Ag Geek Speak

1. (Ag)ronomy with Emma Part 1

• A Podcast for Precision Agriculture Geeks • Season 2 • Episode 1

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With over 750,000 followers online, Ag with Emma is one of the most influential voices in American agriculture. In this episode, Sarah and Jodi sit down with Emma to chat about her journey from growing up in rural Idaho to building a dynamic career exploring agriculture and sharing her experiences online. From working in western North Dakota to gaining global experience in Australia, Emma shares how she’s navigated the ever-evolving world of agriculture and harnessed the power of social media to connect with audiences worldwide. Tune in for insights on her career, her adventures, and the future of ag in the digital age. 

Connect with Ag with Emma here: https://linktr.ee/agwithemma 

Sarah:

Welcome back to Ag Geek Speak. We have a very exciting episode today. We are going to be visiting with Ag with Emma. Emma, we are very excited to have you today. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. Emma has actually been using GK Technology's, ADMS software, for doing some precision agriculture things, and so we're going to be talking about that coming up here. But to get things started, we thought we'd just visit a little bit with Emma. She is a social media influencer for agriculture, which is super fascinating to me, and we're going to talk a little bit about how she got into that and how she got into her whole career. She's had just kind of a very dynamic and interesting career so far. So, Emma, where are you from?

Emma:

Well, I'm from Southern Idaho. I grew up over there. I've been all over the place. I was born in New Hampshire but I've just like state jumped. I've lived a lot of different places but I grew up in Southern Idaho. So like eight, ten-ish years I was over there. So we're just gonna count that as where I'm from.

Emma:

During high school and everything I was involved in FFA. My dad managed a farm in southern Idaho, or helped manage it anyway. So we didn't get to really go be on the farm with him, since it was more of a corporate vibe. You know you can't really go ride along kind of thing, can't have like your dad teach you how to drive tractors. So I was just involved in local community stuff like FFA, helping neighbors with chores. You know we'd feed animals for neighbors when they were gone and stuff like that.

Emma:

But after high school I started college. I went to College of Southern Idaho it's a community college and I got my degree in general agriculture. It was emphasis in crop production, agronomy, plant science kind of deal. And then after that I was going to go get my bachelor's. But then I decided against that. I went for a semester, decided it wasn't for me for right now, and then I went to work on a farm back in southern Idaho and after, like during all of this time, I started Ag with Emma.

Emma:

And I started ag with Emma because I was also during my time at CSI, I was working in seed production, which is a huge thing in Idaho because of their climate and everything, and we were doing sugar snap peas. So after I had talked with my family and friends about that, no one really knew what I was doing at work. So I started making videos about it and I didn't think it would ever turn into what it is now, because, as of right now, I'm probably sitting at around like 750,000 followers over the internet and I'm like I started um with like 50 subscribers. It took me like six months to get 50 subscribers.

Emma:

I was like I just chugged away at it and I wasn't even trying to like blow up and be famous. I was just meeting new people and I was having a lot of fun. I was learning a lot. During the time that I started, my parents moved to Iowa, so I was driving from Idaho to Iowa and I was seeing all these new things that I hadn't seen before. You know, like huge grain bin sites and you know corn without irrigation. I didn't know like irrigation wasn't a thing everywhere like.

Emma:

It just wasn't a concept that I was familiar with, because when I was younger you know you don't pay attention to that stuff Like I didn't at least. So your farm kids would know that I wasn't that kid. So after I started driving out there, I started connecting with other people that were also sharing on the internet. I was added to some group chats with people that were like oh yeah, what she does is really cool, you should get to know her. And then I'd go and meet up with people on my drives, or people would just let me stay at their houses, let me like go look at their farm the next day, kind of thing, and leave.

