24.Special End of Season 1: A Fireside Chat with GK Technology, Inc.

Back in July, Sarah and Jodi sat down with the whole GK Technology, Inc.  team at the annual GK Tech summer retreat. In the discussion that follows, we celebrate growth, innovation, and camaraderie. Listen to hear Darin's reflections on founding the company, Kelly's pivotal role in boosting sales, Cheryl's witty take on finance, and more. We share how GK has expanded our available data library storage to over a petabyte, moving from USB thumb drives to hot server rooms.

We also explore the transformative power of precision agriculture, from boosting yields to advancements in watershed modeling and herbicide optimization. Join us for a look at how teamwork, creativity, and innovation drive GK Technology's mission to revolutionize agriculture (and join is for a few laughs along the way, too!)

This is the official end of season one after a short break; join us next week for the beginning of season 2!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now it's time for a Geek Speak with GK
Technologies, Sarah and Jodyfriends and I can't wait to get
in the fields again.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
No, I can't wait to get in the fields again.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Welcome back to A Geek Speak.
This week we have an extremelyspecial episode.
We are actually at our summerretreat, which is our summer
annual meetings for GKTechnology, and we have the
entire staff here.
So we thought we would take alittle bit of time and sit
around, just like we do normallyat our annual meetings, where
we have a drink and we're justgoing to solve all of the

(00:52):
world's problems In agriculture,in agriculture with the powers
of precision agriculture Awesome.

Speaker 6 (01:00):
Who wants to start introducing themselves?
Awesome?

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Who wants?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
to start introducing themselves.
That's me.
Huh yeah, I'm Darren.
I started the company in 2003and, oh slowly built software.
It seems like it took foreverdidn't it dear.
Yeah, you worked pretty quickAbout 2006,.
Kelly came along and joined meand decided to take care of the
sales because I really sucked atthat.

(01:26):
Generally, if you're going tointeract with me, it's because
something's really gone wrongand the chains have flown off
and somebody's given up and sentyou my way.
So yeah.
So if it's ADMS or web servicestuff, that's me.
If it's SD Drain and the chainsare flowing off, you'll

(01:49):
probably talk to Travis.
Other than that we just gathertogether this group and get
together once a year to try andcatch up.
We bring all the families intoo, because we like to meet the
kids and watch them grow up.
Got to watch Clinton Sarah'skids grow up from really young
to one's going to graduate thisyear.

Speaker 6 (02:11):
So that splashing that ambiance in the background,
that's people having fun in thebackground.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
We're swimming in a pool playing beanbags Our
18-year-old birthday boyactually Cheryl, you just got
done talking who are you, I'm.

Speaker 7 (02:28):
Cheryl, I send you your bills.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
I started in 2008.

Speaker 7 (02:37):
I started in 2008 because Kelly and Darren wanted
me to, I guess.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
From there.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
I just Don't kid yourself, cheryl actually runs
the company.

Speaker 10 (02:51):
I've done a few things.
You got on your knees Begging.
Yeah, he did it pretty much was.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
We were very bad at businessmen stuff.

Speaker 9 (03:05):
She wanted us to pay bills too.
She wanted us to actually makemoney.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (03:09):
Well, what a concept.

Speaker 9 (03:12):
Kelly, who are you?
I'm just a friend of the family.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
I am.

Speaker 9 (03:27):
Kelly Sharp and I'm one of the co-founders of the
company.
Darren and I fired off in 2006,.
2007, when we incorporated, Iwas fortunate enough to be in a
environment where I'm lookingfor a different way of life.
I talked to Darren and saidDarren, are you looking for an
employee?
He goes nope, I need somebodyto help me out.
Get into the company.

(03:52):
So I bought in.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
It was more like I can't afford to pay you, but you
can sure come on board.

Speaker 9 (03:58):
I should go back and find that, see if I can find
that email again.
It was not far off from that,if I could find that email again
.
It was not far off from thatand it's been doing it since
then and worked with Darren'sstuff prior to that at Crystal.
He wrote apps for doing fieldboundaries and stuff like that.
So I mean kind of come fullcircle back to where that

(04:20):
started at with stuff, and nowwe're back to a field map or app
Back to kind of coming fullcircle Back to mobile apps again
.
Yeah, mobile apps again andstuff like that, but the devices
are a little smarter and alittle more horsepower than we
had back in the day.
Nothing new under the sun.

Speaker 12 (04:36):
Nothing new under the sun.
And who are you?
I am Travis Yike.
I am one of the developers.
I was brought on, I guess 10years ago now, maybe a little
bit longer, yeah, and so I do alot of the SDJ stuff and you
will never talk to me because Idon't have any personal skills.

(04:59):
Liar, liar and where are youbased, travis?

Speaker 6 (05:16):
I am out of wyoming, so I get as far away from
everybody else as I can, keepsme secluded over my corner and
for context, in the room rightnow there's's 11 of us DK
employees sitting around a table, so we'll continue to share and
introduce ourselves until weget to all 11 of us.

Speaker 12 (05:32):
But I think Clint was hired about three or four
months before I was hired.
So we've been here close at thesame time.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
I think so.
Yeah, I think it was prettyclose to that.
So who are you?

Speaker 4 (05:42):
Clint, tori, tori, so yeah it was pretty close to
that.
So who are you, Clint?

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Tori, I'm Clint Streeter and I'm in Dickinson,
north Dakota, where I'm based ator live, I guess Primarily do
zone maps and some prescriptionwriting and maintaining our
online library for imagery andsome of the other stuff, and
that's pretty much it.
If you need to get a hold of me, it's probably because you have

(06:07):
a software question or want tohave me make some zones or
prescriptions for you, somethingalong those lines, so that's
primarily what I do.
It's the most underpaid role inthe company, by the way.

Speaker 9 (06:22):
Just put that out in the air.

Speaker 5 (06:27):
Thanks, for throwing this up the bus.
Well, since we're kind of goingin order of oldest employee to
newest employee, it makes goodsense here.
So I'm Paul Fuller.
I joined actually, I met theseguys in about 2010 or 2011, and

(06:49):
I was working for a CharlotteImplement dealership and selling
drainage drainage equipment andsoftware, and their drainage
design software fit witheverything I was doing.
So I became a dealer for themat that dealership and about
2010 2011 fall, I came on boardwith them.
So I'm eight and a half yearsgive or take, and so my official

(07:10):
title is sales and drainageconsultant.
I work with SD Drain.
I've helped Travis along theway, kind of with some beta
testing and some ideas, justfrom my background, and I do
custom tile design.
I do some barrel rate stuff too.
I'm not an agronomist.
I will not give you recs, but Iunderstand enough about it that

(07:32):
I can help you make maps.
I can help you do your recs,but you need to know the
agronomy.
I've been a great eight and ahalf years with this company and
I think I've got about 15 to gobefore I'm going to have to
retire, hopefully AND I THINKI'VE GOT ABOUT 15 TO GO BEFORE
I'M GOING TO HAVE TO RETIRE.

Speaker 9 (07:46):
HOPEFULLY AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, HE MAY NOT MAKE
RECS FOR YOU ON THE FERTILIZERSIDE BUT.

Speaker 5 (07:52):
YOU WILL DO DRAIN TILE YES, design DRAIN TILE,
drainage, consulting, if YOUHAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT DRAINAGE.
I DON'T KNOW EVERYTH everything, but I know a lot and I'm still
learning.

Speaker 10 (08:07):
We're all learning.
You knew a lot more than mewhen I came in, so that's for
sure.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
Some of us aren't teaching anymore.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
I can't remember who the quote was from, but I think
it was Thomas Edison.
It was a day that you haven'tlearned something new.
It was a day you've wasted.

Speaker 9 (08:30):
Tried to make sure that every day I'm learning
something new.

Speaker 12 (08:33):
That's a good motto to go by, and so what is it
today?
I'll put you on the spot.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
We had a lot of good conversations downstairs about
agronomy.
Yeah, we did.
I can't remember an exact itemthat I picked up new today from
some confirmation of some biasesI had and some slap downs of
others.
Ernie, you were next in line.

Speaker 13 (09:01):
Alright, so I'm Ernie Johnson.
I've been here just about eightyears with the company.
I live down in a small littlehole in the wall called Fulda,
minnesota.
It's about as southwest as youcan get in the state.
I met Darren and Kelly because Ihappened to know one of their
former employees' wife.

