I've listened to your podcastwith Josh on on these things,
but um uh Sarah Lancaster fromKansas State.
Sarah (20:32):
Oh sure.
Kyle Okke (20:33):
Um Ed actually Ed actually showed up to uh our
Wild World of Weeds seminar,talked about this and shared
about those systems.
And basically, as you travelwest in any state, you have uh
the farms get bigger, the scalesbigger, and then like we talked
in the previous section of thispodcast, that the bigger the
(20:57):
fields are, the more variabilityyou do inherently end up
seeing, and where variable rateends up making more sense.
Well, just the bigger the farm,having those it it just makes
financially more sense if youhave more acres around across on
that piece of machinery, andall of a sudden you see the
savings, you know, to runningthat type of a system, you know,
(21:19):
where a where a traditionalsmaller farm or or maybe just
more of your traditional farmsize can't stomach you know that
that kind of a cost initially.
So so I think I I think thosesystems will probably come
online more with some of thesebigger farms further west, and
we'll see more use of like thesedual tank systems and what was
(21:40):
the big cost-saving driver forthe Kansas farmers?
Jodi (21:44):
I mean, I remember a couple years ago when John Deere
and I think there was anothercompany that introduced like the
picture-taking capability on umbooms in order to do like the
the green on brown.
And I think farmers in Montanaat that time were saving, you
know, thousands of dollars ontheir acres covering summer
(22:05):
follow, um, just doing the greenon brown.
And I quite say cost at thattime was really expensive too.
So really did a great job ofsaving.
What is the driver down therethat helps them get that saving
for I I think there's plenty oflike fallow situation that they
have there?
Kyle Okke (22:24):
Or well, you think, okay, so lot like Kansas right
now, a lot of their harvest ishappening right now.
Well, they're they're notnecessarily double cropping
soybeans into those acres,especially western Kansas.
It likely sits idle now therest of the year until they
plant corn the next spring.
And so that's very similar asyou get north to like a Montana
(22:47):
area, and they do a lot ofsummer fellow.
Or you get, you know, parts ofWestern Canada and they do
summerfellow.
Um, the cost savings areprobably more from not having to
make repeat trips.
So those dual tank systems, youhave the ability to run a green
on brown spray.
So you're only sprayingglyphosate where it needs to,
(23:08):
but you don't have to make asecond pass on those acres as
you're laying down residuals totry to reduce the amount of
passes you make.
Because that's that's a bigchem fallow play, is let's just
not keep spraying glyphosateover and over and over again.
That's a great way to make itnot work, which unfortunately
they've discovered that thatyeah, it it's already like that.
And and same thing if you'readding like dicamba and all
(23:30):
those, like the the originaldicamba resistance in kosher
actually comes out of Montana,out of farms in like that that
uh uh you know, just like northof Great Falls, Fort Benton,
Haver, that area.
Um, it it wasn't from peopleapplying it to Dicamba toller
(23:51):
and soybeans here.
Although they're finding outthat too, you know, that camba
is building resistance a lot.
Probably already had someselection pressure exposed to
it.
But I think that's I thinkthat's the driver for the these
western uh if I'm gonnaspeculate, these western Kansas
farms, because that's how Iwould see it with anyone I work
(24:13):
with, is if we had a lot of chemfallow or post winter weed,
where we want to keep that weedfree, you know, for the
remainder of the season, whichthey're they generally don't see
that much snow in the winterbecause of how much further
south they are, and so you'reyou're just trying to keep any
kind of weeds from growing andpulling through.
(24:35):
So you you have to rely, andyou don't want to do actual
tillage in a lot of cases if youdon't have to.
And so it's chem fallow.
And so you're applying aresidual to keep the amount of
passes you make.
So if you're able to do greenon brown spraying and laying a
residual at the same time, andthat reduces the amount of times
the sprayer has to be in thefield, that's a big win.
(24:57):
That's a pretty that's that'smy speculation why it's more
popular.
Jodi (25:04):
Yeah, no, that's that makes a lot of sense.
And I think what I'm hearingyou say is that folks that are
looking at doing getting intothese bigger systems, the CN
spray systems, etc., and if theydo have the two wet boom kits,
don't sleep on the variable ratecapability for the residuals,
because not only would you beable to potentially cost save
(25:25):
for chem thallow rate likeoverall herbicide reduction, but
and pass reduction, but youcould be reducing the amount of
carryover for and crop responsefrom herbicide applications if
you variable rate that too, theresidual side.
Kyle Okke (25:41):
Yep.
So here's here's some bonusstuff for you guys.
In in so I'm coming out of leftfield here, but you're gonna
like this, and it's not gonnasurprise you.
Um so this still falls underprecision application of
residual ingredients, but I Ithink there's one one another
(26:03):
use or another future in in thisthat's not just a row crop
situation, okay?
So the C and spray systems arefocused on corn soybean row
crops.
Eventually they're gonna getinto like real-time detection on
wheat, I think, and some ofthese other crops.
But I think there's a good likeutility use of drones when you
(26:26):
uh run into certain situations,okay?
So here's here's kind of twosituations that come to mind for
me.
Okay, first one where uh eventhough kosher is a tumbleweed,
everyone that deals with kosheras a problem could probably all
agree with me on this generalsentiment, is that it seems like
(26:49):
it comes up in the same placesover and over and over.
Like there's always perpetualproblem areas, even though in
the winter time that's mechanismof dispersal is tumbling across
the countryside and dispersingits seed.
