If you still picture farming as dusty tractors and endless manual labor, think again. Today’s agriculture runs on GPS-guided equipment, drones, real-time soil sensors, and data systems that look more like Wall Street trading floors than old barns. In this episode, lifelong farmer and innovator Dick Pavelski and Andy Diercks of the Food + Farm Exploration Center pull back the curtain on precision agriculture—the technology, data, and processes that are transforming how we grow and deliver food.
We break down the technologies making precision agriculture possible, from variable rate irrigation to “see and spray” weed control, and how data is being used to make decisions at the square-meter level. We also examine how these shifts are influencing agricultural careers, the skills now in demand, and why public understanding of modern farming is critical. Plus, discover the Food + Farm Exploration Center and its role in showing students, families, and policymakers what modern farming really involves.
Listen to learn:
- What a farm looked like 40 years ago, and how that image compares to a modern precision operation
- How GPS guidance, drones, and 300 weather stations help farmers make square-meter-level decisions
- The crossover of technologies and skills between manufacturing and precision agriculture
- The biggest challenges in attracting and training the next generation of ag professionals
- How one Midwestern center is bridging the gap between farm technology and public awareness
3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:
1. Modern agriculture is driven by technology and precision. GPS-guided equipment, variable rate irrigation, and “see and spray” weed control have replaced much of the manual labor and guesswork of past decades. These tools work together to improve yields, reduce inputs, and create a more sustainable and efficient farming process.
2. Data is the backbone of today’s farm operations. Farmers track weather, soil conditions, and crop needs in real time—often down to individual square meters—using hundreds of sensors and automated systems. This constant stream of information enables faster decision-making and more targeted resource use than was possible a generation ago.
3. The skills and careers in agriculture are rapidly changing. Large-scale farms now employ specialists in data analysis, equipment maintenance, and automation, while mid-sized operations require workers with diverse technical abilities. The Food + Farm Exploration Center is working to show students, families, and policymakers the realities of these careers and the opportunities they offer.
Resources in this Episode:
- Food + Farm Exploration Center: explorefoodandfarm.org
Other resources:
Connect with the Food + Farm Exploration Center:
Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram |
We want to hear from you! Send us a text.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Matt Kirchner (00:00):
Matt, welcome to the TechEd podcast. I am your
(00:11):
host. Matt Kirkner, you know, wetalk often about the connection
between the edge to cloudcontinuum and every single
sector within our economy hereon the TechEd podcast. So we
chat about whether it'smanufacturing, where I made my
living for a whole bunch ofyears, whether it's energy,
defense, healthcare,hospitality, retail, it doesn't
(00:32):
matter. We find that edge tocloud continuum, smart
technology, smart sensors on theedge and cloud computing on the
cloud, everywhere across oureconomy. One of those market
spaces that we talk about quiteoften as being a great example
of the edge to cloud continuumis agriculture. And I can tell
you that precision, AG, ismaking huge waves, huge waves in
(00:54):
how we grow our food, how webring it to market. And I had an
opportunity several months agoto spend some time at a
precision ag operation. I wasabsolutely blown away at the way
these folks were deployingtechnology in the agriculture
process. We're going to talk onthis episode of The TechEd
podcast all about precisionagriculture. We've actually got
(01:15):
two guests who are joining ustoday. We're going to spend the
first part of our discussionwith one of them, and then we'll
bring the other one in for someadditional chat as well. Our two
guests, first of all, DickPavelski, founder of the Food
and Farm exploration center, hasspent an entire career in
precision agriculture andagriculture. We're also going to
be joined by Andy Dirks, who isthe vice president of Coloma
(01:37):
farms and a board member of theFood and Farm exploration
center. So going to be a really,really fascinating conversation
for anybody who lovestechnology, for anybody who
loves agriculture, and foranybody who loves how we are
bringing those two together, andcertainly I would count myself
among that group. So let's startwith Dick. You have just a
really incredible history inagriculture. Let's talk about
(02:00):
what ag looked like when youfirst started in it. What were
the tools and the processes andthe jobs when you first got into
AG?
Dick Pavelski (02:08):
Well, I mean, when I was growing up on the
farm, farming was kind ofdefined as being a very
strenuous, dirty, dangerous, lowpaid job, a little automation
and a lot of manual labor, verylittle opportunity for
advancement in the organization,unless you were part of the
family that was growing up onthe farm tractors sprayers had
(02:28):
no cabs or air filtering fordust and crop protect and
sprays. Tractors and implementshad no GPS or guidance. Planners
had no monitoring to collect allof the data and things that we
do today, knowledge andunderstanding of soils, plant
biology, fertility, plantvarieties, weather, pests, water
(02:49):
use and other influencingfactors and the crops were not
understood nearly as well asthey are today. And a lot of
that was, I think, because theaverage farmer didn't have a
college degree and hadn't beenexposed to a lot of that level
of knowledge and experience.
Matt Kirchner (03:04):
Yeah, the farmer's role in agriculture
obviously changed considerablyover the course of your
lifetime, over the course of thepast decades, and really at an
accelerating rate. Now, as youknow, I spent a lot of time on
farms growing up. My family, wedidn't live on a farm. I lived
in the city, but both of myparents grew up on Midwestern
dairy farms, and so I spent theywere actually my favorite places
(03:25):
to go and visit. As a kid, Iloved going to Six Flags Great
America and outside of Chicago,and I love going to my uncle's
farms and spending time on thefarm growing up and just
watching what I saw in one ofyour operations that you're
related to several months agoversus what I grew up around. I
mean, it's hardly evenrecognizable. All some all these
technologies that you touched onin your last answer that have
(03:48):
changed agriculture. So thinkingback to when you first got
started, tractors with no cabs,obviously, a lot of the safety
issues that we can mitigate inthese days maybe weren't
mitigated back then. And all theknowledge, all the data that we
have in terms of being able toreally dial in exactly how we
can maximize the yield. Really,really important. So let's talk
(04:11):
now about some of thosetechnologies and how they have
changed agriculture. If somebodyhasn't been on a farm for, say,
3040, 50 years, what are theygoing to see if they walk into a
modern farm in this day and age?
Dick Pavelski (04:22):
Yeah, I mean, things are clearly a lot more
sophisticated using many hightech tools. Tractors have cabs.
We've got charcoal filtering,full dust control. They're a lot
more comfortable air ride seatsand a lot of things that we
certainly didn't have when I wasgrowing up on a farm, a lot of
data collection, GPS guidance,precision guidance on the
(04:45):
tractors, data analysis and theequipment itself now collects a
lot of data. So you're gettingslippage, you're getting fuel
usage, you're getting the torqueso that you can adjust much more
accurately to save fuel and. Doa lot less compaction in the
field, because, you know, whenit's wet, a lot of soil sensors
are out there right now. So it'sjust, I think primarily it's
(05:09):
from a technology and a comfortstandpoint, the tractors,
prayers cabs are a lotdifferent, but also the amount
of data that we collect in realtime it's transported or
delivered to the office wherethey can analyze that data, make
much quicker decisions, be a lotmore precise in water
application, be a lot moreprecise in fertility. Plant
(05:31):
samples are actually analyzednow on a weekly basis, so we
know exactly what the nutrientrequirements are over the plant
completely different varieties,and we get a much better
understanding of those varietiesas they improve. So, I mean, it
just requires a whole new levelof sophistication and education
and skills at the farm
Matt Kirchner (05:51):
level, sophistication, education and
skills for sure, you know. And Iwas spending time up there in
central Wisconsin a couplemonths ago, just to kind of put
this into perspective. I mean,if anybody has ever either been
in or seen on TV or seen in amovie, you think about like an
investment bank, right? And youthink about a bunch of financial
professionals sitting theremonitoring the stock market and
(06:11):
tracking all these differentcompanies and looking at their
performance and looking at theirgrowth rates and looking at
their stock prices. And you walkinto one of these data rooms,
and it's just filled with allthese screens gathering all this
data in real time. And I've beenaround that, and then I walk
into a precision farmingoperation, and you mentioned all
this data coming back to theoffice, TV screens everywhere,
(06:32):
monitoring all the things thatyou just talked about, whether
it's moisture in the soil,whether it's temperature, all
this information that we havecoming back to climate patterns
and rainfall, and I mean, all ofthis stuff, and it's really,
really become an absolutescience. And I was so, so
impressed to see that. I thinkit's probably an easy question
(06:52):
to answer, a loaded question,but was it obvious that
agriculture had to change? Whydo you think that we've made
this incredible move towardprecision, AG, and that it's
accelerating as quickly as itis.
Dick Pavelski (07:03):
First of all, what you've seen were a lot of
screens in an office, but now inthe latest version of that, we
don't need those screensanymore. It's all available on
our iPads and our phones becausewe're fully connected in the
trucks. We now have that in ourhand no matter where we are in
the world. And really why it hadto change is there's more people
to feed. They have better diets.
Require more food to be producedon less land. It's a much safer
(07:26):
food supply because we've got abetter understanding of the
health risks associated with ourdiet, and to deal with those
risks, food production andhandling has improved all the
way from the transportationsystem with refrigeration to
what happens in the grocerystore before you pick it up, the
entire system, all the way fromvariety development to the
(07:49):
grocery store has upgraded alongwith what's happening on the
farm. So
Matt Kirchner (07:55):
in the same sense that we see, perhaps the supply
chain that gets more and moreefficient be is able to deliver
to consumers exactly what theywant, exactly what they need,
even more efficiently than everbefore. And the same thing is
happening in agriculture. Let'stalk about some of those
technologies Dick that you'rerunning into. You touched on a
few of them. You talked aboutcharcoal filtering. You talked
(08:15):
about this whole idea of usingGPS and so on. Now having an
iPad that's available at anytime anywhere, with that
instantaneous data. Reallyfascinating how some of those
technologies are changing. Let'sget into some of that GPS guided
equipment, maybe seeing spraysystems, drones, I know a little
bit more on the sensors thatyou're using. What else should
(08:35):
our audience know about thetechnology that's transforming
farming? Well,
Dick Pavelski (08:39):
I think with drones and a lot of the other
technology is just a lot moreefficient. The strain on the
operators, as I indicatedearlier, is much lower. The food
quality and the nutritionalvalue is kept fresher than it
has been in the past. We'vereduced waste substantially. We
now sell and people consume alot higher percentage of what's
(09:01):
produced on the farm,absolutely.