(09:23):
She was a good friend of mineand I was sick of selling seed.
I was just about done with that.
Well, I was done with that andI couldn't handle it anymore.
So I talked to Travis and hesaid not this Travis, travis
Bremer, and he's like you knowwho you ought to talk to is

(09:45):
these two guys.
They've got a great company.
I think you'd like it andcalled them up and talked to
Kelly and met him and Darren andyeah, it's been awesome.
I do sales, I sell the softwareand I also service Call up.
I'm going to be able to helpyou with most of your questions
with the software.
I also service call up.
I'm gonna be able to help youwith most of your questions with

(10:06):
the software.
I also do mapping and I, thanksto Kelly, I've really gotten
into some of the drainage stuffand that's been a learning
experience.
Um.
I do most of the drainage stufffor us sales.
It's been.
It's been an awesome learningexperience and it's really
helped me learn more aboutagronomy doing the drainage side
of things too, because if youunderstand how the water and

(10:31):
stuff flows in the field and allthe rest of it, it really helps
you get a better understandingof why some of the areas in the
field are the way they are.

Speaker 9 (10:39):
So it's been an amazing experience coming here
and working so and Ernie isgoing to be busy for the next
month or two making drainagemaps yes work speed.
So who is next on the on thehigher list?

Speaker 11 (11:04):
yeah, I'm Kendra Fuller.
I'm Paul's wife, clint'sassistant and, truth be told, I
think I listen to Clint a hellof a lot better than I listen to
Paul.
Yeah, it's true, too many cooksin the kitchen sometimes.

Speaker 4 (11:22):
It's true, too many cooks in the kitchen sometimes.

Speaker 11 (11:25):
But no, I take care of downloading all of the
imagery, trying to keep thatcurrent, all of your county data
, things along those lines.
And you know, clint needs ahand with something that he's
getting kind of snowed underwith, and that's kind of it.
I've been with the companyabout three and a half years now
.
Son went off to college and Ineeded something to do and Kelly

(11:50):
was looking, so yeah, we wereneeding somebody to fill in, but
she also downloads LiDAR too.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
Oh, yeah, yes.

Speaker 9 (11:58):
Pretty much anything that we have for data.
Kendra touches in some way,shape or form, between Kendra
and Clint, so Primarily herthese days.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
You're rarely going to hear from me unless you need
something.
She's the reason why we've gotimagery that's up to date in our
library.
It's pretty amazing.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
We went from having it sporadically updated,
occasionally, once in a month,to like daily sometimes.

Speaker 9 (12:31):
Two to three days behind actual flight times, type
of stuff.

Speaker 6 (12:35):
I think you had a statistic that you shared with
us yesterday about how much datayou've got in each of the
catalogs.

Speaker 5 (12:44):
Do you remember those numbers?

Speaker 6 (12:45):
by any chance.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
The number of images that we've done this year this
year I think we've done 23,000Sentinel images.

Speaker 11 (12:55):
Should have about 44,000 by the end of the season
in October.
So yeah, really growing.
I think what was last year'stotal 29,000 GROWING, I THINK
WHAT WAS LAST YEAR'S TOTAL29,000.

Speaker 8 (13:05):
IMAGES THAT WE DID.

Speaker 11 (13:08):
SO WE'RE EXPANDING OUR AREA AND, yeah, just KEEP
BUGGING AWAY.
Have YOU PASSED UP?
Clint ON THE.

Speaker 10 (13:15):
AMOUNT OF DATA YOU'VE DOWNLOADED.

Speaker 11 (13:18):
I DON'T KNOW, probably NOT AT THIS POINT,
she's.

Speaker 5 (13:22):
GAMING.

Speaker 9 (13:27):
WE WERE DOING IT FOR A LONG TIME.
Now SHE'S GAINING PRETTY FAST.
When YOU'RE DOUBLING YOURAMOUNT PRETTY LONG, it MAKES A
BIG DIFFERENCE.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
SOMEBODY, you WERE LOOKING FOR NUMBERS, so SETINEL,
setinel WE'RE AT ABOUT 110TERABYTES, terabytes right now,
of Sentinel data, about 32terabytes of county data and
about 26 terabytes of.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
LIDAR, so all together in that server room.
What do we actually have forhow many bytes of data do we
actually have?

Speaker 2 (14:01):
so the whole data sets about 190 terabytes right
now, but we, for safety sake,have two day two systems online
that have copies of that, andeach of those systems is capable
of only what?
450 terabytes, um.
And then there's the emergencysystem that we turn on once a

(14:23):
month in the back of the datatoo, in case we, god forbid,
ever got a malware attack orsomething.
Those systems will be sittingthere not more than a month.
Yeah, so I calculated the otherday that we do have enough
drive space in the server roomover a petabyte of storage in

(14:43):
the server room Okay.

Speaker 6 (14:47):
Petabyte of storage Wow.
Can you repeat that, Darren?
How many terabytes that is?

Speaker 2 (14:52):
A thousand terabytes is a petabyte.
We are over a petabyte in theserver room, wow, and it's
really hot in there.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
And you walk in there and all you hear is like this
hum, cheryl, were you excitedwhen that got out of your
basement?

Speaker 7 (15:13):
Yes, Two years ago we bought a building and actually
moved all of the surface up.

Speaker 9 (15:20):
But during the winter you're heating bill now, oh
yeah, heating bill.
And the basement's still coldnow, BUT DURING THE WINTER.
Your HEATING BILL NOW, OH YEAH,HEATING BILL.

Speaker 5 (15:27):
AND THE BASEMENT'S STILL COLD NOW.

Speaker 9 (15:31):
BUT YOU CAN HEAR.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
YOURSELF GET TO THE BASEMENT.

Speaker 5 (15:33):
NOW.
So SOME STRATEGIC FANS AT THEOFFICE.
You DON'T NEED TO TURN THE HEATON.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
NO, you NEED THE HEAT , but YEAH, I MEAN RIGHT, now,
during THE SUMMER, we HAVE TOLEAVE THE DOORS OPEN ON THE
SERVER ROOM AND PUSH FANSTHROUGH AND KIND OF SACRIFICE
SECURITY.
The WHOLE SERVER ROOM ISGETTING ME ON LOCKED DOORS,
except FOR THE SUMMER ROOM.

Speaker 4 (15:56):
BLOW SOME HOT.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
AIR OUT OF THERE.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
EVEN WITH THE FANS RUNNING, there's EN the fans
running.
There's enough servers runningin there that it's over 80
degrees.
It's a lot of data, it's a lotof data.

Speaker 11 (16:10):
Can you imagine like ?

Speaker 2 (16:10):
storing all that data when you first started or that
you're even going to be storingno, no I mean, you know, I I
used to go to training and and,uh, I would wear a usb key
around my neck that would haveinstalls of ADMS stuff on it for
training.
And I tell a story that this isa 32 gigabyte USB key and when

(16:34):
I first started we had toupgrade from Windows 98 to
Windows 2000 so that we couldhave drives bigger than 2
gigabytes, so that we could havedrives bigger than 2 gigabytes.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
You know you'd have a hard drive that would hold four
Landsat scenes.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
You know things would come a ways.
And now the Sentinel scenes are.
You know, each one of those isfour times as big as a Landsat
scene.

Speaker 4 (17:22):
So to put it in perspective when I was still at
Crystal, darren's previouscompany would deliver DVDs to us
with a Landsat scene per CD.
What does a Sentinel imagecover?

Speaker 5 (17:28):
Like what area?

Speaker 2 (17:29):
A single image 10,000 meter by 10,000 meter file and
it's on a grid.
Military grid reference systemis what they call it.

Speaker 9 (17:45):
I love the way the Sentinel.
I love how they call it.
I'm sorry, I just love the waythat Sentinel.
I love how they deliver it, butunderstanding it's hard to
explain because it still dealswith the Earth rotating
underneath it, so but how theydeliver it.

Speaker 10 (17:59):
I'm going there, I laugh because it's just a weird
system.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
It's all delivered in a tile that covers the same
10,000 by 10,000 square meterarea every time, and it's weird
because every tile will comedown.
You can go into a particulartile 14 TPT or something and the
tiles going all the way backfor five years will all be

(18:24):
exactly the same size Becausethey're all cut to the same size
.

