August 20, 2025 • 45 mins
Matt Kruger joins us to share the fascinating story of creating the world's largest corn maze spanning 121 acres with over 20 miles of pathways using precision agriculture technology. We explore how advanced planting techniques, boundary files, and ADMS technology transformed a traditional corn maze operation into a record-breaking agricultural attraction.
• Valley Corn Maize east of East Grand Forks, MN opens August 23rd through October 19th, celebrating its 10th year of operation
• The main maze covers 121 acres with five different difficulty levels and pathways totaling over 20 miles
• Matt used ADMS software, JD Operations Center, and John Deere planting technology to create his family's corn maze instead of mowing paths.
• For the detailed 15-acre section, Matt used "crisscross" planting at 40,000 seeds per acre for thicker corn (no cheating here!)
• Converting the maze design to a highly detailed boundary file required high-resolution mapping
• The maze offers QR codes for visitors to navigate using their phones and see their location
• Additional attractions include a giant straw pyramid slide, corn boxes, a zipline, and various activities for kids and adults of all ages.
• Educational elements teach visitors about agriculture
• The corn maze is a family operation with a focus on agritainment and agricultural education
• Admission is $12.50 per person, kids <36" tall are free, with special events throughout the season
Help Matt and his family reach their goal of 10,000 visitors this fall and plan your trip at www.valleycornmaize.com or search Valley Corn Maize on social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok). You won't want to miss visiting the World's Largest Corn Maze!
https://gktechinc.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah (00:00):
Welcome back to Ag Geek Speak.
We are really excited aboutthis episode.
We have a very special guestand a long-time ADMS software
user, Matthew Kruger.
Thank you very much for joiningus today.
Matt Krueger (00:14):
Thank you for having me.
Sarah (00:16):
And we are going to talk about something that is
extremely fun.
Matt has done something reallycool.
He has made a gargantuan cornmaze and, honestly, we helped
him a little bit with drawingthe corn maze, but at the same
time, he did a lot on his own,and that is going to be the
topic of our conversation today.
(00:38):
But first, just to get thingseven started, let's, because
this is going to be open to thepublic this fall.
Is that correct?
Matt Krueger (00:45):
so you can go through this.
Yeah, we open August 23rd andthen we're open all the way
through October, October 19th,and we're just due, uh,
Saturdays and Sundays there'sone weekend somewhere October.
We're open Thursday and Fridayas well for MEA.
Sarah (01:00):
We are super excited, so is there any place where where
people can go and find outinformation on?
Do you have?
Is it Valley Corn Maize?
Matt Krueger (01:10):
yep, yes, we have website, facebook, instagram,
even the good old tiki-takithing, you know.
So all those to search ValleyCorn Maize, and maze is spelled
m-a-i-z-e.
But if you do like searchValley Corn Maze and spell it
m-a-Z-E, but if you do likesearch Valley Corn Maze, it's
spelled M-A-Z-E.
I bought the domain for thattoo, and so it'll route you to
the right spot.
Sarah (01:28):
So that's good.
We'll get that information fromyou for all of the social media
for this that people canactually go in and find this,
because people can go throughthis.
This is like a great all timeactivity.
But let's back up.
How big is this maze?
This thing is huge.
Matt Krueger (01:44):
Yeah, so the maze this year.
So normally this is our 10thyear at Valley Corn Maize, so
normally it's been the lastcouple of years.
15 acres, and I had this desirea few years ago like we own the
whole field, like we shouldjust make the whole thing at
Corn Maze one day and so.
But I feel like, sarah, we haveto give you credit for last
year because you were a doublebutt off on trying to make it
(02:07):
happen last year so hard, andlike we, both between you and I,
we were up like trying to makethis work happen we're good,
john Deere and eventually got toa point like I have to plant
the corn, like it's June is hereand I have to plant it.
So we just we pulled up andpulled a plug on it last year
and then this year it went somuch easier after we flew in
(02:30):
some tips and tricks from ourinfamous Kelly Sharp, so but
yeah, so it's 121 acres, gotfive different levels in it.
The shortest one is 17 hour feetlong, so I'd be 0.32 miles, and
then the longest maze or thelongest level is 2.4 miles.
So and that's, if you're goinglike on the route of the
(02:51):
shortest way, like you can getlost and it might take you
longer than that.
So so, anyway, so like.
And if you go on all thepathways on the right trail to
get like, in and out withoutbeing stopped or anything, it's
over seven miles of pathwaysthat you walk.
Well, the corn maze as a wholehas a total of 20 miles of
pathways out there Over 20 miles.
Sarah (03:13):
So it's a good workout.
Matt Krueger (03:14):
It is, it's great.
Jodi (03:15):
Okay, that's amazing.
Matt Krueger (03:17):
It is amazing.
Sarah (03:23):
As a lover of puns, I appreciate that so much so, okay
, this is a precisionagriculture podcast, so let's
talk for a second about themechanics, just just a little
bit.
You don't have to share all ofyour, all of your tips and
tricks and your proprietarystuff that makes Valley Corn
Maize tick.
But I mean, this was like a bigdeal.
(03:43):
You came up with a design, um,and when I look at this, there's
like a smaller, like moredetailed um maze.
How is that?
How big is that maze?
Matt Krueger (03:54):
yeah, so that one's a 15 acres.
So that's our like that onealways have different themes.
This year it's superheroes, sowe got different superhero type
things out there, um, and yeah,so that's that's kind of super
detailed.
Um, you know, there's a lotmore.
The pathways are closertogether, a little more twists
and turns, that kind of thing,you know.
So, yeah, that's 15 acres.
We should go back and talk aboutthe technology side of things,
(04:16):
so that one, when I we got thisfile to work within john deere,
um, I believe it's the firstcorn maze john deere's ever
really planted fully with itssoftware, for sure, at least of
this size, and I know they haddoubts too of, like, we think it
can do this but we're not sure,and shout out to Maddie I think
was her name at John Deereoperations center for fixing my.
(04:38):
You know, we we kind of gothrough two different
third-party softwares to getthis thing to work, basically,
but we got it to work and um,yeah, so that maze we also
crisscross plant, just becausethen you don't have the rows
potentially cheat on um, and itmakes it a lot more thick.
Basically, we're on 22 inch row, spacing up here as well.
(04:59):
Like I said, I'm from, likeValley Corn Maize is located in
East Grand Forks.
I farm East Grand Forks with mydad and brother, and so we are
in 22 inch country for rowspacing.
I would love to be in 30s, tobe totally honest, and we don't
even have sugar beets, but theequipment's worth more at 22
inch than 30 inch, so we justwe're on 22s.
Sarah (05:17):
There's a bunch on 22 inch rows and it is totally like
a Red River Valley sugar beetspacing and because that's just
the culture of the sugar beetindustry, a lot of other people
end up staying in that rowspacing for that reason, up in
this neck of the woods, that'ssuch an interesting economic
(05:38):
story it's like it should be itsown story about.
Jodi (05:41):
like resale value of 22 inch equipment versus 30 inch
equipment in the valley.
That's cool.
Matt Krueger (05:47):
Yeah, which I mean .
I actually like I look atpeople that buy like 24 row 30
inch planters and like outsidethe valley you can Well, I guess
you can buy those in the valleycheap.
But I mean 30 inch equipment ingeneral is just cheaper.
Like a 30 inch 12 row choppingheader is cheaper than a 22 inch
12 row chopping board header.
You know so it doesn't makesense because the 30 inch has
(06:09):
more metal on it, but yeah, andquestion so you say you
crisscross plant.
Jodi (06:14):
So I assume like do you diamond plant?
How does your crisscross?
Matt Krueger (06:17):
work.
Yep, so like I, I planted thewhole like, so the whole thing.
I planted east and west andthen when I was done I went back
to that area, I reset mycoverage map and I just planted
that area again.
I went north and south andchristmas planted and that area
I planted at 20 000 twice, so Iget 40 000 total, which is
really thick for corn.
(06:38):
I mean generally corn up herewe plant at like 32, 34 000 and
the rest of the maze I plantedat 32 000.
So I was, and I was like Ialmost wrote a script to put a
prescription map behind theplanter map as well, because I
was just toggling it manually tolike, okay, I'm in the small
maze, I hit a button to go 20000 and then I go back to the
(06:58):
big maze, I hit the button to goback to 30 000.
I didn't and there's only onespot I messed up.
But, um, because I thought toolike I might overload this poor
computer on this planter andmake it really angry, so like
we're just not going to push ourluck on that, you know.
So.
Sarah (07:12):
Let's see if we could do that.
So, in other words, okay, theway I'm just going to try to
back up here and Matt help me ifI'm not, because I was sort of
participating and helping setthis up a little bit Kelly Sharp
, just so everybody knows, isactually the one who made the
magic work happen here in thebackground, along with Maddie at
John Deere.
Okay, so the 15-acre small mazeis very detailed, there's lots
(07:39):
and there's actually schools inhere and there's curves, and so
what Matt did is he came up withthis maze as a picture.
We brought this picture in andwe geo-referenced it across the
field.
But then we had to make theresolution on that picture work
so that we could get the detailinto the picture and the lines
(08:01):
being very finite, otherwise itends up looking pixelated and
you wouldn't actually be able tomake out what the images are in
the field.
And so we worked with theresolutions on an ADMS software
to geo reference this wholething.
Then in the process, this gotactually turned into a boundary
(08:24):
file.
Is that correct?
Matt Krueger (08:25):
Yep, correct.
So we turned the yeah, so ADMSwas able to take that image
after it geo-referenced it.
We had to keep the qualityreally, really high, so we
actually had to go into ADMS'scode, basically override some
default things, because ADMStypically lets you get down to
one meter resolution.
That's typically more thanadequate for what people need
and things.
But this maze image we had togo down to a quarter meter just
(08:49):
to get the thing to like look asgood as we can be.
The other thing with that,though, with that quarter meter,
we had a bazillion points ofdata, which john deere nor adms
likes that necessarily.
So then we had to like make itreally detailed, turn it into a
boundary file, and then we hadto go back and like remove the
points, because I mean a lot oflike there's detail, but some of
(09:11):
the lines can be simple snaplines, basically two or three
points.
So we kind of had to play withthat for a while as well.
And, um, yeah, so we turn itinto a boundary file and then
but the issue with the corn mazeis it's basically they're
circles without really endpoints, is the issue, and adms is fine
(09:32):
with it.
However, john deere does notlike that and so it would start
making random endpoints andthrow things off.
So maddie at john deere thentook the shape file and she had
to basically splice all theshapes randomly just to make
them like actually haveendpoints.
So that way they would are notspliced, be cut basically, but
(09:56):
cut them so then that way theyactually had true endpoints and
then the monitor could actuallyread it.
Not really like their, theirway, that their theory of
operation is is, then it workswith their theory of operation,
like how the program is writtento handle those shape files.
So that's kind of what we hadto do.
My concern a little bit was likethose lines, because you'd see
them on the screen and whatnotand even the map that I loaded
(10:18):
into the planter I was worriedlike again, like, and 80ms does
this now too really well, butlike when you cut a line, like
are you actually getting thatline on top of each other so
like there's not a little gapthere that the plant is going to
drop a seed?
And she did a great job onactually like doing what 80ms
does and splicing it and likethe line is right there.
There's no way for that planterto actually think like, oh, for
(10:39):
a split second I have to turnon and turn back off.
Um, there's, into the equipmentwe used.
We have a john deere exactmerch planter, so that gives us
also the best the seed on offrate, like we don't worry about
seed drop.