Matt Kirchner (09:03):
So it's in the same sense that we've
eliminated, or at least drivenwaste out of in many cases,
manufacturing through processeslike Kaizen and continuous
improvement, focusing on theSeven Deadly Wastes as Taichi
Ohno taught us so many yearsago, understanding where waste
manifests itself in a processand driving that out. The same
thing is happening inagriculture. Let's talk about, I
(09:25):
mean, are there aspects ofeither soil preparation or
irrigation or fertilizationharvesting? Are there specific
technologies in that processthat would interest our
audience?
Dick Pavelski (09:36):
Our farm as an example, has got almost 300
weather stations on it, so thatwe're met. As you know, when you
get a rain storm, you can get aninch of rain in one location and
a half mile away, you might gettwo or three tents. They're
never even so we've got a lotmore precise data for each and
every field out there, and nowin a lot of areas with variable
(09:57):
rate fertility and precisionsampling, we. Looking at
treating crops, not at the wholefield level, but at the square
meter level. So the precision ismuch better. Sustainability is
what's really driving a lot ofthat right now, we understand a
lot more about soils. Weunderstand a lot more about the
physiological needs of theplants to produce better and
(10:18):
more nutritious crops, and nowwe've got the tools and the
sensors to get that data that wecan react to and make decisions
on in almost real time.
Matt Kirchner (10:28):
Well, that was one of the things that I noticed
when I was visiting not too longago, is just the ability to, I
mean, you think about trackingrainfall, and if you think about
rainfall over the course of awhatever, 1000 acre farm or
30,000 acre farm, it can bevariable, not just across an
acre, but to your point,literally, from square meter to
square meter. Am I understandingright that you're able to track
(10:50):
that rain fell and track themoisture down to that level of
precision? Is that what I justheard you say? I mean, we could
Dick Pavelski (10:56):
do that with irrigation water. Obviously,
with rainwater, we're looking atrain events. We're still looking
at that pretty much on a fieldby field basis, at this level,
or in our case, most of ourstuff here is 160 acre fields.
They're quarter sections,
Matt Kirchner (11:10):
sure. So a mile by a mile is a section, if my
dad taught me right, 640 acres,if memory serves. And so a
quarter section would be 160 soyou're thinking about a mile by
mile section, and you'redividing that by four, so
literally, down to that 1/4 of asquare mile is where you're
measuring the rainfall. And thenwhen it comes to the irrigation
side of it, and you referencethe sustainability, which
(11:31):
totally makes sense to me,right? If I can know, the more
specifically I know, squaremeter by square meter, how much
irrigation a specific area ofthe field needs, then I'm not
over irrigating one area andunder irrigating the other, and
then that all speaks to waste,right? So that's not a one size
fits all. We're able to muchmore precisely use those
resources. And is that whatyou're getting at when you talk
(11:53):
about sustainability?
Dick Pavelski (11:54):
Yeah, in addition to the variability of rainfall,
different soils will have gotdifferent moisture and water
holding capacities, differentnutrient holding capacities,
based on the sand, clay make,makeup of the soil. And those
are the things that we'relooking at now that we're custom
and doing precise applicationsof not only to adjust to water
(12:15):
amounts, but plant needs, andhow different soil types will
meet those plant needs,
Matt Kirchner (12:20):
fascinating and so now let's talk a little bit
about the automation side of it.
So how much of this is allautomated versus some of the
more manual processes that wereprobably likely again, 1020, 30
years ago?
Dick Pavelski (12:32):
Well, certainly, basically, it's all automated at
this point in time. There's atremendous amount of computing
power, not only at the office,collecting the data, analyzing
the data, but in the actualsensors and the tractors
themselves, as you mentioned,the John Deere seeing spray,
they can effectively identify aweed from a beneficial plant and
(12:53):
treat just that weed with aherbicide and not the rest of
the plants. So we'vedramatically reduced the inputs
that we're using, fuel savingswith monitoring the slippage
rates in the tractor, the fuelusage in the tractor, so we're
just a lot more efficient thanwe used to be, 20, 3040, years
(13:14):
ago,
Matt Kirchner (13:14):
which means producing more food at less
cost. And who wouldn't be infavor of that, and also doing it
in a fashion that's sustainableand easier on the environment.
And of course, who wouldn'tfavor that as well? So really,
really cool advancements thatare taking place. I've
referenced Dick a couple timesalready. Some of the parallels
between things that arehappening in agriculture in
(13:35):
manufacturing. Are you seeing itthe same way? You know? How
would you say that, AG, techmaybe compares to the automation
that we might see in otherindustries.
Dick Pavelski (13:43):
Certainly, agriculture is a lot more like
the manufacturing system now,because we have a lot more
control, although it's moredifficult in the agricultural
scenario, because we're dealingwith a lot of uncontrollable
outside influences, the amountof solar radiation, the amount
of rain, wind, dust, all ofthose things that affect sensors
(14:06):
and the data collection systemhas certainly gotten much
better. And now, I think,because of that difficulty in a
lot of areas, AG, is actuallyleading the other industries in
the rapid collection of data,the way that you filter and
analyze that data, because it isso to a large extent,
inconsistent and uncontrollablethings like weather that we're
(14:26):
dealing with trying to collectthat information, that's
Matt Kirchner (14:29):
a really interesting insight that I'll
admit, that I hadn't considered.
But having run manufacturingcompanies for all the years that
I did, certainly we hadvariables in whether it was
material or personnel, or youcould even get some temperature
and environmental variability inthe plant depending upon what
time of year it was, and so on,but it was all controllable, and
it was all fairlyunderstandable. I think you make
(14:49):
a really fascinating point thatprobably should have occurred to
me, but didn't. There's so manyaspects of agriculture over
which you have no control.
You're just basically at themercy. Of weather patterns and
so on, as you described it. Andbecause of that, because of the
variability in the day to day,that's really put us in a
position where, in some ways,agriculture is changing faster
(15:12):
and using data more effectivelythan some of the other market
spaces. There's probably a lotthat could be learned. In fact,
I know from spending time inprecision, AG, there is a lot
that other sectors could learnfrom agriculture, from precision
agriculture. So fascinatingresponses to those questions. I
know we're going to befascinated as well. Dick as we
pull in Andy Dirks, who's thevice president of Colombo farms,
(15:34):
and also a board member there atthe Food and Farm exploration
center. We've queued that up alittle bit already, and I'm sure
as we were making theintroductions, people are like,
Okay, this is reallyfascinating. Really fascinating.
But what is the Food and Farmexploration Center? We're going
to get into that now with Andy.
So Andy, first of all, thanksfor being with us. It's exciting
to have you on the TechEdpodcast.
Andy Diercks (15:53):
Thanks appreciate being here as well. Like I said,
I happen to be sitting out onthe patio at the Food and Farm
exploration center. So prettygreat sight watching how
irrigation go around and peoplego by on the highway. It's
Matt Kirchner (16:02):
very nice. I like it. I don't know that we've ever
done an outdoor version of theTechEd podcast. I'd have to
think about that. You may be thefirst outdoor guest, but if
we're going to do one, I mightas well be somebody who is knee
deep, and then some in the worldof precision agriculture,
because, as we just talked aboutwith Dick Pavelski, so many
things that are happening inprecision, AG, and so many
different elements of precisionagriculture that are out of our
(16:25):
control and that you have theopportunity to gather data on
and try and predict and try andcreate as repeatable a model as
possible. So let's talk aboutthis. First of all, so Dick
touched on how technology istotally transforming agriculture
and smart sensors and devicesand control systems and data
acquisition and GPS systems anddrones and seeing spray systems
(16:48):
and all of this change intechnology. Let's talk about the
career side. How is that ishappening? Are careers in
agriculture changing with therise of some of these new tech
and data systems Andy
Andy Diercks (16:59):
not changing fast enough that's really it's a big
part of the reason dick and hisfamily built this center is that
we can't find enough people tocome and use this equipment,
repair this equipment on thefarm, bring this equipment out
of the industries. That's beenone of the big advantages of
sort of being at the back end ofthis wave of automation.
Agriculture gets to takeadvantage of all that has
happened in manufacturing andthe automobile industry and
(17:21):
aerospace. So we're catching upin a lot of ways, and that gives
us some advantage that we don'thave to relearn
Matt Kirchner (17:26):
all the tools again well. And I would think
that, as we talk about now, I'ma huge advocate for careers in
advanced manufacturing. And wetell young people, 80% of whom,
by the way, 80% of Gen Zs, wantto work in technology. And we
tell them, Look, if you want atech career, there's a lot of
places to go, but manufacturingis one of them. Manufacturing
careers are tech careers. WhatI'm hearing is that agriculture
careers are tech careers aswell. Is that the way you're
(17:49):
presenting it?
Andy Diercks (17:50):
Yes, for sure, especially on a bigger farm,
like Dick's right. Dick's aneighbor and a really good
partner of ours, but their farmis on another zero. Basically
everything that Dick does, youtake a zero off it, whether it's
a number of employees, number ofacres, and so we have very
different needs from an employeeperspective, right on our farm,
I don't have a data scientist.
I'm the data scientist, but I'malso the guy that has to go fix
irrigation on Sunday afternoon.
(18:11):
Nick has different people to dothat, and so Dick requires
somebody with a reallyspecialized talent, because he
may be hiring a group of peopleto solve a problem on his line
for free. Delay, I have to findsomebody that's got a lot of
skills, a diverse range ofskills, because I might need
them, and be driving theharvester, driving the sprayer,
or fixing some equipment, ordoing a variety of things. And
so there really it presents apretty big challenge in that
(18:33):
way, that I can't hire just adata scientist. I can't keep
them busy enough on our farm todo that, although I'm swamped in
Data Management. Dick can dothat on scale. And so I live in
this we call it Ag in themiddle, where I don't have a
direct relationship with FritoLay like Dick does. And so all
this technology is really great.
It's super expensive. We try tobring as much of it on the farm
as we can, but I also have to beable to make that data useful.
(18:54):
That could be a real challenge.
