WEBVTT - On the Horizon: Farm Tech - Innovation and Pulling the Trigger with Tim Rethus 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.380 Take that challenge. Nut it out. Really a bit of persistence, 0:00:12.380 --> 0:00:14.420 a bit of support from someone else to get some 0:00:14.420 --> 0:00:17.270 ideas on how to fix that. Discs in wet conditions. 0:00:17.270 --> 0:00:20.150 What are other people doing to get through those wet conditions? 0:00:20.150 --> 0:00:23.000 How do they do that? Can I keep climbing that 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:25.279 ladder rather than starting back from scratch? Because as we 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.610 climb that ladder, we're getting our yields are improving. We're 0:00:28.610 --> 0:00:32.550 getting way better soil health. It's better for our bottom line. 0:00:32.550 --> 0:00:34.350 We're getting way more sustainable farms. 0:00:35.490 --> 0:00:39.420 Hello and welcome back to Shared Ag Solutions by BCG. I'm 0:00:39.420 --> 0:00:42.420 Janine Batters. And today we're going to be speaking with 0:00:42.420 --> 0:00:46.110 Tim Rethus for our first episode of our new series 0:00:46.110 --> 0:00:49.230 On the Horizon Farm Tech. And we thought we'd start 0:00:49.229 --> 0:00:52.320 this one just by discussing with Tim some of the 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.270 things that he does on his farm, whether he actually 0:00:55.270 --> 0:00:58.570 adopts a new technology and whether he keeps it too. 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:01.900 So Tim has got a lot of new tech on 0:01:01.900 --> 0:01:04.540 his farm, and I'm just so excited. Tim, thanks so 0:01:04.540 --> 0:01:05.620 much for being here today. 0:01:05.650 --> 0:01:08.410 Thanks, Jeanine. I always love new tech and it's great 0:01:08.410 --> 0:01:10.209 that you're doing the podcast. It's gonna be really interesting, 0:01:10.209 --> 0:01:10.690 I think. 0:01:10.690 --> 0:01:13.300 I'm so excited. I'm excited to have Tim, because I 0:01:13.300 --> 0:01:15.550 do ring you a little bit about things, and he's 0:01:15.550 --> 0:01:17.380 always sort of my one of my go to people 0:01:17.380 --> 0:01:19.770 to to find out if I'm not understanding something or 0:01:19.770 --> 0:01:21.510 if I want something new. So I really wanted to 0:01:21.510 --> 0:01:25.860 share your knowledge with our listeners. So just really quickly, Tim, 0:01:25.860 --> 0:01:27.899 I think a lot of people would know you from 0:01:27.900 --> 0:01:29.910 social media, but if they don't, can you just give 0:01:29.910 --> 0:01:32.040 a quick background on yourself and your farm? 0:01:32.069 --> 0:01:34.710 Our main farm is at Horsham, so we're in the Wimmera, 0:01:34.709 --> 0:01:37.890 which is a rain fed farming system. About 300 mms 0:01:37.890 --> 0:01:39.660 of rain falls over winter, which is when we grow 0:01:39.660 --> 0:01:42.010 our crops, but there's only about 100 over summer. It's 0:01:42.010 --> 0:01:44.200 quite variable, so it's too hot and dry to grow 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:46.660 crops over summer. So we do a really big range 0:01:46.660 --> 0:01:48.700 of crops because our soil types are quite good. It's 0:01:48.700 --> 0:01:51.160 considered probably some of the better cropping soils in Australia 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:55.090 so we can grow canola, wheat, barley, lentils, field peas, chickpeas, 0:01:55.090 --> 0:01:58.000 faba beans, oaten hay vetch pretty much anything that you 0:01:58.000 --> 0:01:59.800 can grow over winter. We can grow really well, but 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:01.150 yeah, not irrigated . 0:02:01.150 --> 0:02:01.930 How long have you been farming? 0:02:02.170 --> 0:02:05.410 My grandpa's been there since just after the war. So 40s. 0:02:05.410 --> 0:02:08.210 And so that's what, 77 years or something so far. 0:02:08.300 --> 0:02:09.530 Third generation at the moment. 0:02:09.530 --> 0:02:11.540 And have you always been a farmer, Tim? 0:02:11.570 --> 0:02:15.680 No, I haven't. Dad was quite insistent that we follow our 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:18.020 own paths. And so all us kids went to uni, 0:02:18.169 --> 0:02:20.419 four kids. We went to uni and did different things. 0:02:20.510 --> 0:02:24.230 One's an accountant, one's a microbiologist, one did telecommunications engineering 0:02:24.230 --> 0:02:26.270 and I did chemical engineering. And I worked at Shell 0:02:26.270 --> 0:02:29.299 Oil Company for 11 years before coming back to the farm. 0:02:29.330 --> 0:02:32.540 There you go. So we'll jump in. Maybe we should 0:02:32.540 --> 0:02:34.640 talk about just just some of the farm tech that 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:35.630 you've got on your farm. 0:02:35.630 --> 0:02:37.760 I think it goes through different phases. And so I 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:39.320 think one of the things to know first up is 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.290 that my brother and I are both engineers. He's telecommunications. 0:02:42.290 --> 0:02:43.640 And he came back to the farm a year after 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.550 I did. I'm a chemical engineer and engineering, the key thing 0:02:46.550 --> 0:02:48.530 that they do is they just solve problems. And so 0:02:48.530 --> 0:02:50.300 when we came to AG back to the farm, it 0:02:50.300 --> 0:02:52.490 was like, okay, it's just solving problems. The same thing 0:02:52.490 --> 0:02:54.769 that we do at work, at our old jobs. So 0:02:54.770 --> 0:02:57.380 we're really keen to try new things. We're in that phase. 0:02:57.380 --> 0:02:59.840 We figure that anything that they can throw at us 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:01.460 with this new tech, we probably have a pretty good 0:03:01.460 --> 0:03:02.900 chance of trying to get a good handle on it. 0:03:02.900 --> 0:03:04.430 So we're pretty excited to try a lot of these 0:03:04.430 --> 0:03:06.890 new things and provide good feedback. So we do have 0:03:06.889 --> 0:03:10.700 probably a high preponderance of new initiatives going on. Not 0:03:10.700 --> 0:03:13.190 all of them are successful, but it's always good fun. 0:03:13.190 --> 0:03:16.250 If we go to spraying, we have we've had PWM spraying. 0:03:16.250 --> 0:03:19.190 Dad's been quite an innovator. Pulse width modulation and turn 0:03:19.190 --> 0:03:21.500 compensation we've had on our sprayer for quite some time. 0:03:21.500 --> 0:03:25.040 We've incorporated camera spraying with AI. So green on green 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.250 and green on brown spraying. We do variable applications with 0:03:28.250 --> 0:03:30.290 the sprayer, which a lot of people can do. Now 0:03:30.290 --> 0:03:31.970 we've got a big network of weather stations on our 0:03:31.970 --> 0:03:34.070 farm that we measure soil moisture with, which we then 0:03:34.070 --> 0:03:37.100 use to actually do yield predictions and then help that 0:03:37.100 --> 0:03:40.970 inform nitrogen applications. We do a lot of imagery. We've 0:03:40.970 --> 0:03:43.680 got satellite images coming in. We've been doing yield maps 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:46.410 since the 90s. Not all of these things are used 0:03:46.410 --> 0:03:48.360 that well, but we do collect them. We figure they're 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:50.700 very important. We're doing a lot of grid sampling and 0:03:50.700 --> 0:03:52.740 trying to use that to inform our management zones. And 0:03:52.740 --> 0:03:55.320 so we're still building in that area. Played around with Taranis Ag, 0:03:55.530 --> 0:03:57.750 which was a really interesting tool where they used drones 0:03:57.750 --> 0:04:01.710 to do submillimeter resolution imagery across your field and then 0:04:01.710 --> 0:04:05.430 count insects and count disease spots and plant numbers. That's cool. 0:04:05.430 --> 0:04:08.880 That is pretty cool. Unfortunately, it's expensive, so don't do 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:10.920 that anymore. But it would be cool to do it again. Yeah. 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:13.200 Control traffic on our farm. So that's an important thing. 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:15.630 And we have inter-row sowing. And we do a lot 0:04:15.630 --> 0:04:18.150 of things with tracks to reduce our compaction and use 0:04:18.150 --> 0:04:22.440 VF tires. We do control traffic haymaking, which has taken 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:23.849 a long time to get to where it is now, 0:04:23.850 --> 0:04:26.279 but we're sort of pretty comfortable with how our control 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:26.969 traffic works. 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:27.930 How do you do that? 0:04:28.500 --> 0:04:30.870 How do you do that? Well, it's just it's a 0:04:30.870 --> 0:04:32.740 slow Every time we buy a new piece of gear 0:04:32.740 --> 0:04:34.690 for our hay gear stuff, we work towards it. But we've 0:04:34.690 --> 0:04:36.820 managed to get a system where we cut three. We 0:04:36.820 --> 0:04:38.859 use three mowers to cut on one tractor. So our 0:04:38.860 --> 0:04:41.600 front mower and two back mowers, we can cut 40ft 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.140 or 12m, and then we can use our rake and 0:04:44.140 --> 0:04:46.029 our tedder to spread the crop. And then we can 0:04:46.029 --> 0:04:48.490 rake it back into one 40 foot windrow 12 meter windrow. 0:04:48.490 --> 0:04:50.110 And then we can bale it. And then we have 0:04:50.110 --> 0:04:52.690 a stacker that we can use to pick up off 0:04:52.690 --> 0:04:55.659 tramlines and take the bales. These are big squares back 0:04:55.660 --> 0:04:57.550 to the end and then truck them out for export. 