America’s Land Auctioneer
Captivate and celebrate the dynamics of rural America, American Agriculture and inspire and teach others how to live a bold and abundant life in rural America. Background: The intrigue, endless opportunities, and romance of rural life in America have never been more on the minds of Americans. The recent pandemic and civil unrest have Americans of all ages earning for a more peaceful, less hectic life. Even billionaire Bill Gates is now the largest crop landowner in America. As many Americans look for peaceful refuge in the rolling hills and wheat fields they are faced with a richness of opportunities. But where do you begin to look? This show will highlight and feature endless opportunities in every state. What is it that is so unique about rural America, the land and what it produces? How can I live that life? The American Land Auctioneer will tell stories and weave into those stories a place for you to dream, live and enjoy the abundance of all that rural America has to offer.
America’s Land Auctioneer
Revolutionizing Firefighting: Eco-Friendly Soy Foam in Action
Join us on a journey where agricultural innovation meets fire safety, as we uncover the groundbreaking work of Dave Garley from Cross Plains Solutions. Discover how soy foam, an eco-friendly, biodegradable alternative to hazardous firefighting foams, is revolutionizing the industry. With insights from seasoned firefighter Chris Prock, we explore the transition of this innovative foam into real-world application, particularly within rural fire departments across the United States.
Uncover the rigorous development process of soy foam, a collaboration with Chippewa Valley Technical College, which ensured the foam met the highest standards and received crucial certification. Dave Garley reveals the partnership’s impact on refining the foam, leveraging feedback from frontline firefighters. This advancement not only promises enhanced fire safety in rural areas but also piques interest for applications in broader markets, such as the Department of Defense, signifying a monumental leap in firefighting technology.
Highlighting the foam's successful demonstration at the Big Iron event, we discuss how community support and strategic distribution, led by Alan Snipes and backed by the Soybean Council, are propelling soy foam into widespread use. Fire departments are eagerly testing this environmentally friendly solution, appreciating its ability to conserve water and reduce the need for hazardous material response teams. Soy foam is not just a product; it’s a movement towards safer firefighting and sustainable agricultural practices.
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Welcome to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Christian Miller, your host on this week's episode. I'm joined by Jack Pfeiffer, and our guest today is Dave Garley of Cross Plains Solutions. Dave, how are you doing today? I'm doing great, wonderful. We also have Chris Prock now on today's show. Chris is an equipment representative with the company and has a lot of knowledge on the product that we'll be talking about today. Dave, tell us a little bit about where you're from and a little bit about your background, and jump into what Cross Plains Solutions is.
Speaker 3:Sure. So Cross Plains Solutions is a company we take pride in basically derivatizing agricultural building blocks. So I've spent 30 years of my career at a mega agricultural company, not focused so much on the food part, but we were more focused on how can we repurpose a supply chain that's readily available, renewable, called American US Farm, and so obviously corn and beans are king in this country, and so we really focus on those engine rooms.
Speaker 2:And so is this. How did you talk a little bit about what the product is and what Cross Plains Solutions is, and how did this whole thing start? How did you stumble across that this could be a viable product? I mean, we want to know the story here about how you started.
Speaker 3:So, like I said, you know my prior career. We were focused on a lot of the building construction markets. So anywhere from paint, sinks, coating, insulation, a lot of those products are bound together with petroleum-based adhesives. And so during that journey, um, as you formulate those types of for those applications, one of the formulations that typically doesn't work as adhesive is foam, so anything that foams is typically a non-starter. I had a lot of those experiences from my years of experience, my background. I'm a scientist right. So I literally went to school and my undergrad at Wisconsin and I finished my graduate work out here at North Dakota State at Fargo.
Speaker 2:Very nice, very nice. And what are your degrees in what? What did you make? Chemistry?
Speaker 3:I really focused on the hardcore chemistry and I led that into business development. So what we're looking to do was really trying to, you know, find another market alternatives for a supply chain that's again readily renewable and sustainable.
Speaker 2:Certainly, and so we've been hearing a lot about it. I know we see on Chris Prochnow's social media we have been. Chris, you're a firefighter with the Castleton Fire Department, correct?