Speaker 4 (18:32):
Versus.

Speaker 9 (18:32):
Landsat, which is 120 miles by 120 miles, but they
don't clip them down to themilitary grids so you're getting
a square that's kind of rotatedsideways on the earth, which is
the same thing that theoriginal Sentinel data is, but
they put it to this militarygrid system so not every grid

(18:57):
covers the whole area.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
That's an idea.
Maybe we take our Landsat dataand import it and flip it to
NCRS.
The Sentinel sent them the dataand they were done.
You'd use the same system tofile them.
Yeah, get over it.
That's a good thought.
You know we're looking fordifferent ideas on how to change
up the system.
Just add up all.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
What's that?

Speaker 7 (19:21):
We got to finish with our employees before you can go
on to the tab.

Speaker 6 (19:27):
Oh, okay, all right.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
I think you're next.
Yeah well, I guess the podcastalready knows me.
I'm Sarah, you have to listento me every week.
I'm an agronomist with GKTechnology.
I've been here for about twoand a half years.
I hail from Hillsborough, northDakota.
I started using this softwareback in 2006 and there's a lot
of really smart people sittingaround this table tonight.

(19:50):
That's what I know.
Don't give me that.
Look, kelly, are you serious?
No, I'm Sarah.

Speaker 9 (20:00):
Yeah, and that's the sass we love out of you.
Okay, eric, then the next onethat we hired came on board was.

Speaker 8 (20:11):
That's me.
My name's Eric Lee and I amfrom the Bagley area in
Minnesota, just a little bitwest of Bemidji, and at GKI I
help with systems, so I guesssome of the server stuff and
some of the odds and ends thingswith Programming stuff also,

(20:34):
and you're probably not gonnatalk to me ever.
I can't identify most crops.
That was just fine, eric,that's awesome, I'm proud that I

(21:00):
can identify crops.

Speaker 6 (21:03):
That's what GK hired me for.
I'm Jody Bow.

Speaker 4 (21:09):
I identify crops and birds and birds and birds.

Speaker 6 (21:12):
And birds, and birds.

Speaker 5 (21:14):
We all have our skill sets.

Speaker 6 (21:16):
We all have our skill sets.
Yeah, I'm the low man on thetotem pole, the last person to
introduce myself, the mostrecent hire Best for last, best
for last.

Speaker 4 (21:29):
No, there you go.

Speaker 6 (21:37):
But I mean you hear me on the podcast as well.
Um, I'm an agronomist, I I dosales as well and and marketing,
so you might hear me if youcall in and ask a question on
the software or if you'reinterested in the software.
You might see me at a tradeshow and, of course, you'll hear
me here on the podcast as well.
But it's such a I'm so happythat we're doing this and
getting you a chance to hearfrom people like Eric, like
Travis, who you may not interactwith when you call in and ask a
question, because all 11 of usare what make the software run

(22:02):
and so all of us together youwouldn't see the product that
you see when you're running ADMSat home or SD Drain or any of
the other products that we have.
So it's great to have them apart of this table as well, or
the FieldMapper app.
Or the FieldMapper app GeekSpeakExactly, yes, so there's I mean
, that's the really cool thingis Darren mentioned before you

(22:23):
know, getting started with thiscompany from his garage to where
we are now.
We have a lot of really coolproducts that have come out and
we have a lot of really coolthings that are on the burner
and almost at your fingertipsthat we're discussing and
talking about at this meetinghere.
So we're super excited to sharemore about those as we move
along and really shows to thepublic as well.

Speaker 9 (22:45):
Jodi, you may have to be taken outside and put down
because you can't talk aboutsome of that yet.
You tell them we may have to.

Speaker 6 (22:55):
Let's remember this is July 16th.
If you have it hard for meafter this date, please contact
the Mendota Heights PoliceDepartment.

Speaker 9 (23:03):
Don't worry, jodi, I'll always come for you, I'll
always come for you and, by theway, we're a really hard group
to get along with.
We don't laugh often.

Speaker 6 (23:14):
No, it's pretty solid , did you have a phone number
for that police officer?
I?

Speaker 4 (23:17):
did see him drive by earlier, so they were sketching
themselves.
Kelly, be quiet.
I don't want them to know whereI'm at.
I'm not, I'm not.

Speaker 13 (23:27):
I'm not.
I'm not.

Speaker 6 (23:28):
I didn't see them drive by earlier, so they were
sketching themselves.
Kelly, be quiet.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
I don't want them to know where I'm at.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
One thing that I am really curious about.
So this company's been aroundsince 2006, and there's a lot of
different people sitting aroundthis table, a lot of really
smart, talented people sittingright here, and we've had a
chance to interact with a numberof different customers, a
chance to have our fingers increating different products that
customers use every day.

(23:57):
So one of my big questions thatI've got for everybody what is
your favorite thing about GK orsomething that you might be the
most proud of that GK has done?
Or one of kind of like your aha, like super cool moments
working for this customer?
You know, just something that'sbeen really neat.
What, what is that?

(24:18):
I?
I'm really curious about that.

Speaker 13 (24:21):
So for me, it was, for the first year, kelly and
Aaron really happy learning thesoftware what?
And not doing a lot of saleswhich you know.
You don't know the software.
It's not going to do you anygood to go out and try and sell
it.
So after I learned it.
One of my first customers Ipicked up was in south-central
Minnesota.
It was close to the borders andhe's one of my favorite success

(24:43):
stories because he was takingover for his father and his dad
was working with a local co-opdown there.
And his dad was working with alocal co-op down there and one
of the things that they did washe was always on the build to
the max.
Platinum gold, put down as muchfertilizer as you can, balls to
the wall, just go.

(25:03):
Well his son took over and hisdad was like you know, you want
to do this precision stuff.
You go right ahead.
He didn't believe in it.
So Andy called me up and wetalked and we're like all right,
these are the steps we're goingto take, this is what we need
to do.
So we went out and we set upthe zones and his dad was like

(25:25):
well, you're not even going togrid.
No we're going to do zones.
What's a zone?
And Andy just told him you know, back off, dad, this is what
we're doing.
So went out and we zone sampledand we got the samples back and
I called up kelly and I wentwow.
And kelly's like wow, yeah, itwas unreal.

(25:46):
It's like, um, those numbersgoing higher, he's actually
going the other way, he's goingto be in trouble.
Well, long story short, he wasalso, yeah, very much close.

Speaker 9 (25:57):
I also thought that was scary?

Speaker 13 (25:59):
Yeah, we also.
So my first year went out andwe were going to and I told you,
jody, we were going to havenitrate sample in the lab we
used Well, I'm not going tonames, didn't do it Came back,
kelly and I had a discussionwith that lab.
So the next year they didnitrate samples and most of his
samples came back at 120 poundsof N or higher.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Oh, and his zero to 24 or.

Speaker 13 (26:23):
And his zero to six oh my gosh, oh my goodness.

Speaker 9 (26:27):
Yeah, holy Hannah, so yeah.
So, by the way, never pull anitrate during a grid test,
because it's a waste of money.

Speaker 4 (26:35):
Right, it's a waste of money.

Speaker 9 (26:37):
Don't do it Exactly, because you'll never make money
doing a grid sample of nitrate.

Speaker 6 (26:41):
It's a waste of money .
You'll just feel like crap.
Knowing how much nitrate was inthat zero to six Exactly, you
might learn something.

Speaker 9 (26:47):
Right Exactly, you might learn something right
exactly.
And and sarcasm intended by theway people.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
So his dad's yield goal on across his farm was 210.

Speaker 13 (26:58):
Andy's yield goal has been 300.
He wants to get up to 300, buthe wants to do it economically.
And it's been awesome watchinghim because, as we've gotten to
the point where we're critiquingsmall changes now and the
starter that he's putting downand the type of fertilizers he's

(27:18):
using because is right now, hisaverage yield goal across his
entire farm last year for hiscorn was 298 or 290 bushels per
acre.
So it's trying to get that last10 economically without.
Yeah, so it's just been awesometo watch him grow and just to

(27:39):
see everything we've done forhim.
I mean it's just been amazingand it's just like it's a
perfect story for why thesoftware works, what we do.
And then knowledge we've had,cause I've been able to call up
sarah and ask questions allright, the soil is like this,
why and it's just been you know,or call up kelly and all right,

(28:01):
what do you recommend with this, and then get answers to
questions.
I mean, the knowledge in theroom is just amazing and it
helps so much with the customers.

