Crop care from the air - Zach Hanner

Paul Yeager: Hey everybody it's Paul Yeager, this is the Market to Market TV show's MToM Show podcast. I'm Paul Yeager Glad to have you here. This is one of the hats we pledged a while ago. If you always are curious. Stay with us here on the website. You never know when we're going to post socially. What the next thank you gift will be for your support of this program. That's called Market to Market. This is the MTM Show podcast. I'm Paul Yeager. If you want to send me an email, it's Paul.Yeager@iowapbs.org. Today, we're gonna get into technology more specifically from the air. We're going to talk about this field a little bit and how there is a new approach to putting chemicals it's not really that new. It's been going on, but it's the drone approach precision agriculture. How does that work? How is 2022 been what's in store in 2023, we're going to talk with Zack Hanner. He was with Rantizo, an Iowa-based company that does just what we talk about that drone technology precision agriculture. He joins us from his home office in northeast Kansas. And that's one of my favorite parts of Kansas. We'll get into that. But he is the trial manager. We're going to talk about ways to put chemical on the fields whether it's on the ground via the air and a new way to put it on through the air. Enjoy this episode of The MTM Show podcast. 

Zach, let's be honest, the Flint Hills are are they the most underrated hills in the United States? Do you think?

Zach Hanner: I think they are. And there's a lot of people that when you tell them you're from Kansas, they have this really harsh image of Wizard of Oz and just flat and ground and blowing tumbleweeds. But yeah, we're in the super special side of Kansas here it is gorgeous.

Paul Yeager: And so that's between Manhattan and Kansas City. But on the north side of the state.

Zach Hanner: Yeah, pretty much from Manhattan all the way over to the east side of the Kansas border there north to south. So the foothills actually stretch all the way from the northern end of Kansas all the way down into Oklahoma. And so in the springtime, when we see the big prairie fires going on in the controlled burns, they'll stretch all the way down into Central Oklahoma.

Paul Yeager: And you are you've spent time in Kansas, you spend time in Nebraska, where else is that you've been?

Zach Hanner: Yeah, I've been to the East Coast, New York and Massachusetts. I was there as a young kid. And then we got moved back to Nebraska for a little bit. And then I spent about 10 years out in California, go into high school out there. And then college for a bit before I transferred back to K State.

Paul Yeager: What was the major at K State?

Zach Hanner: Agronomy. So I came in and initially was was looking to go into more of a botany degree going into a research side and then kind of decided to pivot a little bit and go more into the ag industry. And it was a great decision and very, very happy I did sell and getting back to the roots of you know, my family farm and that kind of thing. So it was a great, great decision to go back into that sector.

Paul Yeager: Any wish that you may have gone back into actual farming and not working around it?

Zach Hanner: A little bit. Fortunately, I have my brother and sister in law live about 20 minutes away from us, and they have a farm and ranch. So I get to be involved with that. And still get exposure to it and be a part of helping out the family on that side. But I love what I do in the industry. And I find a lot of a lot of pleasure and pride helping out folks in the industry and working in the ag retail sector for as long as I did for about a decade. It's really cool to see all the different operations and work with people on that side and help people through consulting decision making and being involved on a lot of different farms across the northern eastern Kansas here.

Paul Yeager: So are you more of a still a scientist or Well, how do you define yourself? Like what's your LinkedIn profile? 

Zach Hanner: Yeah, so, you know, an agronomy degree from K-State, even a Bachelors of Science and so, I may be kind of rare in the in that fact that I consider myself a scientist to an extent. You know, we cover a lot of stuff, plant growth, in we go into biochemistry, we talked about soil structures, a lot, a lot of different heavy, heavy science oriented topics. And so I do I do approach a lot of my agronomic discussions and consulting with a science mentality and try and do that as best I can.

Paul Yeager: I thought science was something we didn't want to talk about.