That seed is inches from theground, you know.
So when that planter called forthe seed to turn on, boom, it
started planting right away.
(11:00):
When the planter said stop, itstopped right away.
So, and that was pretty muchhis concern, is that start stop
time frame, like are we gonnahave any zigzags with the
boundaries?
And we had like very, verylittle bit, like I mean nothing,
something that like I wouldnotice, sarah jody, we probably
see is like you know, like weknow what we can see, like those
imperfections, but for cornmaze attendee and the aerial
(11:23):
shots, you're never going tonotice it so, but even from the
aerial map that I'm looking atnow, did you go in already and
like clean up some of thoseimperfections that you haven't
cleaned this up at all?
no, we didn't have to clean itup at all.
Like it planted amazing, likesuper crisp it was just.
I mean it was awesome itbecause it's.
Sarah (11:42):
I mean, it is impressive how the shapes and the lines and
the circles it is right on, andso you must have that start and
stop.
And again, what you'rebasically saying is that the
delay between when the seeddrops and when it lands in the
(12:03):
actual furrow is very small.
Matt Krueger (12:05):
Yeah, I think like John Jarrah has a setup like 50
hundredths of a second or 0.15of a second, so I mean it's very
, very minute, you know.
So on a normal planter with anactual seed tube, you probably
have a little more of a delaythere.
But again, nothing that can'tbe like programmed that it knows
like hey, there's just thismuch time, you know, and it has
to time that that accordinglythat was going to be my next
(12:27):
question.
Jodi (12:27):
I'm glad you mentioned that because I was going to say
did you have to adjust your lookahead time at all?
But it sounds like with the waythat your planter is set up,
the seed is so stored closer tothe ground so you don't have
that seed tube and that droptime you've got to account for
yep, exactly am I thinking aboutthat right?
Matt Krueger (12:43):
yep, and like the look at time more so deals with
like prescription maps.
And that was one thing Deerasked me like hey, maybe next
year you try this with aprescription map.
But the issue with theprescription map in John Deere's
world is it's not that one youcan get more zigzag, because
it's not like we need actualperfect lines.
Jodi (13:12):
Like.
So a boundary file gives thatperfect line versus a
prescription is going to be alittle more pixelated and a
little more like, not quite ascrisp.
So that's a really, reallyimportant distinction, because
in my head the whole time I wasthinking about this as a seed
prescription right, where youexport something out in grids
and have those like columnardata.
But again, as you've mentionednow I'm finally getting the
picture of it You've sent aboundary file to JD Ops and used
that to plant and your row shutoff.
You're out of boundary.
(13:32):
When your plant is out ofbounds, that's what's
controlling the on-off.
Matt Krueger (13:36):
Yep, exactly.
So yeah, there's basically aton of interior unpassable or
the no, they're interiorpassable boundaries, and then
the plants are new, like not toplant in those spots basically.
So that's a boundary file togive us that crisp, really
accurate look like we're seeingright now.
Sarah (13:53):
You know that was one of the things when I've been
visiting with Kelly about this,and you know you're not the
first person that I've tried tohelp with a corn maze, it's just
this is.
Matt Krueger (14:03):
You definitely got most of my hours out of me last
year, this year, this year, Idon't think we we didn't tap you
at all, so oh and well, I Ithink I waved the white flag and
was like Kelly, make it happen.
Sarah (14:16):
And I mean, this is the stuff that Kelly is just so
smart with.
But did you know, or?
Or was it Kelly that came upwith the idea about using it as
a boundary?
Matt Krueger (14:26):
no, that was kind of my plan from the beginning is
I knew it had to be a boundary,not a prescription file,
because if it was a prescriptionfile that had been super easy.
You and I could have done thatin a heartbeat.
But I think I think kellyagreed like it has to be a
boundary file, otherwise aprescription just won't give us
that.
I mean, I think the big mazeyou could probably do
prescription, because it's a lotmore area there, bigger things.
(14:49):
But the small maze you couldnever do that with that kind of
detail.
You know, and I still think youget some like zigzags with the
big maze even as well as aprescription file.
So for us they had to be aboundary file and, like I know,
there's mazes across Americathat they plant with 2020
planters like those ones.
It was the biggest hurdle forus was trying to get the john
(15:10):
your operation center, because Icouldn't even like put the map
through.
Like it has to go throughoperation center to get into a
planter nowadays.
Like you can't just lower thumbdrive, stick in the planter you
can, but then it's still likeit can be against op center.
It's gonna like basically kindof override itself to be like,
hey, this isn't right, here'swhat it's supposed to be, so
anyway.
So we had to like to make sureit worked, had to put it into
(15:32):
operation center and then fromthere it pulled up in the
planter and it worked.
Like I said, it worked outreally well.
I was super, super nervous, likewe didn't even want to announce
this thing until, like I couldsee it to me, I was out there,
you know, making sure, like,okay, does it actually work?
You know, and like at one pointI think my kids or my dad were
like, uh, there's a lot of rowsthat just go to nowhere.
(15:52):
I'm like, are you sure?
Like yeah, I think there's justlike they're dead ends.
I'm like, oh man, you know,it's like I went out there like
dad, no, it's right here.
It's like, well, just so tight.
Like I just didn't thinkthere's a pathway there.
I'm like there it is, you know.
So, like once you got theconfidence and there's a very
small window made that idealpicture, and even the picture I
took, um that we're using forcamera like motions.
Everything is probably like aweek later than I like it to be,
(16:14):
but the week prior we had thewonderful canadian canadian
smoke, so just so blue and hazy.
Even the picture we have isstill kind of hazy, but I kind
of touched it up to try toemphasize it.
But yeah, eventually now itgets too big where, like,
there's still detail there, butthe plants are just so big now
it just doesn't have that quitecrisp.
Look to it as it did, you know,typically around that fourth of
(16:34):
July time frame.
So it's about a month old.
It's big enough you can get agood nice aerial shot with the
drone, but it's not too big oryou're starting to leafy on it
either.
Sarah (16:42):
So it was, uh, it was really fun when you I think you
texted an aerial photo for andsent it to Kelly and I, when it
was like kind of coming up first.
When I saw that, you know, whenit came in a text message, so
it the picture looked reallysmall on my phone and everything
and I'm like I clicked on itand I looked at it and I zoomed
(17:03):
and I was like I don't know, didthis work?
I was a little bit nervous Then.
I zoomed and I was like, I don'tknow, did this work?
I was a little bit nervous thenI zoomed.
Matt Krueger (17:10):
I'm like holy buckets, this is so cool yes, I
kept, I kept, I think, flyinglike every week till like, okay,
I gotta get this aerial shot.
And then we, my wife and I, wetake our kids to, uh, indiana,
that's where my mom's from andso we go there for vacation
every summer for about a week to10 days.
And I knew I'm like my idealtime is when we were gone, so I
like showed one of my guys like,hey, here's how you fly it,
(17:32):
everything else.
But then we also had a bunch ofrain dumped on that time.
So then, like you kind of timeit where like the maze didn't
look like it was saturated andso, like I said, like all right,
when I get home we'll deal withit.
I came home and then we hadsmoke so crazy.
And then a few days later itfinally was like okay, finally
get the shot.
But even like the smoke, I'mlike all right, it looks amazing
, you know.
Sarah (17:50):
And that's why I sent the pictures off.
So it turned out, it turned outso cool.
Jodi (17:56):
What part of Indiana is your mom from?
Matt Krueger (17:58):
Northeast Indiana.
Jodi (18:00):
Like Fort Wayne north of Fort.
Wayne, north of Fort Wayne, yes, Okay, cool, why north of Fort
Wayne north?
Matt Krueger (18:09):
of Fort Wayne.
Yes, okay, cool, why, awesome,I went to Purdue.
So I, oh okay, yep, yeah, mymom's side of the family they
all are heavy Purdue people.
Sarah (18:13):
So yes, so the range the Indiana.
Matt Krueger (18:15):
How Indiana, our Sturgis Michigan, that's where
they're from so okay, yeah,close to the border cool yeah.
So, like the joke was, my momwent from border town to another
border town like because likethere's nuances sometimes when
you're on the border, like they,I mean how indiana's smaller
and like sturgis would be abigger town.
Some of the stuff would be likeyou go more into michigan than
(18:37):
you would indiana side of things, but like fort wayne would be
like the bigger city, it'd belike us.
Well, grand forks was a badexample, but like it's like far
no size, basically, you know.
So.
Jodi (18:47):
I'm laughing because the first corn maze I was ever at
was in Indiana.
I'd never been to a corn mazebefore, but that has me thinking
about where.
Where did you guys start doingthis?
Like you said, you starteddoing this 10 years ago 10 years
ago.
Matt Krueger (18:59):
yep, so the idea came from, and Sarah will know
the same too, Paul Backstrom.
Sarah (19:05):
Oh really.
Matt Krueger (19:06):
Really.
Sarah (19:10):
Paul Back will know the same too.
Matt Krueger (19:11):
Paul backstrom oh really, really he paul backstrom
is a user of adms for many,many, many, many years.
Yeah, so they have this thingcalled maddock field day or
maddock days, right, and so I'mcorn maze.
So I actually worked for paulright out of college and so I
was part of like their corn mazething.
I thought, oh, this is kind ofcool, doesn't take that much, I
mean.
And they were mowing their mazeout and so I kind of felt like
this would be kind of cool to do.
So I brought the idea and forus it was again trying to like
(19:36):
provide agritainment in the area.
I mean, I mean I think peoplethink like grand forks, like
there's a lot to do and there isa decent amount to do, but like
it's just I don't know, there'sjust not as much to do as I
think there could be.
And so we just I came up withthe idea like, hey, let's do
this corn maze.
I mean, and you look back atthe first year's images and
pictures and stuff, like ouradmission bin was out of a, out
(19:58):
of a trailer, you know.
Like I mean we did stuff sohokey pokey, like our little
corn box was like plywood up andlike all this stuff.
I'm like if people paid to cometo this thing back then I'm
just like, oh my gosh, like I'mso sorry, you know what you like
, but that's what's grand ValleyCorn Maize.
So, and we were actually goingto start it a year earlier.
Um, however, my wife and Ibecame pregnant with our first
(20:19):
one and he was due in septemberand it was like, nope, that's,
that's not happening.
So we delayed it a year and,like the area where we have like
the activity area and stuff wehad our corn maze tended to be a
little like not the highestproducing area of the field and
so we just kind of like itwouldn't.
We didn't have a huge loss inthat way.
I think we started out likewith an eight acre maze the
first year.
(20:39):
First year two was eight acres,then we moved it to 10 acres
and then we moved it to 15.
Um, we've been at 15 for thelast several years.
For that smaller raise, we keeptalking about going a little
bit bigger and we might.
Um, well, obviously we did thisyear.
Um, but for who knows what nextyear's plans are?
I know someone said like let'sjust do it again next year
(21:00):
another world's largest car mazeand just do the whole quarter.
So we very well might, because,like part of it you like.
So my hope was to be like in theguinness book of world records
because, like the current recordis 66 acres, in the guinness
book, there's a farm down inlike stony brook, minnesota,
stony meadow, somewhere downsouthern minnesota.
They did 110 acre radius.
So that's why I did 121.
(21:21):
Uh, because I thought like well, they're going through the
process, because you canbackdate a guinness world record
as well, apparently with enoughproof and everything.
However, when I inquired aboutit, guinness told me yeah,
that's great.
Uh, this you have to pay for apackage.