That's how it spreads newstuff.
But where it is a perpetualproblem, it always is a problem.
Sarah (27:08):
Yeah, like in the salty areas.
I you know, I see it in acouple of salty areas and it
concentrates in there in acouple fields.
Jodi (27:15):
So okay, you have it in a video game, it always spawns in
the same place.
Kyle Okke (27:18):
Yes, and and it's not and and and sometimes those
salty areas aren't visiblyevident, you know.
Like I've had these very gooddiscussions with uh the farms I
work with too, and I go, theseshow up in the same spots every
year, and they're like, oh no, Idon't think that zone's as bad
as it is.
And I'm like, no, no, it is.
It just just because it's notwhite doesn't mean that it
doesn't produce a poor crop.
(27:39):
And and there's a really goodexample of that.
So we actually put a uh a cornhybrid trial, just a small strip
trial.
We just we just took the thethree hybrids he was growing on
his farm, and then I added uhtwo other hybrids from another
farm and that that they had thathe was interested in, and we
did it in a strip trial.
Well, as we're putting stakesin the ground, we were at the
(28:01):
headlands of this field, we'rein a poor area based on the zone
map.
Well, I had the damnedest timepunching stakes into the ground.
The ground is so hard, visiblydoesn't look that bad.
Those are the same areas thatwe have a lot of the perpetual
kosher issues.
Guess what?
You have higher elevatedsoluble salts.
The ground is like very justlike the soil structure is
(28:25):
degraded where you don't getgood water infiltration, so you
get this buildup of salts.
It isn't physically white, butthe crop never canopies very
good, the roots never grow good,the the crop never yields that
great, and so it leads theseperpetual kosher spots year over
year for-wheeling these fields.
I see them in the same over andover and over again.
(28:47):
So uh now I own a little DGIMavic 3 Enterprise with a
multi-spectral camera.
One of my goals with that is tofly over these fields when
there's no crop and those weedsare coming there.
I want to map these populationswith the goal of having an or
(29:08):
of potentially just even avariable rate fall residual map.
So and so fall residual, wehaven't been variable rating.
Fall residual, we've just beenputting out a static rate across
everything.
And there on fall residual,everything else is dead.
So all we're doing is waterresidual, variable rate, the the
water volume, no real likeimplications to that.
(29:31):
But if we know where we havethe issue areas, and we also
know the other parametersinvolved, and then plus it's
fall, like we got a long timefor things to kind of you know
cool off and and not cause asmuch crop injury.
I want to hammer on those areaseven harder with with higher.
Jodi (29:51):
Yes, spawn sites.
Kyle Okke (29:52):
Yes, try, yes, trying to get rid of the respawn sites
because those are the pointsources of the damn weeds.
Sarah (30:00):
I love it.
Kyle Okke (30:01):
Yeah.
So so that's that's that's oneuse.
Another one that I wish I wouldhave had this year is think
about every time in a wheat cropwhen wild oats come out.
Sarah (30:12):
Yes.
Kyle Okke (30:12):
It's the grass that falls in between the rows of the
rest of the grass that'sgrowing in the field.
That with good high resolutionimagery would be extremely easy
to detect.
And wild oats, their mechanismof dispersal, they're not
necessarily going into thecombine, getting ground up and
spit back out.
They're dropping beforeharvest.
(30:36):
And so wild oats typicallydon't end up being super duper
widespread across the fieldunless it ends up getting
really, really bad over time.
But if you get it on earlierdetection, you can you can get
these wild oats patches wherethey don't grow and they just
keep staying in the same spots.
And so now we take like yourproducts like Zidua that have
(30:59):
really, really awesome or Fargo,yeah.
Yeah.
If if tillage enters the chatand you can do incorporation,
um, but but you take okay, sothere's multiple residual
products for wild oats, and andfor us in you know, 50 bushel
wheat country, um a $20application across the board of
(31:23):
a wild oats residual is is atough pill to swallow at the
price of wheat right now.
Sarah (31:28):
Yeah.
Kyle Okke (31:28):
But if you could identify where those wild oat
patches are at and predict wherethey're going to come up
because they are predictablewhere they'll come up.
And now you can apply that toonly 20% of the field where it
needs to be, and you could do itat a higher rate.
Not only can you put it at ahigher rate to prevent that
(31:49):
patch from you know getting outof control, but you can also do
it at a higher rate to reallyprevent that from happening and
do it uh economically across theacres.
So you're still applying lessthan you would have to begin
with.
So maybe you can take that $20application and make it a $10
application.
Sarah (32:08):
So this has been a fabulous conversation with Kyle
about a lot of the actualequipment concepts that go into
um making variable rate uhherbicide applications actually
work both from an agronomic andan equipment standpoint in the
field.
And and so we've talked of thisthis podcast has actually gone
(32:31):
quite a bit longer than what wethought it was going to.
You know, we started talkingabout in the previous episode
about general concepts of thewhole residual uh variable rate
residual herbicide concept, andthis time it was all about the
equipment, and we haven't eventalked about mapping yet.
So we're sitting here and Ithink we're going to have Kyle
(32:52):
back again because we're alreadyabout the end of this uh end of
our time here, and we'll we'llcome back and and chat again
about actually mapping thisstuff because hey, that's what
we actually do here at GKTechnology.
Um because at GK Technology, wehave a map and an app for that.
(33:13):
See ya next time.
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