Zach Hanner: I think it's pretty cool when you get asked a question from somebody, and you can give them the fine details, and you can give them the background and and maybe even if it's more than what they were looking for, for an answer, it at least solidifies some competence that like, Hey, this guy actually kind of knows what he's talking about. So. And I find that a lot of folks especially helping out in the consulting side than it did in the past, they love to learn too. And a lot of producers are very, very intelligent people, and they love having those kinds of conversations. So it actually was a great way for me to connect with other producers and build relationships as being able to talk that level of intricacy with farming, and go into the details about the science and, and I found that that was that was something that was actually on the mind of a lot of producers when when I was doing my consulting work.

Paul Yeager: It's not an exact definition. But another word for details could be precision, I think precision agriculture. Why is that become such a more than a buzzword, but a way of life?

Zach Hanner: Yeah, absolutely. So So precision is kind of one of those interesting terms that really went when it was kind of a buzzword initially, when when it started really becoming popular in especially like the retail world. And kind of like tactical, we had to figure out what that meant, because you can see tactical assigned to all these things, tactical spatulas tactical pens, and okay, what is tactical? And what, you know, what is precision, and why is that important? So for me, really defining that and going to my producers and saying, okay, precision for us means that we are operating on very, very limited resources, whether that's because of financial restrictions, or the market is dictating that or whatever variable is going on. Precision means that we are taking those assets that we have, and we are applying them in the most strategic way possible. So we are being very, very cognizant and decisive about where we're going to use our inputs and how we are going to capitalize on them on the field. So precision, it really means instead of us taking a shotgun approach, or a blanket approach to a problem, or even a drawing scenario, we're really dissecting it down from the whole field level to the subfield level, and utilizing individual pieces that are unique within that field as its own field. So we're breaking it down. And we're getting down to specificity within the field and identifying each individual factor so that we can take that into consideration when we're making our recommendations.

Paul Yeager: The average person when they drive by will just say like this field behind me, they see a field, they don't see the rows, you're talking about seeing the plants and the individual buggers of weeds that are between some of those plants is what it was I read up on what it is that you're doing. How is it that that a farm? Why is it that a farmer has to care about that minute of a description?

Zach Hanner: Yeah, absolutely there. There's a lot of variables that go into a successful season. And we can look at different scenarios, as you say, hybrid performance, for example. So where historically, maybe we planted one single hybrid across the entire barn like the one behind you there, we could say that that's one particular variety from a company. Now folks are looking at, okay, we're identifying individual soil types in the field, we know this soil type has these characteristics, whether it's water holding capability, nutrient wheeling capability, maybe it's Sandy, or maybe it drains a little more than the heavier clay next to it, we can identify those features in that field. And then we can pick hybrids that are suited to those soil types. And to that example, you were given about weeds in the field, we have a pretty, pretty tough job ahead of us as producers and consultants where it's common knowledge that the fight against weeds has been increasing and getting more difficult every year. So resistance is a very hot topic here and then introduction of new chemicals and traits within in cropping systems. But if we let for example, one Palmer Amaranth escape in a field, that seed out of that plant can produce over I think it's somewhere around a million seeds per one healthy people mature plant. If we let that one plant and go, that is essentially setting us up for a fight next year, because whenever that goes to seed and actually produces, then we're creating a seed bank that we have to fight against next year. So if we can go and identify that even that one weed in that field, we can go and control that and make sure that we are setting ourselves up for success in the following season by identifying that one issue in that one specific site.

Paul Yeager: How are you getting to that specific site or treating something? What's your mode of? I guess we should have a backup don't answer that one yet. What's ranty so we'll get to that and then how you're using in how the company is approaching that small plant. 

Zach Hanner: Yeah, so Rantizo is a company that basically came inception in 2018. And it was formed by a group of business folks, some farmers and a few other people, very, very smart people in the industry that realized that there was a need for equipment to do, let us be able to go in and apply very, very specifically at a site. And so drone technology has been advancing like crazy in the last decade, grantees have identified that, hey, this could be a really, really good piece of equipment to fill a gap in the equipment arsenal that producers have available to them. So the company was founded under the idea that we do site specific Ag, and we are using lower amounts of chemicals, we are being more cognizant to the environment. And we are addressing the needs for specific site applications that we could not address in the past with traditional equipment. And so with the drones, we can go in, we can in that scenario, we were just talking about with this with this one escape of a weed, we can take that equipment and get to that specific location in that field, apply a product to that, that we'd send the drone home. And we've now had zero impact on the entire cropping system, because we didn't have to have a ground rule out there and risk crop injury traveling across that field. And then also, we didn't have to utilize something like a helicopter or an airplane that traditionally is designed to apply that entire field. So we were able to go out and address that one specific site in that one scenario without having to do a lot of that other stuff.