The starting package startingis twenty thousand dollars for
(21:42):
you to get.
It's like.
I'm like nope, I mean, it'scool to be like that way, but
I'm not spending twenty thousanddollars.
Organization, that's gonna do.
I just.
I was just that like ruined theguinness book world records for
me.
I'm like is that what all thisis?
Is like that whole book is justfull of people and are just
world money to like get worldrecords I'll definitely say,
like I'm any interviews I can, Idefinitely point that out.
(22:04):
People are like that's insane.
I'm like exactly it is insane.
I'm hoping they somewhere hearthis and go like I don't know
either.
Jodi (22:12):
I'm starting to change for a beer a little small corn maze
, but it's like it's justridiculous what they, what the
deal is the beautiful thing,though, right it's like you have
the boundary files right, likethis is geo reference, it's
satellite image, like the datais I'm not we've got so we can
prove it if we want to, you knowso.
Thinking back to like 10 yearsago.
How were you getting your linesLike?
(22:32):
Were you also doingprescriptions then Like, or were
you cutting things out?
How were you putting lines in?
We?
Matt Krueger (22:38):
actually did.
What kind of like PaulBackstrom did is we put a GPS on
our lawnmower and use one ofthose mobile PC units and we
still had to georeference theimage, and at that time I used a
different system.
I was super nice um.
Some company bought it but itwas like old mapsorg or some I
don't know.
Anyway, you know some websitethat I could georeference an
(22:58):
image super easy, download it asa tiff file, open it up in adms
, it just works.
So then you just basically justfollow the line to turn on um
continuous quick marks and youjust basically fill out the
deals and so so you were doingthis, like in the old soil,
sampling like oh, and your af10sor af2s, wherever they are.
(23:19):
Yep, literally up until lastyear, we kept mowing it like,
really kept doing it that way,so, and were you just following
like a light bar, or did youhave like auto steer?
How are you, no, so that jody,these like sir, be able to
describe it to you.
But it's the old, likecomputers that's thing for soil
sampling yeah, but they're soyou're following the line like
(23:42):
you.
You have to like be on the linethen, yeah, yeah you have to be
on the line like, and you kindof like I mean you you kind of
like became one with the screenand we put it on zero turn and
you'd see your dot.
But like you also like it wassunny and say like it can be
glary, and so you kind of belike I hope this worked and
every once in a while I mean weknow how those computers glitch
everyone saw those computers arelike lock up.
You'd be like I didn't.
(24:02):
My icons moved, oh of moved, ohmy gosh, you know it's a quick
stop and you're like am I stillactive or did the thing lock up?
And but yeah, you just kind ofbe with one with the machine and
know like how to turn to makethe line.
You know like you kind of knowwhere to line up.
And so, yeah, it was, it wasquite the deal.
And again it's crisscross.
You could kind of see the rowsand you typically would mow high
(24:29):
to mid shin.
But if you go too early thecorn free grows.
You go too late, you just pushon the stock.
So there's a fine line andthere has been times a couple
years like it rained and so thecorn was knee high and it kept
raining, rain, raining.
The stuff was also like pastyour head and we're out there
trying to mow it down.
That was miserable I bet thatwas awful it was so I for a
while I mowed them and then Itaught my sister how to do it
because I just couldn't.
With farming and everythingelse, it couldn't always
(24:51):
guarantee it happened, but itwould be like that 15 acres
would take you a good day and ahalf oh, I bet and it was not
like you would load up onmosquito spray, I mean, I would
just put earphones in and youjust kind of become one with
machine um story.
So one year I don't know whatyear this was, but one year I
was mowing out there and it wasgetting dark and I just was like
(25:14):
I was just kind of just tired,I was done.
It was taller too, like it wasmiserable.
I think the corner was like midchest so it was too tall.
But again, you have to get doneand I just you don't back out
of the maze, you just shut itoff and just leave it there and
then you um walk out.
So I was walking out and all ofa sudden, as I'm walking out of
the maze area, um walkingtowards my vehicle, this vehicle
(25:36):
on the highway just goes andgoes crashing in the ditch.
It was some high schooler kidwho I don't know what was wrong,
but if you like, I wish I couldshow like an aerial shot, but
like where the maze.
That's on the corner of Highway2.
And there's like another roadand another road.
There's three roads, that kindof corner here, and I don't know
what the kid did, but he justmissed it or whatever, and he
(25:59):
forgot to take the curve to gotowards Highway 2 and just went
straight and there's like thislike giant, like kind of pile of
dirt, that's kind of a, I think, for a person to stop someone.
He just went full air ball ringand then in the ditch there is
super deep, full of cattails andlike the.
I mean you would have not seenlike it's that deep, he would
(26:20):
never see no down there.
And so like the chance of melike walking out and seeing this
and like oh my gosh, so I quit,call 911.
The kid is fine.
I think he was just entirelyintoxicated because he like
pulled himself out of thevehicle and then bobbed down.
I'm just like dude, just staydown there.
I couldn't even get down to itbecause it was just so steep,
(26:41):
but he was fine and anyway, thatwas a crazy story of like a one
evening at the corner you likejust walked out at like just the
right time like literally justwalked out just the right time.
I think I had my headphones inand I also like, like on the
corner of my eye I also see thisvehicle like just goes airborne
and also I'm like what am Ijust seeing all some food?
(27:02):
And went in and I'm like, oh mygosh, you know, so like.
And then like, if I think, Ithink it must have been like
year two or three, because itwas early on because I called
911 and I said, like what's youraddress?
I'm like it's on the, it's byValley Corn Maize is at this
intersection, this intersection,and the policeman like went
flying by and I'm like on thephone, just like, have him turn
(27:22):
around.
It's right here, you know, andoh, aggravating, but now people
know where Valley Corn Maize isgenerally.
So it's funny sorry, that was,we totally went way out it's a
podcast.
Sarah (27:38):
We do stories oh man oh, I love it.
Jodi (27:41):
That's funny.
Dispatch is like you justwalked out of where, yeah, and
you saw what.
Sarah (27:48):
Oh man, You're on the phone with dispatch.
You're never going to believethis, but this is true.
Matt Krueger (27:55):
Yeah, oh my gosh Anyway.
Sarah (28:00):
Okay, so this is going to be opening up really soon here.
It's going to be available foreverybody to participate in and
come on out.
Obviously, going through themaze's going to be available for
everybody to participate in andcome on out.
Obviously, going through themaze is going to be good.
This thing is huge.
How do you keep from?
Matt Krueger (28:16):
losing people in this.
So we'd have a guy thatdevelops an it's not a code in
an app, but you scan a QR code.
It'll pull up a web page and itpulls up the maze design and
then you turn your location onit and you can see where you're
at in relation to the corn maze,so, um, so we have a way for
you to like at least know whereyou're at through the maze.
(28:36):
Uh, we do have paper copies aswell, if someone wants to do
that, because we do have a gamein the small maze for people to
um go do.
It's called mazeopoly, so it'slike a little fun monopoly type
game, but it's for phases and sothere's that um, and also in
the small maze we have twolittle bridges out there too
that people can kind of climb upand you can kind of see a
(28:58):
little bit over the corn um, sodifferently like that.
But yeah, so we've got that qrcode with the app that you can
kind of generally see whereyou're at.
It doesn't give you like here'sthe way to go.
Release will help you kind offigure out, like okay, I'm here,
and make you kind of go through.
That way on the large mazewe're having everyone, because I
mean like seven miles ofwalking.
(29:20):
I think people are like, oh,that's, that's fine, like this
is seven miles of in the fieldwalking and if you're in the
corn, like if you've been in acornfield, the wind goes away,
it's very hot and humid, like itcan be a windy day and it's
actually pleasant out in corngenerally.
So we have people.
They have to have their phoneat least 50 battery.
They have they'll have alanyard that will have this qr
(29:43):
code that will be like you canscan this to make sure you can,
you know, like get your way out.
Basically, um, we have ourphone number on there.
I like question that because Ifeel like people will be these
number like I lost.
It's like well, too bad.
I mean, the big thing is to sayit's unmanned, it's not like
(30:04):
you can't, like there's no oneout there to help you get out.
Basically, you know sohopefully, at least with that
app and everything and peoplewill have someone there making
sure like it works for people,or I could be like here.
You know so hopefully, at leastwith that app and everything
and people will have someonethere making sure like it works
for people, or I could be likehere you know you do it on your
own, like they have to show uslike yep, okay, I can see the
blue dot, I can see the map.
Okay, you're fine, go out inthe maze, basically.
So that's how you kind ofnavigate both and sign the
(30:26):
waiver.
Good luck yeah, yep, well,actually no, oh, that's a whole
different thing, we have to haveeveryone sign waivers this year
, not just because of the largemaze, just that's a whole nother
thing.
We were going to have a waiverfor the big maze, but now they
made us have a waiver thateveryone has to sign when they
walk in.
So we have another QR code.
You scan it, you sign thewaiver, you go in.
Sarah (30:47):
So can you how many people have gone through your
mazes in the?
Matt Krueger (30:50):
past We've had like typically 6,000 to 7,000
people a year.
Sarah (30:55):
So Excuse me, how many?
Matt Krueger (30:57):
6,000 to 7,000 people, wow.
So I really would like to seeit be closer to 10,000 this year
.
That's kind of my own likeinternal goal.
So whether it happens or not,that's you know, it doesn't
really matter.
So, so, and again, like thereason, going back to like why
we started the corn maze, it wasto it truly was to, like,
educate people, people about egglike, even though grand forest
(31:18):
of dakota is surrounded byagriculture, um, you still find
people that have no idea.
You know, people think the cornthat they're walking through,
can I eat this corn?
I'm like you can, but it's notsweet corn, it's a starchy, it's
field corn.
You know, years ago, I think,the only year, one, two or three
, one first, or in the years Itell the story often, uh, lady
was like, um, something about,oh, this must not be genetically
(31:41):
modified corn.
I said, no, it actually is.
Like, well, it looks, itdoesn't look any different.
I said no, it looks exactlylike what this is what corn
looks like.
Why that gmo corn looked likeall different?
And I said, no, it does not.
This is, this is what cornlooks like.
Why that gmo corn looked likeall different.
And I said, no, it does notthis is, this is genetically
modified corn, you know.
So, just, differently, like that, we try to heavily have signs
up that you know, have differentfun facts about egg, um, and we
(32:02):
don't just talk about corn wetalk about.
We talk about soybeans, we talkabout wheat uh, we haven't even
display out that even has sugarbeet seed, from like the actual
sugar beet seed that we plantto the ones that get coated.
Um, and talked about like allthe different things about like
how sugar, like what, what's theprocess of a sugar bean, sugar,
um, saving the corn.
So we really try to tie, likeour mission statement is to is
(32:25):
about educating people aboutagriculture.
That's one of our core thingswe have that we want to try to
do with this whole thing.
Sarah (32:33):
That is so awesome, even here in North Dakota, northern
Minnesota, where people aresurrounded by agriculture, but
it just feels like so manypeople don't get the chance to
ask those questions or learn,and so what a fun way to do some
(32:53):
outreach and and have like afun game and things to go along
with it yep, absolutely, and youknow a lot of this is also done
like I mean, people payadmission to attend and
everything like that too.
Matt Krueger (33:05):
And I'm just taking this moment to like give
a shout out to pioneer.
It's been a premier party forus last several years.
I mean their, their logosfeatured in this maze.
They contribute financially.
They get some marketing pr withit too.
But like it, it's not a likepeople look at this as like, oh,
it's a quick, easy grab kind ofa thing.
