What Happens When Farming Meets Flying Robots

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Northwind Drone Solutions

SPEAKER_02 0:00

There we go. All right. Welcome to uh this is season two, and I think this is uh episode 25, believe it or not, of uh Marty County Stars Newsmakers Podcast. I'm Mike Innis, along with uh, of course, Liz Smith is here with us. Today we have a treat. This is fun. We've been talking to Zach Jorgensen and Gavin Rodding. That's right. I was looking going, oh man. And they are from Northwind Drone Solutions, and this is pretty fascinating stuff. Uh my level's kind of low. Hold on a second. Let me bring that up some. Okay. And uh we've been talking about drones. Now, my grandson, I tell him has a drone, it's about what's that? Like 12 inches, you know, and he flies around the backyard, has a little camera on it. And theirs is slightly bigger.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

A lot bigger.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

What'd you say it was? What size?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Uh it's about uh I would say about the size of this room. I wish you could see it, but it's about a 12 foot and pictures. It's a big drone. 12 foot. Yeah, two of them from from you have two of them. Yeah, corner to corner, or uh kitty corner, I guess you could say.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

All right. Wow.

How Drone Crop Spraying Works

SPEAKER_02 1:10

And so what they do, Liz, is they spray fields.

SPEAKER_03 1:14

Yeah, I I was very interested in that. Because you know, watch to watch a pilot's uh scoop around along those uh power lines and around the windmills. I I'm gonna focus on all the clutter that's out there in the fields right now, but you gentlemen uh speak on the fact that we we've got to spray the fields, or at least to keep up with what we need to do as we have chosen to farm. We have chosen to spray the fields. So we need a good product to spray our fields safely, consistently, right? Yeah, and we don't have a lot of pilots, we don't have a lot of planes, and I bet it's almost cheaper to use drones to spray than uh hire a pilot, correct or not?

SPEAKER_00 1:56

It's pretty similar, but uh similar.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

Okay, okay. Let me make your make sure you get you your value in. You got a big value out there.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

It's uh it depends on who you're working with, but um planes and and drones are um pretty similar in some aspects. Um planes are gonna be maybe a little cheaper here and there, uh depending on who you're working with, but um drones are right around that same range. It's it's not much more, if anything.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

So but it's more accessible though.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yeah. And uh there like even we just pulled up and this field out here had a power line right through the middle of it, you know, and we were like, oh that uh would be super hard of the plane, you know, and it'd be pretty easy for us to get underneath the you know a 20-30 foot power line. So yeah. So that's the advantages then. Yeah, yeah. There's there's advantages to using us and and uh getting into spots where some people can't, and that's that's why we thought it'd be good to get into it.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

So probably too, it it's safer for the pilot who's well on the ground.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we just get to stay on the trailer and operate it, you know. Right, right. It's all done remotely.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

Yeah, I think your um accuracy would be better as far as being able to stop and start at the end of the field in the runway. And um, so we did not get in uh this was before we started recording, and I I apologize for that. Uh you gentlemen are carrying how many gallons of of crop or I don't know, whatever they're doing to ensure a good crop. I'll just call it sure and good crop, whatever whatever the farmer chooses. But uh how many gallons are you able to carry at a time?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

26 gallon tanks. That's each drone and 26 gallon tanks on it.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Wow. And that's that's eight pounds, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Uh it's close to that. Yeah. These drones can hold 225 pounds. Okay, that's what that's right. That's where I was going. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

They can lift.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

They really can.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Yes.

Tank Size, Acres Per Hour, Costs

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Wow. One thing, one cool thing that we looked into getting into.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

No, wait, wait, stay, stay up.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Oh, sorry. One uh one cool thing we looked at getting into early on was uh like a cedar attachment. So um if somebody wanted to do like cover crop or plant grass seed or um literally anything along those lines, um we bought an attachment and you can just take the propellers off the top of the tank, slip it onto another tank that's a granule for dry chemical and stuff like that. And uh it's just got like a little spreader on the bottom, and uh that's all poundages. So there's a sensor in those tanks to tell you how much pounds of granules are in that tank, and then it can calibrate what um kind of seed do you have and how fast it's gonna put it out and how many acres you're gonna be able to do with it and all that kind of stuff. So it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Yeah, it is cool.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

More than just seeding.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

So yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

There's right, right, right. Right. More than just brain, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Okay, so go back just for a second. Uh 26 gallons, you said right. And how many acres will that cover?

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Um, 26 gallons. Um it's it's we do different routes, so we'll do like two gallons an acre, three gallons an acre. Oh, okay. This is all variable. Oh, okay. Yeah, it depends on what uh how much you're putting out. Good point.

