20. Using Autonomous Tractors on the Farm with Matt Krueger

We talk with Matt Krueger about his field-level view of autonomous tillage with a 9R series John Deere tractor, from kit installation to dust-driven safety stops, and how better boundaries and AutoPath boost both uptime and data quality. Matt's story centers on labor flexibility, real costs, and where autonomy should expand next.

In this special hour-long episode we talk:
• autonomy kit details, JDLink Boost connectivity, dual receivers
• autonomy-grade boundaries and safe offsets near obstacles
• dust sensitivity, camera logic, alerts and overrides
• AutoPath benefits for cleaner headlands and data integrity
• remote control of depth, pressure and implement settings
• ROI framed as uptime and labor flexibility, not replacement
• likely next targets for autonomy: sprayers and air seeders
• subscription pricing models and reliability trade-offs
• NDVI plus as applied maps to trace application misses
• skills and fallbacks when GPS degrades or sensors fail

With GK Technology, we have a map, and an app, for that!

https://gktechinc.com/

Episode Transcript

Sarah (00:00):
And now it's time for a geek speak with DK Technologies,
Sarah and Jody.

Theme Music (00:10):
In the field again.
I just can't wait to get in thefield again.
And I can't wait to get in thefield again.
Oh, I can't wait to get in thefield again.

Sarah (00:32):
Welcome back to A GeekSpeak.
We are very excited.
We are going to have aconversation with Matthew
Krueger today, who farms by EastGrand Forks.
And he's been a longtime ADMSuser, software user as a company
we've known Matthew Matt for along time.
So very happy to have you back.

(00:54):
If you missed it, I highlyrecommend going back and
checking out the episode on theValley Corn Maze.
He actually, the women in hisfamily own a business, the
Valley Corn Maze.
And this year, 2025, they madethe world's largest corn maize.
So go check out that podcast.

(01:14):
But today we're going to talkabout something else.
Matt loves technology andagriculture.
And one of the things that hehas been dabbling with is
autonomous tractors.
So, Matt, what can you tell usabout your autonomous tractor
experience so far?
How's that for a broad-based,open-ended question?

(01:35):
Where do you even start?
How did you get good with anautonomous tractor?

Matthew Krueger (01:40):
Yeah.
So we added this spring.
It was on our tillage tractorfor uh field cultivating, which
we use to incorporate ourfertilizer that's spring applied
into the ground.
And we, you know, I guess goingback, John Deere, we're on John
Deere farm.
And so John Deere's hadautonomy on their 8,000-frame

(02:01):
series tractors for I think afew years now.
However, up here where we'relocated, which is in the
northern, well, Grand Forks,North Dakota, which is the
valley.
I'd say it's probably theCentral Valley, probably.
8,000 frame tractors do not dochillage.
We use big 9,000 frame JohnDeere tractors.
We I kind of just told thedealership, like, man, do you

(02:23):
think they're ever going to workon this in 9,000 frame?
And eventually, um, I knew theywould.
I mean, it just seemed to belike Deere had to start
somewhere.
Fun fact uh John Deere does Idon't know how to say this
exactly.
They monitor you more than youthink they monitor you, but I
don't think they like I thinkyou're a number to them.
So anyway, so I was chosenbecause I had the second highest

(02:46):
click rate in my dealership'susage for operations center,
which I don't know if I have tobe proud of that or not, but
they said internally like I wasclose, and like there's a pretty
big gap between like me and afew others.

Sarah (02:59):
Click rate.
What does that mean?
Like as far as like the amountof uploads that you're putting
up there, or like I think it'slike how much you're in
operations center, how much likeclicking within the like within
it and like using the featuresand everything else like that,
apparently.

Matthew Krueger (03:15):
So I was behind black gold, which for those
that know black gold, like I wasbehind their which I mean like
to me, I'm like black gold'smassive.

Sarah (03:24):
Yeah, they farm in multiple states.

Matthew Krueger (03:26):
Yes, they farm multiple states.
I I mean I farm in multiplestates, I have North Dakota, but
uh we're nothing anywhereremotely.
I mean, our farm is like one oftheir farm locations.

Sarah (03:35):
So for those people that listen to this podcast and other
parts of the country, Mattfarms in East Grand Forks.
That's on the Minnesota side ofthe Red River, which is the
boundary between Minnesota andNorth Dakota.
So when he says he farms inmultiple states, he just crosses
the river.

Matthew Krueger (03:55):
Yeah, it's four miles away.

Jodi (03:56):
So it's and for anybody wondering, we do not keep track
of your clicks in ADMS.
We do not know who has thehighest click rate in ADMS, if
anybody was thinking about that.

Matthew Krueger (04:08):
Yeah.
So we will not send you aplaque.

Sarah (04:12):
We're not taking, we're not noting who's got the most
sample points in a field.

Matthew Krueger (04:19):
That's good to know.
Yeah.
So anyway, so uh I felt alittle like violated and I was
kind of like, I I don't know howI feel about that.
Like, because I'm like, Ithought the whole data thing,
like, well it is, but like itdid they can just tell your
click rate, which then like evenother software they do have
like a tie to like even if youhave an error, like they'll have
a double click thing, likethere's different things that
engineers have to help them knowlike what working or not,

(04:40):
what's not working.
So anyway, so they came to us,our dealership said, Hey, John
Deere's wondering if you'd beconsidered would you ever
consider putting autonomy onyour on one of your tractors?
And I said, Absolutely, youknow.
Um, but I mean I saidabsolutely, but what's the
catch, you know?
So they they for for us being ademo farm, uh, they put the kit

(05:02):
on full like they they they didthat.
We do have to buy out the kitif we want it at the end of the
year, and then but otherwisethan that, like we we self-pay
the subscription cost, it is asubscription-based model.
Um right now it's four bucks anacre, which is high.
And so they're working on thatthey have said like they're
gonna adjust that because it isI think they're gonna do it

(05:23):
based on more like operation oror even how many acres you you
use autonomy for, kind of like atiered thing, like the first so
many acres would be this rate,then it drops, you know,
progressively.
They've even looked at likewhole farm models, like if
you're using autonomy, it mightjust be a flat rate.
So, anyway, so I'm just tellingyou what what I know today what
it is.
So they put this kit on, itincluded an extra like valve

(05:47):
pack that I think it was tied tothe braking of the autonomy.
And put a Starlink um called JDBoost on top of the roof, which
actually is super handy.
Um, I actually bought one for Iput it on my flat retractor,
and I'm actually moving to mycombine um because then I have
cell phone connectivity all thetime.
I can do Wi-Fi calling, andthat has been phenomenal.

(06:08):
Because we do have fields thatjust are prone to poor pores
poor cell reception.
And it was fantastic beplanting all spring long and be
on the phone and not have asingle issue.
So um so yeah, so super I thinkthat kit was like I think it
was like I think it's a thousandbucks, so it's 300 bucks a
year.
And I mean like again, likeworse people's priorities, but

(06:33):
to me to have that cell phonenot like to have cell phone
calls, like it's worth threebucks a year for me to get a
good cell phone call.
So otherwise I can't get a holdof people, people can't get a
hold of me, which is a whole thewhole issue.
So anyway, that was a kit.
You also have a globe that goeson the on the uh implement, so
then the machine, you know, sothen the tractor and everything

(06:55):
knows where everything's at,basically, you know.