So we rely a ton on theuniversity here and our
interaction with them on how dowe make it meaningful? So we can
actually make decisions, becauseit's really easy to collect
data, and you get lots of prettymaps and all kinds of things
from all this equipment. But a,is it accurate? Because they're
going to give you a pretty mapno matter what. B, is it
actionable? Awesome.
Matt Kirchner (19:15):
So a couple of things that I think you gave us
to unpack there. Let's startwith this. You mentioned Frito
Lay a couple times, and I don'tknow that we've gotten into the
types of crops that the two ofyou are involved with. So let's
start on that side. People mightbe able to gather if you're
talking about Frito Lay, buttake the veil off of that
question, and what is it thatyou're farming? Exactly
Andy Diercks (19:33):
whatever. Like potatoes. We grow some for
Dick's company, Heartland farms.
We have a small packing shed, sowe would wash and grade those
potatoes and ship them togrocery stores and restaurants.
We work with a little potatocompany. We work with McCain
Foods, who is the world'slargest French fry producer.
They have a pretty good sizedplant here in the central sands.
Dick is more specialized and soand there's that whole diversity
(19:54):
within our industry. There'sabout 100 potato growers in the
state of Wisconsin and. Some ofus focus on one or two. Some of
us do a few different things,and it allows me to not be very
good at all
Matt Kirchner (20:05):
of them. Well, yeah, or at least to be a jack
of all trades, or, in this case,an Andy of all trades. So you
mentioned that so we understandwe're growing potatoes and lots
of different applications there.
Now you also talked about theseorders of magnitude between your
farm and Dick. So give us alittle bit more color on that.
What's a really big farm thisday and age, and what's more of
an average sized farm in theworld of potatoes,
Andy Diercks (20:26):
we're a pretty average sized farm. We farm on
about 2700 acres, about a thirdof that's in potatoes every
year. So eight to 900 acres ofpotatoes. I'm not sure how many
dicks grown, but I think it'ssomewhere in the neighbor of
8000 acres of potatoes. Both ofus also farm some of our
rotation crops. There are somefarms that only grow potatoes
and they don't deal with theirrotation years. But many of us
do some of that. So we'regrowing field corn, soybeans.
(20:48):
Many of us have relationshipswith the canning companies. So
there's, there's a huge range ofcrops that we could grow in the
central sands becauseeverything's irrigated. So
there's a pretty strong canningindustry. There's cabbage, and
we have a neighbor that growspickles, peppers, squash,
zucchini, all sorts of things.
If there's a use for it, we canprobably grow it here, but it's
a matter of finding homes forall the produce.
Matt Kirchner (21:08):
So with all the rotating crops as well, if I'm
doing the rough math correctly,we were talking about farms that
can be anywhere from five to10,000 acres, even 30,000 acres
or so. This isn't in my case,where my one of my uncles, I
think, actually farmed a quartersection. Another one a half a
section. And now we're, youknow, now we're thinking about
literally 10s of 1000s of acres,huge farms at a huge scale, and
(21:29):
even yours, you, you know, youkind of, you're a little bit
modest in terms of the size ofyours relative to other farms.
However, 40 years ago, thatwould be just a behemoth of a
farm. When you're talking aboutthat kind of space really gives
us an idea of how agriculturehas really, really transformed.
So you talked also, Andy aboutcareers in ag, you talked about
(21:50):
the difference between being a,you know, a significantly large
farm where we've got, you know,on staff, data scientists and
and so on, using, you know,technology at scale. You're
talking about, in other cases,being as we talked about, that
jack of all trades and having tohave this wealth, incredible
wealth of knowledge andunderstanding, I've got to
believe that's part of why youall created the Food and Farm
(22:11):
exploration Center, which, bythe way, I also had the
opportunity to visit there abouttwo or three months ago. Very
impressive, very modern. It's agreat showcase of what modern
agriculture is all about. Butfor folks that haven't been as
lucky as me and haven't beenable to come see what you're
doing, give us a little bit of asense for what the Food and Farm
exploration center is, and thenwhy you created it. I
Andy Diercks (22:31):
really got to let Dick take this one, because it's
his family that had the visionto build it. We just tried to
help
Matt Kirchner (22:37):
Dick dive in.
Then you tell us
Dick Pavelski (22:38):
about all right, well, first of all, I think one
thing that's critical tounderstand is that farming and
agriculture is just like anyother business, and the customer
is always right. The customerwill always get what the
customer wants to pay for. Youknow, that's what's driven a lot
of the changes at what we do onthe farm. People like
(22:59):
consistency. When you go to thegrocery store, you want, you
want you want it to look likethe produce you bought last week
or the week before. Many peopleshop, but they get familiar with
whether it be a Krogers or aWalmart or wherever they buy
their groceries, and we, thecustomers, like the Frito lays
and the McCains of the world arethe same way those customers
(23:20):
want consistency going intothose manufacturing or
processing plants. That's why, Ithink, you know, that's really
what's driven a lot of theconsolidation in agriculture, is
the fact that our customersdon't want a lot of times, you
know, 30 different farmersdelivering to the same plant.
They want consistent rawproduct, because they can get a
(23:40):
lot more efficient withprocessing, and they can get a
lot more consistent product intothe grocery store for the
customer. Now, you know, as faras the Food and Farm exploration
center is concerned, it startedout as just a family project,
and it was just an idea, andthen basically, so, I mean, I
didn't create it the it wasamazing to me, and very
(24:03):
humbling. As soon as we starttalking to people like the
Rosella family and the derricksfamily and some of the financial
institutions and and ourcustomers and the John deers of
the world that supply usequipment, they all to, almost
to a man said, Hey, we shouldhave been explaining the changes
in agriculture 10 years ago. Howcan we help you? So it ended up
(24:27):
going from what was initiallyabout a six or $7 million
project that we were going to doas a family to a $42 million
project. We had a little bit ofmission creep right in the
middle of the design. And therewere several, prints put
together as Andy, well knows,Andy's been with us since we,
you know, very early in theprocess. But it is, it's just
(24:48):
that to let people know whathappens on a modern farm, to let
people know that there are somereally great careers in
agriculture, that it is a, youknow, high tech business these
days. And. And for anyone thatyou know likes to work outdoors
or be in the outdoors, farmingis just a great career right
Matt Kirchner (25:06):
now, absolutely great career right now, great
career in the past, andcertainly a great career in the
future, if we can get that wordout and we can let people know
about how farming is evolving,how these are becoming tech
careers, the incredible rewardsthat are available to folks and
credit to your family, I made asix or $7 million investment.
Certainly is no smallinvestment. And then you think
(25:26):
about bringing all these otherpartners who see the mission,
see the vision, see theimportance that agriculture has
for the community and the in thecommunity's economy, and
everybody, to your point,stepped up and was a part of it.
And when you're you know whenyour idea is big enough and
there's enough momentum behindit. It's amazing what can
happen. Why do you think it's soimportant that the public, and
especially young people, maybewho aren't as familiar with
(25:48):
precision agriculture, that theyunderstand the real story of
modern farming, and those talkabout how the center shares that
story with students.
Dick Pavelski (25:56):
You know, we wanted to bring the knowledge of
the farm basically, to thepeople, and we realized very
early on, also that we as thefarmer could not tell the whole
story, because we're not theexpertise when it comes to
everything that needs to happen.
We needed the processors to tellwhat happens. We needed the
grocers to tell what happens.
You know, in the store asthere's a complete chain of
(26:18):
people involved in getting thefood to the grocery store, if
you will. And I think peopledon't have a sense of
appreciation of what it takes toget their food. Food in the US,
at least, has, really, for atleast the last two or three
generations, has always beenthere. And then, other than
covid, where you've finally, youknow, you've seen a few empty
(26:38):
shelves, and people may havestarted taking a little more of
an interest. They just tooktheir food for granted. And, you
know, in a long term, from myperspective, I think that's
dangerous, because people don'tprotect what they don't
appreciate or understand. Andlong term, it could be a threat
to our food supply. I recentlyheard that 93% of our clothing
(27:00):
in this country is imported. I'mnot sure if we went to war, if
we could provide the uniformsfor our soldiers with importing
93% of our of our clothing,right? So a lot of that is just,
you know, getting out theunderstanding of what happens on
a modern farm and howsophisticated and what it takes
to get food to the table. And I
Matt Kirchner (27:20):
think you're exactly right. I think if you
know people in the UnitedStates, we do take our food for
granted, and you mentioned threeor four generations, and that's
exactly right. I mean, you know,how long has it been since we've
had anything close to a famineor close to, you know, genuine
hunger on a widespread scale?
Not to say that some peopledon't, don't struggle with that
for other reasons, but in termsof availability of food and
being able to go into a grocerystore or elsewhere and have
(27:42):
access to your nutrition. Imean, that is something that is
pretty much ubiquitous and thatso many of us just kind of
assume is going to be there. Ilike the way that you put that
Dick if you know people don'tappreciate something that they
don't understand, which reallyshows the the incredible value
of the work that you're doing atthe Food and Farm exploration
center. Andy, have you been ableto interact with any of the
(28:02):
students that are taking part inwhat goes on there, and tell us
about that experience?
