Episode 191: Tar Spot, Tip Back, and Real-Time Plant Data with Jeff Kleypas

John Kempf (0:00)

Hi, friends, this is John. Welcome to the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast. Today, I'm here with a good friend of mine, Jeff Kleypas, who's part of our team here at AEA, and we're here to share some exciting updates about things we've been working on. There have been some announcements and there have been people publicly aware of some of the things that we've been working on, but oh my goodness, have we've been having fun the last year. Jeff, thanks for joining me here and being willing to be a part of this conversation. As I've been having discussions with growers, we've been having such great feedback and so much fun with the CropTix devices and partnering that with FieldLark. And of course, we've got Pinion out in the field.

There's a lot of fun things that have happened the last year. And so I'd like to discuss those with you and just get your observations and perspectives.

There have been, every season, there are so many highlights. There are things that just go, wow, that is so incredible. And you have so much fun with them. What have been some of those moments for you this year?

Jeff Kleypas (1:05)

Well, first off, John, thanks for the invitation to join you again. It's always a pleasure to have a conversation and share all the highlights for the year and what we're learning agronomically because one thing I think that really stands out right now is that there's a lot of unknowns in this world of agronomy. And I know this is probably the first time in my career here in the last four years where I feel like I'm learning something every day. And the farmers are just as active in teaching as we are teaching them. So it's a real exciting time to be in this industry. But, you know, I think it's this year, profitability has been the number one thing, number one conversation that comes up with any grower that I'm talking to. And, you know, we've had the challenges with weather once again, unfortunately. I mean, it's kind of a running joke out there. What's a normal year anymore? Because there's no such thing. But, you know, we're really starting to see the resiliency in the programs. Of course, a lot of the growers that I started off with four years ago, when I started with AEA, are now maturing into what we think of as a full program and seeing those transitions on their farm. And that's resulting in profits.

Really one of the biggest highlights for me this year is looking at one of those growers that I started with.

And he's got the best corn crop he's had since the first year that he came to me. We haven't gotten in the field yet to tell you what the yields are, but just looking at it looks fantastic. But then he sent me a text yesterday that his break even on soybeans is 58 bushels, and he's currently averaging well above 80, with several spots that didn't get drowned out, pushing 100 So, you know, minimum inputs, that's great to hear. And, you know, looking at new things that AEA has introduced into the market, and I always refer to FieldLark as little John, because everyone wants to have you as their consultant, as you well know, John.

John Kempf (3:30)

Well, I'll happily be Robin Hood in that context.

Jeff Kleypas (3:37)

But FieldLark's allowing, you know, those conversations with the way that that AI is trained. And, you know, I think the big success for this particular grower is he doesn't have to listen to me all the time anymore. And it allows him to be more efficient, it allows me as an agronomist to be more efficient because he's already researched what he's wanting to talk about. A lot of times he's already acted on those things based off of FieldLark.

But when he really has an important question, he's coming to me and getting clarification, and we're having really good conversations. But he's a perfect example of how the FieldLark and the AI tool is really being powerful in allowing growers to have a non, I like to refer to it more as a non-pushy sales conversation, because that's what a lot of growers talk about, is they don't want to have an agronomist that's also selling product. I'm like, we'll go to FieldLark. This is proving with someone that I'm working with as an agronomist as well, that they've got a powerful tool to guide them in their journey.

John Kempf (4:54)

You know, FieldLark.

I have some gifts that I'm very grateful for, being able to read rapidly and retain a lot and connect seemingly disparate dots and tie things together. I'm very grateful for that. But one of the things that I've initially was very concerned about is, how does our use of AI reduce our capacity for critical thought and for analysis, and for research and discovery? What are the skills that we might lose if we start using AI intensively? It's a little bit like Google Maps. I mean, people used to have varying degrees of being able to navigate and knowing the roads in a certain region. Then Google Maps came along, and a lot of that skill atrophied for a lot of people, particularly the people who never had in the first place, and you just learned Google Maps from the very beginning. I'm using Google Maps, but there's other maps apps as well, but navigation apps. But what happened is a lot of people never developed, and other people who had developed the skill lost the skill to be able to navigate very well. And what is the version of that for AI? So I do think there is my, as I've been thinking about this and playing around with AI and with FieldLark, in particular, along with the other tools that I'm using.