Sarah (06:58):
So you have two globes, one on the tractor and one on
the implement.
But the entire system iskeeping track of both of those
pieces of equipment for for itsexact location.
Yeah.

Jodi (07:11):
And are these specific to the autonomy globes or are they
like just regular John Deere?

Matthew Krueger (07:16):
Okay.
They're just regular John Deere.
Um you're gonna have the 7500globe because of like there's an
extra chip or something inthere for that, or something
like that.
And then Deer also sent up agator because with autonomy, you
like we have good boundaries inoperations center, but you have
to have autonomy, they have tobe autonomy, the quality has to
be autonomy, which basicallythis so here's a best practice I

(07:40):
found out with this wholething, too.
We have our good boundaries andoperations center that are main
boundaries, and then we had togo around with the gator.
Basically, you have to hand youhave to draw them again, but
they're recording data pointsalong the whole way.
Typically, our boundaries uphere in the valley, like we have
squares, rectangles, like wehave very nice straight edges.
So typically, like ourboundaries we we've driven we've

(08:02):
driven them.
However, it's we come to thatcorner, we hit pause, we go to
the other corner, hit resume,and we've got a nice straight
snap line.
This way we had to actuallydrive it, and those lines aren't
perfectly straight.
So, so you but for autonomy,they just need to know like
there's no issue there, youknow, they need to make sure
that boundary is true.

(08:23):
Part of their deal as well withautonomy is that tractor will
not break that boundary.
They do say though, like ifthere's things out there like
power boxes, telephone poles,everything like that, don't go
up right next to it, but stayabout five feet away.
So give give yourself somebuffer.
Like the tractor may, as itturns, it might go out that
boundary just a little bit, butit I'm it it will not do it just

(08:47):
because it's it's just it'sit's embedded in its code to
just stay within that area.
So um, so we had to go aroundand we picked out fields that we
knew like, hey, this is gonnabe autonomy field, this is gonna
be a ton of field.
So we spent you know quite abit of time going back and
remapping fields again.

Sarah (09:03):
As you, even though you've had really good
boundaries in your op center,you actually had to go back and
just put points out there.
And those points along thatstraight line, even though there
was no corner there, thosepoints on that line verified
that that boundary is valid.

Matthew Krueger (09:22):
Correct, yeah.
So we actually had to likeredraw the boundaries.
So then the gator, they gave usa gator to do this with it had
auto steering it.
And the idea there was I coulduse boundary track, which is a
feature within John Deere, whereyou could actually take your
good boundary, make it run anA-B line, and or run multiple
A-B lines.
And so like it was close, butagain, a gator, soft spring,

(09:44):
it's gonna weave a little bit aswell.
And so first field, we justkind of like ran that as new
boundary, but you could see themachine on that headland running
kind of these little like itwould, it would, it would pick
up on that gator kind of weavinga little bit.
So what we've just basicallykind of done is the only machine
that runs the autonomy boundaryis the autonomy tractor,

(10:06):
everyone else runs off the mainboundary.
So just again, one of the likethings that I think best
practice to use, like you'lljust have multiple boundaries in
your operations center forautonomy, and that's not a big
deal.
We also had some issues withlike you're supposed to maintain
like a 80% accuracy level withthe RTK, SFRT, and it has to be
done with SFRTK as well.
It treat with what kind of SRwith uh SFRTK, which is John

(10:30):
Deere's John Deere's quote, RTK.
Because it I mean they say it'sRTK, but we all know in the
ditching world, like Paul Kellywould be like it's an RTK.
So like and people people willprobably ditch with SFRTK.
I that that don't do it.
So yeah.
I mean like just don't do it.
I don't want to be morepolitically incorrect, but I'll

(10:53):
no, we'll just let that be likethat.
So anyway, don't do it, eventhough John Deere will say you
can, do not do that.

Sarah (10:59):
You mean ditch off of it?

Matthew Krueger (11:01):
Ditch off of it, yeah.
Yep.
So even people yeah, that's awhole tangent.
That's another tangent.

Sarah (11:07):
Or another podcast.

Matthew Krueger (11:09):
Yeah, we're not gonna go there.
So next, we had the SFRDK, allthe boundaries again, and you
can also choose you can alsolike say you didn't do with the
gator and say that you pull intoa field that you plan to run
autonomy, you could run thattractor with the Tiladif win,
just run the border really quickand like get the boundary done
so that it has it, but it has tohave a boundary to know like

(11:30):
where to be.
And so, yeah, we started it.
You know, I put it, and I'vesaid this in other interviews,
and other people have asked meabout it.
It's like a seven-year-oldrunning a cultivator right now,
so it's it's pretty, it's prettynew, it's ultra conservative on
safety.
Dust is not its friendcurrently.
I know they're working onoverriding that right now, but

(11:50):
if it starts to get too dusty,it it stops, waits for dust to
clear, and it starts up again.
But at the same time, when itworks.

Sarah (11:57):
The dust.
What's the deal with the dust?
What's the dust messing up onthe sensors?

Matthew Krueger (12:01):
Like well, because so with the machine as
well, like part of the kit,there's cameras on top of the
cab, four cameras pointingforward, four backwards, and
four each side.
So there's 16 cameras on top.
This is part of the autonomykit, is like, as well as these
cameras, these are what'ssensing and seeing and and and

(12:22):
kind of making sure everything'sfine.
So that's also part of the kit.
Sorry, I should say that aswell.
And um, so that when the duststarts happening, you can't see
as well and it freaks outthinking like there could be a
person up there, and there couldbe this or there could be that,
you know, some kind of issuethat could be happening.
And so that's where they haveto like kind of realize like if

(12:42):
it's in the middle of the field,it's probably fine.
Like let it just keep doing itsthing.
We talked about like, is therea way can they put sensors that
like like we have on our carsthat like you know detect like
when a vehicle is getting tooclose, you know, like our
parking sensors, and there's away to put sensors as well there
that can override the dustfeature, you know, like
different things.

Sarah (12:59):
LIDAR.

Matthew Krueger (13:00):
Yeah, LIDAR, yep.
And they said they they'veconsidered it, they just have to
they have to weigh the costpart of it as well.
But I think again, as they likeget more comfortable with it,
they can kind of figure thatout.
Um, some dust was definitely ahindrance, but it sounded like
it's a hindrance for everyonethat was kind of doing these um
demo products of the autonomy.
I just you know, is it's thething that we deal with in the

(13:20):
spring.
Fall, maybe not as much,because like you can do a little
more tillage in the fall, oryou know, there's more residue.
There's different things likeyou're not doing.
I think even if you'recultivating four or five inches
deep, there probably wouldn't beas much dust because you bring
up a lot of moisture.
But we're not we don't do thatup here the spring.
We're you know doing two, threeinches at most, and that's all
we want to do.
And we're not gonna go whenit's muddy because up here, like

(13:43):
our soils are very prone tocompaction, so like you just you
can't.
You have to only go when it'sdry.