It takes a ton of work, like aton a ton of work, a ton of time
, time, money to like put upstructures, to put up things to
(33:29):
do like right now the guys.
Another thing like we're, wetry to add something new every
year and this year we're addinglike two things, two or three
things new.
We're adding swings, justnormal fun swings, and
originally when we talked it wasgonna be like five or six
swings.
No, my dad has made it's a 70foot wide swing apparatus he's
made.
And I just thought I wasliterally at the maze hoeing
(33:51):
weeds because, like again, likejust you have these open
pathways with sunlight, so weedslike to grow in them.
So I'm out there with my boyshoeing it and I walked out and I
looked over at this activityarea.
I'm like how big is that?
And dad, my sister was there.
She's like oh yeah, it's 70feet and like I thought we
talked like a third of that.
She's like wait, no, dad, gobig or go home.
Jodi (34:10):
You know, I'm like, oh my gosh, so we're in this huge
swing area now too you know,guinness may make a package deal
, like if you guys make thelongest swing set in the world,
you may be able to do like bothvalidations at the same time for
one price.
Matt Krueger (34:24):
Yeah I don't know if that's a.
I feel like we wouldn't havethe biggest one, but you never
know never know you give yourdad a year it's, it's you.
Sarah (34:32):
I know, zach, don't tempt him so you have other
activities around the maze aswell.
What are some of the otheractivities that are there to do?
Matt Krueger (34:40):
yeah.
So we have, oh man, so manythings, I'm gonna miss all of
them, kind of thing.
But we've got um.
So we got swings.
Now we also put a giant.
So we like put square bales ofstraw, we put them four levels
of like a pyramid.
So we call the giant strawpyramid slide.
And then we got like just thatbeet tart plastic and it goes
down and people sit on potatosacks and they just slide down
(35:02):
that thing all day long.
So, and my dad will make kindof different tunnels in there
just for the kids to kind ofclimb through and around and
whatnot.
So we have, yeah, this giantpyramid slide.
We've got corn boxes.
Uh, we used to have one.
It's a hit, but we figure a bigyear.
So we've got now three of them,some of our smaller.
They're gonna be more for liketoddler age, just because you
get more of the elementary age,that thing and just gets a
little crazy.
(35:23):
So we have corn boxes.
We got a little spider web,rope course.
We got rat rollers which arelike they're the giant tile
culverts, basically on PVC pipeand you just run back and forth,
you know, between there We'vegot a hoop and holler basketball
games, got four basketballs.
You can hit a button.
You get 60 seconds you couldbeat and see who gets for the
(35:45):
highest points.
We've got giant yard games likeTic-Tac-Te for jenga.
Uh, big cornhole, we've got thegiant.
We've got giant bubbles.
We've got tetherball.
We have a little beelinezipline you.
You have a, not there yeah, it'scalled a beeline zipline, so
it's not officially a zipline,it's a beeline zipline.
(36:06):
You sit on it and it's like Idon't know 100 feet feet long
and you sit on this little discand you go down.
So fun little ride.
That's fun.
We always try to have.
We grow sunflowers on the farmand we've had one good year of
growing sunflowers at the cornmaze.
The last several years I'vejust struggled with the idea
that we grow them very well.
(36:27):
So we try to have you pickflowers as well, with different
colors.
So we have Zinnia patches.
Yeah, so we have.
We have quite a few things.
Jody's like making faces of,like oh my goodness, they know
we have all this stuff, but yeah, we have a lot of stuff there
to like do.
So we say, like you can spend agood amount of time out at the
maze area in top of like you gotthe maze to go through, used to
(36:53):
do as well.
So we charge.
It's 12.50 per person.
That includes tax.
Kids that are 36 inches andunder are free.
And or you can buy a seasonpass for 28 bucks and you can
come all year as many times youwant, you know.
So I try.
I mean, I try to tell peoplelike, basically, come two times,
I feel like you get your I meanit's not quite paid for, but
like there's just there's somuch to do, like I feel like you
have to come back at least morethan once.
And we do offer a thing called abounce back pass too, where,
(37:14):
say, you're like in town for aweekend type of thing and you
don't want to do a season pass.
But what you can do is actuallydo a bounce back, which means
you pay the regular admissionBefore you go.
You buy a pass called bounceback pass for half the price of
the admission, so $6.25, andthen use that any time
throughout the season.
So yeah, and then we've gotdifferent events throughout this
(37:36):
year as well.
So, like, opening weekend iscoming up next weekend.
Grandparents day, september13th and 14th.
Grandparents are free withevery paid grandchild september
20th and 21st.
You got your weekend.
Sure, the equipment brings outequipment.
Uh, we bring out some from ourown farm, although I'm gonna
issue this year.
In years past there's been anissue of getting equipment
because of that supply issue,but I think dealerships now have
(37:57):
plenty of inventory.
Jodi (38:00):
This is incredible, like I'm sorry.
I just got done like putting mywedding together and that was
hard enough.
I can't imagine likecoordinating all of that.
That's insane and that's suchan amazing thing to have.
I'm biased because I live justwest of Grand Forks, but what an
amazing thing to have in thecommunity.
Yeah, I'm super excited toshare this with other people and
(38:20):
spread the word about it.
Matt Krueger (38:22):
Do you have a dog.
No, I have a cat.
Oh, okay, okay, because likeOctober, we're going to have a
canines on the corn, you canbring your dog out, kind of
thing, yeah.
So I mean like if you go to ourwebsite, valley corn maize.
com, you can see all the eventsthroughout the whole year of the
app going on, and like we givesome flex to in terms of like,
if there's a weekend that getsrained out or say one of the
days does, we might extend it tothe following weekend or
whatnot.
To hometown heroes, anotherhuge weekend.
(38:43):
That's about I have here who'son the list now?
All law enforcement,firefighters, emfs, doctors,
nurses and military personneland veterans with service ID
received pre-admission, and thenwe also military discount the
whole season as well.
So we want to just say thankyou to those that serve the
military and provide a littlediscount for them and their
families that come and check outthe corn base.
Sarah (39:04):
That's awesome.
Well, I know I'm planning ongoing up there.
My son is now seven and this isgoing to be like the perfect
thing for us to go and do andcheck out.
So excited I saw we saw yournews report on a local TV
station, wday, which was reallyfun.
When that was on I was actuallyon the phone with with my
(39:26):
parents and they happened to be.
You know, that is when you callyour parents and they they're
watching the six o'clock news,just like you are.
Matt Krueger (39:33):
Yeah and um, and I said, oh my gosh, I've worked
on that maze it's finallyhappening it's happening yeah, a
michael scott thing with theway to answer, I think right
away too, like and we we do itin our group chat as well.
We're always like little gifslike that.
(39:54):
I was just like it's happening,it's happening, you know.
Jodi (39:59):
I'm.
I'm so glad that precision Icould help a little bit and
alleviate some of the work thatI was in.
Matt Krueger (40:04):
It has been yeah, my sister has been like we are
planting the maze forever fromnow on.
I said absolutely, and I in theprocess once we had kelly kind
of work on it with me, likethrough the process, and I
recorded him doing it becauseI'm like we need to reference
this again for how to do it andonce we did it I was like I
could do this easily.
You know, it's not that hard ofa thing.
(40:25):
I think the hardest thing isgeoreferencing and trying to
keep that image as like true asyou can.
That's hard to do because wehave to use wonderful paint
which you know, like you knowand like make it work out.
But truly, once it was like alldone and like and put together.
It was like man, this is great.
And I'm.
The one thing I want to try tofigure out with maddie and her
team from john deere is likeokay, what do you do?
(40:47):
Because, like, is there a waywith an adms that we can make
that possible?
And I think it truly ispossible to do it.
We just have to figure that out.
Sarah (40:54):
So yeah, we're able to do so many things with boundaries.
We're just kind of trying tofigure out like, okay, john dear
, how do you want your boundaryto look when it goes, when it
goes in there?
And if we could just figurethat out, I know we can do it
yep, and we, we got the like.
Matt Krueger (41:10):
Obviously we got the boundary back from john deer
like, okay, this worked, sowe're able.
Then I sent that off to kellyand I think sarah too.
Just be like here's what theyneeded.
So that way then they kind ofknow like okay, this is what we
got to look at for next time.
Basically, you know, but Ithink the team at john deer they
was fun because, like again,shout out to maddie because she
was working on a saturday for meto help get this thing working,
and she's like, hey, I'mworking on Saturday, don't worry
(41:31):
.
But she's like I got this thingand then her supervisor like
emailed me, I think a coupleweeks later, like hey, you know,
that's like internal, like likejust recognition, and she's,
she's he.
He said like I want to put herup for it because you know, she
kind of went up, up and beyondto help you out.
And I said absolutely shedeserves it.
Anything I can, you know, helpto contribute, let me know.
You know, um, but yeah, so itwas super cool.
(41:54):
I got videos.
Actually I'm working on a video.
It's.
It's not a.
I use the term reachingcritical, so like I have a video
I'm working on that has me witha voiceover and like how I
actually did it, like a lot moredetail.
Um, one of these days when I'mnot busy, I want to, but it
might not happen for a while,that's fine.
Um, because I know like peopleare like, again, we farm, we're
(42:18):
busy, but I also have five kidsand so when I go home I try to
go home and by the time,especially now, like the kids
are out, I mean it's been coolto see as like part of the corn
maze as well, like they're ableto, to help out.
So I mean I've got all three ofmy boys.
They're 11, 9, 7.
They're out helping hoe weeds.
They're doing different things.
(42:38):
I mean they'll probably maybenot enjoy it as much, but, you
know, growing up with it, I hopethey do though, in all honesty,
but like for them it'll be likeall the car maze, you know
whatever.
But um, I know one actually said, like when can I start working
at the car maze?
Because, like, we pay our kids,like the kids on the farm, if
they're doing a job that I'dhave to have one of my employees
(43:00):
do, like I will pay them.
I'm not gonna pay them when Ipay the employees because
they're not doing it quite thatlevel but they still earn money.
And saying that the car mazelike they're out hoeing weeds,
they're doing a good job.
Like, hey, you can get on theclock and get paid and like for
them to see that, to learn.
Like, hey, working hard noteverything in life is like
equates back to money, but atleast you can learn that good
(43:22):
work ethic absolutely, and Ithink for a lot of farm kids
that are out there, that's likewhat an opportunity.
Sarah (43:30):
And let's just call a spade a spade.
Not all kids have thatopportunity and I realized I
just said not all kids get thechance to go and pull weeds and
20 miles of pathway.
But seriously, like it doesteach good work, ethic and and
and it is an opportunity.
So that's that's really cooland it's really neat that it can
(43:52):
be a whole family affair.
It's really neat that you'vegot your dad building different
events and things like that andyou know that your sister has
been helping out.
Matt Krueger (44:01):
My mom is.
It's a full like.
I feel like sometimes I do notcontribute enough, whereas, like
the other parts of my familymembers are doing a lot of
things, but I mean it's a totalteam effort.
I, whereas, like the otherparts of my family members, are
doing a lot of things, but Imean it's, it's a total team
effort.
You know, I'm stuck in theoffice doing stuff that I got to
deal with and then they're outthere doing things as well, so I
mean it's a whole family effort.
Fun fact actually is the thewomen actually own the business,
(44:22):
so the husbands do not.
Sarah (44:25):
That's cool.
Matt Krueger (44:26):
So it is.
So we kind of put that littleplug.
It's actually a woman ownedbusiness at that point.