Speaker 4:Yep, correct. I've been around there on the department for about 25 years and I stumbled across this in a YouTube video Just looking for an alternative because the soy-based products that we use in firefighting are very cancerous and are full of PFAS and all the good not so good stuff for people and humans, and started looking into Dave's product and contacted my fire chief and we've now, in Castleton, converted everything over. All our fire trucks now have soy foam in it. It's 100% biodegradable and we can actually practice with foam. And that's one of the big things, because with Triple F's foam you couldn't ever practice with it because of the risk of the big things, because with triple f's foam you couldn't ever practice with it because of the risk of you didn't want to be contaminated with the pfos. So now guys can actually your departments can actually go out and practice with this product that dave invented.
Speaker 4:Um, just, it's user-friendly, it's it. It's got a little it's. It's soybean meal. Basically, I mean it's a byproduct of a soybean. And what do we raise in the Red River Valley? Soybeans. We raise a lot of soybeans. Being from Castleton, we just have a brand new soybean crushing plant. They're looking probably to get rid of soybean meal. Well, dave's product is using that byproduct and it's going back into the rural communities and the rural fire departments, because in North Dakota 98% of them are volunteer firemen. And what do they do? Farm ranch. They're all rural America, basically, and it's not just North Dakota, it's all over the US.
Speaker 5:Absolutely, and that's the product right. It's soy foam right.
Speaker 2:That's where I was going to here. We forgot to mention that we let the cat out of the bag.
Speaker 5:Yeah, forgot to mention the name of it at the beginning. So what was the process like for the original invention of soy foam?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So how did the idea come about? Right, it came about and I'm full transparency, I'm your scientist, I'm not a fireman yet I'm going to go back to school. But a friend of mine from Minnesota a fireman, he had come to me and says you know, you've got to do something about this. These fire foams we're using they're killing us, and I didn't know anything about it. So I really started kind of looking into it and said what do you see referencing Aqueous film-forming foam, afff?
Speaker 3:Soon, as I saw the active ingredient, I kind of figured I knew where this was headed. So PFAS are polyfluoroalkyl substances. It's just a fancy term for the short version, pfas. That's the negative actor that you're hearing a lot about across the country. So if you watch any TV, you'll turn on your TV and you'll see a commercial on Camp Lejeune AFFF firefighting foams. In the event you were in contact, contact, da, da da. This is the problem, right?
Speaker 3:So across our country, the firefighting community, in addition to other building construction segments, that chemical has been readily used for a variety of different applications. It's a beautiful chemistry because it works very, very well, right? The general term of understanding is it's Teflon. So the Teflon in your pan, the nonstick. This is the base core of this chemistry. That being said, unfortunately, you know, science had led us to believe it was its ill effects on the environment and health and human. The truth be told, today that's not the case right. So now we've got to correct yesterday's mistakes, which we're very good at. And what do you pivot to? So as soon as I looked into it and I remember my experience from my prior career that's all it took. I mean, I can make soy foam, and the ability to be able to do that was really the beginning of the journey.
Speaker 2:That is very interesting, a product that we are very familiar with and has this have you had? Are the fire departments pretty open to the the soy foam? Has the partnership been fairly easy? Once you had the product developed, how did you start getting this out to fire departments and what did that look like?
Speaker 3:Right. So when we started. So the chemist here can make soy meal put together in foam Great, remember my statement, my clarity I'm not a fireman. Yes, so what it has to do is, once I was able to take Mother Nature's polymer, which is soy meal, and I know that your listeners out there will understand this well, once that meal gets wet, the clock's ticking right. I mean, it's going to go rancid, it's going to spoil.