0:04:57.550 --> 0:04:58.359 So yeah, that. 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.300 Is pretty cool. That's pretty cool. Yeah. What are VF tyres? 0:05:01.300 --> 0:05:04.150 Very flexion tyres. It just means they bulge a lot, 0:05:04.150 --> 0:05:05.560 and it means they can carry more weight. So they 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.529 can carry about 40% more weight for the same tyre 0:05:08.529 --> 0:05:11.830 pressure as conventional tyres. So what that means is you 0:05:11.830 --> 0:05:14.979 can run lower tyre pressures with the tyre. So if 0:05:14.980 --> 0:05:17.349 you run a like on our sprayer, we run a 0:05:17.350 --> 0:05:20.680 480 wide tire, 480 mm wide tyre. You can drop 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.589 the pressure down to under a bar in it, which 0:05:23.589 --> 0:05:25.900 is really good because that spreads. Instead of spreading the 0:05:25.900 --> 0:05:28.690 tyre out wide with duals, you spread it out long 0:05:28.690 --> 0:05:31.330 by bulging and making the footprint longer. So it's like 0:05:31.330 --> 0:05:33.790 a track, but it's a tyre kind of thing. So yeah, 0:05:33.790 --> 0:05:35.560 it's just a way of trying to manage our tramlines, 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:38.920 because when you do CTF, you create these tramlines to 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:41.770 run on every year, repeating them every year. But because 0:05:41.770 --> 0:05:42.910 you're driving on them a lot, you've got to do 0:05:42.910 --> 0:05:45.479 road maintenance. If you can use tyres, like with the 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:48.030 trucks on the road, you know, more axles, spreads the load, 0:05:48.029 --> 0:05:50.580 protects the roads better. Same with the farm. You know 0:05:50.580 --> 0:05:52.859 you're using tracks or you're using VF tyres to try 0:05:52.860 --> 0:05:55.260 and spread the load and protect those tracks for longer. 0:05:55.260 --> 0:05:57.120 So you have to do less maintenance on them. 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:59.970 Yeah, there's been a lot of wheel track renovating going on. 0:05:59.970 --> 0:06:02.550 These wet conditions have been terrible for it. Yeah, really 0:06:02.550 --> 0:06:04.710 really painful. We've got a disc seeder. We've got a 0:06:04.710 --> 0:06:06.030 disc seeders a bit novel. We used to have a 0:06:06.029 --> 0:06:08.390 single disc and we went. We tried a precision planter, 0:06:08.390 --> 0:06:10.370 like a corn planter, which was kind of cool, but 0:06:10.370 --> 0:06:13.400 it can't. So, uh, crops like oats. So we had 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:15.620 to have two machines that seemed a bit excessive. So 0:06:15.620 --> 0:06:17.420 we invested in one big one, and we sort of 0:06:17.420 --> 0:06:20.420 got an 80 foot. So a 24 metre, um, twin 0:06:20.420 --> 0:06:23.599 disc seeder. So two discs together, um, it's got individual 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.870 downforce control and it can do inter-row sowing with its 0:06:26.870 --> 0:06:29.779 own GPS on the machine to guide between the rows. 0:06:29.779 --> 0:06:31.910 We have a liquid system on that to do our 0:06:31.910 --> 0:06:34.230 secret herbs and spices we were talking about earlier for 0:06:34.230 --> 0:06:36.960 our fertilizer. Yeah. And then also with harvesting, you know, 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:38.700 we play around with harvesting and a lot of harvesters 0:06:38.700 --> 0:06:41.250 have GPS control on them now. And they've got management 0:06:41.250 --> 0:06:43.710 of the engine and engine load. So to get more 0:06:43.710 --> 0:06:46.980 efficiency out of the machine. And also they've got cameras 0:06:46.980 --> 0:06:49.860 inside to look at the grain quality and then self-adjust 0:06:49.860 --> 0:06:51.870 the harvester on the go. So the cool thing with 0:06:51.870 --> 0:06:54.150 the new harvesters is they're becoming more and more automated. 0:06:54.150 --> 0:06:57.420 So they're incrementally creeping towards automation. You still have to 0:06:57.420 --> 0:06:59.130 have a supervisor. I like to think of it as 0:06:59.130 --> 0:07:01.710 a as the person on the pool guy that sits 0:07:01.710 --> 0:07:03.930 in the chair watching the people swimming in the pool. 0:07:03.930 --> 0:07:05.640 That's kind of where the farm is getting to. The 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:07.800 machine should do everything, but if something really bad happens, 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:09.720 you're there to jump in and save the day or 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:11.610 help set it up or tell people the rules. So 0:07:11.610 --> 0:07:14.160 you need to be there to have that influence on, oh, 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.020 there's a pile of dirt there that the machine didn't 0:07:16.020 --> 0:07:18.030 anticipate being there, and now it's having a problem, or 0:07:18.030 --> 0:07:19.950 it threw a belt or something like that. So maintenance 0:07:19.950 --> 0:07:20.640 problem so. 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:21.970 So farmers can feel like the hero. 0:07:21.970 --> 0:07:23.410 We can feel like a hero. But at the same 0:07:23.410 --> 0:07:25.090 time we can spend way more time on Twitter and 0:07:25.090 --> 0:07:26.020 things like that. 0:07:27.250 --> 0:07:27.910 The important things. 0:07:27.910 --> 0:07:28.660 Yeah, yeah. 0:07:28.660 --> 0:07:30.790 That sounds really cool. What else? You've got a few 0:07:30.790 --> 0:07:31.150 more things. 0:07:31.150 --> 0:07:33.310 Uh, yeah. With the machine. We've also been playing around 0:07:33.310 --> 0:07:35.680 with protein meters, so probably I know you're going to 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:37.360 do a session with John Dyer in the future, which 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.280 will be great. He's way more experienced at it than me. 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:42.310 But but yeah, using protein meters to actually A, work towards 0:07:42.310 --> 0:07:45.070 profitability maps. So that's what we really care about as farmers. 0:07:45.070 --> 0:07:46.960 How much money are we making per hectare, and is 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:48.610 this the best way to make money that out of 0:07:48.610 --> 0:07:50.860 that hectare, are we spending too much or too little 0:07:50.860 --> 0:07:53.679 and also using it to inform our nitrogen decisions the 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.680 following year? So in our system I found it's tricky. 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:58.870 So in some systems like say Western Australia where they're 0:07:58.870 --> 0:08:01.690 very high preponderance of canola and wheat, both of those 0:08:01.690 --> 0:08:04.660 are nitrogen consumers. So you can use the previous year's 0:08:04.660 --> 0:08:07.360 map to inform the next year because it's probably a 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.000 similar nitrogen consumer. But with ours, we'll flip to a 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:13.090 legume or something, and then the legume fixes its own nitrogen, 0:08:13.090 --> 0:08:15.340 and that can also make it more challenging. So still 0:08:15.340 --> 0:08:17.620 working through stuff, but it's really great to have people 0:08:17.620 --> 0:08:20.440 like in Western Australia that are working quite strongly, or John, 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:22.300 who's got a big thing on that with his durum 0:08:22.300 --> 0:08:24.670 to actually get those insights and then try and apply 0:08:24.670 --> 0:08:25.690 them back to your farm. 0:08:25.690 --> 0:08:29.260 It's exciting, isn't it? Farmers sharing solutions. Everyone's trying different things. 0:08:29.260 --> 0:08:29.890 And yeah. 0:08:30.100 --> 0:08:32.199 There's always an expert in a field somewhere, and it's just 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.160 a matter of trying to work out how that would 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:35.540 work in your area and whether it would work, and 0:08:35.540 --> 0:08:37.460 whether it be useful in your farming system. 0:08:37.460 --> 0:08:39.170 I love it, I love it. I think we could 0:08:39.170 --> 0:08:41.480 have a podcast probably talking to you on each of 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:43.910 these things. I'm just thinking about that, that seeder of yours. 0:08:43.940 --> 0:08:46.880 I'm like, I've got so many questions, but I better not. 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:50.900 We might get stuck, we might save it. So what 0:08:50.900 --> 0:08:54.260 we wanted to focus on for this podcast was so 0:08:54.260 --> 0:08:56.570 in leading into some of the new technologies that we're 0:08:56.570 --> 0:08:58.890 going to be talking about, how do you know whether 0:08:58.890 --> 0:09:00.660 you're going to take on a new technology Tim? What 0:09:00.660 --> 0:09:01.260 do you do? 0:09:01.260 --> 0:09:03.090 I always look at it as we're always on the 0:09:03.090 --> 0:09:05.189 look for new things, and it doesn't have to be 0:09:05.190 --> 0:09:08.489 some fancy high tech digital solution. It just needs to 0:09:08.490 --> 0:09:10.469 be something that's solving a problem I've got on the farm. 0:09:10.470 --> 0:09:12.689 And so when you're out there in the Harvester and 0:09:12.690 --> 0:09:14.940 you've got more time because it's automated, you're looking at 0:09:14.940 --> 0:09:17.309 it and going, why is that area doing that? What 0:09:17.309 --> 0:09:19.110 can I do to fix that? And you might have 0:09:19.110 --> 0:09:20.790 a great idea, oh, I wish I had a protein 0:09:20.790 --> 0:09:23.069 meter because then I could actually get quality data, and 0:09:23.070 --> 0:09:25.290 then I could actually make a decision of whether I'm 0:09:25.290 --> 0:09:28.170 overspending or not, and to have that tool there. But 0:09:28.170 --> 0:09:29.850 then at the same point, what was available at the 0:09:29.850 --> 0:09:31.740 time was like, oh, it's not really what I wanted. 