Emma:

So when I went to college I was doing the podcast and then I dropped out because I got one of my friends I met off. Tiktok was a custom harvester or he ran with a crew, and I was like that looks really cool because I get the big drone shots, a little combines lined up, and I'm like I've never seen that before. So I did a podcast episode with him. And then, after we're done with the podcast, I'm like okay, like how do I go do this? And they're like well, you can send us a resume and I was like brother, no way, I just talked myself into this like I don't even know how to drive a tractor.

Sarah:

So after a second, you went harvesting on a harvest crew and you had never driven like a tractor or a combine before I had driven like a 3010, you know like a little Like a small one yeah.

Emma:

Nothing huge and nothing. No huge grain cart on the back. Like the first time I took the 8R and the like 1200 bushel cart down the road I almost started crying. So I was like this is insane, insane. Like I had my guy with me to like, okay, it's gonna be okay. But he's like make sure you turn your flashers on, take it really. So I probably drove like five miles an hour down the road, not like bombing at 31, you know, just whipping it around. But it was great.

Emma:

Like I don't know why I was so intimidated. But the first time I ever dumped on a truck just bushels over the side, just piles and piles, and I had to go over there and scoop it all up. But, um, it was a learning experience, to say the least. Yeah, yes, I hadn't been in a combine cab ever, like really before that I knew combine, like I knew how they worked to some degree, but I'd never just sat in a car. Like the first time I rode along with my boss. He was trying to teach me how to run a combine. It was just all so foreign and new to me. Like I just learned how to drive a tractor. Real good I mean proficiently, I guess would be the word maybe.

Jodi:

I like real good, better real good, real good ish um, and then I, like, got in the combine.

Emma:

he started letting me take over the combine after dinner some nights and then after I was done with harvest crew, that was from May to November of 2022. And then I went to Australia and went and drove combine and grain cart down there.

Sarah:

So you've been to Australia to go and do custom harvesting down there it was just for a family that I knew.

Emma:

I went and helped them out for a couple of weeks so I did canola harvest down there the year they had all the flooding. So they were like you have literally chosen the worst year to come and run harvest.

Sarah:

Did you say canola? Yeah, canola. In Australia we passed a lot of canola fields yeah.

Emma:

I was going to say you were just down there at like prime time to see all that stuff.

Jodi:

Yeah, I've got a video where I'm like oh look, they're rolling near, they've got canola.

Sarah:

In the canola bud Get her whipped. So how? How is harvest?

Emma:

different in Australia than it is in the United States. I mean, there's a lot more spiders Like you're fueling up the combine on the come like the fuel deck, and it's nasty there's spiders falling everywhere it's disgusting. I haven't ever like you.

Sarah:

You do realize that's one of the reasons why I love being from North Dakota, because it does get to be like minus the spiders are the riffraff that are kept out by the most it's a wow yeah, did you ever have like any snake issues?

Emma:

um, I didn't have any up close incidents, but everyone was always telling me about brown snakes and it terrified me.

Jodi:

I was so terrified I think they can sense my fear.

Emma:

They're like more poisonous than rattlesnakes, but they don't rattle. They don't announce themselves.

Jodi:

I've been told that they bark a barking so it's so funny because, like when we were down there so I went down with a friend, uh, back in December to go look for birds and like we saw one Eastern brown snake and then they're like.

Jodi:

Oh, we're just going to step away, it's fine. You know, if you just mind his own business, it'll be fine. And then we're like, oh yeah, we'll just avoid, avoid that. And then the next two days we proceeded to see like two by ourselves, just like walking around and we're like we could do with less of these experiences. The snakes are not again.

Sarah:

North Dakota 30 below.

Emma:

I love it yeah, it kills everything that's not supposed to be here so aren't you glad you, you are now getting to embrace this yes, the cold really does not bother me that much, like it does a little bit, you know, like it kind of hurts when you cough today, but it's just, I think it is my like power steering in my pickup has not been good.

Jodi:

It's been like negative 20, and here I am mentioning the weather, when I'm not supposed to either, but like it's cold enough where I feel like it's affecting my power steering oh, it definitely that kind of cold yep yeah.