Speaker 3:So first thing we had to do is how do we control mother nature? Because the firemen, they'll take a foam concentrate that they use to eradicate fires, but they may not use that bucket for five years, but it has to be fresh, as if it was made that day. So the first code we had to crack with science was how do we take meal, suspend it in an aqueous solution with other builders and put it on the shelf and have efficacy after an extended period of time called shelf life? Once we cracked that I knew then we're off to the races. Then it was partnering with the market, with the firemen. So one can say, oh, you know, cross Plains has identified soy foam as a solution. The truth be told, we just took feedback from the market, the firemen. I have a beautiful research facility in Wisconsin. We hand the professionals the samples, they run them through a battery of different tests at a fire research center in Chippewa Valley Technical College, and they're really the one that gave us the candid feedback.
Speaker 2:That is very interesting, folks, we are getting towards the end of our first segment here. We do want to thank Pulse USA and Bismarck for sponsoring this show today. You can call them for your cover, crop forage mix, grass mix and livestock feed products. They are 100% employee-owned, priding themselves in superb customer service. Reach out to them by calling 701-530-0734, or you can stop by their office at 2002 Northern Plains Drive in Bismarck, north Dakota, or visit their website, wwwpulseusacom, and find them on their social media platforms. We also want to thank Pifers, and we will be right back after this break.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to america's land auctioneer. I'm your host this week, christian miller, joined by my co-host, jack piper, and I tell you what, jack. We have got a great guest on today, dave garley from eau claire, wisconsin, and we have Chris Prochnow here as well, from Castleton. Tell you what we were just leaving off here. Dave was telling us how this whole process got started and how they kind of figured out the shelf life to this product to get it out to the market, and I think we should pick up right there where we left off, because we were just getting started. Sure, dave, why don't you jump in and tell us kind of what the next step was after the shelf life process.
Speaker 3:The next step in that process was because we're full, transparent. We're not firefighters. How do you put out fires? What is the unique combination of chemistries that the firemen are looking for to put out these fires? So you have to partner with somebody looking for to put out these fires. So you have to partner with somebody. So we partnered with Chippewa Valley Technical College, which is a regional technical college in the state of Wisconsin, eau Claire, where I reside. They just happen to have this beautiful research burn center and they'll do all kinds of research for Underwriters Laboratory, which is a governing institution, for smoke alarms, smoke detectors, to full-scale embodiment of eradication of fuel fires, for the Department of Defense, for a US Forest Service and for a variety of oil and gas markets. They're just well-designed to test the efficacy of chemistry. So you can't make this up. It was in my backyard, so I approached them with a project and we've been going on this for pretty consistently for about three years and they.
Speaker 2:They tested your product then at that point and and certified as as a safe product. Or did they give any certifications or just simply tested the effectiveness of the product or how right?
Speaker 3:so what do we make right? I don't know what to make. So we bring it to them and they and they'll run it through a battery different tests. They give us the feedback. So is your bubble structure? We need better drain time. We need better foam expansion. All this is all fireman language. Talk as a chemist. If you tell me what to build, I can build. Someone can make the argument. Well, cross Plains, did you really invent this? Well, the truth be told, we just built what they told us to build and once we achieve their objectives for our Class A, class B, it's called firefighting foam. They said we're going to take this to the market. We're going to certify this through NFPA, which is National Fire Prevention Association, a big governing body. As a start, we'll get this certified, then you can take this to the market. That's where we are today.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and so Dave and his crew took three firemen from Castleton, one from Enderlin and in the North Dakota Soybean Council. We went down to this facility and looked at it and we actually did testing there with them for a day. Very great laboratory. And things you need to know about foam is, you know, like he said, bubble concentrate, laying the foam pattern out. That's what this technical college did, because you don't just send a product out in the real world and let people use it.
Speaker 4:So they were able to do the tests on everything. They used petroleum diesel fuel, so crude oil. They did all that stuff which is in rural North Dakota, but they did a fabulous job at the technical college and the instructors there were spot on on what they were doing and what they were telling. Everything was documented and recorded. So you know, because foam bubbles you don't think it matters, but it does, because on a petroleum fire, that will coat the top of it and it seals it so it won't reignite.
Speaker 4:And that's what this company did. So they had to have is it a six-foot diameter circle, and lit it on fire inside this building and let her go. And then they took the foam and they started testing with it and it just you can think of it as a bubble bath, because once the bubbles covered the whole thing, the fire went out and it stayed out. It didn't reignite.