0:09:31.740 --> 0:09:33.630 And for us, we're playing around with the John Deere 0:09:33.660 --> 0:09:36.540 Harvest Lab, which is essentially the second type of protein 0:09:36.540 --> 0:09:38.460 meter you can get. There's the crop Scan's been available 0:09:38.460 --> 0:09:40.290 for a long time, but we found the John Deere 0:09:40.290 --> 0:09:42.870 one integrates really well with our equipment. And all the 0:09:42.870 --> 0:09:45.390 layers come together. And they all play friends quite quickly 0:09:45.390 --> 0:09:47.080 and easily. And I can look at them on, on 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:49.000 the go as we're harvesting. So you look at it 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.130 and go, oh, there's my solution. And then I start 0:09:51.130 --> 0:09:53.410 working and chipping towards that goal, which is I want 0:09:53.410 --> 0:09:57.130 that full per hectare based profitability and performance. So I 0:09:57.130 --> 0:09:59.920 want to know is that hectare doing the best water 0:09:59.920 --> 0:10:03.040 use efficiency? Is it actually hitting its yield potential for 0:10:03.130 --> 0:10:05.440 whatever reason? Is it got a problem with soil constraints 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:07.720 that I can track down. So that's where I'm getting to. 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.000 But I'm not there yet. But we're just slowly chipping 0:10:10.010 --> 0:10:11.780 away at these things and you know where you want 0:10:11.780 --> 0:10:14.090 to go. And so you then use these things to 0:10:14.090 --> 0:10:16.699 try and work towards it. And sometimes it's not a 0:10:16.700 --> 0:10:18.740 silver bullet, you know, it's rarely that you're going to 0:10:18.740 --> 0:10:21.620 buy a new piece of equipment that's going to solve 0:10:21.620 --> 0:10:23.479 your problem in one hit. It's usually it's like going 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:25.580 to get you maybe 70 or 80% of the way there. 0:10:25.580 --> 0:10:29.300 And then the other 20% is your innovation. Or maybe 0:10:29.300 --> 0:10:31.310 it's get something better next time. 0:10:31.580 --> 0:10:34.550 So what I'm hearing is that for each hectare that 0:10:34.550 --> 0:10:38.920 you have, you also you have a strategy. So do 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:41.319 you have a strategy or do you have some principles 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.410 for your farm that you use to help you make those decisions? 0:10:44.410 --> 0:10:46.360 I think that's the key thing, isn't it? It's about 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:48.490 having some visions on where you want your farm in 0:10:48.490 --> 0:10:50.230 the future and how you want it to look, and 0:10:50.230 --> 0:10:52.030 every farm is going to be slightly different, but I'll 0:10:52.030 --> 0:10:55.600 go through my top five, maximize profitability per hectare. So 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:57.550 we get all these maps that are based on whole fields. 0:10:57.550 --> 0:11:00.260 But I want to go down smaller. We've got bigger fields. 0:11:00.260 --> 0:11:02.449 We've pulled fences out to make things more efficient with 0:11:02.450 --> 0:11:04.220 our big gear, but we have to use what we 0:11:04.220 --> 0:11:06.110 used to use in corporate world, you know, think local, 0:11:06.110 --> 0:11:08.870 act global. We're acting global. We've got big paddocks, but 0:11:08.870 --> 0:11:10.550 we've got to go back to what the old timers did, 0:11:10.550 --> 0:11:12.800 which is look at each paddock on its merits. And 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.349 they put fences down, fencing out soil types and stuff 0:11:15.350 --> 0:11:16.910 like that. We've got to get that back into our 0:11:16.910 --> 0:11:19.580 system using variable rate applications and stuff like that. So 0:11:19.580 --> 0:11:21.410 I want to make sure each piece of land I've got, 0:11:21.410 --> 0:11:24.319 because it's getting so expensive now, is performing at its best. 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:26.990 So that's number one. Then the other one is if 0:11:26.990 --> 0:11:30.140 I have healthy soils, I'll get healthy crops. So if 0:11:30.140 --> 0:11:32.180 I can get my soil health right. So that means 0:11:32.179 --> 0:11:36.200 thinking about stubble retention, conserving moisture, trying to trap as 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:39.050 much of that limited moisture we get in the soil 0:11:39.050 --> 0:11:40.819 is going to give me the most yield. So water 0:11:40.820 --> 0:11:44.420 equals yield. Very important timeliness. This is also part of 0:11:44.420 --> 0:11:47.510 soil health as well. The best farmers as we're told. 0:11:47.510 --> 0:11:50.719 Kate Burke will tell you this endlessly. Get things done 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:53.420 on time. One of the great things with good soil health, 0:11:53.420 --> 0:11:56.060 good healthy plants, because the soil is healthy is they 0:11:56.059 --> 0:11:58.010 give you that little bit wider window. So they're a 0:11:58.010 --> 0:12:00.140 little bit they take a little bit less time to 0:12:00.140 --> 0:12:02.179 get infected with the disease. And that means you've got 0:12:02.179 --> 0:12:04.850 more time to get in on time to treat them 0:12:04.850 --> 0:12:07.219 and manage with it. So getting things done on time 0:12:07.220 --> 0:12:09.860 and that might mean bigger gear, it might just mean 0:12:09.860 --> 0:12:12.010 better monitoring. So you know when to get out there 0:12:12.010 --> 0:12:14.319 or not. The other one we have is is weeds. 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:16.720 We're in a no till system. So weeds can be 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:19.540 a problem. We don't burn very often. We don't cultivate 0:12:19.540 --> 0:12:21.040 very often. And so we end up with a lot 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:23.350 of weed banks, and we're reliant on our herbicides to 0:12:23.350 --> 0:12:25.600 do most of the work. We don't have any stock. 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:26.830 So if you're going to be dealing with that, we've 0:12:26.830 --> 0:12:28.270 got to look for opportunities to get rid of those 0:12:28.270 --> 0:12:30.340 weeds at every time to run them down. So that'll 0:12:30.370 --> 0:12:33.220 be things like spray topping might be windrowing , spraying 0:12:33.220 --> 0:12:37.140 under windrow Carter bars, diverse rotations in your herbicides, things 0:12:37.140 --> 0:12:39.600 like that. A lot of farmers are doing that anyway. 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:41.729 And then the other thing is looking for efficiencies. So 0:12:41.730 --> 0:12:44.460 labor's getting hard. So we're always looking for how we 0:12:44.460 --> 0:12:46.920 can do more with less workers just because it's really 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:49.050 hard to get good ones and also too, inputs. So 0:12:49.050 --> 0:12:51.990 we want to reduce our inputs. Can we use less fertilizer. 0:12:51.990 --> 0:12:53.280 Or maybe we need to use more to get the 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.099 better result in another area. Can I use less herbicides 0:12:56.100 --> 0:12:59.280 but not being just setting targets to reduce those, it's 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:01.229 about can I be more efficient with them because that's 0:13:01.230 --> 0:13:03.329 going to save me money anyway. So it's in my 0:13:03.330 --> 0:13:06.750 best interest. So it's about that long term sustainability. But 0:13:06.750 --> 0:13:09.120 yeah keeping that money per hectare is the key number 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:09.689 for me. 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.060 Do you find, though, that your principles change depending on 0:13:12.059 --> 0:13:14.340 what the technology is that you want. Ah. 0:13:14.730 --> 0:13:17.280 Can can I mean the thing is that sometimes you're 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:19.770 just doing stuff because you're really excited about it. I mean, 0:13:19.770 --> 0:13:22.500 the classic is drones, right? We don't use drones much 0:13:22.500 --> 0:13:25.210 other than maybe taking some harvest footage for a video 0:13:25.210 --> 0:13:27.190 for for looking at it later on. But, you know, 0:13:27.190 --> 0:13:29.230 other people are mad keen on them. And that's because 0:13:29.230 --> 0:13:31.480 when somebody has a real passion for it, they will 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.480 find a way to justify it. That's the classic I 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.569 can think of is the self-propelled sprayer versus the tow 0:13:37.570 --> 0:13:41.140 behind sprayer debate. Some farmers will argue that a self-propelled 0:13:41.140 --> 0:13:44.560 sprayer is completely unnecessary, and a tow behind sprayer is 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:46.780 by far the best because that's what they've got. And 0:13:46.780 --> 0:13:48.849 then another farmer will be like trying to justify a 0:13:48.850 --> 0:13:51.220 self-propelled sprayer. And you can tell by the time that 0:13:51.220 --> 0:13:53.140 they're trying to justify it that they really just want one. 0:13:53.140 --> 0:13:55.059 And they'll they'll make a justification for it to happen 0:13:55.059 --> 0:13:57.220 when they get it, they'll be really happy with the result. 