Andy Diercks (28:08):
We have mad, and there's so many kids here that
like to share the story youshared, that you had that
connection. Your parents hadthat connection. But I don't
know if you have kids, but I do,they don't have that connection
anymore, and their kidscertainly are gonna have less
right. We have people have lostthat connection right. 3040,
years ago, everybody had aparent, an aunt and uncle, that
(28:28):
had a farm and kids, that was apart of the summer trip was to
go visit the farms. And righthappens less and less
frequently. Now it happensobviously, way less in the
cities. And so people reallyhave lost a connection of where
their food comes from. It justcomes from the grocery store,
which it's magically there everymagically there every day. And
so bringing kids here, lettingthem come out to these four, one
acre fields and see it grow,building the greenhouse, all the
(28:50):
displays here to show themreally what it takes to grow
food, right? Most of them, youknow, maybe mom has some potted
plants in the house that theygrow. But otherwise they just,
you know, even primaryeducation, they're so busy now
they have such a curriculum theyhave to force through that the
time to we're gonna plant someseeds and watch them grow over
the semester. That just doesn'thappen at a lot of schools
anymore. And so this is a veryquick opportunity for them to
(29:12):
come on a bus and spend a fewhours here and really understand
what it takes to get the food tothat grocery store and on their
plate. And
Matt Kirchner (29:19):
where are they coming from? Are they coming
from nearby? They're coming fromall over the state, all over the
Midwest. Where are thesestudents coming
Dick Pavelski (29:24):
from? Yeah, you know, we're now seeing bus loads
of school children coming upfrom clearly around the state,
all I mean, Maryland and Northwe've actually had a bus out of
Chicago, several out ofMilwaukee and Madison. But now
during the summer, that'schanged, in a lot of people that
vacation. I mean, we've hadpeople at the center now from, I
think, 31 different states, hada group up from Brazil, had one
(29:49):
from Tasmania a couple of weeksago, the audience that I reach
is getting a lot farther than weoriginally even dreamt that it
could be amazing. Think oneother comment I'd like to make
is when you were talking aboutthe importance, and I talked a
little bit about letting peopleknow where their food comes
from. The other issue that wehave in agriculture is what I
(30:11):
refer to as an ill informedvoter base. But beyond that,
it's legislators and the peoplethat write the rules who don't
understand what's happening on afarm, all of the new technology,
the safety that's been builtinto it, the sustainability that
we've got. I mean, in our my sonnow runs a farming and he's
fifth generation, so we've beenfarming the same land for 150
(30:33):
years. The yields are higher,the nutritional value is higher.
The amount of food produced peracre is more than tripled in
that period of time. And youknow, people writing the rules
as far as how food is not onlyproduced, but how it's
transported, how it's handled inthe grocery store, all those
food safety issues they need tounderstand the industry, and
(30:55):
that's also a big part of ourmission. So
Matt Kirchner (30:58):
have you reached out? I'm sure you have to the
state legislature, to Governor'soffices, and then folks at the
federal level as well to welcomethem in and educate them.
Dick Pavelski (31:06):
Yes, we do. And Andy is on the board of
Wisconsin Department ofAgriculture. We've had, you
know, EPA people come out andvisit us as well the regulatory
side at the national level, andthey've also visited farms in
the area at the same time. Sothey're not only seeing, you
know what we're talking about,at the Food and Farm exploration
Center, where you get asnapshot, but they're visiting
(31:29):
farms of all sizes, all the waydown to basically, you know,
large home gardens or those typeof things, Andy size of, you
know, operation, our largeroperation. And that
understanding, I feel iscritical, absolutely
Matt Kirchner (31:42):
critical. So to that point and to that end, as
we're reaching out, whether it'sto, you know, to policy makers,
whether it's to people who arejust curious about precision
agriculture and the changes inagriculture, whether it's a
school teacher, a CTE directoror a superintendent who's
listening to this podcast andsays, Wow, this is really cool.
I'd love for my students or formy colleagues to have the same
(32:03):
kind of exposure. How do theyget in touch and how do they how
do they get signed up toexperience it?
Dick Pavelski (32:07):
Yeah, I mean, they just go to the website,
foodanfarm.org, and book theirtour. I mean, book the tours, or
look at the website. You know,all of the information is up on
our website,
Matt Kirchner (32:18):
awesome. And we'll be sure to link that up in
the show notes as well, soanybody who's interested can
find it there. You're doing suchamazing stuff. Really, really
cool. Any other things that youwant to highlight, Dick or Andy
for that matter, about what theFood and Farm exploration center
is doing to get the communityengaged with with modern
agriculture. We've talked aboutstudents, we've talked about
policy makers and andlegislators that you know? Any
other things that our audienceshould be aware of,
Andy Diercks (32:39):
respective employees, right? We talked
about a kid or a family comingup from Chicago, right? They're
not thinking about growing upand I'm going to be a farmer, or
I'm going to work in agriculturethat's just not on their radar.
And so to come here and tounderstand the technology that
now exists in our industry, andhow many people we need to make
it work and continue to advanceit, that's a huge part of what's
going on here, teaching peoplethat we need help. We have a
(33:02):
really exciting career. You canstill get a suntan, right? It's
I love the diversity of my work.
I spent a lot of time in theoffice in the winter, but I'm
outside in the sun and doing allkinds of different things in the
summer. It's very rewarding.
It's fun to watch a crop grow.
It, frankly, is right? And justnot a lot people get to
appreciate that, right? So manyless families have gardens than
had gardens 20 years ago, right?
There's more and more peoplemoved to the city. You got less
(33:24):
and less of that. And so justbeing able to come out here and
watch stuff grow is is a newexperience for a lot of people.
Matt Kirchner (33:30):
There's something to be said for you know, first
of all, having a job, having arole, where you've got
tremendous amounts of variety,and also that that time outside
communing with nature, super,super important, valuable.
That's important whether you're,you know, a 6070, 80 year old
individual, or whether you're a15 year old kid or younger. We
want to make sure that all thosefolks are understanding the
(33:51):
great opportunities that areavailable and in agriculture as
it continues to become more andmore modern. Speaking of that 15
year old kid that we justreferenced, I want to take both
of you back. We'll ask you boththis question, and maybe Andy,
we'll start with you, and thenI'll pose it to Dick. And that
is, this is a couple ofquestions we love asking every
guest on the TechEd podcast. Thefirst one is, let's think back
(34:11):
to maybe when you were 15 yearsold and you were in the world of
education. You're going throughyour own education pathway, and
then you get into deeper intoyour career, and some of those
paradigms about educationchange. So Andy, let's ask you
first, if, if there's somethingthat you believe about education
that might be novel or thatmight surprise some people, what
(34:31):
would that be
Andy Diercks (34:32):
that we need to engage more in it? We do so much
of it now, to go through and getthat piece of paper at the end,
whether that's a high schooldiploma or a tech school diploma
that we don't we're not reallythere to learn. We're there to
get the piece of paper. And Ireally enjoyed in college
studying history of science,where, where the people that we
talk about in science, inhistory, they were there to
learn and advance theirknowledge. They weren't there to
(34:54):
get a degree, to get a betterjob, to get more money. They
were learning and Dick. And Ihave to learn on this job every
single. Say, and I think that'ssomething that really lacks in
the generation. It's challengingto teach, obviously, but that's
one of the great things aboutthe center. You can come and and
be forced to learn a bit.
Matt Kirchner (35:09):
For sure, you're not going through your
educational journey just to beable to have a piece of paper or
some digital badge that says youdid it. It's like, okay, what
are you learning? What do youknow? There's huge, huge dignity
in learning new skills,understanding new concepts, and
so we really should be going toschool to learn, not just to
earn that whatever that piece ofpaper is that represents what it
is that we did while we werethere. Dick, same question to
(35:31):
you, is there something youbelieve about education that
would surprise some folks?
Dick Pavelski (35:34):
Well, I mean, from my perspective, it's going
through school and getting thatdegree was one thing, but if
you're going to be involved inagriculture, you really have to
be a lifetime learner, becauseeverything changes. We're
learning something new everyday. We've got new varieties,
new equipment, new technology toadapt to. So you have to be open
(35:56):
to that constant flow of newinformation and learning
something new every day.
Matt Kirchner (36:02):
Absolutely that lifelong learning is so very
important. We talk about itfrequently here on the TechEd
podcast. We are done with theage where, you know, as Andy
said, you go to school and getyour degree, and then you know,
whether you were there to learn,or either you were there because
you wanted that piece of paper.
You know, 510, 15 years later,sometimes even quicker than five
years, what you learned whileyou were in school is already
obsolete, especially with therate at which technology is
(36:23):
advancing. So we have no choiceif we want to exist in this
economy and we want to have anymodicum of success, but to be a
lifelong learner and to becontinually adding to our
knowledge as technology andprocess and the world changes
around us, speaking of the worldchanging around us? Dick, and
I'll ask you this question, andthen, Andy, I know the world has
certainly changed around me inmy lifetime, and I'm sure it's
(36:45):
changed around you as well. Infact, we talked early on in this
episode about some of theoriginal concepts of agriculture
and how those have evolved sinceyou got into it. Let's go back
in time to those early days. Iwant to take you all the way
back to where you're when youwere 15 years old, and what kind
of stay on that concept. Soyou're a 15 year old young man,
you're growing up, I assume incentral Wisconsin. If you had
(37:07):
the opportunity to go back andgive that 15 year old young man
any piece of advice, what wouldthat
Dick Pavelski (37:14):
be? I think it would be to tell myself that
I'll be very fortunate in lifeand have the opportunity to
learn and work with a lot ofvery great people. And you know,
don't waste that opportunity. Bea lifetime learner.
Matt Kirchner (37:28):
Awesome. Be a lifetime learner from 15 on, and
you touched on just being ableto be around really, really
interesting people that I'm surehave shaped your career, shaped
your knowledge. Really importantadvice for a 15 year old is to
take advantage of thoseopportunities and those
interactions with others.
Speaking of interactions withothers, Andy, I've really
enjoyed interacting with you onthis episode of The TechEd
podcast. Would love to hear yourinsights on the same question.
(37:51):
Take us back to that 15 year oldAndy Dirksen, what would you
tell him if you could tell himanything?
Andy Diercks (37:57):
Well, just like with dating, get out on the
dance floor. Take chances. Don'tbe afraid to fail. Find out.
Don't be afraid to askquestions, like constantly
warning and yeah, just get afterit. Hey,
Matt Kirchner (38:09):
put yourself out there. You'll never know what
you can accomplish unless youput everything into it. And and
as harrowing is getting out onthat dance floor for the first
time can be getting out in frontof any new experience. Really,
important. We're really, reallyexcited that we had some time to
spend on the dance floor herewith Dick Pavelski and Andy
Dirks, talking about the greatthings happening at the Food and
Farm exploration center, talkingabout the amazing things that
(38:33):
are happening in precisionagriculture, how quickly it's
changing. Absolutely fascinatingtopic for me. Dick Andy, to both
of you. Thanks so much for beingwith us. Thank you. Thank you.
Appreciate it very much, andthanks so much to our audience
for joining us. I know that ouraudience learned as much as I
did, and hung on every word. Igained such an understanding of
the things that are happening inprecision, AG, and such an
(38:54):
appreciation for what happens onthe farms across the United
States of America and how thatenvironment is changing. I want
to make sure we thank again.