Speaker 4:And that's the biggest problem we have and the reason why the fire industry uses foam is because it's foam is wetter. It's less. You use less water with foam and it covers it or coats it the objects you're burning and it stays there. It doesn't go away. So that's where this technical college is covering all those bases for cross-plane solutions.
Speaker 5:Right. So I imagine the feedback you're getting from the actual firefighters who are putting it to use was pretty important to you guys for how the you know any improvements you need to make to the product and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:Most definitely that's the best testament the end user. So that relationship continues. Today, like we said, we started in rural America, which is accepted. I love it because you give them a sample and they take the back 40, and they test themselves to determine yay or nay. As you move down that value chain to the market, you'll have certification requirements. So we're working with the likes of the Department of Defense, camp Lejeune. They have a crisis so they need to pivot to something. But you can't sacrifice performance, right? You don't want to put our frontline defenders in harm's way by an inferior product. So we're always striving to compete against, to never not check that box. Us Forest Service they'll have their own certification process. California you know politic events that are taking place out there. There's a great deal of urgency and interest in the soy foam because of one first factor the environmental footprint. We're taking a meal.
Speaker 3:We're rebuilding it out. I mean, how much safer can one possibly make your chemistry? And we went through a great deal of lengths and third-party certifications to that point. The last thing we want to do is we've lost some community confidence from science because we weren't truthful, so lip service. You know there's no value. Science because we weren't truthful, so lip service. You know there's no value.
Speaker 3:So let's go to professional third-party entities and have them certify it, test it, document it and then present that to the community. So we actually have a placard. We're heavily supported by the United Soybean Board. So all you farmers out there, thank you for your checkoff dollars. And the qualified state soybean boards also give us support that effort that we put a placard together for the fire departments. In the event they go to a fire and they have to do remediation to make the safe, put out the fire, make the place safe, they'll have an ability to hand out a card that was put together by United Soybean Board to those points. So again, that's just part of building that community confidence back up again.
Speaker 2:That is an important thing that you mentioned there with having people trust in what the product is. We have seen a lot of or a few companies over the years where you mentioned you get a lot of that lip service and then unfortunately it's 10 or 15 years later till we really find out the detriment of that product. And so I think that's an important point you make there with the safety portion of it. I'm sure with other types of foam in previous years, some of those things would end up in the waterways and places like that where drinking water or water for animals and livestock and that sort of thing, and so I can see how rural America would be 100% behind the product. Taking a product that they're already raising and I guess we kind of consider of as waste with soybean meal, I know some people feed it out and it does go into some products.
Speaker 2:But it's really interesting how you've come up with something like this that can safely fight fires and be put to use. I think it's really a remarkable invention. You said that you only followed feedback, but I still consider it somewhat of an invention a new product on the market. Is this something now that a lot of fire companies? How are you? Are they purchasing this? Do they get federal grants? How are they accessing it?
Speaker 3:I mean, yeah, so the rollout right. What's your channel of market strategy? We didn't really have one. So as we sat down in the room like this and we surmised, you know what's the best approach and message to get out there? It's word of mouth. So we literally go to the state farm shows. I thought what better place in rural America to Chris's point, volunteer firemen typically are farmers Farm shows, they all have collection.
Speaker 3:So we set up a booth in Wisconsin and it was a huge success. It was overwhelmingly successful because, one, I can thank the farmers for the checkoff dollars, their investment. Without it this research is very challenging. And then, two, they can actually physically see and ask questions how their investments are being repurposed. And this one is close to community. So that iterative cycle has been very successful. And then you get the qualified soybean boards on board for each state. You get support from the national level. We go to national shows like the National FDIC show. It's Fire Department's International Conference in Indianapolis, very large show. So we hit it all levels. I just came from KMOT this fall. I met with Chris and they did some demonstrations at Big Iron and that type of engagement with community and the actual servicemen has been beneficial beyond recognition.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and that's where I first heard about the product was at Big Iron this past year and, chris, I know you were a big part of that demo out there and that's the best way to present your product right is to, instead of just telling people about it, show people what it is, what it does and how it can be put to use.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so like Dave was saying, the soybean boards and everything. So my neighbor is Jim Thompson. He's the president of the soybean council. Um, I forward this product onto him. I said this is something you guys should look at and they took it to their board and they looked at it and it was uh it, it was well received by that board.
