April 16, 2025 • 36 mins
We continue our conversation this week with precision ag geek Shawn Kasprick of Simplot. Shawn shares how precision agriculture capabilities have evolved from floppy disks to satellite imagery, letting farmers see their operations all the way through from farm to field application.
Some topics we cover in this episode:
• Adapting precision agriculture for orchards with specialized equipment that applies fertilizer between rows
• Creating variable rate soil-applied herbicide maps based on soil property levels
• Using satellite imagery to identify wild oat patches before soybean emergence for targeted herbicide applications for subsequent wheat crops
• Developing variable rate fungicide applications for white mold management using crop density data
• Combining multiple data sources with AI to potentially identify specific pests in the future
• The importance of ground-truthing remote-sensed data to verify what's actually happening
• Ensuring technology enhances decision-making rather than just collecting data
Ask your agronomist or consultant about creative ways you could use precision agriculture on your farm. The technology is there—you just need to connect it with good agronomy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah (00:00):
And now it's time for Ag Geek Speak with GK Technology's,
Sarah and Jodi, friends and Ican't wait to get in the fields
again.
No, I can't wait to get in thefields again.
Welcome back to A Geek Speak.
(00:33):
We are excited to have you backagain.
Actually, we just had to startrecording this because we were
having a riveting conversationbefore we started recording and
I'm like we need to stop and weneed to start recording because
this is a great conversationthat we are having with Shawn
Kasprick from Simplot againtoday.
So we'll, if it's all rightwith you guys, we'll just pick
up kind of where we left offthere before we hit the go
(00:56):
button and just start talkingabout the practicality of a
fertilizer application out therein the field.
So one of the things at Simplotis your business has the
precision agriculturecapabilities, the application
capabilities and the fertilizer,so you can see it all the way
through from start to finish.
Shawn Kasprick (01:14):
Right, yeah, we've been able to do it and
that was one of the things.
Even when we were dealing withprecision ag, we could take it
all the way from the farm,whether it was yield maps or
satellite imagery or whatever,bring it all the way through.
We have the applicationequipment to turn around and
make that application out to thefield.
We had the fertilizer, so wejust had to make sure everything
lined up and if anything inthere, if anything has changed
(01:37):
or somewhere in midstream or thenext day that we have to make a
change, change within the mapor some new information comes in
, we can make that change withina few minutes and be done and
move on with the field.
Not a big deal for us.
Sarah (01:54):
That is a pretty big deal to have that capability to do
that, and you've been doing thisfor a number of years.
So you've seen about everysingle kind of fertilizer
spreader, because you must makemaps that actually your
customers, your farmers, willapply as well, right?
So you've seen about everysingle kind of variable rate
(02:14):
controller out there in themarketplace.
Shawn Kasprick (02:17):
Yes, there's been plenty of them, and some
that are really fun and easy todeal with, and then some that
you're like all right, let's,hopefully I don't have to,
hopefully he upgrades and so wedon't have to deal with that one
again.
Sarah (02:30):
And just to put things into perspective, he was talking
about exporting to a Falcon oneon a three by five floppy disk.
So he is he.
He does understand the oldertechnology.
Shawn Kasprick (02:40):
Yeah, and there was.
There was some old ones outthere, even some of the old
Rockwells.
We had done some of those andthose were down in Nebraska, so
they were far and few between,but there were still a few
people who dealt with Rockwells.
Some of the neat things that wehad to deal with on the higher
end was probably in thenorthwest quarter of the US is
how do you variable rate onorchards?
Sarah (03:04):
Oh my gosh, how does that work?
Shawn Kasprick (03:07):
So there's a little tiny spreader that'll go
down between orchards, and soyou take all of that information
and you just make it on asmaller scale and that's all it
is.
And so you're dealing withorchards.
Agronomics are still the same.
You know, you're still havingto deal with NPK.
It's just a little differentapplication method, but the
agronomics are the same.
You know you're still having todeal with NPK.
You're still, you know, it'sjust a little different
application method, but theagronomics are the same.
Sarah (03:28):
So if you're going between trees I'm just trying to
visualize this realize I'm awheat farmer from North Dakota,
okay, so for all of you peopleout there from California
listening to this so you'regoing between trees, do you just
have like a narrower swath thatyou're actually doing?
So you don't apply to the wholefield, because theoretically,
(03:51):
the fertilizer is going to getdown to the roots of the trees
in the row, or like.
Shawn Kasprick (03:57):
Right, yeah, so that, absolutely so.
They've got their applicationequipment.
Think about it like a pull typelittle buggy, spreader, spinner
spreader type of idea, and youjust kind of have walls on that
so it doesn't spread over top ofanything else.
You just have it containedbetween the rows.
As the roots grow out to it andare between the rows, that's
(04:17):
what they'll go ahead and grab ahold of it, but you're just
spreading in between the treesand not having to throw it all
over the place.
Jodi (04:25):
So when you make a map, you probably just like make a
map like you would like a zonemap, and then their mechanical
side, like their spreader,that's what they'll just follow
the map.
It'll change when it hits thenew you know grid or like area
that it goes through with therate, but then the mechanical
part will just keep it containedwithin between the rows.
I mean, that takes creativityright, like there's a.
There's a piece of creativityto think about.
(04:45):
Okay, what are the basics thatlike?
What am I trying to accomplishhere?
And then how do I like make thesoftware and the mechanics talk
to each other and make it work?
Sarah (04:54):
And that's that's interesting from a standpoint
that you know.
One of the things that a lot ofour customers want to see at
the end of the prescription ishow much fertilizer does this
field need?
So how do you compensate forthat If you make like a
fertilizer map over the wholething?
Shawn Kasprick (05:15):
but it's like we're not going to need.
So you're not.
You still need that fertilizerbecause a crop still requires
that much nutrients to gothrough it.
You're just not applying it allover the place, you're just
applying it specifically betweenthe rows not applying it all
over the place, you're justapplying it specifically between
the rows.
Sarah (05:33):
Okay, there it is.
Okay.
I don't know if people have theability with their imaginations
to see this podcast right now,but the light bulb just came on
for me.
Jodi (05:37):
I can confirm there was a light bulb.
So I mean, when I think aboutthis and when we were talking
the other day, Shawn, I thinkcreativity is such a huge part
of map making and making theseprecision ag products.
You know, what are some thingsthat you can think back on in
your career of like huh, Ireally had to put my thinking
(05:58):
cap on to solve this problem andmake a map that works for this
customer.
Shawn Kasprick (06:03):
Well, of course we kind of touched on it in the
last episode where we weredealing with dual and you looked
at the organic matter and itwas low, medium and high.
Okay, how much organic matteris low, how much medium is
medium?
So you had to think thatthrough a little bit and so you
call up the reps or the techreps and ask them a little more
specific questions and theyusually pull it on a little bit
(06:26):
higher level just to understandwhat in the background, what is
driving that information.
So that was one of the firstthings that we kind of came up
with and kind of played aroundwith was looking at doing
variable rate, soil residue orsoil applied herbicides.
You start looking at the nextcouple of things that we're
doing.
I mean, how about pH?
(06:48):
You know, does you know?
Does pH affect the herbicidesAbsolutely and does?
Do we see differences withinsoil pH In the valley?
Not so much.
You start getting outside ofthat and then the ridge tops,
the eroded knobs.
You get the deposition withinthe within the bottom swales and
and the foot slopes, the noteroded knobs.
You get the deposition withinthe within the bottom swales and
and the foot slopes andeverything else.
Sarah (07:08):
So so there's a lot of variances that are out there so
have you had the opportunity tocreate variable rate residual
herbicide applications?
Shawn Kasprick (07:17):
yes awesome.
Sarah (07:19):
Can you tell us about it?
Shawn Kasprick (07:21):
well, and it was starting with with dual, and we
just we just made those simplemaps and it was based on our our
guests within our best guests,and, as well as that, our sales
rep, for that chemistry had tocome in and we had to make sure
that it was that they wouldstill understand what we're
trying to do.
Because when this was when thiswas first going on, we're like,
(07:43):
okay, well, worst case scenario, this area may not get enough
soil residual that we need to dosomething different.
But if you get the rep involvedand they start to understand it
, or the tech rep and they'relike, yeah, that's absolutely a
great application and we'll backthat, that's where we had to
kind of start.
Sarah (08:03):
That's a big deal if you get the chemical, especially the
tech rep, to back it.
That's pretty amazing.
Jodi (08:10):
What was your goal with it ?
Like were you trying to savecosts?
Were you trying to avoid cropinjury?