0:13:57.220 --> 0:14:00.910 But often the numbers get massaged to suit what you 0:14:00.910 --> 0:14:02.439 think is right. So the key thing is to stick 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.260 to your principles and make sure you're not just going, wow, 0:14:05.260 --> 0:14:06.970 I just love a gold Mercedes. And you go, well, 0:14:06.970 --> 0:14:09.640 how does that fit with your with your principles? You know, 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:11.440 it doesn't really. It's just because you want one. 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:13.730 And having them written down, I suppose. So that would 0:14:13.730 --> 0:14:15.680 probably help you stick to them. Do you think? Do 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:16.850 you have yours written down? 0:14:16.850 --> 0:14:19.160 Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've done a few presentations before, so 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:21.230 I kind of stuck with the same ones as I've 0:14:21.230 --> 0:14:23.510 gone through different presentations and found that they don't change 0:14:23.510 --> 0:14:26.210 very much. So yeah, I think you'll find they'll be 0:14:26.210 --> 0:14:28.610 pretty much the same all the time. Obviously it varies 0:14:28.610 --> 0:14:31.190 per condition, like if you're talking about a digital solution 0:14:31.190 --> 0:14:33.920 which is relatively cheap, versus like, I'm going to buy 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:35.990 a new seat or a new harvester, that's a completely 0:14:35.990 --> 0:14:37.530 different set of things. But yeah. 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.380 Okay. So that was one thing. So make sure that 0:14:40.380 --> 0:14:43.290 if you're adopting a new technology, you would say, do 0:14:43.290 --> 0:14:46.110 they align with your farming principles? But I also heard 0:14:46.110 --> 0:14:49.980 you talking about your perception of change and how your 0:14:49.980 --> 0:14:52.170 problem solving is really important. Yeah. 0:14:52.170 --> 0:14:55.380 That's right. So you're always looking for ways to make 0:14:55.380 --> 0:14:59.190 your life easier. Clearly. And normally farmers, if they're doing 0:14:59.190 --> 0:15:02.940 liquid blends they'll have hoses with cam locks, like, you know, 0:15:02.940 --> 0:15:06.780 self-releasing fittings everywhere and stuff goes everywhere. And you get 0:15:06.780 --> 0:15:09.360 all wet and it's cold because it's winter and they're 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.730 sticky and you got to wear gloves and it's horrible. 0:15:11.730 --> 0:15:14.160 So then, like, we've gone and spent all this money 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.970 putting in this nice clean with flow meter mixing facility 0:15:17.970 --> 0:15:21.390 that's all piped and plumbed and closed and it's like, well, yeah, 0:15:21.390 --> 0:15:22.800 it might have cost a few dollars to do it, 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.260 but my God, it made that job so much easier. 0:15:25.260 --> 0:15:26.670 Is that the batching machine you're talking about? 0:15:26.670 --> 0:15:29.130 This is our this is our liquid batching system. So 0:15:29.130 --> 0:15:32.010 when we do a liquid batching system for our sewing, 0:15:32.010 --> 0:15:33.570 and it's a terrible job that usually you have to 0:15:33.570 --> 0:15:35.250 do at 10:00 at night and it's cold and you 0:15:35.250 --> 0:15:36.870 don't want to be out there. And the seeder guy goes, 0:15:36.870 --> 0:15:38.190 I think you're going to be short. Can you go 0:15:38.190 --> 0:15:40.800 and get me some more? So making that job as 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:43.590 simple and painless as possible so that the guy that's 0:15:43.590 --> 0:15:46.380 doing that tender truck, the grouper, can actually go and 0:15:46.380 --> 0:15:47.820 do it and go, oh, all right, fine. Only take 0:15:47.820 --> 0:15:49.500 me 15 minutes. That's fine. But if you have to 0:15:49.500 --> 0:15:51.150 go out there for an hour and get wet at 0:15:51.150 --> 0:15:53.190 10:00 at night, you're not so excited about it. And 0:15:53.190 --> 0:15:55.650 it just makes you frustrated and gets you annoyed with 0:15:55.650 --> 0:15:57.660 the seeder guy because he didn't tell you that earlier 0:15:57.660 --> 0:15:59.100 when you could have done it before tea before you 0:15:59.100 --> 0:16:00.780 had a shower, you know, those sort of things. So 0:16:00.780 --> 0:16:03.270 those little things that just annoy you and tweak on 0:16:03.270 --> 0:16:04.950 you and that ends up with like, I know a 0:16:04.950 --> 0:16:07.170 bit of grading between people as well because it's like, ah, 0:16:07.170 --> 0:16:09.210 why didn't they plan ahead? Why it's not my problem 0:16:09.210 --> 0:16:11.250 and why am I dealing with this? So sometimes these 0:16:11.250 --> 0:16:14.260 little things can actually lead to bigger rewards that are 0:16:14.260 --> 0:16:17.050 really less tangible. You know, like you talk about green 0:16:17.050 --> 0:16:19.660 on green spraying or just green on brown spraying where 0:16:19.660 --> 0:16:21.850 you're spraying weeds in a fallow and you go, okay, 0:16:21.850 --> 0:16:23.140 so why are you doing that? Oh, you're going to 0:16:23.140 --> 0:16:25.480 save 90%. That's what the claim is, 90% of the 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.750 chemical consumption. And it's like, well, okay. But then you 0:16:28.750 --> 0:16:30.250 go and do it yourself and you find out it's 0:16:30.250 --> 0:16:33.010 not 90%, you might only be saving 70%, which is 0:16:33.010 --> 0:16:35.620 still fantastic, but you're not saving what they think. So 0:16:35.620 --> 0:16:39.100 I guess there's perception and the reality and then there's 0:16:39.100 --> 0:16:42.280 the intrinsic benefits out of that. So for instance, in 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:44.890 the camera spraying case, you're not filling up as often. 0:16:44.890 --> 0:16:46.990 Saves you heaps of time not filling up as often, 0:16:46.990 --> 0:16:49.090 even though you might only be spraying half as much 0:16:49.090 --> 0:16:51.430 and nowhere near what the manufacturer claimed you could do, 0:16:51.460 --> 0:16:53.590 it's still saving you a lot. And that gap of 0:16:53.590 --> 0:16:55.750 how much did the time save me can be very 0:16:55.750 --> 0:16:58.630 hard to quantify. And so you did your business case 0:16:58.630 --> 0:17:01.390 based on saving 90% of chemical. In practice. You didn't 0:17:01.390 --> 0:17:03.770 get there, but there were these other benefits, but they're 0:17:03.770 --> 0:17:05.960 much harder to measure. So sometimes it's not quite so 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.480 black and white piece of paper business case. 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:11.060 So that's probably where it's important to talk to people 0:17:11.060 --> 0:17:13.160 isn't it. And you talk be on social media and 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:15.710 talk to your agents and that sort of thing I think. 0:17:15.710 --> 0:17:17.450 So I think what I look at is, is pretty 0:17:17.450 --> 0:17:20.180 much if you think something's going to be viable, it 0:17:20.180 --> 0:17:22.370 probably will pay for itself and it might not be. 0:17:22.369 --> 0:17:25.130 It saves you $1 every year. It could be like 0:17:25.130 --> 0:17:29.359 a storage facility where you build it and you save $100. 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:33.350 You gain $100 a ton every 10th year. That would 0:17:33.350 --> 0:17:36.530 be better than saving $1 every year. So it may 0:17:36.530 --> 0:17:38.660 not make you money every year. But there's one great 0:17:38.690 --> 0:17:41.060 year where it really pays off. So camera spraying is 0:17:41.060 --> 0:17:43.940 a very good example. You get no summer, summer rains. 0:17:43.940 --> 0:17:46.429 You don't get any summer weeds. You didn't use it. 0:17:46.430 --> 0:17:48.949 So it's wasted. Right. But then the next year you 0:17:48.950 --> 0:17:51.840 used extensively used it 2 or 3 times on every field. 0:17:51.990 --> 0:17:54.750 Huge payoff. And so you got to average out of 0:17:54.750 --> 0:17:56.159 the long term. Make sure you get the benefit. And 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:58.080 don't try and get money every year. So when you're 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:00.090 doing your business case, it's not like, well, I'll save 0:18:00.090 --> 0:18:02.910 $32 on that one and I'll save $16 on that one. 0:18:02.910 --> 0:18:05.190 It's like, well, the hope is that 80% of the time, 0:18:05.340 --> 0:18:07.080 you know, I need three cases to pay it off, 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:09.990 or 80% of the time I'll get this, or what 0:18:09.990 --> 0:18:12.330 I like to do is you get the technology you 0:18:12.330 --> 0:18:14.970 think it should be break even, and then what can 0:18:14.970 --> 0:18:17.490 I do with it extra that will get me extra benefit. 0:18:17.490 --> 0:18:19.710 And that could be peace of mind. It could be 0:18:19.710 --> 0:18:22.380 de-stressed workers. It could be that you found a completely 0:18:22.380 --> 0:18:24.900 new use for it. So with the camera spraying, guys 0:18:24.900 --> 0:18:27.330 got clever and we're using it for fungicide spraying. When 0:18:27.330 --> 0:18:29.280 we had the beans dying out with the disease a 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:31.619 couple of years ago, you could go and spray fungicide 0:18:31.619 --> 0:18:35.129 on the remaining alive beans using the green on brown technology. 0:18:35.130 --> 0:18:37.949 No point spraying fungicide on a dead bean, but you 0:18:37.950 --> 0:18:39.780 could put the expensive stuff out on the stuff that 0:18:39.780 --> 0:18:41.459 was still living and keep it through to the finish. 