Speaker 4:And then Dave and they reached out to Dave and and made a partnership with them and it's going strong. Big Iron was a big success. Anytime you put flames and smoke in the air, it's going to draw a crowd. We had a good crowd last year at Big Iron. We met a lot of volunteer departments that had not heard it and it was interesting. So Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I tell you what folks stick around. We are going to be back with our third segment after we take a quick break here. We do want to thank Pulse USA again. Make sure you reach out to them by calling 701-530-0734 for your cover crop forage and grass mixes and livestock feed products. We also want to thank Piper's Auction Realty and Land Management for also sponsoring today's show. I'm Christian Miller and we'll be right back after this segment. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer.
Speaker 2:I'm Christian Miller, your host on this week's episode, and I am joined by Jack Piper, hosting alongside of me today. Jack, we've got a great guest on.
Speaker 5:Yes, we do. Yep, we've got Dave Garley here with Crossplane Solutions talking about their awesome product, soy Foam. We've also got Chris Prochnow, one of Piper's great equipment managers, here in studio. So we were just talking about last year or this past year at Big Iron, seeing this product put to use. And, crispy, you actually were leading that demonstration, weren't you?
Speaker 4:Yep, so I'm on the Big Iron board. I've been on there for over 10 years and we're always looking for live demonstrations, you know, in the ag communities or ag industries. So I went to the board and I said we will be doing a demonstration with this and they were 100% on board. They picked a spot out over in the corner where we could do live burns and show this to the public, because it's a public event at Big Iron. And we partnered with West Fargo Rural Fire Department.
Speaker 4:Steve Barron is the fire chief over there. He agreed to bring a couple of his firefighters and their apparatus is over so we could use their truck and we burnt pallets, which is wood, wood structure. We did petroleum-based products, we did straw bales, we did other things that you're not supposed to burn but make black smoke and it put everything out. The major thing, you know, we were able to play with this the way we kind of wanted to at Big Iron and we had some straw bales and we could spray the spray foam in front of the fire before we even started it and let it sit. It would soak through the bales and the fire would burn right up to the bale or that line and it would go out. It wouldn't burn past that. And the interesting thing was, is so Big Iron starts on Tuesday and we did a demonstration Tuesday morning. Wednesday morning, tuesday, wednesday and then Thursday at noon. We piled everything together.
Speaker 4:Well, we couldn't get it to light up on fire because we used soy foam too and we had a hard time getting it going. But we finally used some accelerant and got it started. But we kind of cleaned our own mess up. But oh it was. We probably had the first segment. We did probably 100 people there and we had a microphone and I was explaining what was going on and how this product was, and there was a lot of interest at that time. And was that the first live demo you did in public, dave?
Speaker 3:That was the first live demo.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So and you got to do this, I mean, you got to promote these new products. And because agriculture in North Dakota is number one in anybody's book, I feel, yeah, we have industry and we have everything else, but who's the backbone of North Dakota? It's the farmers, right, and if we can utilize what they're making or growing, let's support them a little bit. And Dave was fortunate enough, and him and Alan, his partner, they were up here all three days and helped us and it went spectacular. It was a good thing they had a booth in the one building but, lots of compliments.
Speaker 3:It's a community event, right, we all stay in our lane, like I always like to say I'm your scientist, so I'll stay in my lane. But the support and the acceptance from the community that Chris just alluded to has been imperative for our channel for success.
Speaker 5:Yeah, absolutely Yep. So you know how do people really get their hands on the product? And I know you guys were talking earlier about you know some promotion stuff that you guys are doing. Talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, like I say, I always stay in my lane. So this is where my partner, one of my partners, alan Snipes he's our CEO. He really takes the handle of this effort and what he does he goes across the country and lines up distribution.