Paul Yeager: How is the drone technology identifying that one plant that that one rogue, excuse me, that plant? Is that somebody eyeballed that? Or do you have, can we can we give a little bit of insight on the technology that you have on these drones now that can identify the problem?

Zach Hanner: Absolutely. So the most traditional way that we can identify things is boots on the ground. And nothing in my opinion, I'm a little bit biased, but nothing is ever going to beat the expertise of a seasoned agronomist who's in the field, looking at the situation and identifying what is there. However, the technology is advancing very, very fast, and it's becoming very, very good. Currently for Rantizo, we are in the application side. So we do not necessarily have something on the drones that will identify for us, we have forward facing cameras, and we have high resolution cameras. So we can utilize that like that actual visual representation to identify things. But where we see the technology excel for us is that if we are utilizing other remote sensing technology, and then pairing that with our technology, that seems to be a really, really good partnership. So that could be things like NDVI imagery from satellites, in NDVI is a near data vegetative index, essentially just saying, Here's where the crop performance is. And it's an indication on a scale of good and bad or per crop health there. Then there's also some other companies out there that provide really high resolution imagery with AI technology to identify weeds in the field and actually give us a report of where those exists. And what's really interesting about that is that we can take that technology, develop that into an application sitemap, load that into the RC for the drone, and then the drone can go out and autonomously address each one of those positions in the field. So so there's a few different ways to to get to that end result, whether that's, you know, human designation of I want this map here, here here, or pairing with other technology that's in the in the realm right now. We can get there both ways.

Paul Yeager: Okay, so boots on the ground is still important. But I got the sense there, I think what I heard you say was, there can be an army deployed from the air that takes care of a field, right? It's not just one machine that's flying, it might be multiples, and you've set a program of dot dot dot this waterway, I always have problems with waterhemp here, I need you to approach this. Did I get it right? Am I listening correctly?

Zach Hanner: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we may not see all of the technology existing in the airspace all at the same time. You know, this could be staggered out, staggered out strategy. So maybe we have a drone that goes up initially, that goes up in scouts and develops a field map for us that happens first, then maybe the next time out, the actual rain to drone comes out and then we spray. So we're doing kind of levels of development there for the field and getting to that end goal. So in that's probably the most complicated way we can do it. The other way that you just said like if we know we have a wall under way that is needing sprayed. And historically, it always needs great, we can go out and map that area either by hand, or we can fly the drone and map that area and designate our flight path, and then let the drone go out and do its thing. So we can get really, really intricate with our prior data for where we want to designate our applications. But we can also make it a really quick on the spot application as well. And that's one of the really nice things about the technology is we can be we can be very, very heavy on the data and use that as our decision making. Or we can look at it as just the same same type of mental processes, we would if we were going to designate a plane or helicopter to come out where we know that okay, we know that disease pressure in this field is completely consuming this entire field. At that point, we know that we can just designate that entire boundary and then let the drone go and do its work.

Paul Yeager: Oh, I thought you're gonna say you could let the drone just blow that thing up if we can. That's that's just the movies. I see. Yeah, right. A year ago, I had a conversation with a different drone company. And they talked, they were precision as well. But some of their approach was to use multiple units, and part of it is to alleviate some of the labor challenges. Where is the labor side with grantees Oh, in, in their applications and fields? Is that a factor?