Speaker 9 (28:10):
So to Ernie's point exactly when I started out,
darren was handing off some ofhis customers and Derek and the
guys down in the centralMinnesota area not to throw
people under the bus, but whowas involved there?
But the result of it is youstarted working with them in

(28:31):
1998, 1999, and looking at theiryield goals and stuff like that
, shooting for 85 bushel bottomend yield goals and shooting for
150 on the top end.
We're really going to knock itout of the park.
And two years ago our newbottom end yield goal was 150.
That's our bottom end yield goalnow that used to be their top

(28:51):
annual goal on the whole bestspots on the whole farm.

Speaker 4 (28:55):
But the thing about successes on it.

Speaker 9 (28:58):
It wasn't just quote unquote.
When you say the word precisionegg, everybody says fertilizer,
nutrients, seed.
It's these things, these arethe cores of precision egg, the
core ofprecision egg is drainage.
I'm sorry but at the end of theday, majority of our country's,
most of our feed there too muchor too little water, killing
our deficit to our crops.
And what Darren brought to thetable one of the first products

(29:21):
you released back when he didthe egg day in the viewer was
drainage and I got to pat him onthe back say that was the best,
smartest thing to do.
It was the heart and soul of it, because what brought those
guys this far?

Speaker 8 (29:39):
from doing that it wasn't, don't get me wrong.

Speaker 9 (29:43):
The fertility and the seed choices were absolutely
huge in it also.
But listening to them andwatching what they're doing with
all the tile, the drain tileand stuff like that, it hasn't
been just putting drain tile ina spot or draining a slew or
doing this.
It's been oh, we spot tiledthis, we got this, we got that,
we got that.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
And I mean it's just, those little changes make a big
difference you know it's reallyfunny when you bring up
drainage like that, because Ilike to call uh surface drainage
cocaine for farmers.
They're really addicting.
When people ask about them forthe first time, I say be careful
, I'll give you one and if youlike it, you're going to pay for

(30:20):
it, but you're going to wantmore, and they always do.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah.
Well, it's a lot like drivingyour car down the road.
You're watching yourmile-per-gallon gauge going wow,
this is really good.
Look at that 42, 38.
I drive a little Honda CRV, so42, 38.
Holy cow, that's a really goodaverage.
Then you hit a couple of hills,there's some high-speed traffic
and it doesn't take very long,and you're down to 30 bush or 30

(30:50):
mile per gallon average.
Same thing with a yield monitor.
You're driving through thefield watching 300 bushel, 320
bushel, and all of a sudden youget a couple of 80 bushel spots
and that yield average dropsreally quick.
If you can fix up some of thoseso you don't have those low
yield drive spots, the fieldaverage goes up in a hurry.

Speaker 9 (31:13):
Nothing hurts an average worse than a zero.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 6 (31:19):
So and like on that same subject too of you know
successes and, like I think backto my first kind of exposure
with GK technology as anemployee of AgVise, I mean with
soil sampling.
A huge part of soil samplingand soil testing is making sure
you're accounting for thatvariability in fields and making

(31:42):
sure that you are managing eachpart of the field in a way
that's appropriate for thefertility in each area, in a way
that's appropriate for thefertility in each area.
And what I wanted to do to helpwith kind of communicate the
value of zone sampling to ourcustomers at AgVise was put some
zone maps together.
And so God bless Kelly becausehe sat down on the phone with me

(32:04):
and gave me a copy of ADMS andhelped me put together zones and
even with my we spent a couplehours running through some of
these concepts and helped me puttogether zones and even with my
yeah, yeah and just withsatellite imagery I was able to
make zones for my own farm inwestern North Dakota and then
take those in the combine withme in the fall after soil
sampling them and see that, ohmy gosh, just with that

(32:25):
satellite imagery and the zonesthat I had with ADMS, when the
combine started to go reallyfast on the reel and not much
through was coming through thecombine, I could see ADMS.
When the combine started to goreally fast on the rail and not
much through was coming throughthe combine, I could see
immediately that that was wherethe red zone of the field was
the poor producing area.
Same thing with the green.
When we had to slow down andback it off to like 1.5 miles
per hour.
That was a dark green zone.
That was a good zone and it wasjust really incredible to see

(32:47):
the proof of concept and I justsit back in amazement that we're
able to do that for growers notonly in North Dakota but across
the country.
It's an extremely powerful toolto be able to do that.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
I gotta say one of the things that I'm extremely
proud of being an employee of GKTechnology is just the breadth
and the depth and knowledge thatwe've got within our company.
I mean, you have to think aboutthis from this day and I say
this quite frequently, but itreally is pretty cool.
I mean, darren Johnson reallyis a pioneer in precision

(33:23):
agriculture.
He's one of the very firstpeople that was thinking about
agriculture data in the way thatit operates within our software
system today, and if you thinkabout people trying to teach
precision agriculture concepts,kelly was really a pioneer in
that front.
I mean, in 2006, when I startedusing the software, I didn't

(33:47):
know what a boundary was.
I didn't know what a shapefilewas they.
They didn't teach those thingsin school.
The only place I learned thatfrom was Kelly Sharp going to GK
training.

Speaker 9 (33:54):
Well, I learned it from Darren.
The classes that were beingpresented by these other
software companies were reallypainful.
They weren't giving you anybasis.
They were saying click here,click here, peace out.
See you later.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
And you didn't understand why they weren't
giving me a basis of what thatfile was and what it was.

Speaker 9 (34:11):
I learned the majority of the stuff I know
from Darren, but nobody waspassing the.
Why am I doing this?
It's just do this.
Click here.
Click here.
Click here.
And those events that have beento our training classes.
Jodi and I were talking aboutthat.
There's so much to take inabove and beyond.
Click here right with.

(34:33):
Why are you clicking here andwhat is this file about that?
Darren uses the loving term asa firefighter himself.

Speaker 4 (34:40):
It's like a little fire hose with having been
around some of that technologyand lingo that there's just a
lot to take in and it and it waswhen I first took training
class the first time, and thiswas when I was still a customer.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
I was working in ag retail trying to do precision
agriculture.
I didn't think this was goingto be that big of a deal to
learn.
I can clearly remember I signedup for all three classes.
No big deal.
I'm going to be doing agronomyand prescriptions and drainage.
We're just going to do it all.
I'll take three days of classes.
I'm not dumb, I can do this.
So I went to the first day ofclass.

(35:13):
I stayed caught up to the endof class.
The next day I went to thesecond, second day of class and
I got done with that day and Ihad such a headache oh my gosh,
I just hurt so bad.
You probably didn't know this,but I took like four Advil on
the way home and I called youand I did not go to the third
day of classes.
I worked with it for um I don'tknow six weeks and I retook um

(35:38):
class one and two.
You know that was when therewas like two sessions of
training in the winter time, andso I then I retook classes one
and two and then it started toclick because the concepts that
he had taught were starting tofinally come through, but
precision agriculture wasn'tanything that was offered for a
course.
I mean, there might be like onetiny course at a university,

(35:58):
but it wasn't like you couldreally learn what you were doing
.
So GK Technology was really theplace where I had the
opportunity to learn that.
And I don't know.
There's a lot of othercompanies that are coming on the
market today that are trying toventure into precision
agriculture, but they just don'thave the breadth and the depth
and the history and theknowledge that we do.

(36:20):
I mean, it'd be interesting toknow how many years of
experience is actually sittingaround this table.
Um, anyway, I'm very proud thatI work for a very for a
pioneering precision agriculturecompany.