Sarah (13:50):
That's a good way to make dirt lumps in high clay soils.

Matthew Krueger (13:54):
Yes, exactly.

Jodi (13:55):
It it's funny because it goes back to like the autonomous
tractor, and you haven't used a9,000 instead of an 8,000
series tractor.
Like that same soil property,the fact that it's a clay and
holds onto water really well,also like contributes to the
fact that it's gonna cause moredust when you're actually out
there in the spring.
So it's power to pull the pothe baby.

Matthew Krueger (14:14):
Yep.
And like also speed, like ourmachine, like the tractor we
have in front of it and themachine we have, it's supposed
to go 70 miles an hourcultivating.
Um, because that was anotherthing, too.
They're like, well, just goslower.
No, I'm not gonna go slower.
Like, because they said, like,we can go like four miles an
hour, is it as dusty?
And I said, No, it's not, butyou know, that was part of the
deal with deer is like weprovide feedback and they'd also

(14:36):
provide, you know, try to helpguidance.
And because early on, like,hey, you guys aren't using it as
much as we want to.
And I'm like, I can't.
It's it wants to go slow, ithas to go the same speed as a
manned person in there, youknow, to be able to do these
things.
So, um, so they're they'rethey're working, I know, a lot
over the summer to get ready forthe fall.
Um, our plan is to have it onour VT this fall, and we'll see

(14:59):
how that goes with verticaltillage.
Yep, a vertical tillage.

Sarah (15:04):
Okay.
What can I ask?
What are you guys using foryour vertical tillage tool?

Matthew Krueger (15:08):
We use a 2660 BT, so it's a uh adjustable
angled disc, but it's not a highspeed deep disc.
I'm kind of uh anti things.

Sarah (15:19):
Fast do you normally pull that?

Matthew Krueger (15:21):
You can only go about nine miles an hour
because otherwise you go anyfaster, it starts bouncing
basically.
So yeah, this is it it thisdoes more of like sizing up
materials, it doesn't reallybring up a whole lot of dirt,
which I like for just likekeeping the cover on the ground
so you're not balling in thewinter.
So we have a 2660 John DeereVT.
The autonomy right now, youhave to have a John Deere

(15:43):
tractor with a Jaju implementbecause they're also they're
also like utilizing um JohnDeere has a thing called accu
depth, and so it's all theprogrammable depths and
adjustments of angles ofpressures.
So again, it's it's just theyit's their way to like monitor
that that what's going on therewith the tillage implement on
top of the GPS as well.

Jodi (16:04):
Is there is there any sort of like control that you're
doing, you know, based on whatthe sensors are doing on the
tillage depth?
Like, are you are you gettinglike as applied maps of like
hey, we had to apply more downpressure in certain areas
because it was uh we couldn'tget the depths of tillage.

Matthew Krueger (16:19):
Like, yeah.

Jodi (16:21):
Tell me more about that.
And like, do you have any plansto use that data?

Matthew Krueger (16:24):
Yep.
So yeah, so it does provide asapplied actual, like, here's
what the depth actually was asyou did it.
Um, what it allows you to dotoo is like remotely adjust
things.
So, like, I mean, I I was ableto get out and be like, hey, you
know what?
I actually want to go a littlebit deeper.
So I drop it down to thequarter inch, you know, or hey,
I want the bowling baskets to bea little more pressure, a
little less pressure.
So all that's done remotelyfrom the phone, basically.

(16:45):
And setting it up for the firsttime, too.
Like the crazy thing was likeyou uh put the machine in park,
you hit start, you turn the keyoff, and it all still runs.
You get out of the cab, yougotta be about uh 800, nine, you
gotta be about a thousand feetaway, because then again, it'll
see you, and then it'll come upon your phone and it'll just be
a little swipe where you go, youwant to start autonomy?

(17:05):
You just go swipe it, like youknow, you're like you're you
know, something.
Yep.
And then all of a sudden itbeeps at you, the tractor beeps,
and the flashers go on.
The flashers are running thewhole time, and it uh and then
it starts in.
So it uses autopath, which isJohn Deere's big thing.
There's some works there thatthey need to work on as well
with it.
Um and it just what isautopath?

(17:27):
Autopath is John Deere's likepath generation for a whole
field.
So it'll generate the paths foryour headland and then for
whatever angle you want as well.
Super like it's super cool forlike maximizing like not having
overlap and stuff.
Um, I'm using a now combiningwheat right now.
I just pull into the field, Ihit my header width, it does all
my pathways, so it knows, hey,I want two pathways on the

(17:50):
headland, and it strikes me outright where I need to be, versus
being like, oh, I'm just gonnarandomly do an you know an A-B
line, just start taking off, andthen all of a sudden you get
the end of the field and ohgosh, I got four foot skip, or
I've got, you know, like I meanit it maximizes your pathways on
a field.
So same thing for tillage, itdoes the same thing.

Sarah (18:09):
Okay, so I little side note, a little off the topic,
but not really.
So as we're talking about, youknow, using that during weed
harvest, right?
One of the keys to getting goodyield data coming in is making
sure that you're always takingfull headerways.
You know, when we clean yielddata, a lot of times that four
foot swath that gets left overbecause you couldn't figure out

(18:31):
where to strike out, that that'sa swath that we actually have
to clean and and delete thatdata out.
So this is a really nice way toalso help make sure that we've
got good yield data coming in.

Matthew Krueger (18:44):
Absolutely.

Sarah (18:45):
Some people don't care about, but I do.

Jodi (18:48):
That's a really great point.
And that's I think like withautonomy too, like you know, we
and I I need to ask you tooabout like what you see as the
benefits of this, but I thinkone of these things, you know,
we've had previous conversationsabout artificial intelligence,
but the data collection is goingto be better too, so that over
time we can keep feeding thesemodels, you know, better data.
Because these theseauto-generated maps and like the

(19:13):
data collection process whenit's autonomized, you can get
better data.
Okay, I'll get off my top box.

Matthew Krueger (19:21):
Well, I mean, but uh I mean I think I have a
little fun thing to tie intothat, like now's applied data.
So like I was pulling satelliteimagery, running it in A VMS
for I can't remember what I wasrunning it for.
I was just curious on like howone of the fields looking.
Also, it was a shot where Icould see one of my other fields
just to the north of it, andalso I saw why is there this

(19:42):
like little area that seems tobe behind?
And so I then refocused thatthe imagery to that field, and I
went back and I could see it,and I went back all the way to
like right before sprayerapplication, and I didn't see it
before that.
So then I went to my Osapplying data and my sprayer,
and I pulled it.
Up and the tank mix or the therate was all the same and

(20:03):
everything was fine.
But I looked at the tank mixand what it does in John Deere
is like see a whole differentproduct in or out of there.
And I think he ran out of aproduct or something happened.
I'm not sure why, but he pulledthe fungicide on this like last
little 20-acre spot.
So to me, I'm guessing he justran out and it was late.
I I knew storm was coming, likeI could look at the date and

(20:23):
everything.
And sure enough, I can see thatcorrelation of that area that
missed that application ofherbicide is the same area that
is in my NDVI imagery right now.
So I'm interested as we get toharvest, is there a correlation
there as well with yield?
So fun little thing.