So you know.
Jodi (44:31):
Oh my gosh.
Well, thank you so much fortaking time out of your busy
schedule to talk with us aboutthis.
Yeah, I learned a ton aboutjust like simple corn maze
agronomics, but also like theprecision agronomics of it too,
and about the whole maze ingeneral.
So thank you again so much foryour time.
Folks, please go check outValley Corn Maize, google it,
(44:53):
look it up, be there this falland take it in and take a look
at this really the world'slargest corn maze.
Matt Krueger (44:59):
World's largest corn maze.
So, like I said, next year wemay be back down to 15 acres.
So if you want the opportunityto come out this fall World's
Largest Corn Maze we'd love tosee you.
Jodi (45:10):
Awesome.
Thank you so.
Welcome back to Ag Geek Speak.
We are really excited aboutthis episode.
We have a very special guestand a long-time ADMS software
user, Matthew Kruger.
Thank you very much for joiningus today.
Matt Krueger (00:14):
Thank you for having me.
Sarah (00:16):
And we are going to talk about something that is
extremely fun.
Matt has done something reallycool.
He has made a gargantuan cornmaze and, honestly, we helped
him a little bit with drawingthe corn maze, but at the same
time, he did a lot on his own,and that is going to be the
topic of our conversation today.
(00:38):
But first, just to get thingseven started, let's, because
this is going to be open to thepublic this fall.
Is that correct?
Matt Krueger (00:45):
so you can go through this.
Yeah, we open August 23rd andthen we're open all the way
through October, October 19th,and we're just due, uh,
Saturdays and Sundays there'sone weekend somewhere October.
We're open Thursday and Fridayas well for MEA.
Sarah (01:00):
We are super excited, so is there any place where where
people can go and find outinformation on?
Do you have?
Is it Valley Corn Maize?
Matt Krueger (01:10):
yep, yes, we have website, facebook, instagram,
even the good old tiki-takithing, you know.
So all those to search ValleyCorn Maize, and maze is spelled
m-a-i-z-e.
But if you do like searchValley Corn Maze and spell it
m-a-Z-E, but if you do likesearch Valley Corn Maze, it's
spelled M-A-Z-E.
I bought the domain for thattoo, and so it'll route you to
the right spot.
Sarah (01:28):
So that's good.
We'll get that information fromyou for all of the social media
for this that people canactually go in and find this,
because people can go throughthis.
This is like a great all timeactivity.
But let's back up.
How big is this maze?
This thing is huge.
Matt Krueger (01:44):
Yeah, so the maze this year.
So normally this is our 10thyear at Valley Corn Maize, so
normally it's been the lastcouple of years.
15 acres, and I had this desirea few years ago like we own the
whole field, like we shouldjust make the whole thing at
Corn Maze one day and so.
But I feel like, sarah, we haveto give you credit for last
year because you were a doublebutt off on trying to make it
(02:07):
happen last year so hard, andlike we, both between you and I,
we were up like trying to makethis work happen we're good,
john Deere and eventually got toa point like I have to plant
the corn, like it's June is hereand I have to plant it.
So we just we pulled up andpulled a plug on it last year
and then this year it went somuch easier after we flew in
(02:30):
some tips and tricks from ourinfamous Kelly Sharp, so but
yeah, so it's 121 acres, gotfive different levels in it.
The shortest one is 17 hour feetlong, so I'd be 0.32 miles, and
then the longest maze or thelongest level is 2.4 miles.
So and that's, if you're goinglike on the route of the
(02:51):
shortest way, like you can getlost and it might take you
longer than that.
So so, anyway, so like.
And if you go on all thepathways on the right trail to
get like, in and out withoutbeing stopped or anything, it's
over seven miles of pathwaysthat you walk.
Well, the corn maze as a wholehas a total of 20 miles of
pathways out there Over 20 miles.
Sarah (03:13):
So it's a good workout.
Matt Krueger (03:14):
It is, it's great.
Jodi (03:15):
Okay, that's amazing.
Matt Krueger (03:17):
It is amazing.
Sarah (03:23):
As a lover of puns, I appreciate that so much so, okay
, this is a precisionagriculture podcast, so let's
talk for a second about themechanics, just just a little
bit.
You don't have to share all ofyour, all of your tips and
tricks and your proprietarystuff that makes Valley Corn
Maize tick.
But I mean, this was like a bigdeal.
(03:43):
You came up with a design, um,and when I look at this, there's
like a smaller, like moredetailed um maze.
How is that?
How big is that maze?
Matt Krueger (03:54):
yeah, so that one's a 15 acres.
So that's our like that onealways have different themes.
This year it's superheroes, sowe got different superhero type
things out there, um, and yeah,so that's that's kind of super
detailed.
Um, you know, there's a lotmore.
The pathways are closertogether, a little more twists
and turns, that kind of thing,you know.
So, yeah, that's 15 acres.
We should go back and talk aboutthe technology side of things,
(04:16):
so that one, when I we got thisfile to work within john deere,
um, I believe it's the firstcorn maze john deere's ever
really planted fully with itssoftware, for sure, at least of
this size, and I know they haddoubts too of, like, we think it
can do this but we're not sure,and shout out to Maddie I think
was her name at John Deereoperations center for fixing my.
(04:38):
You know, we we kind of gothrough two different
third-party softwares to getthis thing to work, basically,
but we got it to work and um,yeah, so that maze we also
crisscross plant, just becausethen you don't have the rows
potentially cheat on um, and itmakes it a lot more thick.
Basically, we're on 22 inch row, spacing up here as well.
(04:59):
Like I said, I'm from, likeValley Corn Maize is located in
East Grand Forks.
I farm East Grand Forks with mydad and brother, and so we are
in 22 inch country for rowspacing.
I would love to be in 30s, tobe totally honest, and we don't
even have sugar beets, but theequipment's worth more at 22
inch than 30 inch, so we justwe're on 22s.
Sarah (05:17):
There's a bunch on 22 inch rows and it is totally like
a Red River Valley sugar beetspacing and because that's just
the culture of the sugar beetindustry, a lot of other people
end up staying in that rowspacing for that reason, up in
this neck of the woods, that'ssuch an interesting economic
(05:38):
story it's like it should be itsown story about.
Jodi (05:41):
like resale value of 22 inch equipment versus 30 inch
equipment in the valley.
That's cool.
Matt Krueger (05:47):
Yeah, which I mean .
I actually like I look atpeople that buy like 24 row 30
inch planters and like outsidethe valley you can Well, I guess
you can buy those in the valleycheap.
But I mean 30 inch equipment ingeneral is just cheaper.
Like a 30 inch 12 row choppingheader is cheaper than a 22 inch
12 row chopping board header.
You know so it doesn't makesense because the 30 inch has
(06:09):
more metal on it, but yeah, andquestion so you say you
crisscross plant.
Jodi (06:14):
So I assume like do you diamond plant?
How does your crisscross?
Matt Krueger (06:17):
work.
Yep, so like I, I planted thewhole like, so the whole thing.
I planted east and west andthen when I was done I went back
to that area, I reset mycoverage map and I just planted
that area again.
I went north and south andchristmas planted and that area
I planted at 20 000 twice, so Iget 40 000 total, which is
really thick for corn.
(06:38):
I mean generally corn up herewe plant at like 32, 34 000 and
the rest of the maze I plantedat 32 000.
So I was, and I was like Ialmost wrote a script to put a
prescription map behind theplanter map as well, because I
was just toggling it manually tolike, okay, I'm in the small
maze, I hit a button to go 20000 and then I go back to the
(06:58):
big maze, I hit the button to goback to 30 000.
I didn't and there's only onespot I messed up.
But, um, because I thought toolike I might overload this poor
computer on this planter andmake it really angry, so like
we're just not going to push ourluck on that, you know.
So.
Sarah (07:12):
Let's see if we could do that.
So, in other words, okay, theway I'm just going to try to
back up here and Matt help me ifI'm not, because I was sort of
participating and helping setthis up a little bit Kelly Sharp
, just so everybody knows, isactually the one who made the
magic work happen here in thebackground, along with Maddie at
John Deere.
Okay, so the 15-acre small mazeis very detailed, there's lots
(07:39):
and there's actually schools inhere and there's curves, and so
what Matt did is he came up withthis maze as a picture.
We brought this picture in andwe geo-referenced it across the
field.
But then we had to make theresolution on that picture work
so that we could get the detailinto the picture and the lines
(08:01):
being very finite, otherwise itends up looking pixelated and
you wouldn't actually be able tomake out what the images are in
the field.
And so we worked with theresolutions on an ADMS software
to geo reference this wholething.
Then in the process, this gotactually turned into a boundary
(08:24):
file.
Is that correct?
Matt Krueger (08:25):
Yep, correct.
So we turned the yeah, so ADMSwas able to take that image
after it geo-referenced it.
We had to keep the qualityreally, really high, so we
actually had to go into ADMS'scode, basically override some
default things, because ADMStypically lets you get down to
one meter resolution.
That's typically more thanadequate for what people need
and things.
But this maze image we had togo down to a quarter meter just
(08:49):
to get the thing to like look asgood as we can be.
The other thing with that,though, with that quarter meter,
we had a bazillion points ofdata, which john deere nor adms
likes that necessarily.
So then we had to like make itreally detailed, turn it into a
boundary file, and then we hadto go back and like remove the
points, because I mean a lot oflike there's detail, but some of
(09:11):
the lines can be simple snaplines, basically two or three
points.
So we kind of had to play withthat for a while as well.
And, um, yeah, so we turn itinto a boundary file and then
but the issue with the corn mazeis it's basically they're
circles without really endpoints, is the issue, and adms is fine
(09:32):
with it.
However, john deere does notlike that and so it would start
making random endpoints andthrow things off.
So maddie at john deere thentook the shape file and she had
to basically splice all theshapes randomly just to make
them like actually haveendpoints.
So that way they would are notspliced, be cut basically, but
(09:56):
cut them so then that way theyactually had true endpoints and
then the monitor could actuallyread it.
Not really like their, theirway, that their theory of
operation is is, then it workswith their theory of operation,
like how the program is writtento handle those shape files.
So that's kind of what we hadto do.
My concern a little bit was likethose lines, because you'd see
them on the screen and whatnotand even the map that I loaded
(10:18):
into the planter I was worriedlike again, like, and 80ms does
this now too really well, butlike when you cut a line, like
are you actually getting thatline on top of each other so
like there's not a little gapthere that the plant is going to
drop a seed?
And she did a great job onactually like doing what 80ms
does and splicing it and likethe line is right there.
There's no way for that planterto actually think like, oh, for
(10:39):
a split second I have to turnon and turn back off.
Um, there's, into the equipmentwe used.
We have a john deere exactmerch planter, so that gives us
also the best the seed on offrate, like we don't worry about
seed drop.
That seed is inches from theground, you know.
So when that planter called forthe seed to turn on, boom, it
started planting right away.
(11:00):
When the planter said stop, itstopped right away.
So, and that was pretty muchhis concern, is that start stop
time frame, like are we gonnahave any zigzags with the
boundaries?
And we had like very, verylittle bit, like I mean nothing,
something that like I wouldnotice, sarah jody, we probably
see is like you know, like weknow what we can see, like those
imperfections, but for cornmaze attendee and the aerial
(11:23):
shots, you're never going tonotice it so, but even from the
aerial map that I'm looking atnow, did you go in already and
like clean up some of thoseimperfections that you haven't
cleaned this up at all?
no, we didn't have to clean itup at all.