SPEAKER_03 5:15

Again, what the farmer prefers to put on their products.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Okay, so you've got a um what's an average farm? 300 acres?

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Uh I'd say it's a little less than that.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

A little less than that. Fields, yeah. Okay, okay. 240 acres. And and you're contracted to to spray 240 acres. How long is that going to take you?

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Um, do you say these drones? I would say it's about, I don't know, I'd say it's close to 60 to 70 acres an hour. I would say Oh, that's not bad at all. No. And then you got two drones. Um we can get it done in a few hours. So I bet it wouldn't it it's it's pretty efficient. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

Oh, we need to go watch this.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

And how many how many um years have you guys been piloting? Is piloting drones, period?

SPEAKER_01 6:01

So we actually um in high school, we flew drones in a class with uh Jerry Brooks. Okay. So that's we he first introduced us to flying these drones. Yeah. And uh we just took that love for it. I mean, it's always been back on our minds, and then we graduated college and we stuck with it. So now we're flying big drones. So your major in college was drones or no, it's he had he had a business major, I had a fishers and wildlife major, but we each played football in college and okay, and then we weren't really sure what exactly we wanted to do. So I took my love of science

Seeding Attachments And Variable Rates

SPEAKER_01 6:35

and then we just ran with it, and now I mean I can apply it today in the field.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

So the science side, I'll take the business side. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Right. And I love the drones. So so what else can you do with your drones? Uh you know, you you've got this is this is uh spraying time. All right, that comes to an end here, what, next month?

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Uh yeah, I would say within in in August. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

I would say August.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

So what else can you do to keep out of trouble?

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Oh gosh. We could find a lot of ways to get into trouble. I know. Uh I you know the drone aspect. Um we've got a total of what probably five drones between each other. Yeah. Uh the two big ones, we've got a multi-spect, they call it, that's for mapping out fields and doing certain things with that. Um, and then we've got a couple other just camera drones, you know, ones you were talking about earlier. Yep. Um, so we've we've done um some pictures and videos and whatnot with them. Um and then yeah, the mapping and all that kind of stuff with that other one, but that's almost a more of an early season kind of a thing.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Um craps are getting in the field and growing and whatnot. But uh yeah, we've also we've we've kind

Mapping, Thermal Ideas, Privacy Questions

SPEAKER_00 7:55

of talked about a thermal throughout the years, or I should say the year, but um those thermals are kind of cool. You can use them for different things like picking up uh um animals or something like that. Oh okay. Um I'm not sure what Minnesota's regulations and stuff are on that kind of stuff. We haven't looked into it to a hundred percent, but um yeah, that's for the for the business anyway.

SPEAKER_03 8:21

Keeping busy, but lost dogs and and when you talked about um the so so would there so I have we had a lost dog here recently. Yeah, they ended up finding it out down the railroad tracks about a mile and a half out of town. Yeah. Are you so is there privacy issues when you're out there with the camera on a search and or or it that's that's what I don't know about the thermal stuff.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Um the company we've cut bought our equipment from does a lot of thermal stuff. They do like deer recovery, they do deer, they like fly them over farms and see how many deer are on people's property and stuff like that, you know. And so I mean, really, you can do it with any anything you can pick up thermal-wise, you know, you can pick up heat, you'll be able to find them, right? So, like your dog, you'd be able to find that dog out right by the railroad track. Now, regulations-wise, it varies from state to state. I know uh it'd be something we'd have to look into before getting into it for sure, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

But even even at this point, you've got cameras. I could call you and say, uh, Zach Havan, I've lost my dog. You know, everybody's been looking for the last 12 hours. Can you please help me? You could come in and bring in a camera and swoop the area pretty well.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

We have a fire going within, we can't find it. Can you please come through and bring your camera through and see if we could what's going on out there?

SPEAKER_02 9:43

I hadn't even thought of that.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Oh, that was that was my first thought. I'm sorry, but that was my first thought. We've got stuff going on. What do you do? Okay, and and so I I I want to go back to the power

Power Lines, Drift Control, Wind Assist

SPEAKER_03 9:55

lines because that's my big question, and I'm asking everybody what's up, how I mean these 750 lines that are coming through Barn County, yeah. Yeah, we could you guys could you guys could really help if that happens.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 10:09

If that happens, but I also don't want that to happen.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Right. Um, anywhere between probably uh I would say nine to thirteen, fourteen feet. Oh above the drop, depending on what you're doing. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