Speaker 3:So he's got distributors lined up across the country that are versed in this field. So the one for this particular region is Hyman out of South Dakota, and so Hyman services a relatively large area North South Dakota, minnesota, montana so we made a deal with them and they have the abilities to not only provide firefighting foam, soy foam, to each department, but a variety of everything that the firemen need, from turnout gears to hoses, equipment and everything else. So it just makes sense to align yourself with those that service their departments.
Speaker 2:Sure, absolutely and Crispy. Are the fire departments getting grants for this stuff or are they having to buy it out of their own pocket? How has the access been to get the products?
Speaker 4:So gratefully. Like we've mentioned in the past here, the Soybean Council has been a huge part of that. So the Soy soybean board voted. They were giving one five-gallon free pail to every fire department in North Dakota to let them use it, test it, work with it, try it out, see how it works. You know, being in North Dakota, freezing factor is a major point because we don't always have the nicest weather, you know, and there's a lot of questions like that. So this way they can take it, use it, try it in their own outfits and go from there. Now, not everybody has the same foam systems on their apparatuses or in their grass rigs. Some are able to just dump it into a tank after it's been cleaned out, and never, never, ever. Like Dave says, mix chemistry ever.
Speaker 4:You don't know what's going to happen.
Speaker 4:So, once you get your stuff cleaned out, then they can test with it. It's like Christmas all over again in the summertime. Basically is what it is, because it's white and it's foamy and it sticks around for several hours afterwards. But the Soybean Council came on board and Shereen Shereen Elamati Elamati she is the education person at the Soybean Growers Association and took this to a new level. She has been very, very helpful, not only from Dave's point of view but my point of view, and John Hale, my fire chief. We've all kind of worked together and this is what we should do and this is what we shouldn't do. And she does all the literature. She put pamphlets together and she's promoting it in the education program or segments that they do for the schools, which is another wide variety of things that the council does.
Speaker 4:But five gallon pail and the fire departments get a free bucket, but they have to reach out to the council and then they'll mail you a bucket. Now we were at kmot last week and we we signed up 15 new departments. We had 15 pails there, wow. So, um, we were able to give the western side of the state some products so they can test it out on their own. Lots and lots and lots of questions. So some of the departments have come up and used it. Some of them haven't, but they'll play around with it and they'll get used to it and it's healthy, it's safe.
Speaker 3:I think we're close to about 200 departments in the state of North Dakota that have been charged with a free pale. Is that right? I think there's around 350 departments in the state of North Dakota of itself. So the journey continues. We will be at fire school in a month back in Minot. So those listening to the cast, if you're going to go to state fire school training, you will have the opportunity. If your department has not received a sample, there will be samples available for you to take back to your department.
Speaker 4:Yep. So, and that's another place to, that's a good place for industry to see what's going on too.
Speaker 2:So Absolutely, and so if they have not received their pale and they're not at the training, they can reach out through the Soybean Council. Is that correct? And then they will be sent a pail that's free of charge for them to try? That is correct, and is that across multiple states that that offer exists, or is that only here in North Dakota? Because I know you've in one of our breaks you had talked about there's quite a few states on board now with this product.
Speaker 3:There is yeah, we've got departments charged from Virginia through Kentucky, all the way to the Midwest I just came from Minnesota Egg Expo in Mankato last week and every state. We follow the lead of the state. So we're following the lead of North Dakota Soho Council, south Dakota Soho Council. Same thing with Minnesota. We'll follow their lead. How do they want to roll the program out for their state? Every state's managed a little bit differently. The state of Minnesota is typically fire department. Firefighting phones is run by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. So there's guidelines and rules to engagement, regardless of the state. We'll support that. A popular practice has been get a bunch of samples in state hand samples to your regional representative that's on the council, and let that journey begin.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Will you talk a little bit about? I know Crispy had mentioned you kind of started here with a couple states here in the Midwest, but it sounds like this has really grown over time and you have quite a few states on board now with the product. Is that correct? That's correct, yes.