Sarah (20:42):
That's that's really neat when you could take that as
applied data, find that thosespots on NDBI.
I mean, plant canopy says alot.
And usually NDVI is highlycorrelated to yield data.
So it will be really fun tosee.

Matthew Krueger (21:00):
Yeah, because to me, like this is that this is
that like four ounces of umTimiconazole that we throw in
with our wheat, which I think weit's like two and a half, super
cheap.
We all kind of just do itbecause of whatever.
And I mean, in tight margins, Ithink it's something everyone
kind of asks like, well, do westill need to do it?
And it'll be interesting.
I'll have us on the field, I'llbe like, this was accidental,
but hey, it did X, Y, or Z, youknow.

(21:22):
So, and as far as I can tell,everything else was put in
there.
I'm working with my brother whoruns a sprayer.
Um, he's not the most techsavvy, so like I was proud of
him for putting in that changein the monitor.
But I asked him like why, andhe's like, I don't remember.
And I'm like, Do you know,like, was it this or was it
that?
And did you throw anything elseout?
He's like, No, I think I justdidn't have that, and so I just
kept him spraying because it wasthe last 20 acres of this, you

(21:43):
know, like above our spraying.
So anyway, beside the point.
I mean, like, but again, itgoes back to like you have to
put the good data in.
And even an operation center,like I've uh I've considered
this is like totally random, butlike I really like operations
center.
I kind of geek out on it.
I like to have a good cleanoperation center.

Jodi (22:02):
I'm almost out of like let's remember that Matthew was
chosen for a test uh autonomoustractor for clicks in uh JD Op
Center.
So this checks.

Matthew Krueger (22:12):
Yeah.
I like I kind of geek out onprojects like I mean, like to
me, like if I could if farmswant to hire I I would I don't
know if there's a servers outthere, but like if I could help
people with their operationscenter, like make it more
unified, I think they'd use itmore often.
Like it helped them.
I don't know if there's abusiness opportunity there, and
there probably is.
I don't have the time to do it,but it'd be cool to do it, you
know.

Jodi (22:31):
You could set up a booth at the corn maze.

Matthew Krueger (22:33):
I mean bring me your operations center.
I will fix it for you.

Jodi (22:38):
But you you go take you go do the 20 miles of corn maze,
and I'll fix your JDOP centerwhile you're in there.

Sarah (22:46):
But I will state that um John Deere Operations Center has
been a great platform for us touse here, even at GK
Technology.
I am partners with a ton ofdifferent growers on there.
I I send a lot of prescriptionsand upload prescriptions to

(23:06):
that to John Deere OperationsCenter and send it directly out
to tractors.
The first time I did thatwithout a USB stick, it was such
a game changer.
I was it was just so cool.

Matthew Krueger (23:20):
And it it's taken a long time to get it to
where it's at today.
I'd say probably the lastthree, four years, it's really
gone a lot better.
Early on, Operations Center wastrash, you know.
I mean it was it was it wasformable.
I mean, everyone was stillgoing back on Apex.
Um, you know, it just wasn'tthat thing.
And and during that time weweren't all jo on deer all John
Deere farm, but I would sayOperations Center has made it to

(23:43):
a point of why we're all JohnDeere farm.
I even have a friend that theyI let I gave him partner access
to my organization just becausehe's not anywhere near me.
He lives south, and you know,so like he's a case guy and and
I'm a deer guy, and he'll hearabout the things that we do with
operations and like gosh, Ijust wish we had that.
He's like, Ryan is just sojanky, they're case AFS Connect.

(24:04):
And so I gave him access, and Ijust said, you can just poke
around, you just you can't breakanything, you can see things,
and he was just blowing away andyou know, same thing, like
setting out files, and like eventhe spray our um we're spraying
fungicide on our driedablebeans, and we had some heavy
rain, so there's drowned outareas.
I made a VR map out of NDVI andADMS and sent that out to the

(24:25):
sprayer just with a few clicks.
I mean, it was just supersimple, easy to do, you know, a
few mod areas on some headlands.
And I mean, yeah, like I said,ADMS, a little plug.
I mean, they do have an app forthat.
And then I've been a user sinceI think 4.95.
And like there's still things,I'm sure Kelly and Sarah does

(24:46):
the same thing.
Like, there's certain thingsthat like I click and I'm like,
oh gosh, I'm gonna break it.
Like, I know it's gonna crash.
And now like ADMS is so solid.
Like, I I like double-clickingthings, you would never double
click, and now like I'll seeKelly on videos and it's called
double-clicking.
I'm like, oh gosh, like don'tdo that.
Like, okay, it's fine, youknow.

Sarah (25:02):
Well, and it it is interesting because so often
when we want to we do reallycool things in ADMS.
I mean, I still I I make theargument that we are probably
the most powerful software onthe market today for actually
being able to work withagricultural data.

(25:25):
Um, as far as like if you canpossibly imagine a variable rate
scenario of any kind, we canmake it happen.
But once we actually make thathappen in our software, we
actually have to export it outto other platforms.
And we can, and we do, and wego to all platforms.

(25:47):
We can still actually exportout to really old fertilizer
spreaders that farmers havepicked up that still have floppy
disks.
Yes, we've been around thatlong, and yes, we can still do
that, but it sure is nice whenjust with like a couple clicks,
I know that the prescriptionthat I've written has gone right
to the tractor through a systemlike John Deere Operations

(26:09):
Center.
And and I just know it's thereand I know it's working.
So um, it really is nice to touse, you know, what we can do so
powerfully in our software andjust have it go seamlessly where
it needs to go.
And then I can actually go backand validate how it was applied
to and and what it actually howit actually turned out.

Matthew Krueger (26:31):
So that's that's really I will say like
one thing like on the likeoperational center, not that
this is operational center talk,even like the our corn maize
planting.
I went back, looked at the asapplied map, and I was a little
uh apprehensive because itwasn't quite as crisp as I'd
like.
And I was kind of like, oh man,and I've seen this in other
applications too.
You kind of look at like whatthe heck happened there, and
then you go out into the fieldand it's fine, actually better

(26:53):
than fine.
But I was saying operationcenter isn't like the as applied
data is it's good, it's notexcellent, it's not gonna be
perfect, but at least gives youa picture of like what could
have happened, you know.
So, but back to tonight now,yeah.
So, I mean I I like Ireferenced it to like an
eight-year-old because thingswith like autopath, it will jump
lines, and that's just part oflike sort of the steers sharp or

(27:15):
you know super dusty, it wantsto stop.
Even like if you're going nextto a road and the vehicle's on
the road, it'll freak outbecause oh my god, there's
something that it saw, it is andso on an alert.
Actually, what happened is itwill do two the first app the
first alert that it has, it saysdown to a team of John Deere