Then that keeps it really close. I'm thinking way up.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Well, I mean, and that that also prevents a lot of loss of product because you're not losing it in the wind like you are because of the planes, then they have to start way up here and drive. Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Well, it's it's more precise, too. More precise, that's the word.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

So outstanding. This is this is fascinating to me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

The drone, the wind assist, too, it pushes the spray down.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

You'll push it right down in the canopy, and once it's in the canopy, it it stays there. Okay. You know, it won't drift out as much as you know, say a plane would. Okay. So you get that wind assist pushing that spray down, it's gonna help you a lot.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Oh, I'll bet so. Yeah. See, that's why he went to college. Yeah, right, right.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

And and and again, and he's uh a forestry major, was that what it was? Yeah, yeah. He's got the he's got the stuff. He cares about our land, right? And local boys, we love that. We love it when they say go local because it's deep. I'm sorry. I know you're born in. I've born into I brought him back, but you know, it's still important to see these people that love

How To Book Them And Other Uses

SPEAKER_03 11:35

to come back to our stuff.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Okay, so uh let's talk about the practical end. Uh, you got somebody listening right now who's going, wait a minute, I wouldn't mind them coming out and doing my my or maybe even next year. How do they get a hold of you guys?

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Uh we've got a Facebook, uh, we're working on a a uh website uh right now. Um our number is 507-236-8680. Um yeah, give us a call. Uh Facebook's about our main way of um looking into what we got going on. Um, like I said, the website will be big, but yeah, that's our uh call. Shoot us. Yeah. We'll get back to you as soon as possible.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

So and it doesn't have to be farming. No, no, no, that's what I'm saying. Is people can use you for all kinds of reasons.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Yeah, I think the big thing I'm excited about getting into is uh we're well, both of us really, we're big hunters. Okay. So like food plots and stuff for deer or certain things like that, like it's kind of a cool thing. And and uh I think it's always something, like I said, of that cedar to get into doing certain stuff like that. So it'll be kind of cool to see how that turns out.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

But yeah, the the drone technology is constantly evolving, so there's new ideas popping up every day. And if someone has an idea of like how can I power wash my roof, for example, like there's drones that are power washing buildings now. Really? Yep, yeah, and so if you have an idea, I mean you could shoot us a call and we'll we'll find a way to figure out.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

See, I hadn't thought about that.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Yeah. Yeah. In the cities and stuff, people are doing that big tall power or big tall buildings and stuff, they're using the power wash windows and all that kind of stuff. Much safer.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

Oh, sure. Yeah. Oh, I mean, I know people like to climb to the top of the Empire State Building, but that is not for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Well, there's climbing makes a lot of money, so good for them.

SPEAKER_03 13:27

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Well, I was just thinking about when when my grandson got married, I think it's two years ago now. That would have been cool to have had you guys with a drone out there. We could and it was an outdoor wedding, and you could have flown over and taken pictures down, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Oh, yeah, there's that would have been wild. Yeah, yeah. That sounds like kind of simple fare for these gentlemen.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Yeah, I knew it. I know it's simple for them, but I'm saying but but for the picture aspect for it. Yeah, the photo aspect that was gonna do. Oh, and I like to use that great big room-sized one, it'll look like a uh what's the what's the movie?

SPEAKER_03 14:02

Um um third dimension of 3D, the the cinematic stuff.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Well, no, I'm talking about the oh shoot, now it's gone. It'll be back. But you had this thing fly over, it looked like it looked like an alien spacecraft. And you guys can paint underneath it, you know, and everybody can be going, whoa, it's Martians.

SPEAKER_03 14:22

Dude. I'm thinking back in the I'm thinking back in the day around.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Close encounters. There you go, Mike. That's when I was thinking of way before your time. I was gonna say, they're looking at me like, what?

SPEAKER_03 14:35

I don't know what that is.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Then I realized it was a 1970s movie.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Way before us.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

You know what's funny about that is is when I was a kid growing up in the 60s, and uh my dad was way into like wagon train and and all those old, and you know, and they were early 1900s supposedly, right? It was the same 60 years, right, that it is now going forward. So stuff from the 60s to you is is like it was to me 1900. Yeah, it's just amazing how that same 60 years now is I'm going really come on. Yeah.

Batteries, Charging, Field Efficiency

SPEAKER_02 15:16

All right. How long is your battery last or is it or is it uh gas powered?