Dick Pavelski, the founder ofthe Food and Farm exploration
center, Andy Dirks, the VicePresident of Coloma farms, who
also serves on the board of theFood and Farm exploration center
for being with us, we will putthe show notes up for this
episode of the podcast. We'llput those at TechEd
(39:17):
podcast.com/pavelski that'sTechEd podcast.com/p, A, V, E,
L, S, K, I, when you're donechecking out those show notes,
and we will link up all thethings that we talked about
here, including how you can findout for your students, for
yourself, how you can visit theFood and Farm exploration
center. We'll have some otherresources there for you as well.
(39:38):
We, as always, have the bestshow notes in the business. Then
head on over to social media.
You'll find us on Facebook,Instagram, LinkedIn, Tiktok,
wherever you go, you will findthe TechEd podcast. When you're
there, say hello. We would loveto hear from you. Can't wait to
see you next week on the TechEdpodcast. Until then, I'm Matt
kertner, thanks for being withus. You.
Matt, welcome to the TechEd podcast. I am your
(00:11):
host. Matt Kirkner, you know, wetalk often about the connection
between the edge to cloudcontinuum and every single
sector within our economy hereon the TechEd podcast. So we
chat about whether it'smanufacturing, where I made my
living for a whole bunch ofyears, whether it's energy,
defense, healthcare,hospitality, retail, it doesn't
(00:32):
matter. We find that edge tocloud continuum, smart
technology, smart sensors on theedge and cloud computing on the
cloud, everywhere across oureconomy. One of those market
spaces that we talk about quiteoften as being a great example
of the edge to cloud continuumis agriculture. And I can tell
you that precision, AG, ismaking huge waves, huge waves in
(00:54):
how we grow our food, how webring it to market. And I had an
opportunity several months agoto spend some time at a
precision ag operation. I wasabsolutely blown away at the way
these folks were deployingtechnology in the agriculture
process. We're going to talk onthis episode of The TechEd
podcast all about precisionagriculture. We've actually got
(01:15):
two guests who are joining ustoday. We're going to spend the
first part of our discussionwith one of them, and then we'll
bring the other one in for someadditional chat as well. Our two
guests, first of all, DickPavelski, founder of the Food
and Farm exploration center, hasspent an entire career in
precision agriculture andagriculture. We're also going to
be joined by Andy Dirks, who isthe vice president of Coloma
(01:37):
farms and a board member of theFood and Farm exploration
center. So going to be a really,really fascinating conversation
for anybody who lovestechnology, for anybody who
loves agriculture, and foranybody who loves how we are
bringing those two together, andcertainly I would count myself
among that group. So let's startwith Dick. You have just a
really incredible history inagriculture. Let's talk about
(02:00):
what ag looked like when youfirst started in it. What were
the tools and the processes andthe jobs when you first got into
AG?
Dick Pavelski (02:08):
Well, I mean, when I was growing up on the
farm, farming was kind ofdefined as being a very
strenuous, dirty, dangerous, lowpaid job, a little automation
and a lot of manual labor, verylittle opportunity for
advancement in the organization,unless you were part of the
family that was growing up onthe farm tractors sprayers had
(02:28):
no cabs or air filtering fordust and crop protect and
sprays. Tractors and implementshad no GPS or guidance. Planners
had no monitoring to collect allof the data and things that we
do today, knowledge andunderstanding of soils, plant
biology, fertility, plantvarieties, weather, pests, water
(02:49):
use and other influencingfactors and the crops were not
understood nearly as well asthey are today. And a lot of
that was, I think, because theaverage farmer didn't have a
college degree and hadn't beenexposed to a lot of that level
of knowledge and experience.
Matt Kirchner (03:04):
Yeah, the farmer's role in agriculture
obviously changed considerablyover the course of your
lifetime, over the course of thepast decades, and really at an
accelerating rate. Now, as youknow, I spent a lot of time on
farms growing up. My family, wedidn't live on a farm. I lived
in the city, but both of myparents grew up on Midwestern
dairy farms, and so I spent theywere actually my favorite places
(03:25):
to go and visit. As a kid, Iloved going to Six Flags Great
America and outside of Chicago,and I love going to my uncle's
farms and spending time on thefarm growing up and just
watching what I saw in one ofyour operations that you're
related to several months agoversus what I grew up around. I
mean, it's hardly evenrecognizable. All some all these
technologies that you touched onin your last answer that have
(03:48):
changed agriculture. So thinkingback to when you first got
started, tractors with no cabs,obviously, a lot of the safety
issues that we can mitigate inthese days maybe weren't
mitigated back then. And all theknowledge, all the data that we
have in terms of being able toreally dial in exactly how we
can maximize the yield. Really,really important. So let's talk
(04:11):
now about some of thosetechnologies and how they have
changed agriculture. If somebodyhasn't been on a farm for, say,
3040, 50 years, what are theygoing to see if they walk into a
modern farm in this day and age?
Dick Pavelski (04:22):
Yeah, I mean, things are clearly a lot more
sophisticated using many hightech tools. Tractors have cabs.
We've got charcoal filtering,full dust control. They're a lot
more comfortable air ride seatsand a lot of things that we
certainly didn't have when I wasgrowing up on a farm, a lot of
data collection, GPS guidance,precision guidance on the
(04:45):
tractors, data analysis and theequipment itself now collects a
lot of data. So you're gettingslippage, you're getting fuel
usage, you're getting the torqueso that you can adjust much more
accurately to save fuel and. Doa lot less compaction in the
field, because, you know, whenit's wet, a lot of soil sensors
are out there right now. So it'sjust, I think primarily it's
(05:09):
from a technology and a comfortstandpoint, the tractors,
prayers cabs are a lotdifferent, but also the amount
of data that we collect in realtime it's transported or
delivered to the office wherethey can analyze that data, make
much quicker decisions, be a lotmore precise in water
application, be a lot moreprecise in fertility. Plant
(05:31):
samples are actually analyzednow on a weekly basis, so we
know exactly what the nutrientrequirements are over the plant
completely different varieties,and we get a much better
understanding of those varietiesas they improve. So, I mean, it
just requires a whole new levelof sophistication and education
and skills at the farm
Matt Kirchner (05:51):
level, sophistication, education and
skills for sure, you know. And Iwas spending time up there in
central Wisconsin a couplemonths ago, just to kind of put
this into perspective. I mean,if anybody has ever either been
in or seen on TV or seen in amovie, you think about like an
investment bank, right? And youthink about a bunch of financial
professionals sitting theremonitoring the stock market and
(06:11):
tracking all these differentcompanies and looking at their
performance and looking at theirgrowth rates and looking at
their stock prices. And you walkinto one of these data rooms,
and it's just filled with allthese screens gathering all this
data in real time. And I've beenaround that, and then I walk
into a precision farmingoperation, and you mentioned all
this data coming back to theoffice, TV screens everywhere,
(06:32):
monitoring all the things thatyou just talked about, whether
it's moisture in the soil,whether it's temperature, all
this information that we havecoming back to climate patterns
and rainfall, and I mean, all ofthis stuff, and it's really,
really become an absolutescience. And I was so, so
impressed to see that. I thinkit's probably an easy question
(06:52):
to answer, a loaded question,but was it obvious that
agriculture had to change? Whydo you think that we've made
this incredible move towardprecision, AG, and that it's
accelerating as quickly as itis.
Dick Pavelski (07:03):
First of all, what you've seen were a lot of
screens in an office, but now inthe latest version of that, we
don't need those screensanymore. It's all available on
our iPads and our phones becausewe're fully connected in the
trucks. We now have that in ourhand no matter where we are in
the world. And really why it hadto change is there's more people
to feed. They have better diets.
Require more food to be producedon less land. It's a much safer
(07:26):
food supply because we've got abetter understanding of the
health risks associated with ourdiet, and to deal with those
risks, food production andhandling has improved all the
way from the transportationsystem with refrigeration to
what happens in the grocerystore before you pick it up, the
entire system, all the way fromvariety development to the
(07:49):
grocery store has upgraded alongwith what's happening on the
farm. So
Matt Kirchner (07:55):
in the same sense that we see, perhaps the supply
chain that gets more and moreefficient be is able to deliver
to consumers exactly what theywant, exactly what they need,
even more efficiently than everbefore. And the same thing is
happening in agriculture. Let'stalk about some of those
technologies Dick that you'rerunning into. You touched on a
few of them. You talked aboutcharcoal filtering. You talked
(08:15):
about this whole idea of usingGPS and so on. Now having an
iPad that's available at anytime anywhere, with that
instantaneous data. Reallyfascinating how some of those
technologies are changing. Let'sget into some of that GPS guided
equipment, maybe seeing spraysystems, drones, I know a little
bit more on the sensors thatyou're using. What else should
(08:35):
our audience know about thetechnology that's transforming
farming? Well,
Dick Pavelski (08:39):
I think with drones and a lot of the other
technology is just a lot moreefficient. The strain on the
operators, as I indicatedearlier, is much lower. The food
quality and the nutritionalvalue is kept fresher than it
has been in the past. We'vereduced waste substantially. We
now sell and people consume alot higher percentage of what's
(09:01):
produced on the farm,absolutely.
Matt Kirchner (09:03):
So it's in the same sense that we've
eliminated, or at least drivenwaste out of in many cases,
manufacturing through processeslike Kaizen and continuous
improvement, focusing on theSeven Deadly Wastes as Taichi
Ohno taught us so many yearsago, understanding where waste
manifests itself in a processand driving that out. The same
thing is happening inagriculture. Let's talk about, I
(09:25):
mean, are there aspects ofeither soil preparation or
irrigation or fertilizationharvesting? Are there specific
technologies in that processthat would interest our
audience?