Like what were you going afterwith the application?
Shawn Kasprick (08:18):
You know, originally everything started
with.
You know can we save cost, butyou know that's great and that
could be an application.
You know can we save cost, butyou know that's great and that
could be an application.
You know the application of.
I want to save costs but at thesame time I don't want that
soil residual to go beyond thedate because I still want to
plant sugar beets there nextyear or dry beans or whatever
crop it is.
I want to still be able toplant that next year.
(08:40):
So I want to make sure that I'mdoing it correctly.
The other flip side of that isthe operator and the equipment.
Do you have the applicationequipment to do those
applications?
Sarah (08:51):
And that's what I was going to ask Were you actually
variable rating the volume ofthe solution to accomplish your
residual herbicide application,or what were you actually
variable rating?
Shawn Kasprick (09:05):
So the grower had on their sprayer they were
doing the application.
It was just a I think at thetime it was a Raven system Raven
applicator.
You just go through and itchanges the whole volume.
I mean, instead of doing youknow 20 gallons of water, this
area is only getting 18 gallonsof water and this area is
getting 15.
And that is enough to vary therate for what we were looking
(09:28):
for at the time.
But that's what we were kind ofgetting into.
Sarah (09:32):
Absolutely so.
It's an actual variable rate ofthe gallons, the total gallons
of solution per acre.
Shawn Kasprick (09:39):
Yes.
Sarah (09:40):
And thereby variable rating the active ingredient.
Jodi (09:43):
Yes, as a weed scientist, I think it's important.
We've talked about it already,but this is a residual herbicide
, right, so we don't care somuch about it.
Gallons per acre is stillimportant, but less important
for residual applications to thesoil versus to the crop.
Shawn Kasprick (09:58):
Yeah, because they still had to do an
incorporation event.
Right, I mean, there's stillsome things that they had to be
done anyway.
So it's not like we werecompletely missing anything.
It was just a little variancein the application and the
active.
Sarah (10:11):
And we'll talk about this on other podcasts coming up
with some other guests thatwe've got in mind.
This on other podcasts comingup with some other guests that
we've got in mind.
But one of the things that isinteresting when you think about
variable rate pesticides isespecially herbicides is the
post versus the pre-applications, when you're actually dealing
with weeds that are emergedversus not.
You know that coveragecomponent of a weed that's
(10:31):
emerged is way more importantthan than trying to get get your
coverage on your soil for justa soil-applied herbicide.
You've got to be careful withthat.
I mean, if you're going to onlyapply two gallons to the acre
on a residual herbicide, I'm notgoing to recommend that as an
agronomist, but you know ifyou're varying from 10 to 20
gallons per acre you're going tobe fine.
Shawn Kasprick (10:53):
Right, absolutely.
And I mean there's somedifferent applications.
I mean there's, there's somedifferent applications that I
know, Jodi, you and I weretalking about this a little bit
where we were doing we had asatellite imagery where we were
going to do take monthlypictures of the of the crop, or
I can't remember if it wasmonthly or every other week or
whatever it was.
But the first time that theystarted we had to, of course,
(11:14):
you know, program that in andschedule that with the satellite
company and get that all goingWell.
We ended up with the firstimage that we got was, you know,
the crop really wasn't up or itwas just barely cracking the
ground and it wasn't emerged.
But we got some.
We were looking at the image andthe image came back and it
showed green and there's growthin this area.
What is going on?
Okay, we're not picking up, youknow soybeans just cracking and
(11:37):
emerging out of the ground.
So we go out there and actuallyground, truth, the field, and
that was with wild oats.
The wild oats were alreadyemerged and showing up.
Well then, it's soybeans and itwas roundup ready, and so we
didn't really care at the time.
But the grower was kind ofchallenged us and looked at us
and the following year he wasgoing to be raising wheat.
Sarah (11:56):
All right.
Shawn Kasprick (11:57):
So trilates, the Fargo herbicide trilates.
So you go out there and thisarea of the field was our seed
bed.
It had plenty of seed and wildoat seed in that seed bed.
So we would make theapplications of this area would
get Fargo, this area would not.
Sarah (12:16):
And that was one of the easy ones, right and I still
think to this day that that isone of the coolest ways of using
precision agriculture.
When you can variable rate thatwild oat application in wheat,
oh my gosh, that that's prettyfun.
Did it work well?
Shawn Kasprick (12:35):
it did.
It really works and I knowwe're still doing it to this day
.
That customer, if we know thosefields and things that were
going on, we'll do that.
Sarah (12:44):
And just to take a step back again, one of the keys to
that is to make sure that youcan accurately identify where
those wild oat patches areoccurring, and so sometimes
that's easier to do in a laterseeded crop, not necessarily
when the wheat is actuallygrowing out there that year.
You want to plan ahead for thatyear when you're going to be
raising something like dry beansor soybeans that's later
(13:04):
planted, and then get those wildoat patches mapped from the
satellites, if I'm hearing youcorrectly.
Correct.
Shawn Kasprick (13:12):
Yeah, or you know there's this.
You know I wouldn't.
I kind of want to joke around alittle bit that this is some
novel idea.
But you think about what doesour yield monitor do?
What is one of the otherapplications of our yield
monitors?
You can mark specific thingsthat are going on that you see
in the field, mark a rock mark,something that you have to come
back to and deal with.
(13:32):
Well, if you set it up whereyou're marking all your wild oat
patches, you could be doing itthat way.
What if you're marking all ofyour Canadian thistle patches
that are going on in that field?
And if you mark it this year,is it the same patches next year
?
Okay, well, what can we apply?
That will just specificallytake those out and target our
(13:54):
applications for those crops orfor those weeds.
Sarah (13:57):
Okay, so I have to shamelessly plug one of our new
products right here, because ifyou were to carry your iPad with
and you have the GK FieldMapper app out there in the
combine, you can mark all ofthese things very fabulously and
then send them seamlessly backto your ADMS software.
Jodi (14:15):
This is such a putting my farmer hat on right, and when I
think about precisionagriculture, it's all about
interpreting that firsthandknowledge of your fields right
and making it into a map.
And what the point I'm tryingto get at is is me or my dad
going across our fields?
We know exactly where thosepatches are.
But if you were to say, okay,well, get me within like a
(14:38):
hundred feet of the patch, thatmight be a little bit more
difficult going to like a Googleearth and pointing those out.
But when we have those exactpinpoints when you're in the
field, it makes the mapping somuch easier.
Like it, you get moreconfidence that your application
is going exactly where it needsto be, and that's so exciting
(15:00):
because, like that's one thingyou kind of just forget about
sometimes.
Like you know where thoseproblems are, but until you get
out and like map and put theprecision location on it, it can
be hard to manage.
Sarah (15:10):
And it could be a lot of fun actually if you're in the
combine and you mark those spotsand then you have those spots
in your precision agriculturesoftware and you overlay it with
early season imagery so you canverify that that green spot
that's there before you plant isin fact your wild oat patch.
That's fun.
Shawn Kasprick (15:29):
You know and I know we've talked about it
before and they've brought it upI'm sure Dr Goose has brought
this up on a couple of differentapplications and things like
that.
So what about iron chlorosis?
Sarah (15:40):
You know we've had a lot of conversations about iron
chlorosis, obviously within thiscompany, and obviously that's
very near and dear to my heart.
I know that you as well, Shawn,have worked with iron chlorosis
quite a bit, and so I mean,NDVI is a nice way to describe
that, right, are you using NDVIto describe where the iron
(16:01):
chlorosis spots are happening ina field?
Shawn Kasprick (16:03):
That's all it's telling you.
So you still and this is wherepeople get the mistake you still
have to go out and ground truththat and make sure that that
low spot isn't just a saltypiece of ground along the edge
of the ditch.
It's actually iron chlorosis,or what is going on.
Sarah (16:26):
And not only that, but in today's agriculture with
soybeans, just because you getthat yellowing going on,
especially if it's later in theseason, you need to go out and
verify that it isn't likesoybean cyst, nematode or
something, especially if it'slater in the season.
You need to go out and verifythat it isn't like soybean cyst,
nematode or something.
Jodi (16:37):
Absolutely, or potassium deficiency.
Like you know, they lookdifferent in person but, like on
satellite imagery, we areseeing more of those K deficient
fields late in the season.
Shawn Kasprick (16:47):
And that's just it.
I mean, all that satellite istelling you is that this area is
low productivity or highproductivity or whatever it is.
That still doesn't tell you oh,this is potassium deficiency
and this is, oh, that's whereyour diseases are.
No, all it's telling you is lowproductivity and you have to go
out there and ground truth.