Zach Hanner: Yeah, absolutely. Um, the biggest thing with drones is that, you know, we'll never be able to replace it at the current technology level, right now, we'll never be able to replace an airplane or a helicopter for efficiency, we're kind of comparing apples and oranges at that point. And you know, a plane is flying that over 100 mile an hour and being able to cover many, many acres very, very quickly. And a helicopter is no comparable to that as well. Where we see our technology shine is that we can get into sites in areas that are tough for those pieces of equipment to get to where the human side of that comes in is, if we're looking at really large acreage is, we're going to be there for for a little while, it's gonna take you some time to get that done. But if we, if we're on site, typically one person, it is really all it takes to get a job done. In my experience as a pilot, depending on what kind of job we were doing, would dictate how many people we needed to have there with us. If we were doing small plots, or we were doing check blocks in a field, something like that, that was something that I could handle myself no problem and be a mobile unit, basically a truck and a trailer with water and chemical. And I could go and I could do my sights by myself and be just fine. As we look into different application scenarios, we see a return on efficiency as we add more people to the personnel. So we like to coin it as a pit crew. So if we've got, you know, one of our retailers that works with us, they are flying multiple drones at the same time. So they have multiple pilots, they're all addressing the same site at the same time. So as those drones are ferrying back and forth, and when they run out of battery or run out of chemical, they come back and then our pit crew will go and replace battery refill with chemical, and then the pilot will send the drone back out. So you can accomplish a lot of that by yourself. Your efficiency probably goes down a little bit. But as you add more people to that scenario, it goes a little bit faster and faster. In the way that we're navigating with the technology right now, we are working with the FAA to get exemptions for what's called swarming. And what that means is that we could have one pilot with one controller who is operating multiple drones at the same time. And what that does is that allows one pilot to have full attention to those pieces of equipment, and then the other people on the ground can facilitate the pit crew style there. So the more that we can get up in the air, the more efficient we are.

Paul Yeager: Okay, so the swarming, that's not legal, yet, by FAA standards.

Zach Hanner: So, for certain for certain drone series, we do have approval for that. Each time that we get a new drone series in we have to go through that process with the FAA. And Rantizo's stance is that we have always been the leaders of doing things legally and doing it by the standards of the FAA and never ever operating in the gray area. And part of that is working with the FAA and lobbying and being representatives of how to do drone applications right how to do them legally and safely.

Paul Yeager: Well, yeah, because if you don't follow, you're not going to get you're not going to get approval to fly wherever it is that you're trying to be. There's exactly a company that shuts down the backbone of the company. I get why you have to follow along. But I guess when you say pilot a drone a Again, let's use the field behind me say you're doing five of these machines. How much are you individually are you. So right now it's a one for one that if I'm trying to take care of this, this field, there isn't much pre programming, even though I've already mapped out where I think my problem spots are, that's still a manual pilot, that's not an automatic pilot to something.

Zach Hanner: So there's a couple of different methods of application that we can accomplish with the drones, we have a full autonomous flight, where essentially the pilot at that moment, really all they have to do is designate the flight area, launch the drone and initiate that process. And then the drone goes out in the field on an autonomous path, and does its application and then flies back and lands itself. Okay, that's, that's full, autonomous. So in that instance, as a pilot, the main goal for that person is to maintain visual line of sight and make sure that if anything, were to come up with the drone, or if there was any sort of issue, they have control of the drone at that point and take over and manually fly as a pilot, the that's the most autonomous way that we can do it. And the most efficient way we can do that, we also have the ability to fly in true manual mode. So that is holding the controller operating the joysticks, dictating elevation, speed, and then we can actually toggle on and off our spray pumps. So we can go and for example, say if we wanted to spray like the waterway behind you there. And we knew that we wanted to tackle just a few maybe big estate patches of Johnson grass or something like that, I could fly the drone out and manually use the cameras on the front of the drone and use that visual representation on the RC identify my area, and then also use my visual line of sight in the field and know that I'm over that I can initiate my spray pump, spray that area, turn it off, move to the next spot, turn it on and spray, move and spray. And we can do that as well. So there's a lot of different ways that we can tackle scenarios.

Paul Yeager: Farmers interested in efficiency from the sake of I don't have to blanket a whole field with chemical I can save on the amount of chemical. You've already mentioned the environmental side of that, but I'm guessing there's some cost savings if I don't have to blanket the whole field.