Dick Pavelski (09:36):
Our farm as an example, has got almost 300
weather stations on it, so thatwe're met. As you know, when you
get a rain storm, you can get aninch of rain in one location and
a half mile away, you might gettwo or three tents. They're
never even so we've got a lotmore precise data for each and
every field out there, and nowin a lot of areas with variable
(09:57):
rate fertility and precisionsampling, we. Looking at
treating crops, not at the wholefield level, but at the square
meter level. So the precision ismuch better. Sustainability is
what's really driving a lot ofthat right now, we understand a
lot more about soils. Weunderstand a lot more about the
physiological needs of theplants to produce better and
(10:18):
more nutritious crops, and nowwe've got the tools and the
sensors to get that data that wecan react to and make decisions
on in almost real time.
Matt Kirchner (10:28):
Well, that was one of the things that I noticed
when I was visiting not too longago, is just the ability to, I
mean, you think about trackingrainfall, and if you think about
rainfall over the course of awhatever, 1000 acre farm or
30,000 acre farm, it can bevariable, not just across an
acre, but to your point,literally, from square meter to
square meter. Am I understandingright that you're able to track
(10:50):
that rain fell and track themoisture down to that level of
precision? Is that what I justheard you say? I mean, we could
Dick Pavelski (10:56):
do that with irrigation water. Obviously,
with rainwater, we're looking atrain events. We're still looking
at that pretty much on a fieldby field basis, at this level,
or in our case, most of ourstuff here is 160 acre fields.
They're quarter sections,
Matt Kirchner (11:10):
sure. So a mile by a mile is a section, if my
dad taught me right, 640 acres,if memory serves. And so a
quarter section would be 160 soyou're thinking about a mile by
mile section, and you'redividing that by four, so
literally, down to that 1/4 of asquare mile is where you're
measuring the rainfall. And thenwhen it comes to the irrigation
side of it, and you referencethe sustainability, which
(11:31):
totally makes sense to me,right? If I can know, the more
specifically I know, squaremeter by square meter, how much
irrigation a specific area ofthe field needs, then I'm not
over irrigating one area andunder irrigating the other, and
then that all speaks to waste,right? So that's not a one size
fits all. We're able to muchmore precisely use those
resources. And is that whatyou're getting at when you talk
(11:53):
about sustainability?
Dick Pavelski (11:54):
Yeah, in addition to the variability of rainfall,
different soils will have gotdifferent moisture and water
holding capacities, differentnutrient holding capacities,
based on the sand, clay make,makeup of the soil. And those
are the things that we'relooking at now that we're custom
and doing precise applicationsof not only to adjust to water
(12:15):
amounts, but plant needs, andhow different soil types will
meet those plant needs,
Matt Kirchner (12:20):
fascinating and so now let's talk a little bit
about the automation side of it.
So how much of this is allautomated versus some of the
more manual processes that wereprobably likely again, 1020, 30
years ago?
Dick Pavelski (12:32):
Well, certainly, basically, it's all automated at
this point in time. There's atremendous amount of computing
power, not only at the office,collecting the data, analyzing
the data, but in the actualsensors and the tractors
themselves, as you mentioned,the John Deere seeing spray,
they can effectively identify aweed from a beneficial plant and
(12:53):
treat just that weed with aherbicide and not the rest of
the plants. So we'vedramatically reduced the inputs
that we're using, fuel savingswith monitoring the slippage
rates in the tractor, the fuelusage in the tractor, so we're
just a lot more efficient thanwe used to be, 20, 3040, years
(13:14):
ago,
Matt Kirchner (13:14):
which means producing more food at less
cost. And who wouldn't be infavor of that, and also doing it
in a fashion that's sustainableand easier on the environment.
And of course, who wouldn'tfavor that as well? So really,
really cool advancements thatare taking place. I've
referenced Dick a couple timesalready. Some of the parallels
between things that arehappening in agriculture in
(13:35):
manufacturing. Are you seeing itthe same way? You know? How
would you say that, AG, techmaybe compares to the automation
that we might see in otherindustries.
Dick Pavelski (13:43):
Certainly, agriculture is a lot more like
the manufacturing system now,because we have a lot more
control, although it's moredifficult in the agricultural
scenario, because we're dealingwith a lot of uncontrollable
outside influences, the amountof solar radiation, the amount
of rain, wind, dust, all ofthose things that affect sensors
(14:06):
and the data collection systemhas certainly gotten much
better. And now, I think,because of that difficulty in a
lot of areas, AG, is actuallyleading the other industries in
the rapid collection of data,the way that you filter and
analyze that data, because it isso to a large extent,
inconsistent and uncontrollablethings like weather that we're
(14:26):
dealing with trying to collectthat information, that's
Matt Kirchner (14:29):
a really interesting insight that I'll
admit, that I hadn't considered.
But having run manufacturingcompanies for all the years that
I did, certainly we hadvariables in whether it was
material or personnel, or youcould even get some temperature
and environmental variability inthe plant depending upon what
time of year it was, and so on,but it was all controllable, and
it was all fairlyunderstandable. I think you make
(14:49):
a really fascinating point thatprobably should have occurred to
me, but didn't. There's so manyaspects of agriculture over
which you have no control.
You're just basically at themercy. Of weather patterns and
so on, as you described it. Andbecause of that, because of the
variability in the day to day,that's really put us in a
position where, in some ways,agriculture is changing faster
(15:12):
and using data more effectivelythan some of the other market
spaces. There's probably a lotthat could be learned. In fact,
I know from spending time inprecision, AG, there is a lot
that other sectors could learnfrom agriculture, from precision
agriculture. So fascinatingresponses to those questions. I
know we're going to befascinated as well. Dick as we
pull in Andy Dirks, who's thevice president of Colombo farms,
(15:34):
and also a board member there atthe Food and Farm exploration
center. We've queued that up alittle bit already, and I'm sure
as we were making theintroductions, people are like,
Okay, this is reallyfascinating. Really fascinating.
But what is the Food and Farmexploration Center? We're going
to get into that now with Andy.
So Andy, first of all, thanksfor being with us. It's exciting
to have you on the TechEdpodcast.
Andy Diercks (15:53):
Thanks appreciate being here as well. Like I said,
I happen to be sitting out onthe patio at the Food and Farm
exploration center. So prettygreat sight watching how
irrigation go around and peoplego by on the highway. It's
Matt Kirchner (16:02):
very nice. I like it. I don't know that we've ever
done an outdoor version of theTechEd podcast. I'd have to
think about that. You may be thefirst outdoor guest, but if
we're going to do one, I mightas well be somebody who is knee
deep, and then some in the worldof precision agriculture,
because, as we just talked aboutwith Dick Pavelski, so many
things that are happening inprecision, AG, and so many
different elements of precisionagriculture that are out of our
(16:25):
control and that you have theopportunity to gather data on
and try and predict and try andcreate as repeatable a model as
possible. So let's talk aboutthis. First of all, so Dick
touched on how technology istotally transforming agriculture
and smart sensors and devicesand control systems and data
acquisition and GPS systems anddrones and seeing spray systems
(16:48):
and all of this change intechnology. Let's talk about the
career side. How is that ishappening? Are careers in
agriculture changing with therise of some of these new tech
and data systems Andy
Andy Diercks (16:59):
not changing fast enough that's really it's a big
part of the reason dick and hisfamily built this center is that
we can't find enough people tocome and use this equipment,
repair this equipment on thefarm, bring this equipment out
of the industries. That's beenone of the big advantages of
sort of being at the back end ofthis wave of automation.
Agriculture gets to takeadvantage of all that has
happened in manufacturing andthe automobile industry and
(17:21):
aerospace. So we're catching upin a lot of ways, and that gives
us some advantage that we don'thave to relearn
Matt Kirchner (17:26):
all the tools again well. And I would think
that, as we talk about now, I'ma huge advocate for careers in
advanced manufacturing. And wetell young people, 80% of whom,
by the way, 80% of Gen Zs, wantto work in technology. And we
tell them, Look, if you want atech career, there's a lot of
places to go, but manufacturingis one of them. Manufacturing
careers are tech careers. WhatI'm hearing is that agriculture
careers are tech careers aswell. Is that the way you're
(17:49):
presenting it?
Andy Diercks (17:50):
Yes, for sure, especially on a bigger farm,
like Dick's right. Dick's aneighbor and a really good
partner of ours, but their farmis on another zero. Basically
everything that Dick does, youtake a zero off it, whether it's
a number of employees, number ofacres, and so we have very
different needs from an employeeperspective, right on our farm,
I don't have a data scientist.
I'm the data scientist, but I'malso the guy that has to go fix
irrigation on Sunday afternoon.
(18:11):
Nick has different people to dothat, and so Dick requires
somebody with a reallyspecialized talent, because he
may be hiring a group of peopleto solve a problem on his line
for free. Delay, I have to findsomebody that's got a lot of
skills, a diverse range ofskills, because I might need
them, and be driving theharvester, driving the sprayer,
or fixing some equipment, ordoing a variety of things. And
so there really it presents apretty big challenge in that
(18:33):
way, that I can't hire just adata scientist. I can't keep
them busy enough on our farm todo that, although I'm swamped in
Data Management. Dick can dothat on scale. And so I live in
this we call it Ag in themiddle, where I don't have a
direct relationship with FritoLay like Dick does. And so all
this technology is really great.
It's super expensive. We try tobring as much of it on the farm
as we can, but I also have to beable to make that data useful.
(18:54):
That could be a real challenge.
So we rely a ton on theuniversity here and our
interaction with them on how dowe make it meaningful? So we can
actually make decisions, becauseit's really easy to collect
data, and you get lots of prettymaps and all kinds of things
from all this equipment. But a,is it accurate? Because they're
going to give you a pretty mapno matter what. B, is it
actionable? Awesome.
Matt Kirchner (19:15):
So a couple of things that I think you gave us
to unpack there. Let's startwith this. You mentioned Frito
Lay a couple times, and I don'tknow that we've gotten into the
types of crops that the two ofyou are involved with. So let's
start on that side. People mightbe able to gather if you're
talking about Frito Lay, buttake the veil off of that
question, and what is it thatyou're farming? Exactly
Andy Diercks (19:33):
whatever. Like potatoes. We grow some for
Dick's company, Heartland farms.
We have a small packing shed, sowe would wash and grade those
potatoes and ship them togrocery stores and restaurants.
We work with a little potatocompany. We work with McCain
Foods, who is the world'slargest French fry producer.
They have a pretty good sizedplant here in the central sands.