Speaker 5 (36:31):
When you talk about the first training class.
So I went to my first trainingclass in 2010 or 11.
I don't remember for sure.
I can probably look backbecause it would be the first
manual I have and it was inWatertown, south Dakota, at the
event center and there wasprobably 20, 22, 25, nice full
room and there was someexperienced agronomists, there

(36:52):
was some newbies and after wegot through downloading Landsat
through Globus which we did thatin training that was part of
training class and I didn't havea clue.
I knew nothing about agronomy.
I knew some trainings at thattime and about noon I was about
ready to say I can't sell andsupport this software, I don't

(37:14):
have a clue.
And we got to the Drainage Dayby then.
Of course, now I understoodDrainage, so that made more
sense.
But after going through,creating zones and writing
prescriptions was something Iknew nothing about and I'm glad
I stuck with it because I'mreally happy to be here today.

Speaker 9 (37:32):
I'm glad you stuck with it, because I'm really
happy to be here today.

Speaker 4 (37:34):
I'm glad you stuck with it too.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
The training classes.
I mean, really, when Kelly cameon board, we started talking
about how we were going to dothis and I always thought we
were going to do trainingclasses and they'd just be like
free seminars.
And he said, oh, we can getpeople to A to come to training.
And I went.
Really, you think so?
And that first winter, I meanwe filled classrooms in Fargo

(38:00):
and Grand Forks and Watertownand.
Crookston and all paidattendance and it was.
You know.
People were out there andwanting to learn to do the
things we did, and that was itwas it was.
I was very proud to see thathappen, and they're the growers
that stepped up to tell her howto do things what did that

(38:22):
happen after the first?
Boy that had been the winner of2009.
You did it right off the bat.
I think it was the winner of2006.
You started.

Speaker 9 (38:33):
Fall of 2006,.
You did it right away.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
Yep.

Speaker 9 (38:36):
I hadn't been using Per Se in the software for more
than probably six, eight monthsat that point in time, so it was
.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
So there's good adoption.

Speaker 9 (38:44):
Joby just a few things.
Yeah, there was some.
There was some ah Darren, ahDarren, but I mean it was kind
of blindly going out then.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
They had a good following in the Crookston
Minnesota area.
Crookston was a hotbed ofprecision agriculture going back
into the 90s.
Absolutely it's just a veryprogressive community up there.

Speaker 9 (39:11):
Jim and John Ross were just huge huge supporters
of us, but supporters of theconcept of precision agriculture
.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
I do think it's pretty cool that, as time would
go on one of Darren's originalcustomers would end up being one
of my customers when I wasindependent crop consulting and
he still had his data in therefrom when Darren was doing his
original mapping, so some ofthose maps went back to like
1998.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
There's like yield data maps that were yield data
maps and we have yield data mapsand Landsat data the yield data
was never good enough to usefor zones, but there was a lot
of.
Landsat data zones or Landsatzones.
Neal data was never good enoughto use for zones.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
So it was a lot of Landsat, data zones or Landsat
zones.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
And mostly B-top, I think.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
But it was I mean you think about what the technology
was like back then to what wehave today, it's pretty
impressive what you could do andhow good the zones were with
the data that we had, comparedto what you think about what we
have today but I think I make.

Speaker 9 (40:11):
I make a point that I always like.
I always like to make thispoint.
I used to sit down and showpeople drainage maps and stuff
and trade shows and stuff likethat, but I actually really
started stop doing that.
I have no offense to the peoplelistening, but I've stopped
doing that because I'm sorry,but it blows my mind that people

(40:32):
don't realize that water goesdownhill or towards money.

Speaker 4 (40:38):
Touché.

Speaker 9 (40:41):
But it just blows my mind.
I pull up the LiDAR map andtell them that water flows that
way, and they'd argue with me Idon't know.
When you've got five feet ofdrop going from north to south,
well, all the water in my areais closeering plus to the north.
Well, on this field it doesn't.
And then they just walk overthere and and go home and

(41:01):
they're like oh well, that wasall I needed to know and just
fix my drainage problem, thatI've been trying to run water to
the north for the last 50 yearsof my life and it didn't work.
And now I just fixed all theirdrainage problems because it
actually runs itself.
But, I quit doing it because Ican't tell you how many times
I've happened to event tradeshows that somebody would I'd
ask them about a field orwhatever and I'd bring up a map

(41:22):
and I'd show them something thatwould just blow their mind and
I'm like this is basic, but ifyou don't know something and
somebody tells you the answeronce you know it, you know it
and it's really everybody inthis room can appreciate what
I'm saying from the standpointof once you're told something

(41:45):
and the world is round and youthought it was flat, and once
you grasp that concept that theworld is round, it's over, it's
like no, the world is round, mything is gone.
But knowledge is power and wedon't realize what we have for
knowledge sometimes, darren youspoke off so way beyond people's

(42:07):
grasps because they didn't knowanything about that concept and
it's such basic things to doyeah, I mean, everybody looks at
their fields and they go.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Well, I'm in the red river valley so it goes north
and east towards the river.
So, except for a certaindistance away from the goose
river, if you're on the northside it runs south to get into
the goose river and if you're onthe other side of the river.
It runs north to get into theGoose River and if you're on the
other side of the river it runsnorth to get into the Goose
River.
It might run west.
It might have to run west toget in.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
So I don't want to put anybody on this spot but I'm
going to With much love.
I do actually have to askCheryl, what is the thing that
you are the most proud of withGK technology?
Oh come on, come on in and tellus and we'll take an edit pause
so you can walk in.

(42:55):
You can walk in.
I really want to know.
I want you to give me a hintbecause I don't know, but you've
seen so much, you're theoutsider looking in, I'm the
outsider looking in Pun intended.

Speaker 4 (43:07):
She was the outsider looking in.
I know exactly you were able toget the majority of us to turn
in our billing.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
YOU WERE ABLE TO GET THE MAJORITY OF US TO TURN IN
OUR BILLING WITHIN THE LASTSEVERAL YEARS.

Speaker 7 (43:20):
EXCEPT, we WERE ONE OF THE OWNERS, but WE WON'T SAY
IT.

Speaker 9 (43:27):
BUT MAKE THE POINT, darren AND I, when WE WERE
STARTING OUT FOR THE FIRST TWOTHREE YEARS, we WERE SIX MONTHS
out.
For the first two three yearswe were six months, eight months
, nine months out on billingstuff and Cheryl's going um.
You wonder why you don't haveany money.
I have to feed the children,yeah.

Speaker 4 (43:41):
We have to pay the power bill.

Speaker 9 (43:44):
And me, being the single guy, it's like, yeah,
whatever, yeah, whatever.
All the SSI, though I was like,yeah, we need to get this done,
but it was just a real fightand not because Darren and I
didn't want to do it, but wewere just so busy trying to do
other things and those of youguys that run small businesses

(44:06):
out there.
You guys can appreciate that.
The best thing I can ever tellanybody starting a new business
is find a good bookkeeper or agood assistant to take care of
the background stuff and cherylwas that person and is that
person.
So when she came on board,cheryl, tell them about coming

(44:28):
on board and the disaster.

Speaker 7 (44:30):
Well, it was basically, we needed money.
Yeah, the disaster, and I hatedmy job.

Speaker 6 (44:36):
So the one before GK, right?
Yes?

Speaker 7 (44:42):
yes, yes, I was, I was.
I was Working at the ValleyJournal, putting the Valley
Journal together, and I wasgetting $7 an hour and was not
appreciated.
I'm done with this.
So I came on board and gottheir books together and we got
paychecks.
Kelly and Darren used to writeeach other's.

(45:04):
They'd fill out a paycheck foreach other and then sign.
So Darren would sign Kelly'spaycheck and Darren would sign.

Speaker 13 (45:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (45:13):
It was because they couldn't sign their own
paychecks, so yeah, but you'veseen a lot of stuff with GK over
.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
I mean, you've seen the company grow from the ground
up and everything.
So you've seen a lot of stuff.
What do you think is thecoolest thing that you think
you've seen?

Speaker 7 (45:33):
I have no idea, that's a hard one it is isn't it
?
It's a very hard one, just thegrowth, I think, and this is not
a normal company, I mean.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
No.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
Not just based on the employees.

Speaker 7 (46:01):
No I meant based on the employees.
We're all abnormal.
You have to be a certain kindof special to be hired.

Speaker 9 (46:04):
You know, you go to these big companies and they've
got the hr departments and well,we don't follow those rules
really close because we we knoweach other yeah, and, and we
know what we're like, and that'ssure what so prior to me
joining the company, I mean, Ijust think about the days when
darren was trying to get throughall of this.
I mean the days when you guyshad your kids working on.