(27:36):
that apparently they're watchingthese machines and they just
override it, like, oh it's a abird flew and it's fine, keep
going.
If it receives an alert twice,then it pings on my phone and
says, Hey, the tractor stopped,you know, and I get four minutes
to respond.
Like, do I want it to stop?
Do I want to go around theobject?
Those are my two optionsbasically.
So typically the initially,it's same thing, like I saw a

(27:58):
car, and so it sends you apicture too of like what the
object it is that saw.
And so for mine, it just showedme the road, so I figured it
was a car.
So I just said I had to say goaround, and then it didn't know
what to go around because itwasn't there anymore.
There's different things likethey're working on, like getting
rid of those things.
But I mean it it will do afield completely from like once
you start it up and walk away,it'll even do your headland

(28:21):
passes, which is supernerve-wracking.
I watched it happen.
So I actually I actually set itup one night at 10 30 to uh
cultivate the corn mace fieldbecause I needed to be tilled
again, just uh it was plowed andit just needed to be tilled
again to try to pack it downbefore I planted it.
And I was like, well, 10:30 atnight, I'm just gonna set this
thing up, and you know, Ifigured by two o'clock it should

(28:43):
be done roughly.
It does go a little slower.
Again, like it's it there'sjust different nuances that
they're working on trying to getbetter, and they and they will,
John Deere will get it.
I have no doubt about that.
But anyway, set it up, and uhmy dad was with me, and he goes,
Well, that's a million bucks,I'll probably never see it
again, you know.
I mean, it's just it's it'sjust true because it's just

(29:04):
like, oh my goodness, you know,I'm just letting this machine
just go.
I went to bed, I kept checkingit just to make sure, like, hey,
is everything fine?
And and it was.
Uh, my wife said, though,however, do not do it again,
because she said you tossed andturned all night.
Like, she said you just you'renot willed, and am I alarming
off at two?
And I pulled it open and I wasstarting to do the headlands,
and um, it had done somethingreally weird, and I just

(29:27):
decided, you know what?
I was two o'clock.
I was like, you know what we'rejust gonna send you to the
corner and be done.
So I had you know, send homeand it went back to the spot and
it shut down.
And it, you know, but it haddone the work, you know, those
several hours.

Jodi (29:39):
But this is this is terrible, but like John Deo
needs to send with like theirautonomous kit not only like the
stuff to transport it to orlike transfer it to an
autonomous or like give it thetran autonomy ability, but it
needs to send like a bottle oflike melatonin gummies or like
some micwill, so you can do itat night too.

Matthew Krueger (29:58):
And that was the first time we ran it at
night, otherwise we've beenrunning it during the day.
Um, you know, and for us, likewhy we where do we see the
benefit of it?
Because like it is gonna bemore expensive than a person.
Like, even right now it's fourbucks an acre.
I think they're looking atgoing two bucks an acre.
That's still a hundred bucks anhour uh if you're doing 50
acres an hour type of a thing.
So it's still more than person,but I don't see it necessarily

(30:20):
replacing a person.
Where it worked for us was hey,it's springtime, I've got
everything going on, and I needa seed truck move from one place
to another place.
Who can go do it?
Well, guess what?
The guy on the till tractor cango hang out, turn autonomy on,
turn autonomy on, hop in apickup, go do what he needs to
do, and come back.
And the thing's only run foryou know 30, 50, whatever it's
done 50 acres.

(30:41):
Okay, that costs me even atfour bucks an acre, it's it
costs me 200 bucks, but you knowwhat?
It was better than me shuttingthat machine down for a whole
hour.
Um, we run a high-speed planterand um have air drills.
I mean, that high-speed planterdoes 200 acres a day of
planting, no, sorry, 500 acres aday.
I mean, and so that tillagecannot stop.

(31:01):
Like, we have to the tillagecannot stop.
Like, it just can't.
So, for that reason, likethat's where I see autonomy
being a key part for at leastour operation.
I don't see necessarilyreplacing someone, I just see it
taking the place of hey, mydad's on there now, but hey dad,
something broke.
Can you go help so and so withwhatever?
Absolutely, turn it toautonomy, it's still gonna do

(31:22):
his job.
He can go out and help outwhatever needs to be done, and
then return back the tractor andfinish the job.
Or again, like where I ran itat night, you know, like we have
several half section sizedfields that hey, you know what?
It's 10 o'clock at night, butit would be nice if that's done
by tomorrow morning.
Go ahead, everyone go everyonego home, get a good night's

(31:43):
sleep.
Hopefully.
I think the other reason whythat field, how I didn't sleep
well with that field was um ithad like it was near town, it
was next to like the corn maze,which has it just has stuff out
there, and so I was I mean, Iknow it's not supposed to break
the boundary, but you're justyou're concerned.
You got fiber out there, youjust had different things, so I

(32:04):
think that's why I didn't sleepwell.
It was on our other fields thatlike there's nothing around it,
I probably slept just fine.
So anyway, that's but anythat's where I see the benefit
of autonomy on our ownoperations.
Some operations they see it astruly replacing someone because
hey, it's someone I have to put,you know, have to worry about
hiring.
And that could be the case too.
Like, even the BT in the fall,at least I'm getting some
tillage done, you know.

(32:25):
Um, even for me, like it's notbeing done maybe perfectly, but
if it can at least be gettingdone.
They did ask me, John Deereasked, like, well, you know,
some of these like like ourhigh-speed disc, you know, it
doesn't see things, so like, dowe need to put sensors on there?
So like if a disk gets plugged,then it like stops.
I told them no.
If you put more sensors ontillage, it just sounds like a
humble idea, you know.

(32:46):
I can remote in, like, I cansee and sensor farmers.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
I can see on the OperationCenter app, and everything's
done through the OperationCenter app, it's not anything
special, but I can see on there,like I can see the cameras, so
I can look at it and watch.

Sarah (33:02):
Cool.

Matthew Krueger (33:03):
We did have a field this spring that had
sunflower stocks in it, and itwas kind of plugging up.
And so when I was running it,and I had to run for autonomy
for a little bit, and so I justI kept checking in to make sure,
like, is it plugging up or isit fine?
But generally, I got it set ina way that I knew like it was no
longer playing up with me beingin the seat.
It wasn't maybe the most ideal,and I think my drag teeth I had

(33:25):
it set back a little bitdifferently, but at least I knew
then like hey, if it's goinginto autonomy, I'm gonna be
okay.
Like, it's not gonna have asweeping mound of sunflower
stocks, you know, getting pushedthroughout the spring.
So that's kind of you know,that that's kind of the point
there.
For us, it was kind of ano-cost, like it wasn't gonna
hinder us in operation wise,because we could also just run

(33:48):
it like normal.
Like it wasn't like putting anautonomy kit on a tractor
doesn't if you know, doesn'tchange the tractor, it just
gives that option to runautonomy if you want to.

Sarah (33:58):
So you can like you like you say, at this point, you're
still kind of having a person onthere, and then if that person
needs to get pulled away to goand do something else, you can
flip that on and away you go.

Matthew Krueger (34:11):
Yep.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So it's not like that's uh it'snot like you're taking the cab
off of the thing to, you know,it's it's you know, you still
have to you know move it fromfield to field, you still have
to set it up.
It's just kind of uh it'sthree, four hours potentially
per field that hey, maybe thosethree hours someone could be
doing something else, you know.