0:18:41.460 --> 0:18:44.070 So you. And that was another application that is not 0:18:44.070 --> 0:18:46.560 marketed with that. But you could, like you say, go 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:48.570 through social media or find it from other people, some 0:18:48.570 --> 0:18:51.030 clever ways of getting extra value out of some of 0:18:51.030 --> 0:18:52.110 these technologies. 0:18:52.109 --> 0:18:55.859 That's interesting. So you have your approach so problem solving 0:18:55.859 --> 0:19:00.420 have your key principles. And also looking for those ways 0:19:00.420 --> 0:19:03.399 that it might what you could make it work better 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:04.270 for you. Like yeah. 0:19:04.450 --> 0:19:07.090 It's the cream on top right. So yeah you've got 0:19:07.090 --> 0:19:09.640 your normal your normal solution. And then what can I 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:11.500 add to it. Can I get a cherry on top 0:19:11.500 --> 0:19:14.679 with that somehow by getting an extra benefit that wasn't 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:15.910 actually in the plan? 0:19:15.910 --> 0:19:17.920 That's really smart. And I really like how you talked 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:21.610 about the stressed workers and the I can completely relate 0:19:21.609 --> 0:19:23.830 to the, you know, oh, oh, we ran out and 0:19:23.830 --> 0:19:25.780 I need more of this. And oh, it's at 10:00 0:19:25.780 --> 0:19:28.600 at night. And I really I think that would probably 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:32.350 work profitability wise in terms of you might be able 0:19:32.350 --> 0:19:34.030 to get staff. 0:19:34.060 --> 0:19:36.369 You can get staff, you have less mistakes. So you're 0:19:36.369 --> 0:19:39.070 not spending more time fixing things because somebody has, you know, 0:19:39.070 --> 0:19:40.990 been a bit annoyed and they've made a made an 0:19:40.990 --> 0:19:43.149 error dump some grain on the ground or something and 0:19:43.150 --> 0:19:44.770 then spent a while shoveling it up, you know, stuff 0:19:44.770 --> 0:19:46.629 like that. Like it's just wasted time. 0:19:46.630 --> 0:19:49.240 I got cold, they got a cold because they got cold. 0:19:49.330 --> 0:19:51.739 Yeah that's right, that's right, that's right. But then it 0:19:51.740 --> 0:19:54.409 makes it more pleasurable working. Working environment too. So if 0:19:54.410 --> 0:19:56.510 things are going well and also too like people will 0:19:56.510 --> 0:19:57.859 come up with some ideas, they'll be like, oh, I 0:19:57.859 --> 0:19:59.480 think we need to put a rubbish bin over next 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:00.980 to this because I have to keep walking all the 0:20:00.980 --> 0:20:02.780 way over there to put, oh yeah, that's a good idea. 0:20:02.810 --> 0:20:05.600 Little tiny thing like that could make somebody very happy 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:07.609 and save a lot of effort. And then all of 0:20:07.609 --> 0:20:10.070 a sudden everyone's on the same page, every one's thinking about 0:20:10.070 --> 0:20:12.230 how can I improve things? How can I change things? 0:20:12.230 --> 0:20:13.220 That's the approach, isn't it? 0:20:13.550 --> 0:20:15.859 That's the approach. You want that innovative thing going in there and 0:20:15.859 --> 0:20:19.010 you want people to always be thinking about, don't, don't 0:20:19.010 --> 0:20:20.570 say I hate this. It's like, what could I do 0:20:20.570 --> 0:20:23.060 to make it better if you ever saw this, hey, 0:20:23.060 --> 0:20:25.369 I found this when I was at the field days. Uh, 0:20:25.369 --> 0:20:27.800 you know, the Wimmera machinery field days. This thing was there. 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:29.270 We should. You should go and have a look at that. 0:20:29.270 --> 0:20:30.680 It was really cool. It'd be really good for this 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:33.080 job that we do, which would make our lives so 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:33.859 much easier. 0:20:33.859 --> 0:20:36.050 And I also think that would help with your team, too, 0:20:36.050 --> 0:20:37.489 because they all feel like they've got a little bit 0:20:37.490 --> 0:20:39.890 of ownership, they all feel like they're involved and it 0:20:39.890 --> 0:20:41.359 it's sort of a good team environment. 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:44.270 I think with our group generally our team have quite 0:20:44.270 --> 0:20:47.120 specific roles. So like I do a spraying and harvesting. 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:49.970 So I'm crop growing and harvesting and Luke does the 0:20:49.970 --> 0:20:53.120 marketing and a lot of the logistics. And then Glenn 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:55.490 used to be our hay dog. He just loved hay. 0:20:55.490 --> 0:20:58.040 So you know when it comes to doing anything with hay, 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:00.380 you'd make sure that Glenn was cool with it before 0:21:00.380 --> 0:21:02.060 you went and made any purchases, or if there was 0:21:02.060 --> 0:21:04.129 any suggestions of things we could change, he'd be the 0:21:04.130 --> 0:21:06.000 one looking for them because he's the guy talking to 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:08.160 other people that like hay. And he'd be like, oh, 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:09.720 these other guys are using this. Maybe we should get 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:11.220 one of those, you know, hey, that's a great idea, 0:21:11.220 --> 0:21:11.730 I love that. 0:21:11.730 --> 0:21:15.660 So problem solving team approach. Yeah. What else. Anything else 0:21:15.660 --> 0:21:18.240 that you would recommend to farmers when they're thinking. Because 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:20.940 I think sometimes it can be like, oh well it's 0:21:20.940 --> 0:21:23.280 all right for him, you know, or oh, we can't 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:27.000 afford that. Or so what would you say to some 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.190 of our listeners who are thinking, oh, but I just 0:21:29.190 --> 0:21:31.800 don't want to spend the money, Tim, or I'm not sure. 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:33.420 I'm not sure about this tech. I think it could 0:21:33.420 --> 0:21:33.960 be good. 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:36.149 I think you end up selling it to yourself. But 0:21:36.150 --> 0:21:37.889 I think the key thing is the support that's got 0:21:37.890 --> 0:21:40.500 to be there, too. The support could be the dealer, 0:21:40.500 --> 0:21:42.990 for instance. You know, with the protein meter, you've got 0:21:42.990 --> 0:21:45.330 very good support with them guys. When we were playing 0:21:45.330 --> 0:21:47.429 around with that and they were very attentive and listening 0:21:47.430 --> 0:21:50.550 and trying. You're also trying to provide good feedback because 0:21:50.550 --> 0:21:52.780 they're invested in what you're doing as well. Because we 0:21:52.780 --> 0:21:54.850 talked about this, it's like because it's a new product 0:21:54.850 --> 0:21:57.699 coming out, they're very keen for it to succeed. So 0:21:57.700 --> 0:22:00.130 if you come in with the right mentality of I'm 0:22:00.130 --> 0:22:03.280 trying to contribute to make this product success, then they 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:05.560 will also be on board with you too. So provide 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:08.260 good feedback. They will provide good support to help get 0:22:08.260 --> 0:22:10.480 that through. So when you're also looking at it from 0:22:10.630 --> 0:22:12.490 the tech point of view, it doesn't necessarily have to 0:22:12.490 --> 0:22:15.490 be the technician. That's the wizard. It could be just 0:22:15.490 --> 0:22:17.090 a farmer, you know, that does a really good job 0:22:17.090 --> 0:22:19.250 at it. So like someone like Broden Holland or John 0:22:19.250 --> 0:22:21.260 Dyer that are really good at protein maps are the 0:22:21.260 --> 0:22:23.419 ones that you'd be trying to form a relationship and 0:22:23.420 --> 0:22:26.090 communicating with and asking a few questions about. And then 0:22:26.090 --> 0:22:27.800 when you go to talk to the tech, he may 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:30.020 not be as up to date as those two guys even, 0:22:30.020 --> 0:22:31.910 but at least you can sort of speak the language 0:22:31.910 --> 0:22:33.979 and sort of ask some good questions about it as well. 0:22:34.010 --> 0:22:35.480 The other thing I find that's really interesting with this 0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:38.210 technology too, is, is trying to understand where it's coming 0:22:38.210 --> 0:22:40.190 from and how it's trying to work. So a lot 0:22:40.190 --> 0:22:42.290 of the times like if you a classic is if 0:22:42.290 --> 0:22:44.990 you're buying a new car, you tend to go and 0:22:44.990 --> 0:22:47.359 test drive the car and you want a car that 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:49.550 kind of feels like your old car but new. And 0:22:49.550 --> 0:22:51.770 it's like, well, that's not necessarily the best car. So 0:22:51.770 --> 0:22:53.629 if you're going to drive an EV, it's going to 0:22:53.630 --> 0:22:56.750 drive completely different to your Mazda. You can't compare apples 0:22:56.750 --> 0:22:59.300 with apples. You've got to understand how that car wants 0:22:59.300 --> 0:23:01.669 to behave, and then try and use it in the 0:23:01.670 --> 0:23:03.710 way it was intended to be used before you make 0:23:03.710 --> 0:23:06.109 a decision that, oh, this is absolutely rubbish. So when 0:23:06.109 --> 0:23:08.450 you get a new technology, it's like, okay, so how 0:23:08.450 --> 0:23:10.520 is the interface supposed to work? How am I trying 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:13.669 to use it? Am I just trying to push my 0:23:13.670 --> 0:23:16.940 opinion on it of what I've experienced before, onto it 0:23:16.940 --> 0:23:19.670 and not letting it shine? And now I'm getting frustrated 0:23:19.670 --> 0:23:21.230 because it's not working the way because I didn't think 0:23:21.230 --> 0:23:21.890 about how it was. 0:23:21.890 --> 0:23:24.619 So you said a very nice way of saying maybe 0:23:24.619 --> 0:23:26.270 it's sometimes the operator, sometimes it's you. 0:23:26.270 --> 0:23:29.180 Yeah, sometimes it's you. That's exactly right. So make sure 0:23:29.180 --> 0:23:30.320 you try and use it. Because if you can do 0:23:30.320 --> 0:23:32.150 that all of a sudden unlocks how it was working. 