Dick is more specialized and soand there's that whole diversity
(19:54):
within our industry. There'sabout 100 potato growers in the
state of Wisconsin and. Some ofus focus on one or two. Some of
us do a few different things,and it allows me to not be very
good at all
Matt Kirchner (20:05):
of them. Well, yeah, or at least to be a jack
of all trades, or, in this case,an Andy of all trades. So you
mentioned that so we understandwe're growing potatoes and lots
of different applications there.
Now you also talked about theseorders of magnitude between your
farm and Dick. So give us alittle bit more color on that.
What's a really big farm thisday and age, and what's more of
an average sized farm in theworld of potatoes,
Andy Diercks (20:26):
we're a pretty average sized farm. We farm on
about 2700 acres, about a thirdof that's in potatoes every
year. So eight to 900 acres ofpotatoes. I'm not sure how many
dicks grown, but I think it'ssomewhere in the neighbor of
8000 acres of potatoes. Both ofus also farm some of our
rotation crops. There are somefarms that only grow potatoes
and they don't deal with theirrotation years. But many of us
do some of that. So we'regrowing field corn, soybeans.
(20:48):
Many of us have relationshipswith the canning companies. So
there's, there's a huge range ofcrops that we could grow in the
central sands becauseeverything's irrigated. So
there's a pretty strong canningindustry. There's cabbage, and
we have a neighbor that growspickles, peppers, squash,
zucchini, all sorts of things.
If there's a use for it, we canprobably grow it here, but it's
a matter of finding homes forall the produce.
Matt Kirchner (21:08):
So with all the rotating crops as well, if I'm
doing the rough math correctly,we were talking about farms that
can be anywhere from five to10,000 acres, even 30,000 acres
or so. This isn't in my case,where my one of my uncles, I
think, actually farmed a quartersection. Another one a half a
section. And now we're, youknow, now we're thinking about
literally 10s of 1000s of acres,huge farms at a huge scale, and
(21:29):
even yours, you, you know, youkind of, you're a little bit
modest in terms of the size ofyours relative to other farms.
However, 40 years ago, thatwould be just a behemoth of a
farm. When you're talking aboutthat kind of space really gives
us an idea of how agriculturehas really, really transformed.
So you talked also, Andy aboutcareers in ag, you talked about
(21:50):
the difference between being a,you know, a significantly large
farm where we've got, you know,on staff, data scientists and
and so on, using, you know,technology at scale. You're
talking about, in other cases,being as we talked about, that
jack of all trades and having tohave this wealth, incredible
wealth of knowledge andunderstanding, I've got to
believe that's part of why youall created the Food and Farm
(22:11):
exploration Center, which, bythe way, I also had the
opportunity to visit there abouttwo or three months ago. Very
impressive, very modern. It's agreat showcase of what modern
agriculture is all about. Butfor folks that haven't been as
lucky as me and haven't beenable to come see what you're
doing, give us a little bit of asense for what the Food and Farm
exploration center is, and thenwhy you created it. I
Andy Diercks (22:31):
really got to let Dick take this one, because it's
his family that had the visionto build it. We just tried to
help
Matt Kirchner (22:37):
Dick dive in.
Then you tell us
Dick Pavelski (22:38):
about all right, well, first of all, I think one
thing that's critical tounderstand is that farming and
agriculture is just like anyother business, and the customer
is always right. The customerwill always get what the
customer wants to pay for. Youknow, that's what's driven a lot
of the changes at what we do onthe farm. People like
(22:59):
consistency. When you go to thegrocery store, you want, you
want you want it to look likethe produce you bought last week
or the week before. Many peopleshop, but they get familiar with
whether it be a Krogers or aWalmart or wherever they buy
their groceries, and we, thecustomers, like the Frito lays
and the McCains of the world arethe same way those customers
(23:20):
want consistency going intothose manufacturing or
processing plants. That's why, Ithink, you know, that's really
what's driven a lot of theconsolidation in agriculture, is
the fact that our customersdon't want a lot of times, you
know, 30 different farmersdelivering to the same plant.
They want consistent rawproduct, because they can get a
(23:40):
lot more efficient withprocessing, and they can get a
lot more consistent product intothe grocery store for the
customer. Now, you know, as faras the Food and Farm exploration
center is concerned, it startedout as just a family project,
and it was just an idea, andthen basically, so, I mean, I
didn't create it the it wasamazing to me, and very
(24:03):
humbling. As soon as we starttalking to people like the
Rosella family and the derricksfamily and some of the financial
institutions and and ourcustomers and the John deers of
the world that supply usequipment, they all to, almost
to a man said, Hey, we shouldhave been explaining the changes
in agriculture 10 years ago. Howcan we help you? So it ended up
(24:27):
going from what was initiallyabout a six or $7 million
project that we were going to doas a family to a $42 million
project. We had a little bit ofmission creep right in the
middle of the design. And therewere several, prints put
together as Andy, well knows,Andy's been with us since we,
you know, very early in theprocess. But it is, it's just
(24:48):
that to let people know whathappens on a modern farm, to let
people know that there are somereally great careers in
agriculture, that it is a, youknow, high tech business these
days. And. And for anyone thatyou know likes to work outdoors
or be in the outdoors, farmingis just a great career right
Matt Kirchner (25:06):
now, absolutely great career right now, great
career in the past, andcertainly a great career in the
future, if we can get that wordout and we can let people know
about how farming is evolving,how these are becoming tech
careers, the incredible rewardsthat are available to folks and
credit to your family, I made asix or $7 million investment.
Certainly is no smallinvestment. And then you think
(25:26):
about bringing all these otherpartners who see the mission,
see the vision, see theimportance that agriculture has
for the community and the in thecommunity's economy, and
everybody, to your point,stepped up and was a part of it.
And when you're you know whenyour idea is big enough and
there's enough momentum behindit. It's amazing what can
happen. Why do you think it's soimportant that the public, and
especially young people, maybewho aren't as familiar with
(25:48):
precision agriculture, that theyunderstand the real story of
modern farming, and those talkabout how the center shares that
story with students.
Dick Pavelski (25:56):
You know, we wanted to bring the knowledge of
the farm basically, to thepeople, and we realized very
early on, also that we as thefarmer could not tell the whole
story, because we're not theexpertise when it comes to
everything that needs to happen.
We needed the processors to tellwhat happens. We needed the
grocers to tell what happens.
You know, in the store asthere's a complete chain of
(26:18):
people involved in getting thefood to the grocery store, if
you will. And I think peopledon't have a sense of
appreciation of what it takes toget their food. Food in the US,
at least, has, really, for atleast the last two or three
generations, has always beenthere. And then, other than
covid, where you've finally, youknow, you've seen a few empty
(26:38):
shelves, and people may havestarted taking a little more of
an interest. They just tooktheir food for granted. And, you
know, in a long term, from myperspective, I think that's
dangerous, because people don'tprotect what they don't
appreciate or understand. Andlong term, it could be a threat
to our food supply. I recentlyheard that 93% of our clothing
(27:00):
in this country is imported. I'mnot sure if we went to war, if
we could provide the uniformsfor our soldiers with importing
93% of our of our clothing,right? So a lot of that is just,
you know, getting out theunderstanding of what happens on
a modern farm and howsophisticated and what it takes
to get food to the table. And I
Matt Kirchner (27:20):
think you're exactly right. I think if you
know people in the UnitedStates, we do take our food for
granted, and you mentioned threeor four generations, and that's
exactly right. I mean, you know,how long has it been since we've
had anything close to a famineor close to, you know, genuine
hunger on a widespread scale?
Not to say that some peopledon't, don't struggle with that
for other reasons, but in termsof availability of food and
being able to go into a grocerystore or elsewhere and have
(27:42):
access to your nutrition. Imean, that is something that is
pretty much ubiquitous and thatso many of us just kind of
assume is going to be there. Ilike the way that you put that
Dick if you know people don'tappreciate something that they
don't understand, which reallyshows the the incredible value
of the work that you're doing atthe Food and Farm exploration
center. Andy, have you been ableto interact with any of the
(28:02):
students that are taking part inwhat goes on there, and tell us
about that experience?
Andy Diercks (28:08):
We have mad, and there's so many kids here that
like to share the story youshared, that you had that
connection. Your parents hadthat connection. But I don't
know if you have kids, but I do,they don't have that connection
anymore, and their kidscertainly are gonna have less
right. We have people have lostthat connection right. 3040,
years ago, everybody had aparent, an aunt and uncle, that
(28:28):
had a farm and kids, that was apart of the summer trip was to
go visit the farms. And righthappens less and less
frequently. Now it happensobviously, way less in the
cities. And so people reallyhave lost a connection of where
their food comes from. It justcomes from the grocery store,
which it's magically there everymagically there every day. And
so bringing kids here, lettingthem come out to these four, one
acre fields and see it grow,building the greenhouse, all the
(28:50):
displays here to show themreally what it takes to grow
food, right? Most of them, youknow, maybe mom has some potted
plants in the house that theygrow. But otherwise they just,
you know, even primaryeducation, they're so busy now
they have such a curriculum theyhave to force through that the
time to we're gonna plant someseeds and watch them grow over
the semester. That just doesn'thappen at a lot of schools
anymore. And so this is a veryquick opportunity for them to
(29:12):
come on a bus and spend a fewhours here and really understand
what it takes to get the food tothat grocery store and on their
plate. And
Matt Kirchner (29:19):
where are they coming from? Are they coming
from nearby? They're coming fromall over the state, all over the
Midwest. Where are thesestudents coming
Dick Pavelski (29:24):
from? Yeah, you know, we're now seeing bus loads
of school children coming upfrom clearly around the state,
all I mean, Maryland and Northwe've actually had a bus out of
Chicago, several out ofMilwaukee and Madison. But now
during the summer, that'schanged, in a lot of people that
vacation. I mean, we've hadpeople at the center now from, I
think, 31 different states, hada group up from Brazil, had one
(29:49):
from Tasmania a couple of weeksago, the audience that I reach
is getting a lot farther than weoriginally even dreamt that it
could be amazing. Think oneother comment I'd like to make
is when you were talking aboutthe importance, and I talked a
little bit about letting peopleknow where their food comes
from. The other issue that wehave in agriculture is what I
(30:11):
refer to as an ill informedvoter base. But beyond that,
it's legislators and the peoplethat write the rules who don't
understand what's happening on afarm, all of the new technology,
the safety that's been builtinto it, the sustainability that
we've got. I mean, in our my sonnow runs a farming and he's
fifth generation, so we've beenfarming the same land for 150
(30:33):
years. The yields are higher,the nutritional value is higher.