Sarah (17:05):
And actually it's telling you that it's less green than
the rest of the area.
That's right, and you know onething that's always interesting
even if you're getting thosereally dark green areas, if
something doesn't seem to makesense with your previous
knowledge, you got to kind of bea little bit careful with that
Because, well aware, especiallyafter, if we go out, like
(17:25):
Western North Dakota, there'splaces where you know it's not a
good productivity area but it'scoming back green but it's
because of the weeds that arethere.
And so you know you have tounderstand what's going on in
the field.
That comes back to you.
Can look at data all you want,but you still have to be
grounded in that agronomy ofwhat makes sense and the
(17:48):
knowledge of the field.
Shawn Kasprick (17:49):
Yeah, and I mean you'd take a look at when we're
getting into.
You know, a single layer is notgoing to get you that
information.
So if you take a satelliteimagery and you've got an area
of we'll just call it low,medium and high reflectivity and
productivity within the field,what's causing the low?
We just kind of talked about acouple of them.
Where it's salinity, it couldbe iron, chlorosis could be
potassium, a disease, whatever.
(18:10):
What about on the high side?
Well, this area is justgenerally high productivity.
Well, what about those oldyards?
Okay, so if you get thatsatellite imagery that comes
back and says this whole area isall high productivity, you're
going to throw that all into onezone.
Some people would.
But what's the soil test comingback?
And based on your background,the soil test come back in those
(18:32):
high productivity areas.
Typically is lower analysiscoming back because that crop
took all of that nutrients upinto to build that production
and get that high yield.
But that old yard is stillthere.
That old yard is highproductivity and high soil test.
Jodi (18:54):
Just had a light bulb moment Speaking of high
productivity and those reallygreen areas.
What have you done with likewhite mold, variable rate, Like
how have you have you usedsatellite imagery to like
address those areas and do VRTthat way?
Shawn Kasprick (19:05):
That's a pretty good lead in, because we just
had that conversation here theother day, so again.
So you start looking at thesatellite imagery that comes in.
Okay, what is that telling you?
This area is whether it be theNDVI in this area is just high
productivity, high crop growth.
In this area is low crop growth, maybe poor yields, poor crop,
(19:26):
maybe it's just drought out ingeneral, whatever.
But look at the disease triangle.
You need to have the diseasepresent, of course, so you need
to have a crop present the hostand you need to have the
environment present, of course.
So you need to have a croppresent the host and you need to
have the environment.
Okay, well, within thatsatellite imagery, if you don't
have the host because it'sdrowned out or it's such a poor
emergence or just poor vigorbecause it was salinity or tough
(19:50):
conditions, well, that's notconducive to the disease, okay.
So you take a look at the otherside of things the environment,
high crop growth, a lot of cropbigger going on, you're going
to have a high disease pressure.
Or alongside the shelter beltwhere you just don't have the
wind to dry it down and help youout there, so that could be a
(20:10):
high environment for diseaserisk as well.
So all of that disease triangle.
We start looking at a satelliteimagery.
If I could divide that up intoareas that I want to have maybe
my highest application rate, thehighest rate of, say, a white
mold herbicide in this areawhere it's drowned out and dead
or whatever.
(20:30):
I don't want to apply anythingbecause there's nothing.
Maybe the yield's just notgoing to be worth it.
But everything else in between.
So you still have to do aneconomic rate to make sure that
it works correctly.
And if you look at a productlike, say, endura, for example,
where you get five ounces or sixounces, that's a low to high
rate.
There really is not a whole lotof variance that you can deal
with in there.
But you look at other productsthat have, like the T-methyls,
(20:55):
you go from one pound to twopound rate.
Well, maybe that's a big change.
And can I in those areas wherealongside the shelter belt or
that just have such a highproductivity where I'm going to
get tangled up if I try and walkin there and ground truth, this
thing?
I want that.
I want as much protection outthere as possible, so I want my
highest rate.
(21:15):
Okay, so can I do that withinthe application, absolutely, you
can.
Sarah (21:21):
Are you talking then again about, on that T-methyl,
of coming up with a standardrate per solution and then
varying your gallons per acreagain?
Shawn Kasprick (21:31):
That's right.
Yeah, because we don't have aninjection unit to be able to
change that on the fly.
And if you had an injectionunit which we did not at the
time but we could vary the rate.
And again, if you are talkingabout going from a 20-gallon per
acre rate down to, say, a15-gallon per acre rate, you
need to make sure you have theright adjuvants and things going
on so you get good distributionbut you're still able to change
(21:53):
the rate of the product andmaybe save yourself a little bit
of cost.
Do the application that youknow is the right thing to do
out in the field.
Sarah (22:04):
So obviously you have been doing variable rate
fungicides for white moldmanagement, and so it's actually
occurred.
This isn't like a newfangledthing, people are actually doing
it.
What are the results?
How do you think it's gone?
Have your customers continuedto do it?
Shawn Kasprick (22:19):
Yeah, and then, of course, they go and trade off
their spray equipment anddidn't want to do it again.
So there's things that aregoing to occur right.
Or their applicator they got anew application but they have
somebody else running theapplicator who's maybe not as
tech savvy as you want them tobe.
So somebody else running theapplicator who's maybe not as
tech savvy as you want them tobe.
So things happen.
But you know we've got thatcapability and it's really up to
(22:41):
the customer to kind ofchallenge us and ask us you know
, this is what our thoughts areand as an agronomist, you look
back and you know what.
That makes a lot of sense.
Let's do that and within thetechnology, it's not a big deal
for us to change the technologyand make the technology.
It's just make it work.
But can the applicator do it?
Do you have an applicationequipment that'll work?
(23:01):
That makes a difference.
Jodi (23:04):
For all of our growers listening.
Think about that.
What are things that you'vethought about that you could do
on your farm, that you couldachieve with precision
agriculture?
Talk to your agronomist, talkto your consultants, talk to the
companies you work for.
Explore that.
Sarah (23:19):
You know, farmers are always creative, the farmers
that I've known.
They always are trying to thinkof ways to make things work
with what they've got, or justto do things better.
So the creativity componentwithin agriculture is there to
make it happen.
But if you've got, if you ask agood question, just ask for
help.
That's just.
(23:40):
And I think this is a greatlead-in to a big question that
I've got for everybody in theroom when do we think precision
agriculture is going?
Shawn Kasprick (23:52):
So I've got a good lead-in on that one.
So I was at an InfoAgconference a number of years ago
and at that conference we weretalking to, or one of our
speakers were talking about,satellite imagery and he knew
some people who actually lookand pull in the satellite
imagery and data analysis itselfand we're talking some
high-level stuff.
So I'm guessing the NSA andthings like that that he would
(24:14):
have access to.
But he was talking about at onepoint in time they were able to
take in, zoom in and identifybased on the satellite imagery.
They were able to identify andread the license plate on a
vehicle as it was going down,right, I mean.
So you start talking about alittle bit of high-end stuff.
Sarah (24:33):
Big brother is watching Right.
Shawn Kasprick (24:36):
But then he goes well.
Now we're able to identify thegenus and species of the bug
splatter on your windshield.
Sarah (24:41):
Holy hell.
That could be useful.
Shawn Kasprick (24:45):
And the guy was like, oh, that's pretty awesome,
those optics are really good.
The guy goes who said anythingabout optics?
And then he said the guydropped the conversation and
that was it.
And we're like, well, tell usmore and he goes.
But the guy wouldn't talk to meanymore about it.
He said he just left it at thatat this hangar and we're like
we're all just kind of droolingand feeding off of this going.
(25:07):
Wow.
Jodi (25:08):
Every day since, or every night since, Shawn has had
nightmares about this technology.
Sarah (25:12):
What are they using?
But wouldn't that be so cool.
Like soybean aphids, I havethis idea that I don't think we
should have to walk the fieldfor soybean aphids anymore.
Think we should have to walkthe field for soybean aphids
anymore.
I think we should be able toget a picture, and I don't know
if it's going to be a picture.
It might be some kind of asensor that is sensing something
different, and I would like toknow if we can think outside the
(25:35):
box and develop thresholds forsoybean aphids that takes into
account not only the populationof soybean aphids but also takes
into account.
I mean, if we're sensing stuff,let's sense the number of dead
aphids that are out there.
You know the skeletons thatstill exist on there.
That's valuable data whenyou're scouting that.
And how about the beneficialinsects?
If we can take into thataccount?
(25:57):
We've got great weather sensinginformation that's out there
already we could really hone insome pretty amazing thresholds,
I would think, for soybean aphidpopulations.