0:23:32.150 --> 0:23:33.439 So you've got to almost get your mind of how 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:35.180 the engineers intended it to go. 0:23:35.180 --> 0:23:36.230 Anything else? 0:23:36.230 --> 0:23:38.270 I think also, too, when you're looking at the technology, 0:23:38.270 --> 0:23:40.729 it's always an opportunity when you're purchasing something new. So 0:23:40.730 --> 0:23:42.860 if you're purchasing a new tractor, you're purchasing a new 0:23:42.859 --> 0:23:45.530 seat or a new harvester. Are there things I could 0:23:45.530 --> 0:23:47.750 potentially be throwing in here? If you buy a harvester 0:23:47.750 --> 0:23:50.720 and it cost you $1 million, adding an extra $5,000 0:23:50.720 --> 0:23:54.210 for some upgrade is insignificant to the whole scheme of things, 0:23:54.210 --> 0:23:56.699 but it could be worth way more than $5,000 to you. 0:23:56.700 --> 0:23:59.340 And this is the 1 in 7 year purchase that 0:23:59.340 --> 0:24:01.830 you do of a harvester. So is it where I 0:24:01.830 --> 0:24:03.990 need it to be in seven years? Is there anything 0:24:03.990 --> 0:24:06.000 I can do that's going to help? So when you 0:24:06.000 --> 0:24:07.830 look at these tools, it's always good to look at 0:24:07.830 --> 0:24:10.500 the options and what's available and just have a really 0:24:10.500 --> 0:24:12.119 good think about it before you make the decision. So 0:24:12.119 --> 0:24:14.700 you're making the decision based on fuel economy or horsepower 0:24:14.700 --> 0:24:17.219 or whatever. But what else is there that that machine 0:24:17.220 --> 0:24:20.130 could also deliver for you that might actually be beneficial 0:24:20.130 --> 0:24:22.590 down the track that you haven't actually had before. So 0:24:22.590 --> 0:24:27.240 almost like maybe try 5% extra, try 5% new, something 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:29.220 a bit different, just to try and tease it up. 0:24:29.220 --> 0:24:31.650 And maybe that'll make your thinking change as you start 0:24:31.650 --> 0:24:32.699 using that tool. 0:24:32.820 --> 0:24:35.040 But now when everything. Tim, how do I decide what 0:24:35.040 --> 0:24:36.990 what I should start focusing on first? 0:24:36.990 --> 0:24:37.890 Did you check your budget? 0:24:37.890 --> 0:24:38.220 Yeah. 0:24:39.210 --> 0:24:40.350 Well, that's the problem. 0:24:40.350 --> 0:24:40.980 How do I. 0:24:41.010 --> 0:24:41.430 How do I. 0:24:41.430 --> 0:24:43.930 Know I've got a certain amount of budget, but I've 0:24:43.930 --> 0:24:45.729 got five things that I want. 0:24:45.730 --> 0:24:46.990 I think you've got to look at your principles. Don't 0:24:46.990 --> 0:24:49.150 you got to go back to your principles. Which one 0:24:49.150 --> 0:24:51.490 is actually following my principles and which ones? Like following 0:24:51.490 --> 0:24:53.469 what the neighbors are doing, following what the guy on 0:24:53.470 --> 0:24:55.510 Twitter is doing, which ones actually, I think are going 0:24:55.510 --> 0:24:57.730 to deliver the biggest benefit for me and which is 0:24:57.730 --> 0:25:00.910 also the clearest benefit for me. So you've got green 0:25:00.910 --> 0:25:03.129 on green and I always get summer rain. I'm definitely 0:25:03.130 --> 0:25:05.200 going to get also green on brown. I'm always going 0:25:05.200 --> 0:25:07.100 to get spraying with green on brown. It's going to 0:25:07.100 --> 0:25:08.960 be a big benefit to me, and I always get 0:25:08.960 --> 0:25:11.899 contractors in, and I spend $60,000 getting contractors in. I 0:25:11.900 --> 0:25:14.000 could pay for the system by not buying contractors in, 0:25:14.000 --> 0:25:15.770 you know, that sort of thing. So you're doing that 0:25:15.770 --> 0:25:17.179 and you can clearly see that's going to be a 0:25:17.180 --> 0:25:18.560 big win. So clearly you're going to go for that 0:25:18.560 --> 0:25:20.600 one first. The one of I'm going to put an 0:25:20.600 --> 0:25:24.020 extra weather station in which might be cheaper, but it's 0:25:24.020 --> 0:25:25.880 not maybe going to be useful when there's another one 0:25:25.880 --> 0:25:28.160 a kilometer away. Maybe that would be the one you'd 0:25:28.160 --> 0:25:30.500 save on at the time. Like it just depends on 0:25:30.500 --> 0:25:32.430 where you're at. But I would always go back to 0:25:32.430 --> 0:25:33.840 see which one's going to give me the biggest bang 0:25:33.840 --> 0:25:36.870 for buck, or which is the most frustrating problem that 0:25:36.930 --> 0:25:38.550 it's going to help me solve. And usually that's going 0:25:38.550 --> 0:25:40.889 to be the same bang for buck sort of solution. 0:25:40.890 --> 0:25:43.889 That's a really good point. I think thinking about perhaps 0:25:43.890 --> 0:25:46.980 not what the neighbors doing, but perhaps it's good to 0:25:46.980 --> 0:25:48.179 know what the neighbor is doing. And you might you 0:25:48.180 --> 0:25:50.369 might do that. And it's great to get ideas. But 0:25:50.369 --> 0:25:53.370 thinking about how is this new technology going to work 0:25:53.369 --> 0:25:54.830 for me? How am I going to make it work 0:25:54.830 --> 0:25:55.850 for me on my farm? 0:25:55.850 --> 0:25:58.070 Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I think you always need to go 0:25:58.070 --> 0:26:00.229 back and saying, is this following the neighbors are going 0:26:00.230 --> 0:26:02.359 to have different rules to you and different principles that 0:26:02.359 --> 0:26:04.879 they're working towards. So you've always got to be conscious 0:26:04.880 --> 0:26:08.030 of am I following my the way I'd like my 0:26:08.030 --> 0:26:10.040 farm to be in 25 years time? 0:26:10.130 --> 0:26:14.060 Okay. So anything else in terms of what you would 0:26:14.060 --> 0:26:17.840 recommend to farmers that are thinking about applying new tech? 0:26:17.840 --> 0:26:19.699 Oh, I mean, the other thing too is there's obviously 0:26:19.700 --> 0:26:22.490 a lot of father son or father daughter farms. I mean, 0:26:22.490 --> 0:26:24.050 maybe this is an opportunity to give it to the 0:26:24.050 --> 0:26:26.689 younger guy and say, or the younger girl and say, look, 0:26:26.690 --> 0:26:28.580 we're going to get this thing out and we're going 0:26:28.580 --> 0:26:32.060 to get protein metre on our harvester. That's your job. 0:26:32.119 --> 0:26:34.940 You manage that? I'm just the tractor driver. Now, you 0:26:34.940 --> 0:26:36.950 I want you to lead on this. So maybe trying 0:26:36.950 --> 0:26:39.260 to usher in because there obviously will generally find that 0:26:39.260 --> 0:26:42.500 they're more, uh, savvy when it comes to technology. So 0:26:42.500 --> 0:26:44.609 maybe getting in some younger people involved in the farm 0:26:44.609 --> 0:26:46.980 and giving them a core responsibility like that to work 0:26:46.980 --> 0:26:49.409 with might be a good thing to give them some ownership. 0:26:49.410 --> 0:26:51.960 Okay, so we haven't got too much time left, Tim, 0:26:51.960 --> 0:26:54.540 but I've got a couple more questions. I was wondering 0:26:54.540 --> 0:26:57.420 whether you could quickly talk us through the technology that 0:26:57.420 --> 0:26:59.670 you think has been the best on your farm? 0:27:00.030 --> 0:27:01.020 Oh. 0:27:01.470 --> 0:27:02.580 The best. 0:27:02.760 --> 0:27:03.990 Or most profitable. 0:27:03.990 --> 0:27:06.480 I reckon. Probably one of our ones I've got the 0:27:06.480 --> 0:27:09.449 most enjoyment out of probably has been things like the 0:27:09.450 --> 0:27:13.020 grid soil testing coupled with our moisture probes. I think 0:27:13.020 --> 0:27:16.320 the moisture probes have been really insightful to show where 0:27:16.320 --> 0:27:18.240 the actual moisture is in the soil throughout the season, 0:27:18.240 --> 0:27:20.820 and then trying to actually do essentially a yield profit 0:27:20.820 --> 0:27:23.760 model every month and refining that and trying to get 0:27:23.760 --> 0:27:26.400 as close as possible to our end goal. So where 0:27:26.460 --> 0:27:27.960 my old job was at the refinery. We did a 0:27:27.960 --> 0:27:30.030 lot of spreadsheeting work. So it's really cool to look 0:27:30.030 --> 0:27:32.320 into that and then trying to get a I guess 0:27:32.320 --> 0:27:33.969 what I'm trying to say is we spend a lot 0:27:33.970 --> 0:27:38.020 of time guessing about how things are so variable rates are a fantastic example, 0:27:38.020 --> 0:27:40.300 variable rate. All the machines can do variable rate. Now 0:27:40.300 --> 0:27:42.280 the question is not can you do variable rate? It's 0:27:42.280 --> 0:27:43.780 what number do I put in there. 0:27:43.780 --> 0:27:45.280 How much do you want to put on. 0:27:45.280 --> 0:27:47.260 Yeah exactly. It's like what do I put in there. 