The amount of food produced peracre is more than tripled in
that period of time. And youknow, people writing the rules
as far as how food is not onlyproduced, but how it's
transported, how it's handled inthe grocery store, all those
food safety issues they need tounderstand the industry, and
(30:55):
that's also a big part of ourmission. So
Matt Kirchner (30:58):
have you reached out? I'm sure you have to the
state legislature, to Governor'soffices, and then folks at the
federal level as well to welcomethem in and educate them.
Dick Pavelski (31:06):
Yes, we do. And Andy is on the board of
Wisconsin Department ofAgriculture. We've had, you
know, EPA people come out andvisit us as well the regulatory
side at the national level, andthey've also visited farms in
the area at the same time. Sothey're not only seeing, you
know what we're talking about,at the Food and Farm exploration
Center, where you get asnapshot, but they're visiting
(31:29):
farms of all sizes, all the waydown to basically, you know,
large home gardens or those typeof things, Andy size of, you
know, operation, our largeroperation. And that
understanding, I feel iscritical, absolutely
Matt Kirchner (31:42):
critical. So to that point and to that end, as
we're reaching out, whether it'sto, you know, to policy makers,
whether it's to people who arejust curious about precision
agriculture and the changes inagriculture, whether it's a
school teacher, a CTE directoror a superintendent who's
listening to this podcast andsays, Wow, this is really cool.
I'd love for my students or formy colleagues to have the same
(32:03):
kind of exposure. How do theyget in touch and how do they how
do they get signed up toexperience it?
Dick Pavelski (32:07):
Yeah, I mean, they just go to the website,
foodanfarm.org, and book theirtour. I mean, book the tours, or
look at the website. You know,all of the information is up on
our website,
Matt Kirchner (32:18):
awesome. And we'll be sure to link that up in
the show notes as well, soanybody who's interested can
find it there. You're doing suchamazing stuff. Really, really
cool. Any other things that youwant to highlight, Dick or Andy
for that matter, about what theFood and Farm exploration center
is doing to get the communityengaged with with modern
agriculture. We've talked aboutstudents, we've talked about
policy makers and andlegislators that you know? Any
other things that our audienceshould be aware of,
Andy Diercks (32:39):
respective employees, right? We talked
about a kid or a family comingup from Chicago, right? They're
not thinking about growing upand I'm going to be a farmer, or
I'm going to work in agriculturethat's just not on their radar.
And so to come here and tounderstand the technology that
now exists in our industry, andhow many people we need to make
it work and continue to advanceit, that's a huge part of what's
going on here, teaching peoplethat we need help. We have a
(33:02):
really exciting career. You canstill get a suntan, right? It's
I love the diversity of my work.
I spent a lot of time in theoffice in the winter, but I'm
outside in the sun and doing allkinds of different things in the
summer. It's very rewarding.
It's fun to watch a crop grow.
It, frankly, is right? And justnot a lot people get to
appreciate that, right? So manyless families have gardens than
had gardens 20 years ago, right?
There's more and more peoplemoved to the city. You got less
(33:24):
and less of that. And so justbeing able to come out here and
watch stuff grow is is a newexperience for a lot of people.
Matt Kirchner (33:30):
There's something to be said for you know, first
of all, having a job, having arole, where you've got
tremendous amounts of variety,and also that that time outside
communing with nature, super,super important, valuable.
That's important whether you're,you know, a 6070, 80 year old
individual, or whether you're a15 year old kid or younger. We
want to make sure that all thosefolks are understanding the
(33:51):
great opportunities that areavailable and in agriculture as
it continues to become more andmore modern. Speaking of that 15
year old kid that we justreferenced, I want to take both
of you back. We'll ask you boththis question, and maybe Andy,
we'll start with you, and thenI'll pose it to Dick. And that
is, this is a couple ofquestions we love asking every
guest on the TechEd podcast. Thefirst one is, let's think back
(34:11):
to maybe when you were 15 yearsold and you were in the world of
education. You're going throughyour own education pathway, and
then you get into deeper intoyour career, and some of those
paradigms about educationchange. So Andy, let's ask you
first, if, if there's somethingthat you believe about education
that might be novel or thatmight surprise some people, what
(34:31):
would that be
Andy Diercks (34:32):
that we need to engage more in it? We do so much
of it now, to go through and getthat piece of paper at the end,
whether that's a high schooldiploma or a tech school diploma
that we don't we're not reallythere to learn. We're there to
get the piece of paper. And Ireally enjoyed in college
studying history of science,where, where the people that we
talk about in science, inhistory, they were there to
learn and advance theirknowledge. They weren't there to
(34:54):
get a degree, to get a betterjob, to get more money. They
were learning and Dick. And Ihave to learn on this job every
single. Say, and I think that'ssomething that really lacks in
the generation. It's challengingto teach, obviously, but that's
one of the great things aboutthe center. You can come and and
be forced to learn a bit.
Matt Kirchner (35:09):
For sure, you're not going through your
educational journey just to beable to have a piece of paper or
some digital badge that says youdid it. It's like, okay, what
are you learning? What do youknow? There's huge, huge dignity
in learning new skills,understanding new concepts, and
so we really should be going toschool to learn, not just to
earn that whatever that piece ofpaper is that represents what it
is that we did while we werethere. Dick, same question to
(35:31):
you, is there something youbelieve about education that
would surprise some folks?
Dick Pavelski (35:34):
Well, I mean, from my perspective, it's going
through school and getting thatdegree was one thing, but if
you're going to be involved inagriculture, you really have to
be a lifetime learner, becauseeverything changes. We're
learning something new everyday. We've got new varieties,
new equipment, new technology toadapt to. So you have to be open
(35:56):
to that constant flow of newinformation and learning
something new every day.
Matt Kirchner (36:02):
Absolutely that lifelong learning is so very
important. We talk about itfrequently here on the TechEd
podcast. We are done with theage where, you know, as Andy
said, you go to school and getyour degree, and then you know,
whether you were there to learn,or either you were there because
you wanted that piece of paper.
You know, 510, 15 years later,sometimes even quicker than five
years, what you learned whileyou were in school is already
obsolete, especially with therate at which technology is
(36:23):
advancing. So we have no choiceif we want to exist in this
economy and we want to have anymodicum of success, but to be a
lifelong learner and to becontinually adding to our
knowledge as technology andprocess and the world changes
around us, speaking of the worldchanging around us? Dick, and
I'll ask you this question, andthen, Andy, I know the world has
certainly changed around me inmy lifetime, and I'm sure it's
(36:45):
changed around you as well. Infact, we talked early on in this
episode about some of theoriginal concepts of agriculture
and how those have evolved sinceyou got into it. Let's go back
in time to those early days. Iwant to take you all the way
back to where you're when youwere 15 years old, and what kind
of stay on that concept. Soyou're a 15 year old young man,
you're growing up, I assume incentral Wisconsin. If you had
(37:07):
the opportunity to go back andgive that 15 year old young man
any piece of advice, what wouldthat
Dick Pavelski (37:14):
be? I think it would be to tell myself that
I'll be very fortunate in lifeand have the opportunity to
learn and work with a lot ofvery great people. And you know,
don't waste that opportunity. Bea lifetime learner.
Matt Kirchner (37:28):
Awesome. Be a lifetime learner from 15 on, and
you touched on just being ableto be around really, really
interesting people that I'm surehave shaped your career, shaped
your knowledge. Really importantadvice for a 15 year old is to
take advantage of thoseopportunities and those
interactions with others.
Speaking of interactions withothers, Andy, I've really
enjoyed interacting with you onthis episode of The TechEd
podcast. Would love to hear yourinsights on the same question.
(37:51):
Take us back to that 15 year oldAndy Dirksen, what would you
tell him if you could tell himanything?
Andy Diercks (37:57):
Well, just like with dating, get out on the
dance floor. Take chances. Don'tbe afraid to fail. Find out.
Don't be afraid to askquestions, like constantly
warning and yeah, just get afterit. Hey,
Matt Kirchner (38:09):
put yourself out there. You'll never know what
you can accomplish unless youput everything into it. And and
as harrowing is getting out onthat dance floor for the first
time can be getting out in frontof any new experience. Really,
important. We're really, reallyexcited that we had some time to
spend on the dance floor herewith Dick Pavelski and Andy
Dirks, talking about the greatthings happening at the Food and
Farm exploration center, talkingabout the amazing things that
(38:33):
are happening in precisionagriculture, how quickly it's
changing. Absolutely fascinatingtopic for me. Dick Andy, to both
of you. Thanks so much for beingwith us. Thank you. Thank you.
Appreciate it very much, andthanks so much to our audience
for joining us. I know that ouraudience learned as much as I
did, and hung on every word. Igained such an understanding of
the things that are happening inprecision, AG, and such an
(38:54):
appreciation for what happens onthe farms across the United
States of America and how thatenvironment is changing. I want
to make sure we thank again.
Dick Pavelski, the founder ofthe Food and Farm exploration
center, Andy Dirks, the VicePresident of Coloma farms, who
also serves on the board of theFood and Farm exploration center
for being with us, we will putthe show notes up for this
episode of the podcast. We'llput those at TechEd
(39:17):
podcast.com/pavelski that'sTechEd podcast.com/p, A, V, E,
L, S, K, I, when you're donechecking out those show notes,
and we will link up all thethings that we talked about
here, including how you can findout for your students, for
yourself, how you can visit theFood and Farm exploration
center. We'll have some otherresources there for you as well.
(39:38):
We, as always, have the bestshow notes in the business. Then
head on over to social media.
You'll find us on Facebook,Instagram, LinkedIn, Tiktok,
wherever you go, you will findthe TechEd podcast. When you're
there, say hello. We would loveto hear from you. Can't wait to
see you next week on the TechEdpodcast. Until then, I'm Matt
kertner, thanks for being withus. You.
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