And, by the way, if we're doingthat, why can't we figure out
where in the field they'rereally high?
You know those populations arereally high at threshold, and
why can't we control them inthat area rather than spraying
(26:18):
the whole darn field?
Shawn Kasprick (26:21):
Right, well, and you think of where are drones
going right now.
I mean we can send out dronedrone swarms and go out there.
You know some of that doesn'tramp up for for large scale.
You know applications where I'mgoing to be able to scout
20,000 acres today.
That would be way too much.
But at the same time can I goout there with some, with some
(26:41):
drones, some really highresolution just photography, and
get some information back andmaybe that's going to take a
look at.
I wanted to go through these 15spots within the field and run
my analysis on that.
Sarah (26:57):
But if it's a drone swarm , why does it have to be a
picture?
I mean, if they're sensing thegenus and species of bug
splatter on your windshield.
Maybe we can do it withsomething else.
I don't know what that is.
Temperature?
Maybe it's a combination ofsensing I don't know sensing the
bugs that are not splatteredand getting the genus and the
species as well as like thetemperature of the plants.
(27:19):
Maybe that's what thethresholds need to look like.
Jodi (27:22):
That's a crazy thing.
I think, with AI coming into thepicture, right, we have the
ability with drones now to takeall sorts of information.
So, say, if we've got a dronethat's got thermal sensing and
NDVI sensing and RGB cameras,maybe that combination of data
and all the different datapoints that are coming out of
that drone flight, maybe AI canhelp us develop those thresholds
(27:43):
where we haven't been able todo that as humans before.
And that's where I think aboutwhere Precision Ag is going.
I think about how the thingsthat really help farmers now
farms are typically larger inscale, They've got less time to.
They've got agronomists that goand look at things but I think
anything that will givereal-time feedback of what's
(28:04):
going on and predict thosethings like aphids, like weeds,
and bring that back and helpidentify right away where they
are so you can make anapplication quickly.
Those are the things that aregoing to take off and I think AI
is really going to play a bigpart in that.
But we also got to figure outdata storage and stuff and
(28:25):
processing and all those otherthings.
Shawn Kasprick (28:27):
But we'll figure it out.
We've gotten here.
First let's tie in a little bitof old technology and the new
technology.
Okay, so the old technology ofthe sweep nets?
Right, why not have my dronesgo out and just run a course
around this field, along thisedge and this is what I want
them to collect and come backand take a look at it and go.
Oh okay, well, I'm at threshold, Boom.
Sarah (28:47):
Boy, that would be.
That's a great idea.
And here's the other thing thatI think the industry for
anybody that's out there inindustry kind of needs to think
about.
I think it's really easy to sayfly a drone over, take a
picture and use the data.
You agronomists figure it out.
But what's interesting aboutthat is it would be really great
if we could bring this down andrealize that, okay, drones have
(29:09):
been in agriculture for a longtime and I honestly think that
they are going to be a huge partof what we do into the future.
But I feel like we're waitingfor that the technology side,
the equipment side of that tohear about the challenges that
agriculture itself presents.
We need to actually take itdown to.
You can't just say weeds.
(29:29):
We need to be able to identifyweeds when they're very small,
oftentimes even smaller thanwhat a drone can actually take a
picture of at this point intime.
And so how do we work to thinkoutside the box of?
Here's a picture.
Let's you agronomists go figureout what to do with this
picture.
We're going to have to thinkoutside the box and sometimes
(29:50):
it's going to be right down tothe species.
Jodi (29:53):
Absolutely.
I mean think back to ourconversation with Travis Yike
last year.
Right, phragmites has adifferent ratio of chlorophyll A
and B at different times of theyear.
Do the little seedlings havedifferent ratios of chlorophyll
A and B at different times ofthe year?
Do the little seedlings havedifferent ratios of chlorophyll
A and B by species?
Can we sense that as an NDVIsensor versus a picture?
Right, like?
I fully believe that we havethe ability to collect the data.
(30:14):
It's just a matter of, like,money to process and store that
data.
Shawn Kasprick (30:19):
So and at the end of the day, you know there's
and it kind of comes back to wecan collect all this data.
What are you going to do withit?
Yeah, if it does not make you,give you a better decision to
make, or allow you to make abetter decision than what you
would have in the first place,it doesn't make any sense to
spend the money there.
And that's what we're always.
As an agronomist, you're alwaysgoing kind of back and forth.
Here's some cool applications,cool ideas.
(30:41):
Is it going to make myrecommendation better than what
I was going to make anyway?
Or is it going to save a littlebit of cost up front?
Is it going to make thingsspeed up so I can do more with
less?
That's where we need to be.
Sarah (30:54):
That's where we're trying to get to, and I do think that
the number one reason why theconventional crop scout that
still rides a four-wheeler hasnot been replaced by drones,
it's because you can still scouta field faster than you can get
the data back and get itprocessed, and the crop scout
itself is doing a more accuratejob of identifying specifically
(31:15):
the weed species that are outthere at this point in time.
And so until we really addressthose things and we get the
signatures back for what aspecific weed identification is
at the proper timing for weedcontrol, I don't know if we're
going to be able to get to theweed control part, but again, ai
and everything, I do believethat we will see changes coming
(31:36):
forward with it.
Jodi (31:37):
Yeah, that time component, you're absolutely right,
absolutely right.
Like to stitch together like afield of drone imagery.
If they're taking thousands ofpictures of the field at really
high resolution, that's going totake a lot of time to process,
whereas, like you, as a human,can take a look at a lamb's
quarter and within a second youcan figure out that's a lamb's
(31:57):
quarter.
We, we did.
Let's not forget the value ofour brains too.
Sarah (32:03):
Still and I'm going to bring this back to the first
episode where Shawn actuallytalked about his education you
still got to be grounded inthose basics, the basics of what
, what actual just cropproduction is.
You know there's a, there's away to put a seed in the ground,
there's a way to do weedcontrol.
You know there's, there's justsome basics.
What, what?
Shawn Kasprick (32:25):
I, I, what, how weeds work, how soils work, you
know when you you look at thatand you know, can I identify a
lamb's quarter, or the kosher,or I got waterhemp in this field
, so now you can identify thatfaster.
But is it going to reallychange the, the product that
you're going to apply later on?
If it doesn't, because you'regoing out there and it's going
to be well, I'm going to beusing, well, like when we're
going to apply later on.
If it doesn't, because you'regoing out there and it's going
to be well, I'm going to beusing.
Well, like when we're goingwith Roundup Ready Crops.
(32:48):
Well, I see this weed, I seethat weed, I see that weed.
What are you going to apply?
Roundup?
Okay, it doesn't make anydifference.
Well, now, if we need to goback and start to look at that,
well, this area I really needyou know, this product does a
better job on this weed.
And then over here, the rest ofthe field, I can go with a
(33:09):
different herbicide.
That can be done too.
Jodi (33:13):
That's such a great point.
That's so right.
It has to actually affectdecision-making.
Like I TA'd weed ID in gradschool and if a kid didn't know
what the weed was, their answeris I don't care, glyphosate can
kill it, glyphosate can't killit all the time, not anymore.
But yeah, I mean that's such animportant point to remember is
(33:33):
like if we have a blanketrecommendation for whatever it
is, then that value or thatinformation is important, but if
it can change our decisions orenhance our decision making and
make it better, that now hasvalue.
So it's interesting to thinkabout.
Okay, what technologies can weget to producers to enhance and
bring that value?
Sarah (33:55):
This is just such a fun conversation.
I feel like we could go on andon about this.
So the three of us will runinto each other at different
farm shows and stuff and we canstand there and talk for an hour
easy, and we won't even knowthat the time has gone by,
because these are the thingsthat we talk about.
Yes, we are all a bunch ofnerds in this room.
Yes, and I'd like to say thatwe're proud of it, but I don't
(34:16):
want to speak for everybody.
Shawn Kasprick (34:18):
Absolutely Proud , proud to be that.
Sarah (34:27):
It's so much fun, but I think this is a pretty good
place to wrap it up.
Shawn, thank you for your timevisiting.
This has been such a funconversation.
I honestly believe that ouraudiences are really going to
enjoy this one.
But thank you so much forjoining us.
Shawn, you are at Simplot.
I do want to.
Where can people find you ifthey want to talk to you?
Shawn Kasprick (34:47):
Yeah, I mean I'm at Simplot.
You know I office up in theGrafton North Dakota location
but I run around all thetri-state area here in North
Dakota, minnesota, south Dakota.
Any of our Simplot locationswould be able to get a hold of
me.