Like it planted amazing, likesuper crisp it was just.
I mean it was awesome itbecause it's.
Sarah (11:42):
I mean, it is impressive how the shapes and the lines and
the circles it is right on, andso you must have that start and
stop.
And again, what you'rebasically saying is that the
delay between when the seeddrops and when it lands in the
(12:03):
actual furrow is very small.
Matt Krueger (12:05):
Yeah, I think like John Jarrah has a setup like 50
hundredths of a second or 0.15of a second, so I mean it's very
, very minute, you know.
So on a normal planter with anactual seed tube, you probably
have a little more of a delaythere.
But again, nothing that can'tbe like programmed that it knows
like hey, there's just thismuch time, you know, and it has
to time that that accordinglythat was going to be my next
(12:27):
question.
Jodi (12:27):
I'm glad you mentioned that because I was going to say
did you have to adjust your lookahead time at all?
But it sounds like with the waythat your planter is set up,
the seed is so stored closer tothe ground so you don't have
that seed tube and that droptime you've got to account for
yep, exactly am I thinking aboutthat right?
Matt Krueger (12:43):
yep, and like the look at time more so deals with
like prescription maps.
And that was one thing Deerasked me like hey, maybe next
year you try this with aprescription map.
But the issue with theprescription map in John Deere's
world is it's not that one youcan get more zigzag, because
it's not like we need actualperfect lines.
Jodi (13:12):
Like.
So a boundary file gives thatperfect line versus a
prescription is going to be alittle more pixelated and a
little more like, not quite ascrisp.
So that's a really, reallyimportant distinction, because
in my head the whole time I wasthinking about this as a seed
prescription right, where youexport something out in grids
and have those like columnardata.
But again, as you've mentionednow I'm finally getting the
picture of it You've sent aboundary file to JD Ops and used
that to plant and your row shutoff.
You're out of boundary.
(13:32):
When your plant is out ofbounds, that's what's
controlling the on-off.
Matt Krueger (13:36):
Yep, exactly.
So yeah, there's basically aton of interior unpassable or
the no, they're interiorpassable boundaries, and then
the plants are new, like not toplant in those spots basically.
So that's a boundary file togive us that crisp, really
accurate look like we're seeingright now.
Sarah (13:53):
You know that was one of the things when I've been
visiting with Kelly about this,and you know you're not the
first person that I've tried tohelp with a corn maze, it's just
this is.
Matt Krueger (14:03):
You definitely got most of my hours out of me last
year, this year, this year, Idon't think we we didn't tap you
at all, so oh and well, I Ithink I waved the white flag and
was like Kelly, make it happen.
Sarah (14:16):
And I mean, this is the stuff that Kelly is just so
smart with.
But did you know, or?
Or was it Kelly that came upwith the idea about using it as
a boundary?
Matt Krueger (14:26):
no, that was kind of my plan from the beginning is
I knew it had to be a boundary,not a prescription file,
because if it was a prescriptionfile that had been super easy.
You and I could have done thatin a heartbeat.
But I think I think kellyagreed like it has to be a
boundary file, otherwise aprescription just won't give us
that.
I mean, I think the big mazeyou could probably do
prescription, because it's a lotmore area there, bigger things.
(14:49):
But the small maze you couldnever do that with that kind of
detail.
You know, and I still think youget some like zigzags with the
big maze even as well as aprescription file.
So for us they had to be aboundary file and, like I know,
there's mazes across Americathat they plant with 2020
planters like those ones.
It was the biggest hurdle forus was trying to get the john
(15:10):
your operation center, because Icouldn't even like put the map
through.
Like it has to go throughoperation center to get into a
planter nowadays.
Like you can't just lower thumbdrive, stick in the planter you
can, but then it's still likeit can be against op center.
It's gonna like basically kindof override itself to be like,
hey, this isn't right, here'swhat it's supposed to be, so
anyway.
So we had to like to make sureit worked, had to put it into
(15:32):
operation center and then fromthere it pulled up in the
planter and it worked.
Like I said, it worked outreally well.
I was super, super nervous, likewe didn't even want to announce
this thing until, like I couldsee it to me, I was out there,
you know, making sure, like,okay, does it actually work?
You know, and like at one pointI think my kids or my dad were
like, uh, there's a lot of rowsthat just go to nowhere.
(15:52):
I'm like, are you sure?
Like yeah, I think there's justlike they're dead ends.
I'm like, oh man, you know,it's like I went out there like
dad, no, it's right here.
It's like, well, just so tight.
Like I just didn't thinkthere's a pathway there.
I'm like there it is, you know.
So, like once you got theconfidence and there's a very
small window made that idealpicture, and even the picture I
took, um that we're using forcamera like motions.
Everything is probably like aweek later than I like it to be,
(16:14):
but the week prior we had thewonderful canadian canadian
smoke, so just so blue and hazy.
Even the picture we have isstill kind of hazy, but I kind
of touched it up to try toemphasize it.
But yeah, eventually now itgets too big where, like,
there's still detail there, butthe plants are just so big now
it just doesn't have that quitecrisp.
Look to it as it did, you know,typically around that fourth of
(16:34):
July time frame.
So it's about a month old.
It's big enough you can get agood nice aerial shot with the
drone, but it's not too big oryou're starting to leafy on it
either.
Sarah (16:42):
So it was, uh, it was really fun when you I think you
texted an aerial photo for andsent it to Kelly and I, when it
was like kind of coming up first.
When I saw that, you know, whenit came in a text message, so
it the picture looked reallysmall on my phone and everything
and I'm like I clicked on itand I looked at it and I zoomed
(17:03):
and I was like I don't know, didthis work?
I was a little bit nervous Then.
I zoomed and I was like, I don'tknow, did this work?
I was a little bit nervous thenI zoomed.
Matt Krueger (17:10):
I'm like holy buckets, this is so cool yes, I
kept, I kept, I think, flyinglike every week till like, okay,
I gotta get this aerial shot.
And then we, my wife and I, wetake our kids to, uh, indiana,
that's where my mom's from andso we go there for vacation
every summer for about a week to10 days.
And I knew I'm like my idealtime is when we were gone, so I
like showed one of my guys like,hey, here's how you fly it,
(17:32):
everything else.
But then we also had a bunch ofrain dumped on that time.
So then, like you kind of timeit where like the maze didn't
look like it was saturated andso, like I said, like all right,
when I get home we'll deal withit.
I came home and then we hadsmoke so crazy.
And then a few days later itfinally was like okay, finally
get the shot.
But even like the smoke, I'mlike all right, it looks amazing
, you know.
Sarah (17:50):
And that's why I sent the pictures off.
So it turned out, it turned outso cool.
Jodi (17:56):
What part of Indiana is your mom from?
Matt Krueger (17:58):
Northeast Indiana.
Jodi (18:00):
Like Fort Wayne north of Fort.
Wayne, north of Fort Wayne, yes, Okay, cool, why north of Fort
Wayne north?
Matt Krueger (18:09):
of Fort Wayne.
Yes, okay, cool, why, awesome,I went to Purdue.
So I, oh okay, yep, yeah, mymom's side of the family they
all are heavy Purdue people.
Sarah (18:13):
So yes, so the range the Indiana.
Matt Krueger (18:15):
How Indiana, our Sturgis Michigan, that's where
they're from so okay, yeah,close to the border cool yeah.
So, like the joke was, my momwent from border town to another
border town like because likethere's nuances sometimes when
you're on the border, like they,I mean how indiana's smaller
and like sturgis would be abigger town.
Some of the stuff would be likeyou go more into michigan than
(18:37):
you would indiana side of things, but like fort wayne would be
like the bigger city, it'd belike us.
Well, grand forks was a badexample, but like it's like far
no size, basically, you know.
So.
Jodi (18:47):
I'm laughing because the first corn maze I was ever at
was in Indiana.
I'd never been to a corn mazebefore, but that has me thinking
about where.
Where did you guys start doingthis?
Like you said, you starteddoing this 10 years ago 10 years
ago.
Matt Krueger (18:59):
yep, so the idea came from, and Sarah will know
the same too, Paul Backstrom.
Sarah (19:05):
Oh really.
Matt Krueger (19:06):
Really.
Sarah (19:10):
Paul Back will know the same too.
Matt Krueger (19:11):
Paul backstrom oh really, really he paul backstrom
is a user of adms for many,many, many, many years.
Yeah, so they have this thingcalled maddock field day or
maddock days, right, and so I'mcorn maze.
So I actually worked for paulright out of college and so I
was part of like their corn mazething.
I thought, oh, this is kind ofcool, doesn't take that much, I
mean.
And they were mowing their mazeout and so I kind of felt like
this would be kind of cool to do.
So I brought the idea and forus it was again trying to like
(19:36):
provide agritainment in the area.
I mean, I mean I think peoplethink like grand forks, like
there's a lot to do and there isa decent amount to do, but like
it's just I don't know, there'sjust not as much to do as I
think there could be.
And so we just I came up withthe idea like, hey, let's do
this corn maze.
I mean, and you look back atthe first year's images and
pictures and stuff, like ouradmission bin was out of a, out
(19:58):
of a trailer, you know.
Like I mean we did stuff sohokey pokey, like our little
corn box was like plywood up andlike all this stuff.
I'm like if people paid to cometo this thing back then I'm
just like, oh my gosh, like I'mso sorry, you know what you like
, but that's what's grand ValleyCorn Maize.
So, and we were actually goingto start it a year earlier.
Um, however, my wife and Ibecame pregnant with our first
(20:19):
one and he was due in septemberand it was like, nope, that's,
that's not happening.
So we delayed it a year and,like the area where we have like
the activity area and stuff wehad our corn maze tended to be a
little like not the highestproducing area of the field and
so we just kind of like itwouldn't.
We didn't have a huge loss inthat way.
I think we started out likewith an eight acre maze the
first year.
(20:39):
First year two was eight acres,then we moved it to 10 acres
and then we moved it to 15.
Um, we've been at 15 for thelast several years.
For that smaller raise, we keeptalking about going a little
bit bigger and we might.
Um, well, obviously we did thisyear.
Um, but for who knows what nextyear's plans are?
I know someone said like let'sjust do it again next year
(21:00):
another world's largest car mazeand just do the whole quarter.
So we very well might, because,like part of it you like.
So my hope was to be like in theguinness book of world records
because, like the current recordis 66 acres, in the guinness
book, there's a farm down inlike stony brook, minnesota,
stony meadow, somewhere downsouthern minnesota.
They did 110 acre radius.
So that's why I did 121.
(21:21):
Uh, because I thought like well, they're going through the
process, because you canbackdate a guinness world record
as well, apparently with enoughproof and everything.
However, when I inquired aboutit, guinness told me yeah,
that's great.
Uh, this you have to pay for apackage.
The starting package startingis twenty thousand dollars for
(21:42):
you to get.
It's like.
I'm like nope, I mean, it'scool to be like that way, but
I'm not spending twenty thousanddollars.
Organization, that's gonna do.
I just.
I was just that like ruined theguinness book world records for
me.
I'm like is that what all thisis?
Is like that whole book is justfull of people and are just
world money to like get worldrecords I'll definitely say,
like I'm any interviews I can, Idefinitely point that out.
(22:04):
People are like that's insane.
I'm like exactly it is insane.
I'm hoping they somewhere hearthis and go like I don't know
either.
Jodi (22:12):
I'm starting to change for a beer a little small corn maze
, but it's like it's justridiculous what they, what the
deal is the beautiful thing,though, right it's like you have
the boundary files right, likethis is geo reference, it's
satellite image, like the datais I'm not we've got so we can
prove it if we want to, you knowso.