Emma:

You got to just let her warm up a little bit, let her lubricate.

Sarah:

Every now and again you got to like just turn the wheel, so it gets to be.

Jodi:

These are the days that I question a little bit about where I'm living.

Emma:

But you know what? But tomorrow it'll be 20 above, yeah, yeah.

Sarah:

And if I, have to pick between snakes and spiders and putting on an extra layer and just letting the car warm up.

Emma:

I don't know what I'm picking. Plus there's no hurricanes or earthquakes. Just blizzards, yeah, but but we don't get those a lot anymore. I mean, you guys probably do because you're on like the flat side. Yeah, you're living in the banana belt of North Dakota.

Sarah:

You are the banana belt of North Dakota.

Emma:

It only gets down to 15 below there. It was negative 20 this morning.

Jodi:

Thank you, give me five more degrees. So speaking of, you're in North Dakota now, but between Australia and now, what have you been up to when?

Emma:

I got back from Australia it was December of 2022 and then I did like the farm show stint of like traveling around. I did like a couple big trips of visiting people because my parents my parents move around so much. I'm pretty sure this is part of my success story, because if they hadn't moved I wouldn't have started moving, which is fine. I give them a lot of grief for it, but they were in Iowa. Then they moved to California, but my mom was still in Iowa when I got back from Australia and then my dad was working in California because he had to start planting. So my dad actually picked me up from the LAX airport and we drove to Iowa for Christmas. Like we took two days and I had just gotten off the freaking 17 hour plane ride. You know how I didn't sleep the whole time on the plane ride back. I was so jet lagged I slept for two. I'm not even joking.

Emma:

So we drove and then I was just going from Iowa to California, to Idaho. I was just driving all over the place and stopping on farms and then I made some YouTubes about that. I had a friend that needed some help with farm show stuff, so I helped her for a couple of weeks, and then in between that, I went to Iowa, worked on a dairy for a couple of weeks that my brother worked at, cause I was like, well, I don't know what else to do with my life and I can just stay with my mom for a couple of weeks until I figure something out. And then my boss in North Dakota, the farmer that I've been working for, uh, we harvested for him in 2022. So 2023 year olds around, he calls me. He's like hey, I have a job for you and I really like your videos and how you work, so you should come work for me. So in May of 2023, I moved up here and then I've been up here ever since. So, and then I just started working with Kyle in September of 2024.

Emma:

And that's Kyle Oki with Agile Agronomy, yep so he's the new boss man, but it works really good because I always try to work with people that are okay with being videoed and like helping with videos and okay with like, oh, I need to make this video today, we're gonna make it happen. Sometimes it takes a little longer to make those videos and stuff like that, but I think it just it pays off in the long run. So it's cool to have bosses that are like, yeah, go make a video. Like, yeah, go tour this place. Like, yeah, that video was so cool. So I've always I've always had the best luck with bosses. I get that question a lot. They're like, how'd you get into what I, what you do? And I'm like I just find people that like being on camera man like this easiest part about it just gotta find someone that likes seeing their face on the internet and then just go from there.

Emma:

So that's, that's amazing. That's just how I've come across all of these things. I gotta've got to find the right people.

Sarah:

Absolutely it is. It is an industry of relationships, though, isn't it?

Jodi:

Yeah, sure You've done. You've done and seen so many things in the last.

Emma:

Yeah, like three years. Yeah, I'm only 23.

Sarah:

Oh my gosh.

Jodi:

When I tell people that they're like so it's like what haven't you seen that You're like I really. That's on the bucket list.

Emma:

I really want to go see sugar cane harvest like so bad and I want to hit every continent and operate a piece of equipment on every continent. That's a big goal.

Sarah:

Do you do you know how to drive truck? Do you like driving?

Emma:

Yeah, I just learned how to do that. So, I don't drive confidently, but I can move it down the road. I can move it from the bin site to the elevator. Maybe not fast and maybe not safely, but I can move the truck.