Zach Hanner: Absolutely. And you know, one of the things that I always like to look back on when I was a pilot in a contractor for grantees, so one of the girls that I worked with, they historically they always had Johnson grass on the head rows of this one particular field, they would call us up before before we were operating the drums, they would call us up and say Hey, can you just come out with the ground rig and just run a pass around the outside is really inefficient. And you knock down a lot of corn and or beans. And it's just it's tough to do and grant it by the time it's all said and done. Was it really worth doing at the end of the day, probably not the very first time that I came out with the drone. And we did that application, you just watched the light bulb come on. And it was so cool, because we took this 55 acre field and really only needed about seven acres worth of chemical and application. We knock that out and in about an hour full setup, spray tear down and pack everything up. One hour, we were there and we saved on application costs over 45 acres. And it was it all of a sudden he was just like, hey, put me on the books every single time please come back here and do this. Because this makes so much more sense than coming out and spraying the entire field. Yep, maybe there's some other Johnson grass out there. But we know the point of concern is right here. And if we can do that without any crop injury, that I mean, it was just it was a no brainer in that scenario. And especially where you know, if we're looking at potential of something like that, where a weed is just going to get worse and worse and worse every year that you let it go. If we can change that story, we can change that dynamic. If we can actually get good control at the correct timing and get full control. That's that's huge. And that's savings all the way to the end of the year where corns coming up. And it's not competing with that we were not letting any of that go to seed and creating a seed bank for next year. And then we're not getting foreign material in the truck when it goes to the elevator and they're not getting docked on seed prices. So there's many many variables in there that are all part of that being a beneficial application.

Paul Yeager: Let me know if I step over the line on this question because you're in the you're in the application business. You know out there there are groups that want to the the tire of chemical as the answer. Is this a way that the ag industry as a whole can stand up to environmental pressures to say we are going to be very specific and not go to a broadcast form. Does this help save face a little bit and in stand up to some environmental concerns?

Zach Hanner: I thoroughly, thoroughly believe it does. And we have a lot of proof of concept already with our processes becoming more and more refined every single season that we operate, and I think, I think it's important for us to, as producers in in the ag industry in general to to understand that there is going to be a demand for for exactly like you said, it's not a, in my opinion, it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when, and there's already some states that are seeing some really, really intensive regulations, it makes me excited to know that the technology is ahead of that, that, yeah, if we do see some stuff in the pipeline, that's going to be tough for us to navigate. I'm just thankful there's at least an option, and I'm proud to be a part of the solution for that potential challenge down the road. And, you know, there's there's arguments of you know, should we or shouldn't we, you know, there's a lot of things that we can point out for good and bad for that. And I think Rantizo is on the positive side of, hey, here's how we can do it. And here's how we can do it correctly and safely and efficiently.

Paul Yeager: What's been the biggest growth in your industry this year in 2022?

Zach Hanner: I think what we're seeing the biggest demand on right now is fungicide applications. And where our biggest presence right now for our contractor fleet is mostly through the Corn Belt. So Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Illinois, all the way up into Wisconsin, Minnesota. With with fungicide application, we see timing being critical, and extremely important for for development and reaching maturity for especially corn. What we can do with the drones in that scenario is offer another option for a producer, who is maybe on the list for the airplane or the helicopter, which they're also having their phones basically ringing nonstop, because everyone's trying to get the application. And at the same time, we offer another option there, which is fantastic. The other thing that we see too, is that if if folks are like okay, well, we don't necessarily want to do a payment, we will do a ground raid, well, we can say, okay, great, we'll cover the same areas of ground room, but we're going to have zero impact on crop, we're not going to have any tire tracks, we're not going to knock anything down, we can come out without any impact at all and do the same application, which has also been a big plus for folks and a big selling point for us. We also see scenarios where, especially here for me in northeast Kansas, we have a lot of river bottom ground. And the way that that farm ground is oriented, it tends to bottleneck at some point because that ground kind of falls in between valleys, and there's usually trees that come to a pinch point, historically getting ground ribs in there, it is possible, but they have to get turned around. So they're getting turned around in a very small space tight quarters, a lot of crop injury involved with that. And that's just the unfortunate reality for the technology in our area. planes can't necessarily get in there because there's trees and powerlines and other variables, we've been able to provide a service on corn acres that historically they weren't able to get a fungicide application on without a ground array. Now we can go in and do zero impact on that field and give them a good solid fungicide application at the right time. Huge, huge for the producers that historically you didn't have that option.