Thinking back to like 10 yearsago.
How were you getting your linesLike?
(22:32):
Were you also doingprescriptions then Like, or were
you cutting things out?
How were you putting lines in?
We?
Matt Krueger (22:38):
actually did.
What kind of like PaulBackstrom did is we put a GPS on
our lawnmower and use one ofthose mobile PC units and we
still had to georeference theimage, and at that time I used a
different system.
I was super nice um.
Some company bought it but itwas like old mapsorg or some I
don't know.
Anyway, you know some websitethat I could georeference an
(22:58):
image super easy, download it asa tiff file, open it up in adms
, it just works.
So then you just basically justfollow the line to turn on um
continuous quick marks and youjust basically fill out the
deals and so so you were doingthis, like in the old soil,
sampling like oh, and your af10sor af2s, wherever they are.
(23:19):
Yep, literally up until lastyear, we kept mowing it like,
really kept doing it that way,so, and were you just following
like a light bar, or did youhave like auto steer?
How are you, no, so that jody,these like sir, be able to
describe it to you.
But it's the old, likecomputers that's thing for soil
sampling yeah, but they're soyou're following the line like
(23:42):
you.
You have to like be on the linethen, yeah, yeah you have to be
on the line like, and you kindof like I mean you you kind of
like became one with the screenand we put it on zero turn and
you'd see your dot.
But like you also like it wassunny and say like it can be
glary, and so you kind of belike I hope this worked and
every once in a while I mean weknow how those computers glitch
everyone saw those computers arelike lock up.
You'd be like I didn't.
(24:02):
My icons moved, oh of moved, ohmy gosh, you know it's a quick
stop and you're like am I stillactive or did the thing lock up?
And but yeah, you just kind ofbe with one with the machine and
know like how to turn to makethe line.
You know like you kind of knowwhere to line up.
And so, yeah, it was, it wasquite the deal.
And again it's crisscross.
You could kind of see the rowsand you typically would mow high
(24:29):
to mid shin.
But if you go too early thecorn free grows.
You go too late, you just pushon the stock.
So there's a fine line andthere has been times a couple
years like it rained and so thecorn was knee high and it kept
raining, rain, raining.
The stuff was also like pastyour head and we're out there
trying to mow it down.
That was miserable I bet thatwas awful it was so I for a
while I mowed them and then Itaught my sister how to do it
because I just couldn't.
With farming and everythingelse, it couldn't always
(24:51):
guarantee it happened, but itwould be like that 15 acres
would take you a good day and ahalf oh, I bet and it was not
like you would load up onmosquito spray, I mean, I would
just put earphones in and youjust kind of become one with
machine um story.
So one year I don't know whatyear this was, but one year I
was mowing out there and it wasgetting dark and I just was like
(25:14):
I was just kind of just tired,I was done.
It was taller too, like it wasmiserable.
I think the corner was like midchest so it was too tall.
But again, you have to get doneand I just you don't back out
of the maze, you just shut itoff and just leave it there and
then you um walk out.
So I was walking out and all ofa sudden, as I'm walking out of
the maze area, um walkingtowards my vehicle, this vehicle
(25:36):
on the highway just goes andgoes crashing in the ditch.
It was some high schooler kidwho I don't know what was wrong,
but if you like, I wish I couldshow like an aerial shot, but
like where the maze.
That's on the corner of Highway2.
And there's like another roadand another road.
There's three roads, that kindof corner here, and I don't know
what the kid did, but he justmissed it or whatever, and he
(25:59):
forgot to take the curve to gotowards Highway 2 and just went
straight and there's like thislike giant, like kind of pile of
dirt, that's kind of a, I think, for a person to stop someone.
He just went full air ball ringand then in the ditch there is
super deep, full of cattails andlike the.
I mean you would have not seenlike it's that deep, he would
(26:20):
never see no down there.
And so like the chance of melike walking out and seeing this
and like oh my gosh, so I quit,call 911.
The kid is fine.
I think he was just entirelyintoxicated because he like
pulled himself out of thevehicle and then bobbed down.
I'm just like dude, just staydown there.
I couldn't even get down to itbecause it was just so steep,
(26:41):
but he was fine and anyway, thatwas a crazy story of like a one
evening at the corner you likejust walked out at like just the
right time like literally justwalked out just the right time.
I think I had my headphones inand I also like, like on the
corner of my eye I also see thisvehicle like just goes airborne
and also I'm like what am Ijust seeing all some food?
(27:02):
And went in and I'm like, oh mygosh, you know, so like.
And then like, if I think, Ithink it must have been like
year two or three, because itwas early on because I called
911 and I said, like what's youraddress?
I'm like it's on the, it's byValley Corn Maize is at this
intersection, this intersection,and the policeman like went
flying by and I'm like on thephone, just like, have him turn
(27:22):
around.
It's right here, you know, andoh, aggravating, but now people
know where Valley Corn Maize isgenerally.
So it's funny sorry, that was,we totally went way out it's a
podcast.
Sarah (27:38):
We do stories oh man oh, I love it.
Jodi (27:41):
That's funny.
Dispatch is like you justwalked out of where, yeah, and
you saw what.
Sarah (27:48):
Oh man, You're on the phone with dispatch.
You're never going to believethis, but this is true.
Matt Krueger (27:55):
Yeah, oh my gosh Anyway.
Sarah (28:00):
Okay, so this is going to be opening up really soon here.
It's going to be available foreverybody to participate in and
come on out.
Obviously, going through themaze's going to be available for
everybody to participate in andcome on out.
Obviously, going through themaze is going to be good.
This thing is huge.
How do you keep from?
Matt Krueger (28:16):
losing people in this.
So we'd have a guy thatdevelops an it's not a code in
an app, but you scan a QR code.
It'll pull up a web page and itpulls up the maze design and
then you turn your location onit and you can see where you're
at in relation to the corn maze,so, um, so we have a way for
you to like at least know whereyou're at through the maze.
(28:36):
Uh, we do have paper copies aswell, if someone wants to do
that, because we do have a gamein the small maze for people to
um go do.
It's called mazeopoly, so it'slike a little fun monopoly type
game, but it's for phases and sothere's that um, and also in
the small maze we have twolittle bridges out there too
that people can kind of climb upand you can kind of see a
(28:58):
little bit over the corn um, sodifferently like that.
But yeah, so we've got that qrcode with the app that you can
kind of generally see whereyou're at.
It doesn't give you like here'sthe way to go.
Release will help you kind offigure out, like okay, I'm here,
and make you kind of go through.
That way on the large mazewe're having everyone, because I
mean like seven miles ofwalking.
(29:20):
I think people are like, oh,that's, that's fine, like this
is seven miles of in the fieldwalking and if you're in the
corn, like if you've been in acornfield, the wind goes away,
it's very hot and humid, like itcan be a windy day and it's
actually pleasant out in corngenerally.
So we have people.
They have to have their phoneat least 50 battery.
They have they'll have alanyard that will have this qr
(29:43):
code that will be like you canscan this to make sure you can,
you know, like get your way out.
Basically, um, we have ourphone number on there.
I like question that because Ifeel like people will be these
number like I lost.
It's like well, too bad.
I mean, the big thing is to sayit's unmanned, it's not like
(30:04):
you can't, like there's no oneout there to help you get out.
Basically, you know sohopefully, at least with that
app and everything and peoplewill have someone there making
sure like it works for people,or I could be like here.
You know so hopefully, at leastwith that app and everything
and people will have someonethere making sure like it works
for people, or I could be likehere you know you do it on your
own, like they have to show uslike yep, okay, I can see the
blue dot, I can see the map.
Okay, you're fine, go out inthe maze, basically.
So that's how you kind ofnavigate both and sign the
(30:26):
waiver.
Good luck yeah, yep, well,actually no, oh, that's a whole
different thing, we have to haveeveryone sign waivers this year
, not just because of the largemaze, just that's a whole nother
thing.
We were going to have a waiverfor the big maze, but now they
made us have a waiver thateveryone has to sign when they
walk in.
So we have another QR code.
You scan it, you sign thewaiver, you go in.
Sarah (30:47):
So can you how many people have gone through your
mazes in the?
Matt Krueger (30:50):
past We've had like typically 6,000 to 7,000
people a year.
Sarah (30:55):
So Excuse me, how many?
Matt Krueger (30:57):
6,000 to 7,000 people, wow.
So I really would like to seeit be closer to 10,000 this year
.
That's kind of my own likeinternal goal.
So whether it happens or not,that's you know, it doesn't
really matter.
So, so, and again, like thereason, going back to like why
we started the corn maze, it wasto it truly was to, like,
educate people, people about egglike, even though grand forest
(31:18):
of dakota is surrounded byagriculture, um, you still find
people that have no idea.
You know, people think the cornthat they're walking through,
can I eat this corn?
I'm like you can, but it's notsweet corn, it's a starchy, it's
field corn.
You know, years ago, I think,the only year, one, two or three
, one first, or in the years Itell the story often, uh, lady
was like, um, something about,oh, this must not be genetically
(31:41):
modified corn.
I said, no, it actually is.
Like, well, it looks, itdoesn't look any different.
I said no, it looks exactlylike what this is what corn
looks like.
Why that gmo corn looked likeall different?
And I said, no, it does not.
This is, this is what cornlooks like.
Why that gmo corn looked likeall different.
And I said, no, it does notthis is, this is genetically
modified corn, you know.
So, just, differently, like that, we try to heavily have signs
up that you know, have differentfun facts about egg, um, and we
(32:02):
don't just talk about corn wetalk about.
We talk about soybeans, we talkabout wheat uh, we haven't even
display out that even has sugarbeet seed, from like the actual
sugar beet seed that we plantto the ones that get coated.
Um, and talked about like allthe different things about like
how sugar, like what, what's theprocess of a sugar bean, sugar,
um, saving the corn.
So we really try to tie, likeour mission statement is to is
(32:25):
about educating people aboutagriculture.
That's one of our core thingswe have that we want to try to
do with this whole thing.
Sarah (32:33):
That is so awesome, even here in North Dakota, northern
Minnesota, where people aresurrounded by agriculture, but
it just feels like so manypeople don't get the chance to
ask those questions or learn,and so what a fun way to do some
(32:53):
outreach and and have like afun game and things to go along
with it yep, absolutely, and youknow a lot of this is also done
like I mean, people payadmission to attend and
everything like that too.
Matt Krueger (33:05):
And I'm just taking this moment to like give
a shout out to pioneer.
It's been a premier party forus last several years.
I mean their, their logosfeatured in this maze.
They contribute financially.
They get some marketing pr withit too.
But like it, it's not a likepeople look at this as like, oh,
it's a quick, easy grab kind ofa thing.
It takes a ton of work, like aton a ton of work, a ton of time
, time, money to like put upstructures, to put up things to
(33:29):
do like right now the guys.
Another thing like we're, wetry to add something new every
year and this year we're addinglike two things, two or three
things new.
We're adding swings, justnormal fun swings, and
originally when we talked it wasgonna be like five or six
swings.
No, my dad has made it's a 70foot wide swing apparatus he's
made.
And I just thought I wasliterally at the maze hoeing
(33:51):
weeds because, like again, likejust you have these open
pathways with sunlight, so weedslike to grow in them.
So I'm out there with my boyshoeing it and I walked out and I
looked over at this activityarea.
I'm like how big is that?
And dad, my sister was there.