I'm always on the cell phonesomewhere traveling or sitting
in an office, sitting with anyof our customers, our crop
(35:07):
advisors, so they can get a holdof me pretty easy.
Sarah (35:11):
That's awesome.
Again, thank you so much.
It's been such a funconversation With that at GK
Technology.
We have a map and an app forthat.
And.
Shawn Kasprick (35:24):
I can't wait to get in the fields again.
Jodi (35:28):
No, I can't wait to get in the fields again.
And now it's time for Ag Geek Speak with GK Technology's,
Sarah and Jodi, friends and Ican't wait to get in the fields
again.
No, I can't wait to get in thefields again.
Welcome back to A Geek Speak.
(00:33):
We are excited to have you backagain.
Actually, we just had to startrecording this because we were
having a riveting conversationbefore we started recording and
I'm like we need to stop and weneed to start recording because
this is a great conversationthat we are having with Shawn
Kasprick from Simplot againtoday.
So we'll, if it's all rightwith you guys, we'll just pick
up kind of where we left offthere before we hit the go
(00:56):
button and just start talkingabout the practicality of a
fertilizer application out therein the field.
So one of the things at Simplotis your business has the
precision agriculturecapabilities, the application
capabilities and the fertilizer,so you can see it all the way
through from start to finish.
Shawn Kasprick (01:14):
Right, yeah, we've been able to do it and
that was one of the things.
Even when we were dealing withprecision ag, we could take it
all the way from the farm,whether it was yield maps or
satellite imagery or whatever,bring it all the way through.
We have the applicationequipment to turn around and
make that application out to thefield.
We had the fertilizer, so wejust had to make sure everything
lined up and if anything inthere, if anything has changed
(01:37):
or somewhere in midstream or thenext day that we have to make a
change, change within the mapor some new information comes in
, we can make that change withina few minutes and be done and
move on with the field.
Not a big deal for us.
Sarah (01:54):
That is a pretty big deal to have that capability to do
that, and you've been doing thisfor a number of years.
So you've seen about everysingle kind of fertilizer
spreader, because you must makemaps that actually your
customers, your farmers, willapply as well, right?
So you've seen about everysingle kind of variable rate
(02:14):
controller out there in themarketplace.
Shawn Kasprick (02:17):
Yes, there's been plenty of them, and some
that are really fun and easy todeal with, and then some that
you're like all right, let's,hopefully I don't have to,
hopefully he upgrades and so wedon't have to deal with that one
again.
Sarah (02:30):
And just to put things into perspective, he was talking
about exporting to a Falcon oneon a three by five floppy disk.
So he is he.
He does understand the oldertechnology.
Shawn Kasprick (02:40):
Yeah, and there was.
There was some old ones outthere, even some of the old
Rockwells.
We had done some of those andthose were down in Nebraska, so
they were far and few between,but there were still a few
people who dealt with Rockwells.
Some of the neat things that wehad to deal with on the higher
end was probably in thenorthwest quarter of the US is
how do you variable rate onorchards?
Sarah (03:04):
Oh my gosh, how does that work?
Shawn Kasprick (03:07):
So there's a little tiny spreader that'll go
down between orchards, and soyou take all of that information
and you just make it on asmaller scale and that's all it
is.
And so you're dealing withorchards.
Agronomics are still the same.
You know, you're still havingto deal with NPK.
It's just a little differentapplication method, but the
agronomics are the same.
You know you're still having todeal with NPK.
You're still, you know, it'sjust a little different
application method, but theagronomics are the same.
Sarah (03:28):
So if you're going between trees I'm just trying to
visualize this realize I'm awheat farmer from North Dakota,
okay, so for all of you peopleout there from California
listening to this so you'regoing between trees, do you just
have like a narrower swath thatyou're actually doing?
So you don't apply to the wholefield, because theoretically,
(03:51):
the fertilizer is going to getdown to the roots of the trees
in the row, or like.
Shawn Kasprick (03:57):
Right, yeah, so that, absolutely so.
They've got their applicationequipment.
Think about it like a pull typelittle buggy, spreader, spinner
spreader type of idea, and youjust kind of have walls on that
so it doesn't spread over top ofanything else.
You just have it containedbetween the rows.
As the roots grow out to it andare between the rows, that's
(04:17):
what they'll go ahead and grab ahold of it, but you're just
spreading in between the treesand not having to throw it all
over the place.
Jodi (04:25):
So when you make a map, you probably just like make a
map like you would like a zonemap, and then their mechanical
side, like their spreader,that's what they'll just follow
the map.
It'll change when it hits thenew you know grid or like area
that it goes through with therate, but then the mechanical
part will just keep it containedwithin between the rows.
I mean, that takes creativityright, like there's a.
There's a piece of creativityto think about.
(04:45):
Okay, what are the basics thatlike?
What am I trying to accomplishhere?
And then how do I like make thesoftware and the mechanics talk
to each other and make it work?
Sarah (04:54):
And that's that's interesting from a standpoint
that you know.
One of the things that a lot ofour customers want to see at
the end of the prescription ishow much fertilizer does this
field need?
So how do you compensate forthat If you make like a
fertilizer map over the wholething?
Shawn Kasprick (05:15):
but it's like we're not going to need.
So you're not.
You still need that fertilizerbecause a crop still requires
that much nutrients to gothrough it.
You're just not applying it allover the place, you're just
applying it specifically betweenthe rows not applying it all
over the place, you're justapplying it specifically between
the rows.
Sarah (05:33):
Okay, there it is.
Okay.
I don't know if people have theability with their imaginations
to see this podcast right now,but the light bulb just came on
for me.
Jodi (05:37):
I can confirm there was a light bulb.
So I mean, when I think aboutthis and when we were talking
the other day, Shawn, I thinkcreativity is such a huge part
of map making and making theseprecision ag products.
You know, what are some thingsthat you can think back on in
your career of like huh, Ireally had to put my thinking
(05:58):
cap on to solve this problem andmake a map that works for this
customer.
Shawn Kasprick (06:03):
Well, of course we kind of touched on it in the
last episode where we weredealing with dual and you looked
at the organic matter and itwas low, medium and high.
Okay, how much organic matteris low, how much medium is
medium?
So you had to think thatthrough a little bit and so you
call up the reps or the techreps and ask them a little more
specific questions and theyusually pull it on a little bit
(06:26):
higher level just to understandwhat in the background, what is
driving that information.
So that was one of the firstthings that we kind of came up
with and kind of played aroundwith was looking at doing
variable rate, soil residue orsoil applied herbicides.
You start looking at the nextcouple of things that we're
doing.
I mean, how about pH?
(06:48):
You know, does you know?
Does pH affect the herbicidesAbsolutely and does?
Do we see differences withinsoil pH In the valley?
Not so much.
You start getting outside ofthat and then the ridge tops,
the eroded knobs.
You get the deposition withinthe within the bottom swales and
and the foot slopes, the noteroded knobs.
You get the deposition withinthe within the bottom swales and
and the foot slopes andeverything else.
Sarah (07:08):
So so there's a lot of variances that are out there so
have you had the opportunity tocreate variable rate residual
herbicide applications?
Shawn Kasprick (07:17):
yes awesome.
Sarah (07:19):
Can you tell us about it?
Shawn Kasprick (07:21):
well, and it was starting with with dual, and we
just we just made those simplemaps and it was based on our our
guests within our best guests,and, as well as that, our sales
rep, for that chemistry had tocome in and we had to make sure
that it was that they wouldstill understand what we're
trying to do.
Because when this was when thiswas first going on, we're like,
(07:43):
okay, well, worst case scenario, this area may not get enough
soil residual that we need to dosomething different.
But if you get the rep involvedand they start to understand it
, or the tech rep and they'relike, yeah, that's absolutely a
great application and we'll backthat, that's where we had to
kind of start.
Sarah (08:03):
That's a big deal if you get the chemical, especially the
tech rep, to back it.
That's pretty amazing.
Jodi (08:10):
What was your goal with it ?
Like were you trying to savecosts?
Were you trying to avoid cropinjury?
Like what were you going afterwith the application?
Shawn Kasprick (08:18):
You know, originally everything started
with.
You know can we save cost, butyou know that's great and that
could be an application.
You know can we save cost, butyou know that's great and that
could be an application.
You know the application of.
I want to save costs but at thesame time I don't want that
soil residual to go beyond thedate because I still want to
plant sugar beets there nextyear or dry beans or whatever
crop it is.
I want to still be able toplant that next year.
(08:40):
So I want to make sure that I'mdoing it correctly.