0:27:47.260 --> 0:27:49.239 What number. And so it's all well and good for 0:27:49.240 --> 0:27:50.830 someone to give you a variable rate map. But the 0:27:50.830 --> 0:27:51.940 first thing they're going to say is how much do 0:27:51.940 --> 0:27:53.620 you want to apply. And you're like, well, that's the 0:27:53.650 --> 0:27:56.120 that's the hard part. The easy part is doing the map. 0:27:56.150 --> 0:27:58.670 So the question then is how can I get more 0:27:58.670 --> 0:28:00.800 of those guesses to be more accurate? And so things 0:28:00.800 --> 0:28:03.230 like the soil probes that are telling you how much 0:28:03.230 --> 0:28:05.210 moisture is in the soil, and the weather stations recording 0:28:05.210 --> 0:28:08.120 the rainfall in that particular field or that zone, is 0:28:08.119 --> 0:28:10.879 giving you a way more accurate estimate of how much 0:28:10.880 --> 0:28:13.820 fertilizer to put out. And it'll be variable between the 0:28:13.820 --> 0:28:17.000 neighbor's paddocks, like paddocks next to each other. Just by 0:28:17.000 --> 0:28:18.980 history is going to be different in that and you 0:28:18.980 --> 0:28:22.190 end up with this very different characterization in your application. 0:28:22.190 --> 0:28:24.440 So you would put on what Yield prophet puts on. 0:28:24.440 --> 0:28:27.260 I would. Yeah. Or more. But like it's the key 0:28:27.260 --> 0:28:29.179 thing is, is, is to try and get rid of 0:28:29.180 --> 0:28:31.400 those guesses in the game. I think I just don't 0:28:31.400 --> 0:28:34.010 like those guesses because it's not scientific. It's what BCG 0:28:34.010 --> 0:28:37.610 is all about, right? Research driven solutions and a lot 0:28:37.609 --> 0:28:40.250 of it is just gut feel. And that shouldn't be. 0:28:40.250 --> 0:28:41.660 We should be able to get some of those out. 0:28:41.660 --> 0:28:45.140 So you're always tweaking and tuning to try and clean 0:28:45.140 --> 0:28:47.750 those out. And it's an 80 - 20 rule. You're always 0:28:47.750 --> 0:28:49.400 going to get the low hanging fruit, you're going to 0:28:49.400 --> 0:28:52.700 pick the easiest one to simplify weather station soil probe 0:28:52.700 --> 0:28:55.100 first step. The next one is how do I accurately 0:28:55.100 --> 0:28:58.100 model wheat growing in the Wimmera, you know, with this 0:28:58.100 --> 0:29:00.590 particular variety. But if it gets me 80% of the 0:29:00.590 --> 0:29:02.959 way there, that's okay. The next step will be the 0:29:02.960 --> 0:29:05.180 next step. And I'll take the next lowest hanging fruit 0:29:05.180 --> 0:29:05.960 after that. 0:29:05.960 --> 0:29:08.300 I love that 8020 approach. It's so clever. 0:29:08.300 --> 0:29:10.370 Yeah it is. It gives 20% error. It's great. 0:29:10.370 --> 0:29:13.250 Which means yeah, it helps the head doesn't it. So 0:29:13.250 --> 0:29:15.890 what are you doing? What's the next thing. 0:29:15.890 --> 0:29:18.170 I would really like? I've been hassling everybody about these 0:29:18.170 --> 0:29:21.500 profitability maps. I think profitability maps that could actually tell 0:29:21.500 --> 0:29:25.430 me where each hectare is performing versus full potential, and 0:29:25.430 --> 0:29:28.520 then using that to actually come up with more automated solutions. 0:29:28.520 --> 0:29:30.380 So at the moment, like we talked with variable rate, 0:29:30.380 --> 0:29:33.970 we're doing a lot of crunching on zones. How could 0:29:33.970 --> 0:29:36.820 I make that automatic. How can I make the all 0:29:36.820 --> 0:29:39.790 these data layers we've been collecting every year off our 0:29:39.790 --> 0:29:42.940 harvester and our seeder and our sprayer and our spreader? 0:29:42.940 --> 0:29:45.310 How can on our grid sampling, how can I make 0:29:45.310 --> 0:29:48.070 the computer interpret a lot more of that data rather 0:29:48.070 --> 0:29:51.370 than me sitting there comparing maps? Can I just have 0:29:51.370 --> 0:29:54.730 a Siri to say Siri? Why is the left side 0:29:54.730 --> 0:29:56.740 of the paddock higher than the right side? And it'll 0:29:56.740 --> 0:29:58.860 go well. Back three years ago you actually did a 0:29:58.860 --> 0:30:01.890 lime application there and that could be related. It matches 0:30:01.890 --> 0:30:04.230 perfectly and you go, oh, okay. But at the moment 0:30:04.230 --> 0:30:06.810 it's like there's too many data layers, too many satellite 0:30:06.810 --> 0:30:09.840 images for you to protest h umanly, it needs a like 0:30:09.840 --> 0:30:11.820 a virtual assistant. So I'd love to see it get 0:30:11.820 --> 0:30:14.580 to the point where we have a virtual assistant narrowing 0:30:14.580 --> 0:30:19.230 our viewpoint. So we're we're managers, we're not technicians. So 0:30:19.440 --> 0:30:21.760 farmers are managers. We should be making decisions about the 0:30:21.760 --> 0:30:23.709 top five things every day. And it'd be great to 0:30:23.710 --> 0:30:25.780 have an assistant that sort of collated that end user 0:30:25.780 --> 0:30:28.660 data and not just feel really. So that's where it 0:30:28.660 --> 0:30:30.940 wants to be. And that'll come in with that profitability 0:30:30.940 --> 0:30:33.070 map too, because that'll come down to you'll be using 0:30:33.070 --> 0:30:35.770 that as your first layer. Is that piece as profitable 0:30:35.770 --> 0:30:36.550 as it could be? 0:30:36.550 --> 0:30:39.729 That is an excellent point about the the AI or 0:30:39.730 --> 0:30:43.060 the virtual assistants for the farmer, because my big question 0:30:43.060 --> 0:30:46.300 I've written down here is how much time do you 0:30:46.300 --> 0:30:49.360 allocate to researching new technology? 0:30:49.360 --> 0:30:50.650 I think it's one of those things you can do 0:30:50.650 --> 0:30:52.450 on the job, though, when you're spraying and you have 0:30:52.450 --> 0:30:55.750 an inspiration and you're running along beautifully and everything's going okay, 0:30:55.750 --> 0:30:59.080 then you. No trees, no power poles, then you you 0:30:59.080 --> 0:31:00.700 have time to look these things up and ponder them. 0:31:00.700 --> 0:31:03.430 So farmers I think by getting freed up with the technology, 0:31:03.430 --> 0:31:05.230 also gives them more time to think about these things. 0:31:05.230 --> 0:31:09.040 And of course also to you're following friends. You're going 0:31:09.040 --> 0:31:11.530 to expos those sort of things and look for opportunities 0:31:11.530 --> 0:31:13.660 for seeing these new things, because you don't know what 0:31:13.660 --> 0:31:15.700 you don't know. So there could be a new tool 0:31:15.700 --> 0:31:18.280 out there, but your algorithm is not necessarily going to 0:31:18.280 --> 0:31:20.410 send you to the right technology if you've never looked 0:31:20.410 --> 0:31:23.410 for it before. So going to a field day and 0:31:23.410 --> 0:31:25.570 listening to a speaker talk about a new technique or 0:31:25.570 --> 0:31:28.300 a new technology is always very insightful. And then you 0:31:28.300 --> 0:31:30.490 go back and research it, but you don't really spend 0:31:30.490 --> 0:31:33.040 that much time looking up those sort of things. Not 0:31:33.040 --> 0:31:35.520 until you're really getting close to I want to buy it. 0:31:35.520 --> 0:31:37.830 I think it's something that's really good fit to me. 0:31:37.830 --> 0:31:40.740 It's more about keeping abreast of everything and then banking 0:31:40.740 --> 0:31:42.900 it in your brain. And then when you encounter a problem, 0:31:42.900 --> 0:31:46.230 you go, ah, that thing I saw four weeks ago 0:31:46.230 --> 0:31:48.000 could be handy. What was that called again? And you 0:31:48.000 --> 0:31:50.790 go looking for it, then maybe that's something we could do. 0:31:50.820 --> 0:31:54.930 That makes sense too. So Tim, in terms of technology, 0:31:54.930 --> 0:31:56.880 we've had a bit of feedback that there's just so 0:31:56.880 --> 0:31:59.630 many providers, there's so much information and it can be 0:31:59.630 --> 0:32:02.540 really hard for farmers to know who to use, what 0:32:02.540 --> 0:32:04.550 technology to use, which one is going to be best. 0:32:04.550 --> 0:32:05.750 What would you say to them? 0:32:05.750 --> 0:32:08.090 I think there's two ways about that. One is one 0:32:08.090 --> 0:32:10.580 is what are other people using. So our classic I 0:32:10.580 --> 0:32:12.740 was talking to Jess about Google, you know before Google 0:32:12.740 --> 0:32:14.900 there was heaps of search engines. And then when Google 0:32:14.900 --> 0:32:17.450 took over it was superior and everybody just jumped on. 0:32:17.450 --> 0:32:19.880 And now pretty much everybody does a Google search. Now 0:32:19.910 --> 0:32:23.430 whoever's the biggest is often the best for support and 0:32:23.430 --> 0:32:26.910 experience from other farmers, which is really good. So look 0:32:26.910 --> 0:32:29.100 what other people have been using and using success. And 0:32:29.100 --> 0:32:30.750 you can ask a few of them, you know, how 0:32:30.750 --> 0:32:32.580 is that performing for you? What don't you like about it? 0:32:32.610 --> 0:32:34.350 What do you like about it? And then the other 0:32:34.350 --> 0:32:37.350 thing is, is the person that's actually selling the product 0:32:37.350 --> 0:32:39.510 is what sort of support are they giving? How good 0:32:39.510 --> 0:32:41.520 are they at understanding their product? Are they just a 0:32:41.520 --> 0:32:44.700 sales person? Are they a technician? Are they really there? 