She's like oh yeah, it's 70feet and like I thought we
talked like a third of that.
She's like wait, no, dad, gobig or go home.
Jodi (34:10):
You know, I'm like, oh my gosh, so we're in this huge
swing area now too you know,guinness may make a package deal
, like if you guys make thelongest swing set in the world,
you may be able to do like bothvalidations at the same time for
one price.
Matt Krueger (34:24):
Yeah I don't know if that's a.
I feel like we wouldn't havethe biggest one, but you never
know never know you give yourdad a year it's, it's you.
Sarah (34:32):
I know, zach, don't tempt him so you have other
activities around the maze aswell.
What are some of the otheractivities that are there to do?
Matt Krueger (34:40):
yeah.
So we have, oh man, so manythings, I'm gonna miss all of
them, kind of thing.
But we've got um.
So we got swings.
Now we also put a giant.
So we like put square bales ofstraw, we put them four levels
of like a pyramid.
So we call the giant strawpyramid slide.
And then we got like just thatbeet tart plastic and it goes
down and people sit on potatosacks and they just slide down
(35:02):
that thing all day long.
So, and my dad will make kindof different tunnels in there
just for the kids to kind ofclimb through and around and
whatnot.
So we have, yeah, this giantpyramid slide.
We've got corn boxes.
Uh, we used to have one.
It's a hit, but we figure a bigyear.
So we've got now three of them,some of our smaller.
They're gonna be more for liketoddler age, just because you
get more of the elementary age,that thing and just gets a
little crazy.
(35:23):
So we have corn boxes.
We got a little spider web,rope course.
We got rat rollers which arelike they're the giant tile
culverts, basically on PVC pipeand you just run back and forth,
you know, between there We'vegot a hoop and holler basketball
games, got four basketballs.
You can hit a button.
You get 60 seconds you couldbeat and see who gets for the
(35:45):
highest points.
We've got giant yard games likeTic-Tac-Te for jenga.
Uh, big cornhole, we've got thegiant.
We've got giant bubbles.
We've got tetherball.
We have a little beelinezipline you.
You have a, not there yeah, it'scalled a beeline zipline, so
it's not officially a zipline,it's a beeline zipline.
(36:06):
You sit on it and it's like Idon't know 100 feet feet long
and you sit on this little discand you go down.
So fun little ride.
That's fun.
We always try to have.
We grow sunflowers on the farmand we've had one good year of
growing sunflowers at the cornmaze.
The last several years I'vejust struggled with the idea
that we grow them very well.
(36:27):
So we try to have you pickflowers as well, with different
colors.
So we have Zinnia patches.
Yeah, so we have.
We have quite a few things.
Jody's like making faces of,like oh my goodness, they know
we have all this stuff, but yeah, we have a lot of stuff there
to like do.
So we say, like you can spend agood amount of time out at the
maze area in top of like you gotthe maze to go through, used to
(36:53):
do as well.
So we charge.
It's 12.50 per person.
That includes tax.
Kids that are 36 inches andunder are free.
And or you can buy a seasonpass for 28 bucks and you can
come all year as many times youwant, you know.
So I try.
I mean, I try to tell peoplelike, basically, come two times,
I feel like you get your I meanit's not quite paid for, but
like there's just there's somuch to do, like I feel like you
have to come back at least morethan once.
And we do offer a thing called abounce back pass too, where,
(37:14):
say, you're like in town for aweekend type of thing and you
don't want to do a season pass.
But what you can do is actuallydo a bounce back, which means
you pay the regular admissionBefore you go.
You buy a pass called bounceback pass for half the price of
the admission, so $6.25, andthen use that any time
throughout the season.
So yeah, and then we've gotdifferent events throughout this
(37:36):
year as well.
So, like, opening weekend iscoming up next weekend.
Grandparents day, september13th and 14th.
Grandparents are free withevery paid grandchild september
20th and 21st.
You got your weekend.
Sure, the equipment brings outequipment.
Uh, we bring out some from ourown farm, although I'm gonna
issue this year.
In years past there's been anissue of getting equipment
because of that supply issue,but I think dealerships now have
(37:57):
plenty of inventory.
Jodi (38:00):
This is incredible, like I'm sorry.
I just got done like putting mywedding together and that was
hard enough.
I can't imagine likecoordinating all of that.
That's insane and that's suchan amazing thing to have.
I'm biased because I live justwest of Grand Forks, but what an
amazing thing to have in thecommunity.
Yeah, I'm super excited toshare this with other people and
(38:20):
spread the word about it.
Matt Krueger (38:22):
Do you have a dog.
No, I have a cat.
Oh, okay, okay, because likeOctober, we're going to have a
canines on the corn, you canbring your dog out, kind of
thing, yeah.
So I mean like if you go to ourwebsite, valley corn maize.
com, you can see all the eventsthroughout the whole year of the
app going on, and like we givesome flex to in terms of like,
if there's a weekend that getsrained out or say one of the
days does, we might extend it tothe following weekend or
whatnot.
To hometown heroes, anotherhuge weekend.
(38:43):
That's about I have here who'son the list now?
All law enforcement,firefighters, emfs, doctors,
nurses and military personneland veterans with service ID
received pre-admission, and thenwe also military discount the
whole season as well.
So we want to just say thankyou to those that serve the
military and provide a littlediscount for them and their
families that come and check outthe corn base.
Sarah (39:04):
That's awesome.
Well, I know I'm planning ongoing up there.
My son is now seven and this isgoing to be like the perfect
thing for us to go and do andcheck out.
So excited I saw we saw yournews report on a local TV
station, wday, which was reallyfun.
When that was on I was actuallyon the phone with with my
(39:26):
parents and they happened to be.
You know, that is when you callyour parents and they they're
watching the six o'clock news,just like you are.
Matt Krueger (39:33):
Yeah and um, and I said, oh my gosh, I've worked
on that maze it's finallyhappening it's happening yeah, a
michael scott thing with theway to answer, I think right
away too, like and we we do itin our group chat as well.
We're always like little gifslike that.
(39:54):
I was just like it's happening,it's happening, you know.
Jodi (39:59):
I'm.
I'm so glad that precision Icould help a little bit and
alleviate some of the work thatI was in.
Matt Krueger (40:04):
It has been yeah, my sister has been like we are
planting the maze forever fromnow on.
I said absolutely, and I in theprocess once we had kelly kind
of work on it with me, likethrough the process, and I
recorded him doing it becauseI'm like we need to reference
this again for how to do it andonce we did it I was like I
could do this easily.
You know, it's not that hard ofa thing.
(40:25):
I think the hardest thing isgeoreferencing and trying to
keep that image as like true asyou can.
That's hard to do because wehave to use wonderful paint
which you know, like you knowand like make it work out.
But truly, once it was like alldone and like and put together.
It was like man, this is great.
And I'm.
The one thing I want to try tofigure out with maddie and her
team from john deere is likeokay, what do you do?
(40:47):
Because, like, is there a waywith an adms that we can make
that possible?
And I think it truly ispossible to do it.
We just have to figure that out.
Sarah (40:54):
So yeah, we're able to do so many things with boundaries.
We're just kind of trying tofigure out like, okay, john dear
, how do you want your boundaryto look when it goes, when it
goes in there?
And if we could just figurethat out, I know we can do it
yep, and we, we got the like.
Matt Krueger (41:10):
Obviously we got the boundary back from john deer
like, okay, this worked, sowe're able.
Then I sent that off to kellyand I think sarah too.
Just be like here's what theyneeded.
So that way then they kind ofknow like okay, this is what we
got to look at for next time.
Basically, you know, but Ithink the team at john deer they
was fun because, like again,shout out to maddie because she
was working on a saturday for meto help get this thing working,
and she's like, hey, I'mworking on Saturday, don't worry
(41:31):
.
But she's like I got this thingand then her supervisor like
emailed me, I think a coupleweeks later, like hey, you know,
that's like internal, like likejust recognition, and she's,
she's he.
He said like I want to put herup for it because you know, she
kind of went up, up and beyondto help you out.
And I said absolutely shedeserves it.
Anything I can, you know, helpto contribute, let me know.
You know, um, but yeah, so itwas super cool.
(41:54):
I got videos.
Actually I'm working on a video.
It's.
It's not a.
I use the term reachingcritical, so like I have a video
I'm working on that has me witha voiceover and like how I
actually did it, like a lot moredetail.
Um, one of these days when I'mnot busy, I want to, but it
might not happen for a while,that's fine.
Um, because I know like peopleare like, again, we farm, we're
(42:18):
busy, but I also have five kidsand so when I go home I try to
go home and by the time,especially now, like the kids
are out, I mean it's been coolto see as like part of the corn
maze as well, like they're ableto, to help out.
So I mean I've got all three ofmy boys.
They're 11, 9, 7.
They're out helping hoe weeds.
They're doing different things.
(42:38):
I mean they'll probably maybenot enjoy it as much, but, you
know, growing up with it, I hopethey do though, in all honesty,
but like for them it'll be likeall the car maze, you know
whatever.
But um, I know one actually said, like when can I start working
at the car maze?
Because, like, we pay our kids,like the kids on the farm, if
they're doing a job that I'dhave to have one of my employees
(43:00):
do, like I will pay them.
I'm not gonna pay them when Ipay the employees because
they're not doing it quite thatlevel but they still earn money.
And saying that the car mazelike they're out hoeing weeds,
they're doing a good job.
Like, hey, you can get on theclock and get paid and like for
them to see that, to learn.
Like, hey, working hard noteverything in life is like
equates back to money, but atleast you can learn that good
(43:22):
work ethic absolutely, and Ithink for a lot of farm kids
that are out there, that's likewhat an opportunity.
Sarah (43:30):
And let's just call a spade a spade.
Not all kids have thatopportunity and I realized I
just said not all kids get thechance to go and pull weeds and
20 miles of pathway.
But seriously, like it doesteach good work, ethic and and
and it is an opportunity.
So that's that's really cooland it's really neat that it can
(43:52):
be a whole family affair.
It's really neat that you'vegot your dad building different
events and things like that andyou know that your sister has
been helping out.
Matt Krueger (44:01):
My mom is.
It's a full like.
I feel like sometimes I do notcontribute enough, whereas, like
the other parts of my familymembers are doing a lot of
things, but I mean it's a totalteam effort.
I, whereas, like the otherparts of my family members, are
doing a lot of things, but Imean it's, it's a total team
effort.
You know, I'm stuck in theoffice doing stuff that I got to
deal with and then they're outthere doing things as well, so I
mean it's a whole family effort.
Fun fact actually is the thewomen actually own the business,
(44:22):
so the husbands do not.
Sarah (44:25):
That's cool.
Matt Krueger (44:26):
So it is.
So we kind of put that littleplug.
It's actually a woman ownedbusiness at that point.
So you know.
Jodi (44:31):
Oh my gosh.
Well, thank you so much fortaking time out of your busy
schedule to talk with us aboutthis.
Yeah, I learned a ton aboutjust like simple corn maze
agronomics, but also like theprecision agronomics of it too,
and about the whole maze ingeneral.
So thank you again so much foryour time.
Folks, please go check outValley Corn Maize, google it,
(44:53):
look it up, be there this falland take it in and take a look
at this really the world'slargest corn maze.
Matt Krueger (44:59):
World's largest corn maze.
So, like I said, next year wemay be back down to 15 acres.
So if you want the opportunityto come out this fall World's
Largest Corn Maze we'd love tosee you.
Jodi (45:10):
Awesome.
Thank you so.
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