Sarah (34:29):
That's so when you think about applications where
autonomy can fit, I mean,obviously this right now is in
tillage, right?
And it's interesting when wethink about tillage because
there's still some things tothink about the depth of the
tillage, you know, is anythingbunching, just kind of like you
talked about.
And obviously you're making itwork with with tillage, but

(34:53):
what's the next operation thatshould become autonomous?
Is it spraying?
Is it planting?
Is it um combining?

Matthew Krueger (35:01):
Yeah, and and John Deere has made it public
that they plan on being fullautonomy by 23rd.
Like everything from tillage toharvest will be fully
autonomous.
I think that's a bit aggressivebecause that's only five more
years.
I think they asked me, theyJohn Deere asked the same thing,
like my opinion about it.
Um I told him like I don't seeI think spraying to me makes the

(35:23):
most sense with like all thecameras and everything they have
going on with spraying.
I could see that being the nextthing.
Because generally, I mean,yeah, especially when you got
like autopath lines from yourplanter and everything else like
that.
I I just see that kind of beingthe next step.
I could also see like uhseeding, air seeders being the
next thing.
Um planters, maybe, but man,like I run I run a planter in

(35:47):
spring.
Those things even I get nervousabout that.
Yeah, like I I I don't see Iwhere I see it being a thing too
with like the planter, samething with the tillage.
Maybe it's just it's runningfor a round.
Maybe you can get out and kindof like observe things, make
some changes on your phone andbe like, all right, let it go by
me again and double check, andokay, yep, looks good.
But I don't think I could everlet the planter just go because

(36:08):
all of a sudden, like, say a rowstarts, you know, low
population is gonna stop, andlike what are you gonna do?
Like, well, I'd have to climbout, check what's going on.
Typically, it's just the hosethat seed got hung up somewhere,
so it's not that big of athing, but there's no person to
do that.
Uh even the Tommy tractor, wehad it where it would stall it
stop out for some I can'tremember unknown reason, and

(36:30):
then I ended up having to drivemy pickup all the way in the
middle of the field, park it offthe side, and keep tilling,
which is fine.
But then all of a sudden nowI've got to go back and pick up
a pickup, you know, kind ofthing.
So planting, I just I don't seethat one and that one.
I just see how it was a harderthing.
But even sprayer, like, I mean,again, if you're wrapping the
field, maybe it's fine.
But I mean, that first passaround, typically, like like the

(36:54):
guys right now are out sprayinga field and the wind's against
them.
I know that first pass is gonnago, we go we go low and slow.
You can lower your pressure,lower your boom, just go slow,
so not any drift issues.
The sprayers aren't gonna knowthat.
It's gonna do auto boom height,whatever pressure you want, the
way you go, and your speed.
So that's where I see spraying.
And like harvest autonomy, I ifthe dust issue is the thing

(37:16):
with like planting or liketillage, it's never gonna be
able to do harvest.
Like the dust in a combine itharvest is madness.

Sarah (37:24):
Right.
And I I don't know, I'mthinking about like a planter.
When we first, you know, okay,go back in the old days when you
actually had to drive straight.
That's what you focused ondoing was driving straight.
Looked at, and that's what youdid.
But once we finally got autotier, it allowed you to

(37:47):
basically turn around backwards,look at your planter, and look
at all of your monitors.
That's when we became curiousabout, you know, really focused
on that seed singulation, theseed depth, the down pressure
and all of those things.
Adjustable row cleaners becamea thing where people can, you

(38:08):
know, watch that and adjust therow cleaners for higher residue
areas.
So, how do we get the autonomyto do those things?

Jodi (38:16):
More expensive sensors.

Sarah (38:18):
Yeah.
And and which again, oh look,I've got a sensor that doesn't
work.
That makes every farmer outthere happy, not just kidding.
That's a joke.

Jodi (38:28):
And I I wonder too, um, I feel like I'm thinking back to
like conversations like from 10years ago, like where economists
were thinking, you know, howcan we make machinery more
efficient?
And it's like, okay, running atnight and then just running all
the time, right?
Like if you've got a fixedasset or like a large capital
asset that is your veryexpensive tractor, you're gonna

(38:49):
get the most out of it by usingit all the time.
So I wonder, you know,especially if we've got to add
more sensors to these things, dowe have smaller tractors and
smaller implements to just runall the time?
And maybe not for this area,like the valley, our fields are
very nice for autonomy, I think,compared to other places.

(39:10):
But I wonder if that will help,you know, maybe you and the
autonomous tractor both plantingat the same time.
One, the smaller the autonomoustractor going and then the
larger implement.
God, I but I mean from JohnDeere's perspective, right?
They're they're putting it inthe the tractors that they're
already selling.
So that probably isn't going tobe the case, but maybe other

(39:31):
companies might take that route.

Matthew Krueger (39:33):
Yeah.
Well, and like I get likeplanting, there's now sensors
that with cameras evaluatingyour seed trench, you know.
So it gives you that feedback.
So I I can see planting beingthe next thing, uh road crop
planting.
I'm sure like air seeding justkind of a easier, it's not quite
as precise as like cornplanting or sugary planting.
You know, like it's not quiteas like it's still an important
thing, but it's like a glorifiedtillage toolbar.

(39:55):
And hopefully I'm not offendingany of the people that are
running air seeders everywhere.
Like it just that just It it isjust it's a yeah.

Sarah (40:02):
Well, you just do not control the same down pressure
situation, the seed placementjust isn't as exact, and you're
not monitoring that that stuffto the same extent that you are
in a planter.
That's just the fact of thematter.
That's just a differencebetween air seeders and
planters.

Matthew Krueger (40:17):
Yep, exactly.

Sarah (40:18):
That's how that works.

Matthew Krueger (40:19):
That's kind of where I just see it like that's
where I see impossible nextthings, like the air seeders or
sprayers.
Planters, I just feel likethat's gonna be a bit combines.
I also feel it's gonna be abit, you know, so but I mean I i
I think it's coming.
You know, if you're pointingJody, I've heard different
people's theories and like theythink it'll be, you know, Sarah
Farmer having one big tractor,it'll be ten little robot things

(40:39):
that do the same kind of work,it's just ten of them that they
load up on a trailer, andthey're you know, able to just
kind of let them go on the fieldand do the thing.
I don't know what the futureis.
I mean, even one guy I talkedto Eek thought more would be
like uh Tesla's man thing.
Like, why don't we just hire anAI robot that would sit in the

(41:00):
tractor and do the things, youknow?
So I think there's so manydifferent ways.
I also think it's also the raceto zero.
Like with anything withtechnology, it's gonna be the
highest cost right away becausehey, it's a new feature, but
everyone's gonna be good nowgetting access to that
technology and bringing thatprice down, down, down.
I know there's another firmthat's working on autonomy
tillage that's gonna do a uhnon-subscription base, it's

(41:22):
gonna be a one-time fee, which Imean ADM GK technology would do
that as well.
It used to be a one-time fee,and then you own the software,
but that only is sustainable forso long for how do we keep
paying our programmers andeverything else to like allow
these updates to happen, youknow.