Paul Yeager: And do you have a time of day like there'll be times you'll see a plane fly in the evening. And I always think chemical applications really not supposed to take place in the evening, but it does. Do you have a time a day? And what about weather conditions with wind? You are limited at times to fly and I know the wind blows in Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska times? 

Zach Hanner: Yeah, yeah, yeah, the wind does blow sometimes here. So for us, we're there don't have applications we are civil twilight to civil dusk. So half hour before sunrise and half hour after sunrise is the FAA regulated legal timeframe for us to apply chemicals. We've actually had some interest from some producers and contractors looking to extend those timeframes. And we've been working with the FAA to work that out. We're not at a position to really say yes or no one way or the other. But we're looking to extend those hours. So that you know, in peak season when we have really, really high demand for application, and we're trying to get a lot done in a short amount of time, that we can extend those hours into maybe an hour after school or an hour before sunrise that buys us a little bit more time in the day that we can get more acres covered. The drones are actually set up with lights and markers to be legal with the FAA. And they're actually doing nighttime applications in other countries right Now that have different aerial restrictions or less restrictions compared to the US. So we know that the the theory works and the technology is set up to do that, we just have to work with the FAA and make sure that we get all our ducks in a row and that we're doing it safely and legally if we get there. So in on the weather aspect there, the great thing is, we can apply up to label restrictions. So if the label says no more than 15 mile an hour, we shut down. Same thing for the ground rig, same thing for the airplane, it applies to all of us. So if it's good weather for the ground rig or airplane to be out, we can be out as well. You know, in the drones, they're getting better about tolerating environmental factors. So if we have a say, we're on site, and a rain event happens, you know, we're halfway through a job, and we get a pop up shower in July or something like that. The drones can actually sit and withstand a rain shower. You know, we don't want them to be flooded and completely saturated, but a rain event coming over, they'll handle that just fine. And we've seen that was a development and the technology is that like, okay, the real world is, you know, they're going to be out in the elements. And so the manufacturers are addressing that and making them more tolerant of factors like

Paul Yeager: And I'm guessing you can also get into fields after a rain event when in a ground machine can't now the airplane, yes, can do the same thing. But it just depends on the time of year and, and situation, I'm guessing.

Zach Hanner: Absolutely. Yeah. And one of the things we see, you know, especially in my area, alfalfa weevil, it's a pest that comes on in the spring, and it comes on really fast and really aggressively. We had a rain event that exactly like he just teed up there, where it came in, and it rained for three days and put down a couple inches of rain, there was no way we're gonna get a ground rule again, for about two weeks. It was amazing seeing how fast the phone started ringing and people saying, Hey, you can get out here and do this. We said, yeah, absolutely no problem, as long as we have somewhere to park and you know, we can get out. And it's not just going to be a giant sloppy mud fest dress trying to get our equipment out, we can be there. And that's the great part is, you know, a field that typically, if we couldn't get it a plane in there a helicopter, a producer would just have to try and avert their eyes as they drive past it and, and not look at the problem. And that's just uncontrollable, they've actually got options now. And we have a lot of people who were just thrilled that we were able to come out and tackle that. And the big thing, too, is that the planes were two weeks out three weeks out for being able to come and get them on the schedule. And that's no fault of their own. It's just limitations of how many plants can be there at the time and come to acres they can do, we provided another option we provided another means for getting that chemical on. And there was a lot of people who were were absolutely thrilled and thankful that we were able to do that then and avoid a complete crop loss.