Speaker 7 (46:28):
We had kids doing soil sampling, we had our
daughter cutting up maps, yep.
But we also had a couplewonderful farmers in the
Halstead area that kept us goingand paid us above and beyond
what was really what we deservedor what Darren deserved, and he

(46:53):
always wanted to pay that back.
So that's why we don't let himsell anymore, because he would
never bill anybody anything, hewould just do it for free
because we had a lot of help atthe beginning.
So he just wanted to pay itforward and that's what he is.
And then Kelly came along andhe actually started training

(47:14):
people and going out and sellingand then all the money started
coming in, trying to buildpeople?
Yeah, Trying to build people.
No, I meant yeah, going out andtraining people and getting
more customers instead of justthe farmers in the local
Halstead area.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
And then it just kept growing and, you know, I think
that's something that's reallyinteresting, because there's a
bunch of people sitting aroundthis table that have mapped in
some really neat places.
I think most of the audiencethat we usually interact with
think of us just as being acompany from North Dakota,
Minnesota, South Dakota butthat's not true, Okay.
So where is everybody mapped inhere?

(47:53):
Where has everybody worked?
Farthest away places?

Speaker 2 (47:57):
My farthest away is Dalhart, Texas.

Speaker 1 (47:59):
Dalhart Texas, Dalhart, Texas.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
I had a couple of customers at Dalhart Texas that
I had gone down and helped dosome really weird, not weird
things.
It was pretty impressive thingswith converting John Deere air
carts before they were capableof doing variable rate and

(48:23):
rolled into Dalhart Texas areaand installed electric motors to
control the gearboxes on a JohnDeere planter with a Raven 750.
So we're doing variable rate,ammonia and two cart John Deere
stuff by running the gear ratiosup and down on a John Deere

(48:44):
with Raven controllers.

Speaker 9 (48:46):
And how big were those ammonia tanks?

Speaker 2 (48:48):
Yeah, that was.
That was amazing.
You rolled up the field and Ithought what's that ammonia
plant doing out here?
It was like a 10,000-gallontank on a fifth wheel behind a
tractor, with a toolbar behindthat Holy cow, and they would
pull up with a semi and fill it.

Speaker 5 (49:07):
I have a picture of that in my trade show, my trade
show, my trade show.

Speaker 13 (49:10):
I have a picture of that in my trade show, my trade
show slide show.
I have a picture of that.

Speaker 5 (49:12):
That's a cool sheet, yeah, wow.

Speaker 4 (49:14):
You guys see us.

Speaker 9 (49:14):
If you see our stuff at the trade shows and watch the
slide show.
It's one of them it's still oneof the slides and I had done a.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
Mony application for years with, you know, one-inch
hoses coming between the tanksand the toolbar, the tanks and
the toolbar, and down there theyhad a two-inch hose coming off
and going to, from the tankgoing to the toolbar and to
really big valves and really bigflow meters.
And you'd roll along and theywere just knifing it, so they

(49:43):
weren't using a lot of power andrunning along with a 60-foot
applicator at eight miles anhour putting on 200 pounds of N.
With a 60-foot applicator at 8miles an hour putting on 200
pounds of N.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
Well, Clint, you've done some mapping in some
different places around.
Where have you done some?

Speaker 3 (50:03):
Yeah, california I did quite a bit.
Arizona I do quite a bit.
Washington State I did.
Still I'm doing a lot ofmapping there and variety of
crops, I guess too, done likerice fields in California, and

(50:25):
orchards for almonds and walnuts, and hops fields, vineyards,
all kinds of different stuff.

Speaker 7 (50:27):
Cheers, cheers and it's all over the Internet,
right, you don't go down toCalifornia.
Right, cheers, cheers and it'sall over the Internet.
Right, you don't go down to.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
California.
Right, yeah, it's sight unseen.
I never end up actually gettingto see the fields that I map,
but we're able to do it wellenough the way we do it and
stuff.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Happy customers.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Travis's addition there of the elevation data and
being able to 3D map and verifyzones with 3D maps?

Speaker 3 (50:55):
Yeah, that's been a huge help.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
It's amazing, it was huge yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
Probably the hardest were rice fields, and I don't
think we ever really did get agood map of those, just because
the timing had to be perfect,with enough foliage above the
water to even get reflectancefrom the plants and stuff,
because stuff depends on waterso much it's like pivot
irrigation too, or floodirrigation.

(51:22):
They're harder fields to mapjust because of the water.
But yeah, I've done a varietyof things.
I guess You've done some draintile in some different places
Just because of the water.
But yeah, I've done a varietyof things.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
I guess Well, you've done some drain tile in some
different places.
Yeah, that was Paul.

Speaker 5 (51:37):
Yeah, I've kind of done kind of go from sea to
standing sea.
I have an SD drain customer onthe Columbia River in Washington
.
We found a bug in SD drain whenwe first set that up because
his elevation where he set upwas negative three feet and
three feet below sea level.
Travis had everything set upbelow sea level gets discarded.

(51:58):
So we found a bug, got it fixedright away.
So from the Columbia River andthe Pacific Ocean in Washington
State I have a vineyard in thethey're in Napa County but
they're not in the Napa Valley,they're the next valley east of
that and I do all their drainagedesign plans.
I actually went out there andgot them set up with SD Drain

(52:20):
and they showed me their tileplan and I said, oh my gosh, who
designed this?
And well, we had a civilengineer design it, so
functionally it was correct itwould work.

Speaker 9 (52:33):
Water went downhill.

Speaker 5 (52:34):
Water went downhill.
They were doing it the totallywrong way because they're trying
to collect water.
They're not trying to drainwater, to collect water to pump
back up into lagoons orreservoirs for irrigation in the
summer and in 2016 or 17,.
I was out there and we still doone or two vineyards a year and

(52:54):
I've done stuff from botano,north dakota, which is about as
close to canada as you can getin the us, and I've done stuff
in the carolinas and as farsouth as kansas.
I haven't done anything.
You know real far south on thedrain deal, but Kansas is far
south.
So we've been.
I've covered I did add it upduring my real interview, I

(53:17):
think it was like 31 states or28 states.
I've done drainage designprojects in.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
I would guess Tiley is pretty thin in Oklahoma and
Texas, not in Texas, reallyCoastlines.

Speaker 6 (53:34):
Oh yeah, not in texas , really.
Coastlines, oh yeah.
So, and I know we're talkingabout mapping, but I do want to
include kendra on this as well,where one of the farthest
reaches of what you pull in datafor um to include in our
libraries libraries and if it'seasier, you can even say what
states don't we have.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
Yeah, it might be easier.

Speaker 11 (53:50):
Yeah, I think we might be down to about eight or
nine states now that we don'thave county data for um.
Yeah, I mean basically fromabout new york all the way over
to the coast we're doing imageryfor all the time up into canada
.
Um, we started going down intosouthern Texas this year, so we

(54:15):
probably don't have Alaska.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
No we don't have.
Hawaii, maine.

Speaker 11 (54:20):
Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode
Island.
Yeah yeah, so it's pretty smallthat we don't have Utah Nevada.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
Nevada.
Yeah, Just a little lighter forWyoming.

Speaker 6 (54:35):
And so if you're in one of those places and you want
to use our library or have mapsmade, let us know and we can
pull that into our library.

Speaker 9 (54:43):
Yes, we can.
Kendra's looking for somethingto do.

Speaker 11 (54:50):
You betcha, was that a you?

Speaker 4 (54:54):
betcha yeah.

Speaker 9 (54:59):
And we use the word oof-da and text-a-hoo.

Speaker 4 (55:03):
Yeah, sure you betcha , you don't need to know.

Speaker 6 (55:09):
So this is Jodi.
I'm the only person that canhear the sound effects of the
board, but Travis made sure thatthe sensor went off, which all
of you that are listening to thepodcast can hear.
But those Norwegian words,those are curse words.
I'm surprised you found theright button for that.

(55:30):
That was impressive.

Speaker 4 (55:34):
What are the odds?

Speaker 11 (55:38):
I do want to tell you, guys, though, you're
talking about things that you'reproud of, and I was thinking
about that and, honest to God,proudest moment was when Clint
let me paste something to theserver.