Sarah (41:36):
So and a lot of optors that way, yeah, exactly.
So like subscription fees,yeah.

Matthew Krueger (41:42):
So like it has to be either like it can be the
one-time fee, and then maybejust an annual support fee, you
know, just to keep thingsupdated.
Sure, that's fine.
But anyway, so I mean I thinkeveryone's it it tillages right
now is the easiest thing.
Grand cart is another thingthat's gonna be easy.
It's after that, it's kind ofthe big giant question mark.
And again, you're not gonna getright anybody are like, oh,
they're getting rid of the poorfarmer.
You're never getting rid of thepoor farmer.

(42:02):
It's just we have such issuesgetting people to be on the
farm, or like we're in a bluestate, and I'm forced by our
stupid state to provide benefitsthat are completely
unnecessary, but they still costme.
I'm paying for so-and-so'smaternity leave, even though
like we don't have that.
It's just it's yeah, it's justI mean, they're things that we

(42:24):
deal with.

Sarah (42:24):
And so you're in Minnesota and I'm over in North
Dakota, and we still haveissues, labor issues all the
time on the North Dakota side.

Matthew Krueger (42:34):
And if we are a very red state, so I mean, it
has to be just to be fair outthere at all political parties,
it's not just a blue state, redstate that it's an issue
altogether, but like like wehave different regulations we
have to have on Minnesota's sidethat you don't have to North
Dakota side, you know.
Like we do pay, like we'remandated to be overtime in
Minnesota.
I'm honestly okay with that.
I mean, like if you're workinghard, I think you should be

(42:56):
compensated for that, you know.
So North Dakota, you don't haveinventory overtime, you know.
Get frustrated with otherthings that we have to do in
Minnesota that my neighbors tothe west don't have to do, you
know.
That not still we still haveissues of labor, but technic I
would feel like my labor wouldpotentially cost extra 10% more
because of different things wehave to do in Minnesota that

(43:17):
North Dakota doesn't have to do.

Sarah (43:18):
So in North Dakota, we just don't have the labor
availability.
We just don't have laboravailable.
You your tractor's gonna sitthere because you don't have
anybody to drive it.
End of discussion, period.

Matthew Krueger (43:30):
Yeah, exactly.
So and we have H2A labor.
Um, that's been awesome.
But again, it just goes back tofall time, you know, for us,
like where everyone like I mean,some farms are out there hiring
people, they they're givingthem full-time positions, even
though they maybe don't have towork for them, but at least
gives them a person for thatspringtime hard time and that

(43:51):
full time, like those two timesthat we just need full.
But most of people are like, Idon't want to work two weeks, I
want to have a full-time job,you know.
So what does that also cost youas well?
So that's kind of where again Isee the autonomy being a part
of it is it's alleviating maybethat labor again, not taking
someone out, but maybe it justmakes that, you know, instead of
paying someone 40, 50 grand ayear to be a full-time employee,

(44:13):
hey, maybe I'm just paying JohnDeere a subscription fee to at
least give me a person, quoteunquote person, in that machine
for those times that I need thatextra.

Jodi (44:25):
Yeah.
It's like the pinch hitter.
I mean, I we've we talk aboutit all the time in the valley,
right?
Like in the spring and in thefall, especially the fall here,
right?
You've got agronomy centershiring soil samplers, you've got
the beet harvest, which istaking up so many of those like
temporary workers.
Everybody wants people in thefall.
And so if you can have somelike a tractor doing its own

(44:46):
job, man, that's and let's bereal too, driving a tractor
today is not what it was techyears ago, 20 years ago.

Sarah (44:53):
You know, I I was raised on a farm where my dad said, if
you don't know what to do withthem, put them in a truck.
Well, goodness gracious, youdon't do that anymore today.
The trucks are big, thetractors are big, and there's a
lot of technology in thesethings.
And you need to have somebodywho understands how equipment
works.
Yeah, absolutely.

Matthew Krueger (45:13):
And yeah, I mean, like I grew up in a
generation like where we stilllike I remember planting
soybeans without GPS.
Like I had to line up, like mydad said, sit in the middle of
the seat, line yourself up inthe middle of the thing, line
your belly button up, and justwatch that line.
Sit forward, don't look back,you know, just kind of keep you
know, you kind of look backevery once in a while just to
make sure nothing's plugged up.
Well, that's what it was backthen.

(45:34):
And now, I mean, I've I've gotmy kids that my 11-year-old
helped me out on the farm quitea bit, and he I still want him
to learn those values because Ithink there's a grade button in
that.
So, like, but he's run graincard for me the last couple of
falls now.
Yesterday, we couldn't get themachine sync to work, which
machine sync is a feature fromJohn Deere where the grain card
gets close enough to the combineand then the combine takes

(45:56):
over.
And so for him, you know, itwasn't working right away.
And I said, you know what, justrun old school and it's it's
good for you to learn.
And and he he did great, youknow.
He doesn't like it, but atleast he he still knows that
value because even in tillage,I'll have I've had guys where
like, oh, the GPS doesn't work.
I'm like, well then keeptilling.

Sarah (46:14):
I love that.
I still say that all the time.
The auto steer quit.
What do I do?
Okay, grab the wheel.

Matthew Krueger (46:22):
Keep going, yeah.
But fun little like slide flipslide deal there.
You know, the solar flares lastspring we had May 10th, 2024.
Yeah.
You know, like the the theorywas there, like, oh, the GPS
doesn't work, just just keepgoing.
I couldn't to my planter, Icould not because my planter
needed to know where it was at.

(46:42):
It uses GPS speed to know thespeed.
Like, I had some I I mean, Ididn't I I waited three days and
then I finally went on like theday and was kind of comish.
I almost got one field done,and then it like freaked itself
out, and I'm like, all right,I'm done, I can't finish this
field.
But I mean there was a pointwhere like we couldn't, and I
love my mom, but she wearssometimes a tinfoil hat, and she

(47:03):
quickly was like, the next timewe are our planter, you need to
put markers on it, and we needto have it ground-driven so we
can still keep planting.
I'm like, Mom, it's it's notthat no the correlation.
Okay, I'm gonna put my tinfoilhat on a little bit here too.
The correlation of that eventwith Johnny launching SFRTK,
just it's oh, there's a veryhigh R squared value right

(47:26):
there, so it's fine.

Sarah (47:27):
It just I do think you knew about the solar flares.

Matthew Krueger (47:33):
There there are forecasts out there about them.

Jodi (47:35):
Like, you can Yeah, we're we're in a peak cycle right now.
They they cycle every what isit, nine to eleven years, and
like we're in a peak cycle rightnow.

Matthew Krueger (47:43):
Stating like it just seemed very coincidental
that John Tier had this magicSFRDK that I mean still wasn't
great, but it worked better thanmobile like base stations or
even like you know, just forget.
I mean, I just whatever, justit's fine, but just it's very
high coincidence there.

Sarah (47:59):
So, would you order another planter with markers on
it then?