SPEAKER_00 15:19

No, it's battery. Um uh depends. Uh I mean a lot of factors of how much liquid you got in the tank, too. How much moving around you're doing if you're doing uh if you're turning around in a field a lot, your battery's gonna die quicker. If you're flying and you're doing a longer field, it'll stay charged a little better. Um I would say it would it gets it definitely gets a couple acres down um on a battery. Okay, for sure, at least. Um so you carry lots of batteries. Yeah, and a lot of its uh efficiency too. If you know you're gonna make only you know two passes down and your battery's gonna die, it will only fill up your tank to a certain amount of liquid, so you're not overfilling your tank, draining your battery quicker, and you're only gonna make a couple passes or something like that, you know. Uh each field is different, but um, there's a lot of things to consider into that too, which is helpful be more efficient and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 16:12

The business part of the yeah, yeah, it's just going, yeah, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Um, and if you bring you bring them back to refill, you gotta switch batteries and they charge up pretty quick too.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Oh, do they? Okay. We got two generators on our trailer, so there's we're swapping out batteries constantly.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

That's how we get your remote, you've got a remote charge thing you can try.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Okay, so next question, and just thought about this is what's the weirdest thing you've ever seen in

Weird Finds, Local Business, Closing

SPEAKER_02 16:40

a field when you're flying over?

SPEAKER_01 16:42

I mean, you ever see any bear or anything like that? No, no, crashed airplane. I've seen that. Have you? Yeah, but I mean they knew that was there. Oh, they knew it was there, okay. Um, as far as weird stuff, but not really anyway.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

You're flying yesterday, there was a bunch of deer hound them. I don't know. That's about a seen a big buck in a field before. Did you?

SPEAKER_02 17:03

You're sitting there going, where's my gun?

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

I I I had to say that that way. Did you hear that they found um some teeth and a jawbone in Sylvania Park yesterday? Is that what I've heard that about something about it? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

No, I'm good. Yeah, you're good.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

Yeah, I but the weird part is I had just been taking an interview with Matt Owens. I was parked in the parking lot in Sylvania Park until 1.20, and they found they announced that they found this at 2 o'clock. I'm like, I was right there.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

Oh, so you may be involved.

SPEAKER_03 17:35

No. No, they're saying it might have gone the the the jawbone and such may go back to Indian heritage. They they call Indian Heritage because they they yeah, but you're saying you found weird things, and he also had me do a podcast on the Joanne Bodispurse. So I mean I'm thinking I'm thinking. Well, that was my first thought to be honest. That he's flying around finding the this car or this some random stuff that could go back and point out the secrets. Wouldn't that be cool, though? Wouldn't you find it's like he's finding a meth lab. Ooh.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

You're flying over and you see a duffel bag down there, and some guy jammed out of an airplane and he left his duffel bag by accident. Yeah, they'd be finding all sorts of mad stuff.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

All right. Now we're drifting. I wish we were drifting more. All right, so uh let's see here. What else you got? Uh I I'm just excited to have new people trying new things and staying local. That's that's that's new business. Pretty cool. Love that.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

Wind drone solutions, NDS. Yep. That's what your hats say. Yeah. Yeah. And uh folks give them a call. They got all kinds of things you can do. It's not just farming.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

Right? Are you gonna be wandering around the fair, talking to folks, going to the different parades and stuff, saying what's up?

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Sure. We'll have our hats on.

SPEAKER_03 19:03

Okay, have the hats on.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Yeah, there you go. Stop. Say hi to them.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

Yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

All right, need you, need your roof, need your roof cleaned. Right? That'd be so cool.

SPEAKER_03 19:12

I almost think about Eve spouts, man. You got something little that can come get my eve spells cleaned.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

That's what a ladder's for. Young guys like us.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Uh okay, we got that covered. All right, guys. Thank you. Anything else you want to say? No, plug it long last time.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

Yeah, I guess I don't know. Swunderside season. If uh you need something from us and want to work with us, we're happy to do so. So give us a call and uh we'll be happy to work with you.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Give me your call, your phone number again.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

507-848-860. Or no, no, sorry. 507-236-8680. That's what it was.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

I was gonna say, I didn't think it was 848 the first time.

SPEAKER_03 19:53

Yeah, 236-8680.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

My number, my personal is so close to my business that it's it's the last four, it's it always throws me off. I know. I I hear you.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

So bold question. Uh you said hunting. Could you take a hunting party out and help me scout the ground and say, Liz, this is right over here?

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Uh I don't think that might be a little illegal, but it's a problem.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

Okay, just asking that question. When these mics are off, maybe we can talk about it more, but I was gonna say off the air, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, thank you guys. Appreciate having you here. Oh, you're more than welcome. You come back anytime. Okay. All righty. Thanks. All right, folks, that's it for this one. And we will uh we will talk to you later.