The other flip side of that isthe operator and the equipment.
Do you have the applicationequipment to do those
applications?
Sarah (08:51):
And that's what I was going to ask Were you actually
variable rating the volume ofthe solution to accomplish your
residual herbicide application,or what were you actually
variable rating?
Shawn Kasprick (09:05):
So the grower had on their sprayer they were
doing the application.
It was just a I think at thetime it was a Raven system Raven
applicator.
You just go through and itchanges the whole volume.
I mean, instead of doing youknow 20 gallons of water, this
area is only getting 18 gallonsof water and this area is
getting 15.
And that is enough to vary therate for what we were looking
(09:28):
for at the time.
But that's what we were kind ofgetting into.
Sarah (09:32):
Absolutely so.
It's an actual variable rate ofthe gallons, the total gallons
of solution per acre.
Shawn Kasprick (09:39):
Yes.
Sarah (09:40):
And thereby variable rating the active ingredient.
Jodi (09:43):
Yes, as a weed scientist, I think it's important.
We've talked about it already,but this is a residual herbicide
, right, so we don't care somuch about it.
Gallons per acre is stillimportant, but less important
for residual applications to thesoil versus to the crop.
Shawn Kasprick (09:58):
Yeah, because they still had to do an
incorporation event.
Right, I mean, there's stillsome things that they had to be
done anyway.
So it's not like we werecompletely missing anything.
It was just a little variancein the application and the
active.
Sarah (10:11):
And we'll talk about this on other podcasts coming up
with some other guests thatwe've got in mind.
This on other podcasts comingup with some other guests that
we've got in mind.
But one of the things that isinteresting when you think about
variable rate pesticides isespecially herbicides is the
post versus the pre-applications, when you're actually dealing
with weeds that are emergedversus not.
You know that coveragecomponent of a weed that's
(10:31):
emerged is way more importantthan than trying to get get your
coverage on your soil for justa soil-applied herbicide.
You've got to be careful withthat.
I mean, if you're going to onlyapply two gallons to the acre
on a residual herbicide, I'm notgoing to recommend that as an
agronomist, but you know ifyou're varying from 10 to 20
gallons per acre you're going tobe fine.
Shawn Kasprick (10:53):
Right, absolutely.
And I mean there's somedifferent applications.
I mean there's, there's somedifferent applications that I
know, Jodi, you and I weretalking about this a little bit
where we were doing we had asatellite imagery where we were
going to do take monthlypictures of the of the crop, or
I can't remember if it wasmonthly or every other week or
whatever it was.
But the first time that theystarted we had to, of course,
(11:14):
you know, program that in andschedule that with the satellite
company and get that all goingWell.
We ended up with the firstimage that we got was, you know,
the crop really wasn't up or itwas just barely cracking the
ground and it wasn't emerged.
But we got some.
We were looking at the image andthe image came back and it
showed green and there's growthin this area.
What is going on?
Okay, we're not picking up, youknow soybeans just cracking and
(11:37):
emerging out of the ground.
So we go out there and actuallyground, truth, the field, and
that was with wild oats.
The wild oats were alreadyemerged and showing up.
Well then, it's soybeans and itwas roundup ready, and so we
didn't really care at the time.
But the grower was kind ofchallenged us and looked at us
and the following year he wasgoing to be raising wheat.
Sarah (11:56):
All right.
Shawn Kasprick (11:57):
So trilates, the Fargo herbicide trilates.
So you go out there and thisarea of the field was our seed
bed.
It had plenty of seed and wildoat seed in that seed bed.
So we would make theapplications of this area would
get Fargo, this area would not.
Sarah (12:16):
And that was one of the easy ones, right and I still
think to this day that that isone of the coolest ways of using
precision agriculture.
When you can variable rate thatwild oat application in wheat,
oh my gosh, that that's prettyfun.
Did it work well?
Shawn Kasprick (12:35):
it did.
It really works and I knowwe're still doing it to this day
.
That customer, if we know thosefields and things that were
going on, we'll do that.
Sarah (12:44):
And just to take a step back again, one of the keys to
that is to make sure that youcan accurately identify where
those wild oat patches areoccurring, and so sometimes
that's easier to do in a laterseeded crop, not necessarily
when the wheat is actuallygrowing out there that year.
You want to plan ahead for thatyear when you're going to be
raising something like dry beansor soybeans that's later
(13:04):
planted, and then get those wildoat patches mapped from the
satellites, if I'm hearing youcorrectly.
Correct.
Shawn Kasprick (13:12):
Yeah, or you know there's this.
You know I wouldn't.
I kind of want to joke around alittle bit that this is some
novel idea.
But you think about what doesour yield monitor do?
What is one of the otherapplications of our yield
monitors?
You can mark specific thingsthat are going on that you see
in the field, mark a rock mark,something that you have to come
back to and deal with.
(13:32):
Well, if you set it up whereyou're marking all your wild oat
patches, you could be doing itthat way.
What if you're marking all ofyour Canadian thistle patches
that are going on in that field?
And if you mark it this year,is it the same patches next year
?
Okay, well, what can we apply?
That will just specificallytake those out and target our
(13:54):
applications for those crops orfor those weeds.
Sarah (13:57):
Okay, so I have to shamelessly plug one of our new
products right here, because ifyou were to carry your iPad with
and you have the GK FieldMapper app out there in the
combine, you can mark all ofthese things very fabulously and
then send them seamlessly backto your ADMS software.
Jodi (14:15):
This is such a putting my farmer hat on right, and when I
think about precisionagriculture, it's all about
interpreting that firsthandknowledge of your fields right
and making it into a map.
And what the point I'm tryingto get at is is me or my dad
going across our fields?
We know exactly where thosepatches are.
But if you were to say, okay,well, get me within like a
(14:38):
hundred feet of the patch, thatmight be a little bit more
difficult going to like a Googleearth and pointing those out.
But when we have those exactpinpoints when you're in the
field, it makes the mapping somuch easier.
Like it, you get moreconfidence that your application
is going exactly where it needsto be, and that's so exciting
(15:00):
because, like that's one thingyou kind of just forget about
sometimes.
Like you know where thoseproblems are, but until you get
out and like map and put theprecision location on it, it can
be hard to manage.
Sarah (15:10):
And it could be a lot of fun actually if you're in the
combine and you mark those spotsand then you have those spots
in your precision agriculturesoftware and you overlay it with
early season imagery so you canverify that that green spot
that's there before you plant isin fact your wild oat patch.
That's fun.
Shawn Kasprick (15:29):
You know and I know we've talked about it
before and they've brought it upI'm sure Dr Goose has brought
this up on a couple of differentapplications and things like
that.
So what about iron chlorosis?
Sarah (15:40):
You know we've had a lot of conversations about iron
chlorosis, obviously within thiscompany, and obviously that's
very near and dear to my heart.
I know that you as well, Shawn,have worked with iron chlorosis
quite a bit, and so I mean,NDVI is a nice way to describe
that, right, are you using NDVIto describe where the iron
(16:01):
chlorosis spots are happening ina field?
Shawn Kasprick (16:03):
That's all it's telling you.
So you still and this is wherepeople get the mistake you still
have to go out and ground truththat and make sure that that
low spot isn't just a saltypiece of ground along the edge
of the ditch.
It's actually iron chlorosis,or what is going on.
Sarah (16:26):
And not only that, but in today's agriculture with
soybeans, just because you getthat yellowing going on,
especially if it's later in theseason, you need to go out and
verify that it isn't likesoybean cyst, nematode or
something, especially if it'slater in the season.
You need to go out and verifythat it isn't like soybean cyst,
nematode or something.
Jodi (16:37):
Absolutely, or potassium deficiency.
Like you know, they lookdifferent in person but, like on
satellite imagery, we areseeing more of those K deficient
fields late in the season.
Shawn Kasprick (16:47):
And that's just it.
I mean, all that satellite istelling you is that this area is
low productivity or highproductivity or whatever it is.
That still doesn't tell you oh,this is potassium deficiency
and this is, oh, that's whereyour diseases are.
No, all it's telling you is lowproductivity and you have to go
out there and ground truth.
Sarah (17:05):
And actually it's telling you that it's less green than
the rest of the area.
That's right, and you know onething that's always interesting
even if you're getting thosereally dark green areas, if
something doesn't seem to makesense with your previous
knowledge, you got to kind of bea little bit careful with that
Because, well aware, especiallyafter, if we go out, like
(17:25):
Western North Dakota, there'splaces where you know it's not a
good productivity area but it'scoming back green but it's
because of the weeds that arethere.