Matthew Krueger (48:03):
No, the planter came with no markers, so it
does not have markers, you don'tneed markers, it's fine.
Because I think I told mom,like the planter, I said, mom,
not it's not that I can't seeher.
I just like the point where Istopped is the planter went in
front of my tractor and thenwent back behind again.
You know, she's like, like Isaid, no, it's hard to describe.
I said, literally, like on myscreen, the planter just went
whoop to the front and foop tothe back, and the thing would

(48:25):
turn on and off, and you know,had a heart attack.
But I'm just like, I decided Ihad to stop and yeah, so you
could go to ground, but man, Ihaven't had a ground drive
planter since holy moly.
My dad and uncle, I think theywere one of the first ones that
had hydraulic-driven planter,and that was like '98.
So I mean, like, it's been 30years almost of non hydr

(48:48):
non-ground drive.

Jodi (48:50):
We just sold our ground drive drill, but you know what?
We have a ground drive airdrill now, so or air seater, so
yay.

Matthew Krueger (48:57):
So yeah, we have that we have that kind of
note too this spring.
Well, the sensor went out forthe ground for our air seater,
and then mom same thing.
What's wrong?
I said, well, we lost thesensor.
Just be ground drive, then wecan keep going.
I'm like, oh god.
Love me dearly, but you knowwhat?
Things just happen.
It's a two one, it's a $50part.
John Deere had one.
I went and got it.
We're up and going.

Jodi (49:17):
So this is so funny because it reminds me, you know,
this technology, everygeneration is like this, right?
We're all as human beings, no,no being is like good at
handling change, right?
And like now we're in the erawhere we're moving from like the
horse and buggy to the Model T,or we're moving from like
ground drive to GPS, you know,driven and and human-driven to

(49:40):
autonomous, right?
Like, how crazy are we gonnasound in like 10 years or like
20 years and look back like, ohman, we were really scared of
like going from auto steer toautonomy, and we're gonna sound
like, man, going from the horseto the buggy.

Matthew Krueger (49:55):
I mean, I mean, I think there was a rumor, or I
think I saw Jason post it,Jason Hansen, you know, like
when Chemical first came out,they thought, oh, agronomists
are all like we're not gonnahave jobs anymore, you know,
like what round up Roundup theRoundup Ready era.

Sarah (50:09):
When that happened, they all said that agronomists were
gonna be there there's no usefor agronomists anymore.

Matthew Krueger (50:15):
I mean I used the same kind of a thing, you
know, still need us.
Yeah, I mean, uh you know,you're still gonna need all
those people, and even like AI,it's a funny thing too.
My back to my mom, my mom, I'mgonna have to tell my mom to
listen to this podcast becauseshe'll be like, oh my gosh, you
know, but like mom, she uh I Iwas an early I wasn't early on
ChatGPT, but it definitely likeit helped things.

(50:37):
So again, like I'm not anexpert in many things.
Like there's a few things I'llpride myself in, like I know
this really well, but there'sother things like writing macros
in Excel.
Like I like to write macros inExcel, but it is a horrible
thing to do.
And like, but I could have ChatGPT write a macro for me with
all I wanted to do, and it savedme hours.

(50:58):
I mean, I could do it, but it'snot a it's not a thing I need
to really learn or master, youknow.
And I say if if you'resomething like in a field of
something, you do need to learnto master it properly.
Um, use AI to help you with it.
But for me, I did not need tolearn how to run macros.
I know the basis of it, but letchat GPT do it.
And uh my mom was justanti-Chat GPT and AI, and I'm

(51:20):
like, wow, I'm not, it just itlike helps you with things.
I mean, like it can meal plan,all this other stuff.
All of a sudden, here I findout, I think I found out only
like three, four weeks ago.
My mom's been like on this chatGPT kick, and she's like in
love with it.
She's like, man, it helps youwith this and does this and all
of this.
I'm like, how are we doingthis?
She's like, Oh, I've been doingit for months, but I didn't, I
told all the siblings, do nottell Matthew because I be able

(51:42):
to do not use ChatGBT.
This is so bad.
You need to do this.
And I'm like, I mean, we useit.
My wife and I used it when wewent to Arizona.
We said, hey, we have a weekwe're down in Phoenix.
Here's our age of our kids,here's the things we're like to
do.
I put in all the prompts.
I said, plan out our week.
Man, I mean it we didn't use itfully, but it helped us with a

(52:03):
lot of different things.
Um, even helped us meal plan,like, hey, we're in Airbnb,
we've got this grocery storenearby.
Here's all the things that arein it.
I copy and paste it from theAirbnb listing.
Give us a meal plan for theweek with we're gonna eat out,
we'll eat out once a day.
Um, prefer probably for dinner,you know, give it the prompts,
and it gave us a whole mealplan.
Again, just it again, not thatit doesn't make you think

(52:25):
because you still need to gothrough it all and make sure,
like, yep, this works, but likeI mean, AI is an incredible
tool.
I mean, again, it can be usedin the wrong way where you kind
of just turn your brain off.
But I think if you're using theright way just to help aid you
in what you're doing, and I knowfor like the autonomy that is
part of like the process too,like you will learn as it's
going along, like in terms ofthe dust thing, in terms of like

(52:48):
um, you know, I think they'reworking on like field conditions
because people always say,like, well, how's it gonna see a
wet spot?
Well, here in the belly, you'renot tilling if it's wet, or not
in West North Dakota, where youdo have sloughs and stuff, but
typically those sloughs you'dmap around.
But I mean again, you know,like I I don't know about those
issues for my farm or in ourfarm.
This is this is what we have todeal with.

(53:08):
I have square fields, they'reflapped.
The only thing I could see islike if it hits a spot where
some wheat residue or cornstalks kind of pushed up in one
spot, I might put up thecultivator.
Like those things I'm concernedabout, and I think John Deere's
working on remedies for that aswell, you know.
But for right now, it's aseven-year-old, is kind of what
I said.
It it it will it will graduateto being a teenager or a young

(53:30):
adult eventually, but right nowit's a seven-year-old at its
infancy.
So I'm excited to see this fallsome improvements that they've
made.
Um, and it'll just beinteresting to see like what
that looks like, you know, interms of like dust or what other
what other facets are theygonna adjust to make it um just
work better for us.

Jodi (53:48):
This is this has been so much fun to to listen to your
experience with this autonomoustractor.
No, this has been fantastic.
Thank you so much for yourtime, Matt.
This has been such a greatconversation.

Sarah (54:02):
Um, it's so so fun to think about how things are gonna
go in the future with autonomy.
You know, I think we hear aboutautonomy uh in agriculture all
the time, but we don't realizethat it's actually real and that
it exists today.
And it's really fun to hearabout how it's actually starting
to fit in because we are justat the forefront of this.

(54:24):
So thank you so much forsharing your experiences with us
today.
It was it was just so much fun.

Matthew Krueger (54:30):
Yeah, so thank you for having me on.
I appreciate it.

Sarah (54:33):
Absolutely.
With that at GK Technology, wehave a map and an app for that.

Theme Music (54:41):
And I can't wait to get in the video to game.
Oh, I can't wait to get in thegame.