Speaker 4 (55:52):
Seriously.

Speaker 11 (55:54):
Yes, he trusts me enough to paste something to the
server.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
I knew how easy it was for me to even screw
something up.
I know I got it.
I don't want to put her throughthat I got it.

Speaker 11 (56:05):
But yeah that was like the first baby step 50
terabytes later of her pasting.
Yeah, there hasn't been much formistakes, but you know, it's
been really cool because I grewup in the city.
I have no agriculturalbackground other than the

(56:27):
backyard garden I mean that isit and watching them throw hay
bales on my grandpa's farm backin the day A lot of stuff.
When I first learned it, I wastaught the process and didn't
yet have the understandingbehind it.
So I mean that's very important.
I gotta know, why am I doingthis?
So it's been very interestingjust to see how that's grown,

(56:50):
how I've come to understandthings that I knew nothing about
.
And I'll have conversations withPaul sometimes where, you know,
I just, you know, pick up onlittle things that I wouldn't
have had even a clue about.
Kelly will get on the phonewith me and it's like oh OK,
that's why that works.
I get that now, you know.

(57:11):
So just all of the knowledgewith you guys and the amount of
like ADMS that I haven't evenbegun to touch, you know, yeah,
but I think six months ago Itold you I hadn't worked with
polygons because I'm so stupid.
I've never worked with polygons.

(57:32):
Oh my God.
Anyway, yes, I have, yes, Ihave.
And I got off the phone andwent oh my God, he's got to
think I'm just yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
By the way, at the last team meeting, kendra was
talking about how didn't youlike write some of your own
computer code recently?

Speaker 6 (57:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (57:49):
Oh, a little bit of Python, that's it.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Just a little bit of Python.

Speaker 11 (57:56):
No, because I do not code, but I do not.
I don't code, but I am.
I like to figure things out andI don't know.
Sometimes you can spend hourslooking at something and it's
like why am I doing this?

Speaker 13 (58:10):
But there's that reward at END, I GUESS.

Speaker 11 (58:13):
SO.

Speaker 4 (58:14):
YEAH.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
ANYHOW YEAH I.

Speaker 4 (58:16):
JUST LOOKED FOR KENDRHA.

Speaker 11 (58:17):
AND.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
THERE'S 40 STATES OF COUNTY.

Speaker 11 (58:21):
Data ON THE SOURCE OKAY WOW.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
SO WE'RE MISSING IT.

Speaker 9 (58:36):
WE'RE GET there, we're getting there probably,
probably, won't do a lot inHawaii and Alaska ever, but I
believe, I believe we have alittle bit of data on there for,
uh, puerto Rico, oh, I thinkthey're a little bit on for
Puerto Rico and um and Canadaand usually the way we add to
that library is by demand.

Speaker 1 (58:52):
So once there's a customer in a place, we start
working with them and thatlibrary gets created.
So this is a library that'sbeen created based on demand, On
demand.

Speaker 9 (59:02):
And more so for you guys that are listening, to be
aware too.
We're talking about NorthAmerica stuff.
There's nothing stopping usfrom.
We have users in Australia, wehave users in South Africa.
There's nothing stopping usfrom adding more stuff to the
library if we get the interestand the demand from those areas.
So just like.

Speaker 5 (59:24):
Sentinel covers the world.

Speaker 9 (59:26):
It does that, and so does Landsat.

Speaker 6 (59:28):
We see you listeners outside of Canada and the United
States on our Buzzsprout or ourlittle podcast information
website, so we do know thatthere are some listeners that at
least have IP addresses outsideof the US and Canada.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
So if you want something mapped, let us know so
I do want to ask Travis, you'vebeen here for 10 years, yep
that was it?
So what is your most proudthing of working here at GK?
Or what's your most proud thingabout this company, or the most
rewarding thing that's happened, or there's something along

(01:00:03):
those lines yeah, that's a goodquestion.

Speaker 10 (01:00:06):
I question I did when I first started.
I reluctantly started with withgk technology because it was
not in the area that I wanted tosee my future grow.
I wanted to be in in researchand uh and stuff like that,
because that's what interests me.
Um, I don't get me wrong, Ilove to be here now, but one of

(01:00:28):
the things I was so frustratedwith research was about was
there's so much research thatdoes not get out into the real
world and it's not applied, andGK here we actually do apply it
and we take what we learn and wehelp people out.
And that's some of the things Imissed in what I was doing and

(01:00:52):
that we do have here.

Speaker 9 (01:00:54):
So, yeah, so one of the stories that I have that
goes with Travis.
When he first started we hadhim helping out with some ABMS
stuff and one of the firstprojects we put SD drain in
front of him and we laid outthis concept of a ditching,
ditch cleaning, ditch,maintenance, whatever product
they're going to survey and cuta ditch and whatever.

(01:01:14):
And one of the comments thatstuck with me about what Travis
said is and he probably doesn'tremember saying this but we got
done and laid all this stuff outand he goes so what am I going
to do after this?
And he goes so what am I goingto do after this?

(01:01:35):
I'm like so when this getsbuilt there's going to be
maintenance and stuff.
I'm going to have to do morestuff to it.
And here we are ten years, nineyears, after that was built and
we're still building on it.
Yeah, but the point to be madewas software with what Darren

(01:01:56):
built, with what Travis hasbuilt, with what Eric and
everybody on the programmingside brings to the table here.
When you build a piece ofprogramming, the technology
world moves so freaking fastthat you're not just trying to
keep up with the code that youwrote, but you're trying to keep
that code.
I mean you started out onWindows 95, 98?

(01:02:21):
95.
95.
But I mean trying to even justtake a piece of code to keep it
up to date, to get IT UP TO 95,to 98, to XP, TO WINDOWS 7, to
WINDOWS 8, to WINDOWS 10, toWINDOWS 11.
I MEAN JUST MY POINT FOR PEOPLEIS WHAT AM I GOING TO DO AFTER
THAT?
I'm LIKE I DIDN'T LAUGH.

(01:02:42):
I JUST GOT TO IN THE BACK OF MYMIND.
I WAS OMG, you GOT A LOT TO DOAFTER THAT, I BELIEVE I CAME gee
, you've got a lot to do.
After that, I believe I came upwith a fairly proper answer.
I said there's more projectscoming, so don't worry.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Sorry, we'll have some work for you.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
This is never going to be done.
So, travis, have you ever beenbored?
No, no.

Speaker 9 (01:03:08):
Well, one of the things I want to throw out to
everybody, I mean within thegroup, I feel like have we ever
said, no, don't think outsidethe box?
I mean it's always.
I feel like we've alwaysencouraged you guys to keep on
finding a new way to dosomething.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
Our and a lot of our best ideas at least from when I
started came from our growers.
I mean the growers requestingthings and crock consultants
yeah, crock consultants.
You know it.
Just you know, could you makeit do this?
Why wouldn't we do that?
Why would you do that?
And then he's playing it andyou go yeah, I think we could do

(01:03:55):
that.

Speaker 5 (01:03:55):
I learn from my drainage customers and this is
people who I'm doing the mappingfor the drainage design for and
they say well, I want you to dothis for this reason, and it's
like that makes sense.
They don't want to lay outtheir own tile plans, but they
have a few things that they wantto accomplish by it and they
know how they want to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
One of the coolest things that I saw in the
software and this happened justthis last year so frequently we
kind of have two divisions ofcustomers right Drainage and
agronomy and it tends to there'sa few customers out there
that'll do all of it, but forthe most part we kind of end up
having that split right.
And so I had this one, this oneagronomist.

(01:04:39):
He wanted to make zones basedon flow accumulation lines.
He had.
He had an idea for a residualherbicide.
He was getting way moreactivity out of this residual
herbicide in one part of thefield I can't remember it must
have been on the hilltops orsomething.
Anyway, he wanted to know wherethe flow accumulations went and

(01:05:01):
from that he was going to makethese zones.
So we actually went in and wedid watershed modeling from the
flow accumulation lines.
We buffered out that.
Then we went back over and wemade zones, two zones from those
flow accumulation buffered outlines and then we applied
residual herbicides based onthat and it worked.