Paul Yeager: And your pit crews can park on the road, right? Because they're not really you're not landing a plane or a helicopter on top of your crew. Because I've seen the pictures in Kansas where they'll have the rig there on the side and the DOT car will drive by and they're like, That's not legal. I know. That's more of an issue and a Twitter joke. Ah, okay, I asked you about the where '22 has come. What do you see in '23? We've kind of talked and teased a little bit about it. Where's the technology? Where do you see things moving here in this next year?

Zach Hanner: Yeah, so '23 is actually really exciting. We have a couple things in the pipeline with the FAA right now, one of them is working specifically with a new iteration of DJI drone, and getting approval for that one. Currently, there is no legal approval for operational or cells of the DJIT40. That is in the pipeline right now. But we have been working with the FAA on that. And we are optimistic that we'll have approval for that coming into 2023. What's great about that is that that equipment is bigger than the current iteration that we have right now with the T 30. So we're seeing an increase in size, and we're seeing an increase in battery life and actual flight time. So we're seeing increased efficiency, and they've also adapted some some of the technology to where we're looking at at different spray mechanism. We're looking at an atomizer rather than going through a spray tip, which is fascinating and really cool. So we're very excited and optimistic to see what the FAA says about that. We're also working with a lot of different folks in the industry right now. Some chemical companies that are looking to develop their portfolio for portfolio chemicals and working with us in partnerships. So it's really, really great to be connected with other industry people and everyone going towards the same goal of like, okay, we know this drum technology is is solid. And we know that this is going to be the future, we're making those relationships and working with those people now so that, you know, in my opinion, I don't think it's going to be too far off to say that on a label in the future, you're gonna see a drone component to that label. And I think that's awesome. And we've got great relationships with people in the industry right now. So Rantizo was really spearheading that and maintaining those relationships and fostering that. And that's really great. And so we're seeing an increase in scale and 2023, for how many acres, we're going to be doing trials for doing different test sites, looking at different applications with the drones, and working on the technology and refining it even more. And then partnerships with other technology companies in general, working with integrations for billing and dispatching for, you know, say someone at the Ag retail level that needs to have as applied maps, or they want to have some sort of digital reference of where the drone was in space, what time were right, and all that stuff. We're working on that. And we're very, very close to be there as well.

Paul Yeager: While many producers have maps of everything that does go on in their fields, this is just another layer, you're going to click and say, Where did the drone go? And wouldn't be able to tell? Last thing, do you see the drone technology and chemical application? not replacing aerial with an airplane or a helicopter? Or on the ground? Does it take from one of those more? Whose lunch Are you taking?

Zach Hanner: Yeah, that's a great question. I think, you know, like, like we talked about, I don't know if we'll ever fully replace it in airplane or a helicopter. But I know for a fact that we're definitely competing with airspace, there's a new player in the market. And drones initially were kind of like, they might work, they might have a fit, too. Yeah, they definitely have a fit. And they're definitely here, and they're not going away. And it's actually really interesting watching the dynamic on the producer side change and go from being Hey, this is kind of a neat novel idea, pretty new tech, pretty, you know, cutting edge stuff to being like, No, this is just part of the program. Now, this is just part of our, our whole arsenal of equipment that we can choose from. So I think we're definitely in that aerial space. And probably, I think by 2023, we're going to be even more competitive in that market. The great thing is, though, we're not looking to replace them, or take acres away. We're looking to facilitate where wherever they can be, or whether that's a time restriction, or that's a site restriction. There spaces is is everybody's airspace, we're not looking to dominate anything. We're just looking to build a need for where that other equipment can't be. So we want to partner with everybody. We're not looking to push anybody out, but we want to be another option and be a viable one for folks in the future.

Paul Yeager: Good job staying away from making a headline there. That's good. Zach, I appreciate your time. Thank you so very much.

Zach Hanner: Yeah, Paul, pleasure talking to you. And I appreciate it. And thanks for letting me talk about this exciting technology and get some time with you here today.

Paul Yeager: Thanks to Zach Hanner for his time, as he said it's hammer time or it was if you have any feedback for the entire show or the podcast send it our way at MarkettoMarket@IowaPBS.ORG. If you like what you hear or see, give us a review or rating. But really what we would most like is if you tell a friend thanks for watching, listening or reading. We'll see you next time.