0:32:44.700 --> 0:32:47.520 If you form a good relationship with the retailer, that's 0:32:47.520 --> 0:32:50.400 a really good start. But then also use farmer friends 0:32:50.400 --> 0:32:53.430 that have used it before to learn from. And things 0:32:53.430 --> 0:32:55.440 like WhatsApp groups have been a classic. We've been using 0:32:55.440 --> 0:32:58.020 WhatsApp groups for different technologies just so that we can 0:32:58.020 --> 0:33:00.330 communicate problems we've had, and whether somebody else has seen 0:33:00.330 --> 0:33:03.000 this before, and then the provider is all like, oh yeah, well, 0:33:03.000 --> 0:33:05.340 this is obviously happened twice. I should something we should fix. 0:33:05.340 --> 0:33:06.990 You know, it's a really good thing for them to. 0:33:06.990 --> 0:33:10.410 Okay. And in terms of obviously youre, youre no till 0:33:10.410 --> 0:33:12.490 you're using your disc seeder and that sort of thing, 0:33:12.490 --> 0:33:14.770 we've had some pretty good years. We're really lucky here 0:33:14.770 --> 0:33:16.180 to have had some pretty good years. So there's been 0:33:16.180 --> 0:33:19.090 a lot of stubble around. And I mean, we sowed 0:33:19.090 --> 0:33:21.040 a paddock on the weekend and it had a heap 0:33:21.040 --> 0:33:23.140 of stubble on it and it was just amazing the 0:33:23.140 --> 0:33:25.420 moisture in that paddock. Yeah it was. We were pretty 0:33:25.420 --> 0:33:28.180 happy about it. But it's tricky, isn't it, because sometimes 0:33:28.180 --> 0:33:30.160 you come up with a problem and you're thinking, oh, 0:33:30.160 --> 0:33:31.630 how am I going to, how am I going to 0:33:31.630 --> 0:33:34.330 get through this? But it's the technology that's got us 0:33:34.330 --> 0:33:36.670 there to get the more stubble. What would you. 0:33:36.670 --> 0:33:39.400 Say? I think it can be really frustrating, and it 0:33:39.400 --> 0:33:41.710 can always be easy to fall back on what you know, 0:33:41.710 --> 0:33:43.630 and that can be something that's like 30 years ago 0:33:43.630 --> 0:33:45.130 and let's go and burn it and dig it up, 0:33:45.130 --> 0:33:47.410 and that'll solve my problem. But then I think the 0:33:47.410 --> 0:33:50.890 real challenge is can you save that gain? You've stepped 0:33:50.890 --> 0:33:53.110 up that ladder, you've gone from the ground level, you've 0:33:53.110 --> 0:33:55.690 stepped up, you've got that stubble retained. You've kept that moisture. 0:33:55.690 --> 0:33:59.260 It's fantastic. Can I somehow go up the ladder then, 0:33:59.260 --> 0:34:01.209 rather than stepping back down to the bottom again? So 0:34:01.210 --> 0:34:03.580 is there a way that a technology could solve that problem? 0:34:03.580 --> 0:34:05.680 Is it just a bit of persistence? But this is 0:34:05.680 --> 0:34:07.990 where you learn and you actually go, when I did this, 0:34:08.020 --> 0:34:10.570 it really helped. You'll find that when we did the 0:34:10.690 --> 0:34:12.700 seeder trial about, oh, it's about 7 or 8 years 0:34:12.700 --> 0:34:16.000 ago now, the one near Birchip here, the best seeder 0:34:16.000 --> 0:34:18.370 was the 15 year old Flexicoil. There was some brand 0:34:18.370 --> 0:34:21.640 new horsches or some precision seeders, but the best seeder 0:34:21.640 --> 0:34:25.160 was the 15 year flexicoil because it was his farm 0:34:25.160 --> 0:34:26.600 and he knew how to use it, and he'd used 0:34:26.600 --> 0:34:29.750 it 15 times in that field. He knew how to sow, 0:34:29.780 --> 0:34:32.029 whereas the new machines you're still learning. You haven't got 0:34:32.030 --> 0:34:34.760 the full benefit out of it yet. So you don't 0:34:34.760 --> 0:34:37.220 abandon the brand new horsche and go to the 15 0:34:37.219 --> 0:34:39.020 year old Flexicoil you go, well, I'm going to get 0:34:39.020 --> 0:34:41.450 this horsche to work in my system and you've got 0:34:41.450 --> 0:34:44.720 to keep stepping up. So take that challenge nut it out. 0:34:44.719 --> 0:34:47.120 Really a bit of persistence, a bit of support from 0:34:47.120 --> 0:34:49.340 someone else to get some ideas on how to fix 0:34:49.340 --> 0:34:52.189 that discs in wet conditions. What are other people doing 0:34:52.190 --> 0:34:55.040 to get through those wet conditions? How do they do that? 0:34:55.040 --> 0:34:58.520 Can I keep climbing that ladder rather than starting back 0:34:58.520 --> 0:35:00.500 from scratch? Because as we climb that ladder, we're getting 0:35:00.500 --> 0:35:04.760 our yields are improving. We're getting way better soil health. 0:35:04.760 --> 0:35:07.100 It's better for our bottom line. We're getting way more 0:35:07.100 --> 0:35:08.210 sustainable farms. 0:35:08.210 --> 0:35:10.580 Because it makes I can I keep coming back to 0:35:10.580 --> 0:35:12.580 rock climbing. I've been doing a tiny bit of rock 0:35:12.580 --> 0:35:15.640 climbing and it looks like it too. Yeah, and you 0:35:15.640 --> 0:35:19.420 want to go? You don't want to. It's hard going up. 0:35:19.450 --> 0:35:21.219 You want to come back down. You want to be 0:35:21.219 --> 0:35:23.319 in your comfort zone again, which is what you're talking 0:35:23.320 --> 0:35:26.469 about with staying with the flexicoil or or perhaps burning. 0:35:26.469 --> 0:35:29.410 But you've it's hard to climb up and it's going 0:35:29.410 --> 0:35:30.850 to be a challenge. But you know, when you get 0:35:30.850 --> 0:35:32.380 to the top, it's going to be awesome. 0:35:32.380 --> 0:35:35.080 Absolutely. That's the goal is you always want to improve. 0:35:35.080 --> 0:35:38.260 Everybody wants to improve their farms. Otherwise they wouldn't be farmers. Um, 0:35:38.260 --> 0:35:41.230 they're custodians of the land. They're managing it. They want 0:35:41.230 --> 0:35:43.480 to do the best they possibly can. And sometimes you 0:35:43.480 --> 0:35:45.069 have to do things like dig up a paddock or 0:35:45.070 --> 0:35:47.350 burn it every now and again. But you really do 0:35:47.350 --> 0:35:49.270 want to keep moving forwards. 0:35:49.270 --> 0:35:51.160 Even though, because I'm thinking you don't want to be 0:35:51.160 --> 0:35:54.340 moving forward with something that's not working, but using coming 0:35:54.340 --> 0:35:58.450 back to your principles, coming back to your problem solving approach. 0:35:58.450 --> 0:36:01.350 So have you ever pulled the pin on something? 0:36:01.380 --> 0:36:04.799 Uh, yeah. We've, um, classic is, um, vetch and lentils, right? 0:36:04.800 --> 0:36:08.310 Vetch and lentils. They are almost cousins in, uh, variety, 0:36:08.310 --> 0:36:10.920 so there's very little chemistry to separate them. One of 0:36:10.920 --> 0:36:13.200 the solutions we initially ran with was a shielded sprayer. 0:36:13.200 --> 0:36:15.690 So we had a shielded sprayer to spray between the 0:36:15.690 --> 0:36:18.750 rows and spray the vetch out, which will get you 0:36:18.750 --> 0:36:23.010 probably 80% of the vetch. That was okay, except it's 0:36:23.010 --> 0:36:26.650 quite a scary job because you're spraying knock down chemicals 0:36:26.650 --> 0:36:29.890 in crop, and if you don't go on the vetch, 0:36:29.890 --> 0:36:32.170 you kill the lentils, which is not good. But the 0:36:32.170 --> 0:36:35.740 other alternatives are, um, Clearfield lentils, which we do. So 0:36:35.739 --> 0:36:37.989 chemistry that allows us to try and kill the vetch. 0:36:37.989 --> 0:36:40.930 But it sort of probably only 80% effective. But then 0:36:40.930 --> 0:36:43.210 now they've introduced these green on green camera spraying, and 0:36:43.210 --> 0:36:47.680 they've invented a algorithm that identifies purple flowers. And so 0:36:47.680 --> 0:36:50.770 when we change to the bigger seeder the shielded sprayer was 0:36:50.770 --> 0:36:53.259 too narrow to match the big seeder. So we got 0:36:53.260 --> 0:36:55.870 rid of it. And we've essentially going to rely on 0:36:55.870 --> 0:36:59.439 the Clearfield chemistry and the camera spraying to hopefully control 0:36:59.440 --> 0:37:02.020 the vetch in the lentils for now. So it's a 0:37:02.020 --> 0:37:04.660 slow evolution. We tried it. It kind of worked good. 0:37:04.660 --> 0:37:06.580 We did get some additional benefits. We used it in 0:37:06.580 --> 0:37:08.859 oats to clean the rows between the oats of, but 0:37:08.860 --> 0:37:10.660 then it didn't fit and come to its end of 0:37:10.660 --> 0:37:12.370 its life. And we moved on and gone to a 0:37:12.370 --> 0:37:13.140 new solution. 0:37:13.140 --> 0:37:14.640 And I can hear that it's sort of coming back 0:37:14.640 --> 0:37:17.760 to a how many of those principles does it align with? 0:37:17.760 --> 0:37:21.030 That's right, that's right. It was a frustrating, scary job. Um, 0:37:21.030 --> 0:37:23.520 but it was a really cool machine, like very clever. 0:37:23.520 --> 0:37:25.950 And I think if I'd be tempted to get it again, 0:37:25.950 --> 0:37:27.690 I mean, if you think about weed smart and the 0:37:27.690 --> 0:37:29.970 big six, you know, how many different ways can you 0:37:29.969 --> 0:37:33.120 kill weeds? It's a really good way of introducing a 0:37:33.120 --> 0:37:36.270 different attack on that weed and reduce that seed bank. 0:37:36.270 --> 0:37:39.170 So it's probably worthwhile having as a tool in the shelf, 0:37:39.170 --> 0:37:41.630 but it's obviously more money sitting in the shed that 0:37:41.630 --> 0:37:43.069 you don't use that often. 0:37:43.100 --> 0:37:47.090 Last question, Tim, what is the best advice you've been given? 0:37:47.090 --> 0:37:48.830 This is just one I like to throw in there. 0:37:48.980 --> 0:37:53.450 I think sometimes we dilly dally on our decision making 0:37:53.450 --> 0:37:56.420 and we agonize over it. And it might take you 0:37:56.450 --> 0:37:59.060 five years to get your back garden done, for instance. 0:37:59.060 --> 0:37:59.600 That's me. 0:37:59.930 --> 0:38:01.900 But if you just had it done the first year, 0:38:01.900 --> 0:38:03.549 you would have had five years of benefit out of it. 0:38:03.550 --> 0:38:07.090 So I think sometimes, uh, you probably should just say 0:38:07.090 --> 0:38:08.650 it's 80 over 20. We just got to do it. 0:38:08.650 --> 0:38:10.810 We got to take a punt, take a risk. We 0:38:10.810 --> 0:38:13.240 think it's going to work back yourself to solve it. 0:38:13.239 --> 0:38:16.060 You've got good support and try it and get start 0:38:16.060 --> 0:38:18.669 reaping the benefits rather than waiting for this perfect solution 0:38:18.670 --> 0:38:20.589 to come down the track. In the end, it may 0:38:20.590 --> 0:38:21.370 never turn up. 0:38:21.700 --> 0:38:23.350 So take action. Make a decision. 0:38:23.350 --> 0:38:24.850 Take action. Make a decision.