Speaker 3:So Mike Conner is actually down in North Carolina at a farm tech show and covering the same that I'm up here in North Dakota. So we divide and conquer across the region the qualified soybean boards. I believe there's 32 states that are members of the qualified state soybean boards and they all sort of report up to the United Soybean Board cooperative effort. So our message has really been localized to soybean producing states. The question becomes, knowing we have to drive demand of meal, how do we reach the other non-QSSB states?
Speaker 2:Absolutely Wow. That's very interesting. I'm really impressed by what I'm hearing. I didn't think that we were going to have this. I hope both of you can stick around for that. We'll pick up kind of where we left off. But we are going to take a short break here and before we hit that break, we do want to thank Pulse USA out of Bismarck, north Dakota, 100% employee owned, providing superb customer service for all of your grass and forage mixes and livestock feed products. Make sure you visit their website at wwwpulseusacom. I also want to thank Piper's Auction Realty and Land Management for sponsoring today's show. I'm Christian Miller alongside Jack Piper here. We're going to come back for our final segment here with Dave Garley and Chris Prochnow. We'll be right back after this break. Almond. Bin on here now $50,000. Bin now $25,000, $30,000.
Speaker 2:Almond bin on here now $30,000. Bin now $30,000. Bin now $30,000. Bin now $25,000. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Christian Miller, hosting alongside Jack Piper on this week's show. Jack, we have got two great guests on here and we are going to dive right back in to kind of where we left off. We have a couple topics to cover and I know that during the break we were discussing a little bit about how this application works and I know you had some questions on that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, absolutely yeah. We've been talking about the soy foam product. You know, a product used by firefighters and, crispy, you were saying that all the Castleton trucks now have this product and have been rolling it out, and so you guys have used this on a few occasions now.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So after Big Iron last fall, we drained all our old foam, got rid of it and converted everything to soy foam. We have used it several times. We've used it on a combine fire already. That was in I think it was mid-October that that went up Worked great, did not rekindle, it was perfect. We used it here not that long ago, in December, we had a semi-trailer full of department store goods, which is anything from clothes to shelves, which is very compact when the packaging burns. Instead of pulling it all apart, we took a loader and tipped the truck over and then sprayed it with spray foam. Worked very good, and that's another factor. Is that okay? Now you've got a big mess on the interstate with a semi-trailer. Now you've got water washing things like that. So on a normal situation, if it was with the old foam and how much foam you use, you know like we were using one and a half percent concentrate to the water and it's all in inside the truck.
Speaker 4:so we have a 30 gallon tank inside the truck that the soy foam goes in. There's an inductor right in our pump compartment and it it goes right through the fire hoses. We don't have to buy any special nozzles, which is a huge plus, because the nozzles are that we use are very expensive. They're a couple apiece. There's other inductors you can use so you can suck it right out of the five-gallon pail if you choose, and things like that.
Speaker 4:So when we were using the foam, you notice, the flames went down, they kind of kicked back a little bit and then all of a sudden they went out, and that's because the foam smothers the fire. But we don't have to call a hazmat team to come and do the cleanup because it's not triple F foam, it's environmentally safe, it's safe for people, you can walk through it, you can handle it with your hands, it doesn't matter, and this product will be huge. I think we also used it on a hay bale fire we had, which is just, we don't have many hay bales in Cass County. You have an individual hay bale in the ditch. Yeah, yeah, but you know, usually you roll them out to put them out and the soy foam just blanketed it out.
Speaker 4:And so and unfortunately, you know, western north dakota they have a lot of hay and you lose a lot. And I know day I was talking to dave the other day and the state of iowa state in ames, iowa, they're testing it to see if they can still use the hay after it's been burnt. So grind it up or do whatever they choose to. You know that's just another um check off of the list that questions that are need to be answered. So, um, we plan on using this all the time. It doesn't matter if it's going to be hay bales. We'll use it on a house fire. Car fires is where it really benefits us. It seems to put out a car pretty quickly and the best part about that is that we don't use hundreds and hundreds of gallons of water. We can use 150 gallons of water versus 800. You know so it's saving you. Your water source is a huge. You have to be able to manage water in the fire service and this product helps tremendously with that.