(01:05:22):
And they did it for like 1,000acres of lentils.
And now he's got like farmersthat are trading off sprayers to
get sprayers with pulsating umnozzles so that they can do more
next year.
It's amazing, but it's kind ofemerging of two different very
pieces.
You know two very, two verypieces.

Speaker 9 (01:05:43):
But more importantly, more importantly, now we're
probably putting less in thatwatershed flow area where you're
going to potentially get morerunoff and stuff too.
So I mean all the environmentalbenefits.

Speaker 1 (01:05:56):
Way better.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
Yeah the weed control is better, the environmental
benefits are better, the cropinjuries minimize it was a
lentil situation.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
It was for lentils, I think, and so lentils are just
really sensitive to to um, thoseherbicides.
So it's just.
But it was neat when you couldsee, you know, he called up with
this idea and he was trying tothink about how to do it and he
said, well, let's just do awatershed model.
I don't think he'd ever playedwith the watershed model before
because he's he's just anagronomist and he hadn't thought
a lot about well, but how many,how many times have we heard

(01:06:27):
this story in our region?

Speaker 9 (01:06:29):
So right over in Valley, everybody gets the
concept that drainage is a bigdeal.
Or you get into the river plainareas where that's a big deal.
But oh, I'm out in the RoleyHills, pot Hill, pothell,
prairie area.
Drainage, it just doesn'tmatter out here, the water just
comes here and that's it.

Speaker 8 (01:06:46):
But how many times have we heard that it?

Speaker 9 (01:06:48):
just doesn't matter out here.
We don't need high-precisionRTK stuff out here, because we
got all this rolling ball and weknow where water goes.
But you get into thosescenarios.

Speaker 1 (01:06:57):
There's so many times , so many times this was out in
southwest North Dakota.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
Yep, absolutely.
In central North Dakota youhave people getting stuck on
side hill seats, absolutely, andyou can stick some tile in
perpendicular to the hill andintercept that water flow and
pull it off and don't get stuckanymore.

Speaker 9 (01:07:17):
Amazing miracles of heaven, miracles and we get
better crops and and clint tellus about a little bit about your
I, I'm, I'm with a change fromgk, so so part that everybody
online needs to know, oreverybody listening needs to
know, is that Clint came to usfrom?
Where were you working previousto GK, previous to AGO?

(01:07:40):
Yeah well, I was working at UNDUniversity of North Dakota as a
pilot flying aerial imagery foraerocams, and then you came on
and went from that and you werewe hired, we actually worked.
We worked with you as uh, as anemployee, as agio.
So actually, yeah, you werethree years prior to your higher

(01:08:00):
date with gk.

Speaker 3 (01:08:01):
Yeah, you were working for us or working with
us for three or four years priorto that so, yeah, and the
neatest thing I guess with thatthat transition was, as I was
flying imagery, I was alwaystrying to figure out or learn
how the images were used and Ihad customers that they had me
fly their fields farmers in thein the area and stuff and I get

(01:08:26):
them nice pictures and they'dsay they were great and they
could do all this stuff withthem.
But I never knew the softwarethey used or how they did it and
I sort of knew you and Darrenand the software that you had
with ADMS.
But then getting hired here andthen actually being able to
bridge that gap of seeing, okay,this is what we're doing with

(01:08:47):
the images and analyzing it andcombining them or whatever we're
doing to make the zones and andnow that's the basis you're
making decisions for the fieldand things like that.
So I finally was able to gofull circle from the images that
that I was creating to how theycould be used I've always I've
always thought clint'sbackground for kind of how we

(01:09:09):
got into what he's doing, whathe's bringing for us.

Speaker 9 (01:09:10):
I've always thought it was background for kind of
how he got into what he's doingand what he's bringing for us.
I've always thought it was oneof the a really interesting
story, just to kind of thebackground and some of our
overlaps with the university andstuff with Carson and stuff
like that.
There's just some background,crossing paths and stuff that it
was just fun to see how it allcame together and how, like you
said, the full circle.
I thought it was just a to seehow it all came together and how
, like you said, the full circle.

Speaker 3 (01:09:32):
I think to an extent I was a little bit of an
experiment for you guys too,because I didn't have a lot of
the ag background to see ifsomebody that sort of
understands, that's willing tolearn and stuff and be able to
pick it up and run with it.

Speaker 9 (01:09:48):
I guess I was able to , or have been so far clint,
clint hit, clint hit a reallykey item there for everybody.
Everybody doesn't matter whoyou are, where you are, but
willing to learn, you know atthe point that you're not
willing to learn anymore.
Don't come to my trainingclasses.
Yes, if you aren't willing tolearn, just stay home.

Speaker 6 (01:10:07):
Like darren said, earlier, right, like if his
thomas edison quote about if youaren't willing to learn, just
stay home.
Like Darren said earlier, rightHis Thomas Edison quote about
if you haven't learned duringyour day, it's a day wasted.
Coming at the end of this, too,I want to ask one more question
, and specifically to Eric,what's been as a relatively new
hire here at TK what has beenthe most surprising thing to you

(01:10:39):
either about.
GK, or just about likeagriculture in this area, or
what's your greatest adventure?
Yes, which is, oh, I like this.
You can't see this podcastlisteners, but airspace just lit
up I actually need you torepeat the question?

Speaker 4 (01:10:54):
what is?

Speaker 6 (01:10:55):
what has been your, your favorite GK adventure thus
far, working with GK, an ahamoment, or aha moment, or most
surprising part of what you doat GK.

Speaker 8 (01:11:08):
I think it was when I did the training class the
first well, the only time I'vedone the training class and
kelly was saying all of theseterms that I did not know, but I
was able to follow and clickalong most of the way.
Sarah would show me some thingsand I'd get caught back up and
then at the end I saw this mapof, hey, this is where all the

(01:11:29):
water's going, and I thought,wow, I didn't know you could do
that.
I didn't even know.
Yeah, I guess I just didn'tknow that you could do that with
a map, um, or that that was animportant thing within a field.
I guess I kind of thought therewere like leprechauns that
carried all the water.

(01:12:01):
Yeah, I guess, just realizing,um, you know, applying for the
job, I, I didn't know a wholelot about precision egg, but, uh
, learning about it, it's like,holy cow, this could, this is
like, uh, I don't know how youactually make a difference in
the world and how you can be apositive influence on, well,
countless people.
And I just thought that seemslike the kind of place that I'd

(01:12:23):
like to work at and developskills and work with people who
are on that same kind of missiona big part of what?

Speaker 7 (01:12:34):
Wow, that was awesome .
Change my answer.

Speaker 9 (01:12:42):
I know I would ever came on and some of the shifts
in what he's done and where he'sgone with, with different roles
in what he's working on andstuff was I mean moving into,
moving into the stuff he getsinto such technical in the
technical world that Darren andTravis and Eric work in.
The new thing was like thesonic wall stuff and things like

(01:13:05):
that, setting some of theprotective things of the company
up, things that are keepingthings from happening.
But I just it always blows mymind with all the data that we
have floating around, peopletrying to figure out how to make
all this stuff go back andforth.
Honestly, it just blows my mindAgain.

(01:13:26):
Like Darren said earlier, didwe ever really expect that we'd
be carrying around a petabyte ofstorage?

Speaker 5 (01:13:33):
in a facility.

Speaker 9 (01:13:34):
No, not a chance.
It just wasn't even in therealm of things.
But, eric, to the point of what?
You setting some of that stuffup for the protection of it?
Is just it's interesting.
Like trying to figure out howto run some of that stuff is
just yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:13:52):
It's just not what any of us do, so it's just a
totally different piece to bringto the well, I think we're
getting to the end of our morethan hour long conversation, our
gk fireside chat, but it's beena great reminder of just this
whole conversation in generalhas been a great reminder of

(01:14:14):
with the maps that we make, withthe software that we sell here,
we're able to take theseagronomic concepts, these ideas,
these engineering ideas andconcepts, the drainage, and
actually make them work andapply in the field and make a
difference in people's lives.
I'm so glad that Eric mentionedthat, but it's really exciting

(01:14:34):
to work for such an impactfulcompany and thank you everyone
for being here and sitting downwith Sarah and I to make this
podcast.

Speaker 13 (01:14:46):
So at GK Technology we have a map and a map for that
.