And so you know you have tounderstand what's going on in
the field.
That comes back to you.
Can look at data all you want,but you still have to be
grounded in that agronomy ofwhat makes sense and the
(17:48):
knowledge of the field.
Shawn Kasprick (17:49):
Yeah, and I mean you'd take a look at when we're
getting into.
You know, a single layer is notgoing to get you that
information.
So if you take a satelliteimagery and you've got an area
of we'll just call it low,medium and high reflectivity and
productivity within the field,what's causing the low?
We just kind of talked about acouple of them.
Where it's salinity, it couldbe iron, chlorosis could be
potassium, a disease, whatever.
(18:10):
What about on the high side?
Well, this area is justgenerally high productivity.
Well, what about those oldyards?
Okay, so if you get thatsatellite imagery that comes
back and says this whole area isall high productivity, you're
going to throw that all into onezone.
Some people would.
But what's the soil test comingback?
And based on your background,the soil test come back in those
(18:32):
high productivity areas.
Typically is lower analysiscoming back because that crop
took all of that nutrients upinto to build that production
and get that high yield.
But that old yard is stillthere.
That old yard is highproductivity and high soil test.
Jodi (18:54):
Just had a light bulb moment Speaking of high
productivity and those reallygreen areas.
What have you done with likewhite mold, variable rate, Like
how have you have you usedsatellite imagery to like
address those areas and do VRTthat way?
Shawn Kasprick (19:05):
That's a pretty good lead in, because we just
had that conversation here theother day, so again.
So you start looking at thesatellite imagery that comes in.
Okay, what is that telling you?
This area is whether it be theNDVI in this area is just high
productivity, high crop growth.
In this area is low crop growth, maybe poor yields, poor crop,
(19:26):
maybe it's just drought out ingeneral, whatever.
But look at the disease triangle.
You need to have the diseasepresent, of course, so you need
to have a crop present the hostand you need to have the
environment present, of course.
So you need to have a croppresent the host and you need to
have the environment.
Okay, well, within thatsatellite imagery, if you don't
have the host because it'sdrowned out or it's such a poor
emergence or just poor vigorbecause it was salinity or tough
(19:50):
conditions, well, that's notconducive to the disease, okay.
So you take a look at the otherside of things the environment,
high crop growth, a lot of cropbigger going on, you're going
to have a high disease pressure.
Or alongside the shelter beltwhere you just don't have the
wind to dry it down and help youout there, so that could be a
(20:10):
high environment for diseaserisk as well.
So all of that disease triangle.
We start looking at a satelliteimagery.
If I could divide that up intoareas that I want to have maybe
my highest application rate, thehighest rate of, say, a white
mold herbicide in this areawhere it's drowned out and dead
or whatever.
(20:30):
I don't want to apply anythingbecause there's nothing.
Maybe the yield's just notgoing to be worth it.
But everything else in between.
So you still have to do aneconomic rate to make sure that
it works correctly.
And if you look at a productlike, say, endura, for example,
where you get five ounces or sixounces, that's a low to high
rate.
There really is not a whole lotof variance that you can deal
with in there.
But you look at other productsthat have, like the T-methyls,
(20:55):
you go from one pound to twopound rate.
Well, maybe that's a big change.
And can I in those areas wherealongside the shelter belt or
that just have such a highproductivity where I'm going to
get tangled up if I try and walkin there and ground truth, this
thing?
I want that.
I want as much protection outthere as possible, so I want my
highest rate.
(21:15):
Okay, so can I do that withinthe application, absolutely, you
can.
Sarah (21:21):
Are you talking then again about, on that T-methyl,
of coming up with a standardrate per solution and then
varying your gallons per acreagain?
Shawn Kasprick (21:31):
That's right.
Yeah, because we don't have aninjection unit to be able to
change that on the fly.
And if you had an injectionunit which we did not at the
time but we could vary the rate.
And again, if you are talkingabout going from a 20-gallon per
acre rate down to, say, a15-gallon per acre rate, you
need to make sure you have theright adjuvants and things going
on so you get good distributionbut you're still able to change
(21:53):
the rate of the product andmaybe save yourself a little bit
of cost.
Do the application that youknow is the right thing to do
out in the field.
Sarah (22:04):
So obviously you have been doing variable rate
fungicides for white moldmanagement, and so it's actually
occurred.
This isn't like a newfangledthing, people are actually doing
it.
What are the results?
How do you think it's gone?
Have your customers continuedto do it?
Shawn Kasprick (22:19):
Yeah, and then, of course, they go and trade off
their spray equipment anddidn't want to do it again.
So there's things that aregoing to occur right.
Or their applicator they got anew application but they have
somebody else running theapplicator who's maybe not as
tech savvy as you want them tobe.
So somebody else running theapplicator who's maybe not as
tech savvy as you want them tobe.
So things happen.
But you know we've got thatcapability and it's really up to
(22:41):
the customer to kind ofchallenge us and ask us you know
, this is what our thoughts areand as an agronomist, you look
back and you know what.
That makes a lot of sense.
Let's do that and within thetechnology, it's not a big deal
for us to change the technologyand make the technology.
It's just make it work.
But can the applicator do it?
Do you have an applicationequipment that'll work?
(23:01):
That makes a difference.
Jodi (23:04):
For all of our growers listening.
Think about that.
What are things that you'vethought about that you could do
on your farm, that you couldachieve with precision
agriculture?
Talk to your agronomist, talkto your consultants, talk to the
companies you work for.
Explore that.
Sarah (23:19):
You know, farmers are always creative, the farmers
that I've known.
They always are trying to thinkof ways to make things work
with what they've got, or justto do things better.
So the creativity componentwithin agriculture is there to
make it happen.
But if you've got, if you ask agood question, just ask for
help.
That's just.
(23:40):
And I think this is a greatlead-in to a big question that
I've got for everybody in theroom when do we think precision
agriculture is going?
Shawn Kasprick (23:52):
So I've got a good lead-in on that one.
So I was at an InfoAgconference a number of years ago
and at that conference we weretalking to, or one of our
speakers were talking about,satellite imagery and he knew
some people who actually lookand pull in the satellite
imagery and data analysis itselfand we're talking some
high-level stuff.
So I'm guessing the NSA andthings like that that he would
(24:14):
have access to.
But he was talking about at onepoint in time they were able to
take in, zoom in and identifybased on the satellite imagery.
They were able to identify andread the license plate on a
vehicle as it was going down,right, I mean.
So you start talking about alittle bit of high-end stuff.
Sarah (24:33):
Big brother is watching Right.
Shawn Kasprick (24:36):
But then he goes well.
Now we're able to identify thegenus and species of the bug
splatter on your windshield.
Sarah (24:41):
Holy hell.
That could be useful.
Shawn Kasprick (24:45):
And the guy was like, oh, that's pretty awesome,
those optics are really good.
The guy goes who said anythingabout optics?
And then he said the guydropped the conversation and
that was it.
And we're like, well, tell usmore and he goes.
But the guy wouldn't talk to meanymore about it.
He said he just left it at thatat this hangar and we're like
we're all just kind of droolingand feeding off of this going.
(25:07):
Wow.
Jodi (25:08):
Every day since, or every night since, Shawn has had
nightmares about this technology.
Sarah (25:12):
What are they using?
But wouldn't that be so cool.
Like soybean aphids, I havethis idea that I don't think we
should have to walk the fieldfor soybean aphids anymore.
Think we should have to walkthe field for soybean aphids
anymore.
I think we should be able toget a picture, and I don't know
if it's going to be a picture.
It might be some kind of asensor that is sensing something
different, and I would like toknow if we can think outside the
(25:35):
box and develop thresholds forsoybean aphids that takes into
account not only the populationof soybean aphids but also takes
into account.
I mean, if we're sensing stuff,let's sense the number of dead
aphids that are out there.
You know the skeletons thatstill exist on there.
That's valuable data whenyou're scouting that.
And how about the beneficialinsects?
If we can take into thataccount?
(25:57):
We've got great weather sensinginformation that's out there
already we could really hone insome pretty amazing thresholds,
I would think, for soybean aphidpopulations.
And, by the way, if we're doingthat, why can't we figure out
where in the field they'rereally high?
You know those populations arereally high at threshold, and
why can't we control them inthat area rather than spraying
(26:18):
the whole darn field?
Shawn Kasprick (26:21):
Right, well, and you think of where are drones
going right now.
I mean we can send out dronedrone swarms and go out there.
You know some of that doesn'tramp up for for large scale.
You know applications where I'mgoing to be able to scout
20,000 acres today.