Speaker 5:Yeah Well, and obviously that's been a hot topic in the news even lately. You know limited water resources and putting out fires out on the West Coast, so that's, you know, another huge plus for this product, and the fact that you guys have it in all your trucks now is a huge testament to the efficiency of the product. And you know the the most interesting thing that I thought you said there is that you don't need to have a hazmat team come in afterwards and and clean up the site. I mean, that's a that's a big deal compared to, compared to, you know, competitor products, which you know how. So that's what I wanted to ask you about, dave, is how does this really compare to some of the competing products out there on the market?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the market move is obviously AFFF. Pfas-containing firefighting foams are going to be engineered out of our community, for good reason. What do you replace them with? So everyone's scrambling for a replacement product. What do you replace them with? So everyone's scrambling for a replacement product. To date, we're the only one that's taken the agriculture route with soy as to find a replacement piece, so we're very proud of that. With that comes a great deal of accreditation and so, like I said earlier in the segment we go through a lot of testing.
Speaker 3:Third-party certifications to EHNS environmental, health and safety Regain customer confidence. Here's some of the high notes. Environmental Protection Agency deems your product readily biodegradable. In the event, 60% of your chemistry goes away in 180 days. You can get a certification that says ready biodegradable Because we're using meal. You know over 50% of the formulation is made with meal. Our EPA scores off the charts. We go away 60% in 180 days, right In 18 days. So to Chris's point. That's what we want.
Speaker 3:So here's a fire, there's a threat Department comes out, frontline defenders eliminate threat. There's foam everywhere. Well, let it go. Let Mother Nature now the clock's ticking. She's designed to do this and she's gone in 18 days, by the end of the year forget it. So we're very proud of that. We don't want to sacrifice that. And that carries through to a variety of other aquatic toxicity testing, mammalian toxicity testing Chris may have mentioned. You know we're not stopping there. So if someone's barn starts on fire, silo starts on fire, we use the foam to eliminate the thread, put out the fire.
Speaker 3:Can we feed that back out to livestock? Well, let's put it to the hands of the professionals. So I know we got a study at Michigan State, ohio State. We've had discussions with NDSU about this topic. They're putting together design of experiments to address it. So let's do the testing, let's give it to the veterinarians that are professional and keen in this research and give us the report back. Yes, it's safe for feed out. So if we can continue that mission and effort, I think we're going to have a pretty good score.
Speaker 3:There is one closing statement and that is a certification that we're very, very proud of. It's called green screen certification and that's a company out of boston called clean production action, and so what they do is they take your chemistry to the granular degree back to the suppliers of each of those components and they put a score together. Our score is deemed gold. So what that means. There's platinum, gold, silver and bronze, right, so platinum. To get a platinum score, you basically would have to make it out of holy water, okay, but we actually are the only firefighting foam in the world that's green screen certified gold we're incredibly proud of.
Speaker 2:we'd never want to sacrifice that that's remarkable and that sort of sets we never want to sacrifice.
Speaker 3:that that's remarkable and that sort of sets us from competition. We feel.
Speaker 5:Yep, that's awesome. Well, we're winding out of time here a little bit for our final segment, but, dave, I just wanted to ask one. You know, give you one last chance here. How can people reach out to Crossplane Solutions? What's the?
Speaker 3:best way to contact you guys? Crossplanesolutionscom. Okay, and then, if you search all the social media, you'll get some hints as well.
Speaker 5:Perfect, perfect Well. Thank you for coming on, folks. I do want to make one announcement here over at a little change. Over at Pifers we are rolling out a new website. So if you go on to wwwpiferscom and you see a new look that you haven't been seeing in the past, that is still our website and any feedback is welcome on the new website. We're excited to be rolling that out to you guys.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I'm Christian Miller, your host this week, alongside Jack Pifer. We do want to thank Pulse USA again. We also want to thank our sponsor, pifers Auction, realty and Land Management. Reach out to our team for a free consultation on land and equipment. Thank you for being on today's episode. We'll see you next week on America's Land Auctioneer.