That would be way too much.
But at the same time can I goout there with some, with some
(26:41):
drones, some really highresolution just photography, and
get some information back andmaybe that's going to take a
look at.
I wanted to go through these 15spots within the field and run
my analysis on that.
Sarah (26:57):
But if it's a drone swarm , why does it have to be a
picture?
I mean, if they're sensing thegenus and species of bug
splatter on your windshield.
Maybe we can do it withsomething else.
I don't know what that is.
Temperature?
Maybe it's a combination ofsensing I don't know sensing the
bugs that are not splatteredand getting the genus and the
species as well as like thetemperature of the plants.
(27:19):
Maybe that's what thethresholds need to look like.
Jodi (27:22):
That's a crazy thing.
I think, with AI coming into thepicture, right, we have the
ability with drones now to takeall sorts of information.
So, say, if we've got a dronethat's got thermal sensing and
NDVI sensing and RGB cameras,maybe that combination of data
and all the different datapoints that are coming out of
that drone flight, maybe AI canhelp us develop those thresholds
(27:43):
where we haven't been able todo that as humans before.
And that's where I think aboutwhere Precision Ag is going.
I think about how the thingsthat really help farmers now
farms are typically larger inscale, They've got less time to.
They've got agronomists that goand look at things but I think
anything that will givereal-time feedback of what's
(28:04):
going on and predict thosethings like aphids, like weeds,
and bring that back and helpidentify right away where they
are so you can make anapplication quickly.
Those are the things that aregoing to take off and I think AI
is really going to play a bigpart in that.
But we also got to figure outdata storage and stuff and
(28:25):
processing and all those otherthings.
Shawn Kasprick (28:27):
But we'll figure it out.
We've gotten here.
First let's tie in a little bitof old technology and the new
technology.
Okay, so the old technology ofthe sweep nets?
Right, why not have my dronesgo out and just run a course
around this field, along thisedge and this is what I want
them to collect and come backand take a look at it and go.
Oh okay, well, I'm at threshold, Boom.
Sarah (28:47):
Boy, that would be.
That's a great idea.
And here's the other thing thatI think the industry for
anybody that's out there inindustry kind of needs to think
about.
I think it's really easy to sayfly a drone over, take a
picture and use the data.
You agronomists figure it out.
But what's interesting aboutthat is it would be really great
if we could bring this down andrealize that, okay, drones have
(29:09):
been in agriculture for a longtime and I honestly think that
they are going to be a huge partof what we do into the future.
But I feel like we're waitingfor that the technology side,
the equipment side of that tohear about the challenges that
agriculture itself presents.
We need to actually take itdown to.
You can't just say weeds.
(29:29):
We need to be able to identifyweeds when they're very small,
oftentimes even smaller thanwhat a drone can actually take a
picture of at this point intime.
And so how do we work to thinkoutside the box of?
Here's a picture.
Let's you agronomists go figureout what to do with this
picture.
We're going to have to thinkoutside the box and sometimes
(29:50):
it's going to be right down tothe species.
Jodi (29:53):
Absolutely.
I mean think back to ourconversation with Travis Yike
last year.
Right, phragmites has adifferent ratio of chlorophyll A
and B at different times of theyear.
Do the little seedlings havedifferent ratios of chlorophyll
A and B at different times ofthe year?
Do the little seedlings havedifferent ratios of chlorophyll
A and B by species?
Can we sense that as an NDVIsensor versus a picture?
Right, like?
I fully believe that we havethe ability to collect the data.
(30:14):
It's just a matter of, like,money to process and store that
data.
Shawn Kasprick (30:19):
So and at the end of the day, you know there's
and it kind of comes back to wecan collect all this data.
What are you going to do withit?
Yeah, if it does not make you,give you a better decision to
make, or allow you to make abetter decision than what you
would have in the first place,it doesn't make any sense to
spend the money there.
And that's what we're always.
As an agronomist, you're alwaysgoing kind of back and forth.
Here's some cool applications,cool ideas.
(30:41):
Is it going to make myrecommendation better than what
I was going to make anyway?
Or is it going to save a littlebit of cost up front?
Is it going to make thingsspeed up so I can do more with
less?
That's where we need to be.
Sarah (30:54):
That's where we're trying to get to, and I do think that
the number one reason why theconventional crop scout that
still rides a four-wheeler hasnot been replaced by drones,
it's because you can still scouta field faster than you can get
the data back and get itprocessed, and the crop scout
itself is doing a more accuratejob of identifying specifically
(31:15):
the weed species that are outthere at this point in time.
And so until we really addressthose things and we get the
signatures back for what aspecific weed identification is
at the proper timing for weedcontrol, I don't know if we're
going to be able to get to theweed control part, but again, ai
and everything, I do believethat we will see changes coming
(31:36):
forward with it.
Jodi (31:37):
Yeah, that time component, you're absolutely right,
absolutely right.
Like to stitch together like afield of drone imagery.
If they're taking thousands ofpictures of the field at really
high resolution, that's going totake a lot of time to process,
whereas, like you, as a human,can take a look at a lamb's
quarter and within a second youcan figure out that's a lamb's
(31:57):
quarter.
We, we did.
Let's not forget the value ofour brains too.
Sarah (32:03):
Still and I'm going to bring this back to the first
episode where Shawn actuallytalked about his education you
still got to be grounded inthose basics, the basics of what
, what actual just cropproduction is.
You know there's a, there's away to put a seed in the ground,
there's a way to do weedcontrol.
You know there's, there's justsome basics.
What, what?
Shawn Kasprick (32:25):
I, I, what, how weeds work, how soils work, you
know when you you look at thatand you know, can I identify a
lamb's quarter, or the kosher,or I got waterhemp in this field
, so now you can identify thatfaster.
But is it going to reallychange the, the product that
you're going to apply later on?
If it doesn't, because you'regoing out there and it's going
to be well, I'm going to beusing, well, like when we're
going to apply later on.
If it doesn't, because you'regoing out there and it's going
to be well, I'm going to beusing.
Well, like when we're goingwith Roundup Ready Crops.
(32:48):
Well, I see this weed, I seethat weed, I see that weed.
What are you going to apply?
Roundup?
Okay, it doesn't make anydifference.
Well, now, if we need to goback and start to look at that,
well, this area I really needyou know, this product does a
better job on this weed.
And then over here, the rest ofthe field, I can go with a
(33:09):
different herbicide.
That can be done too.
Jodi (33:13):
That's such a great point.
That's so right.
It has to actually affectdecision-making.
Like I TA'd weed ID in gradschool and if a kid didn't know
what the weed was, their answeris I don't care, glyphosate can
kill it, glyphosate can't killit all the time, not anymore.
But yeah, I mean that's such animportant point to remember is
(33:33):
like if we have a blanketrecommendation for whatever it
is, then that value or thatinformation is important, but if
it can change our decisions orenhance our decision making and
make it better, that now hasvalue.
So it's interesting to thinkabout.
Okay, what technologies can weget to producers to enhance and
bring that value?
Sarah (33:55):
This is just such a fun conversation.
I feel like we could go on andon about this.
So the three of us will runinto each other at different
farm shows and stuff and we canstand there and talk for an hour
easy, and we won't even knowthat the time has gone by,
because these are the thingsthat we talk about.
Yes, we are all a bunch ofnerds in this room.
Yes, and I'd like to say thatwe're proud of it, but I don't
(34:16):
want to speak for everybody.
Shawn Kasprick (34:18):
Absolutely Proud , proud to be that.
Sarah (34:27):
It's so much fun, but I think this is a pretty good
place to wrap it up.
Shawn, thank you for your timevisiting.
This has been such a funconversation.
I honestly believe that ouraudiences are really going to
enjoy this one.
But thank you so much forjoining us.
Shawn, you are at Simplot.
I do want to.
Where can people find you ifthey want to talk to you?
Shawn Kasprick (34:47):
Yeah, I mean I'm at Simplot.
You know I office up in theGrafton North Dakota location
but I run around all thetri-state area here in North
Dakota, minnesota, south Dakota.
Any of our Simplot locationswould be able to get a hold of
me.
I'm always on the cell phonesomewhere traveling or sitting
in an office, sitting with anyof our customers, our crop
(35:07):
advisors, so they can get a holdof me pretty easy.
Sarah (35:11):
That's awesome.
Again, thank you so much.
It's been such a funconversation With that at GK
Technology.
We have a map and an app forthat.
And.
Shawn Kasprick (35:24):
I can't wait to get in the fields again.
Jodi (35:28):
No, I can't wait to get in the fields again.
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