Jodi:

I think that's enough of a qualification to drive sugar beet truck.

Sarah:

That's exactly what I was thinking. Yeah, I was going to say we can't hook you up with sugar cane, but we can get you hooked up with sugar beet and I have uh sugar beet harvest in idaho.

Emma:

Actually I've been like of course you would yeah so a little bit like I've been part of it actively, I've droned it and I've videoed it and stuff like that and I've worked for farmers that planted beets. So during planting I was helping them with getting planters ready and everything.

Sarah:

But have you ever done sugar beet harvest on a wet Fargo clay.

Emma:

I haven't. I think this year I'll talk to Kyle about letting me loose for a week so I can come experience it.

Sarah:

If it's wet and muddy, some of those guys like to equate it to. It can be challenging. It can be challenging character building.

Emma:

character building we're all about the character there's no characters here at this podcast.

Sarah:

Yeah, no character.

Jodi:

Glad you could join us have you operated a piece of equipment in south america yet?

Emma:

I haven't. So that's like I think europe is on the docket for this year and then south america is next. But I've been hesitant about the south america thing because of safety and like just going with the right people and finding the right people to visit down there. And I know there's a lot of people that have messaged me and like, hey, you can come visit, like we'll help you out whenever you come down here. I guess it's just pinpointing where I want to go.

Jodi:

I think I can help you with that. We'll talk later. Perfect, perfect, that's okay.

Emma:

I really like those pictures from South America where they have the combines running and then the planters like right behind them and it's like a fleet and they all have those like weird little yellow top thing. I think it's so cool. It is Like it's like Arkansas, but cooler. I don't know. South America and Arkansas are just the same.

Jodi:

There's like a Venn diagram of like crops and like temperatures.

Emma:

Yeah, it's just like over those. You have Arkansas, the South and South America right there. They're holding hands. They're basically yeah.

Jodi:

It sounds weird, but I think I get exactly what you're saying.

Emma:

Yeah, exactly, and like Australia is Texas, and then the East Coast is Europe, and then Antarctica is obviously North Dakota.

Jodi:

Yeah.

Emma:

Just without the polar bears. No snakes.

Jodi:

Have you been to Antarctica yet? No, are you in Antarctica yet?

Emma:

I think that'll probably be like one of the I don't know, that's a couple of years from now. You got to approach that in the right way. I know I have some connections to like go do stuff down there. You have connections to get to antarctica. I think I've seen some messages on my platform of like hey, I have connections and I'm like oh okay, agriculture on antarctica? I would be curious I think it's just like I don't know what they do down there. I don't know if it's like research pretty much.

Emma:

Yeah, exactly, I don't know what they're. I need to look into it, and that's why I haven't, like, really touched it yet I'm like focused on the europe thing. I really want to go see clarkson farms yes, I need to like that is the goal. That would be like I need to partner with fen and go see clarkson you kind of remind me of um.

Jodi:

Oh, what's his face, his hired, not his hired hand, his contractor. What's his face, his hired, not his hired hand, his contractor.

Emma:

What's his name? The one that no one can understand.

Jodi:

Same Dennis or something. No, the kid like and he always kind of looks at um Jeremy, like he's got, he's losing his mind.

Emma:

I know his name. Why can I? I do too.

Jodi:

It's too coming out of my mouth I Garth, and I just watched the uh, his Amazon special. He's got like uh, he's touring like Great Britain and talking about the importance of farming and agriculture, and that's why I want to go see him.

Emma:

Yeah, because he's so, yeah, he's so involved in that stuff and I think that would just be a knocker of a video yeah, I love it.

Jodi:

You guys are such great ag communicators, like I would just love to see it. I would watch, I would watch and he's so funny he is.

Emma:

I would have so much fun with it. It's hilarious. That's the goal for this year, and then I think South America is probably like next year, the year after that, so I'll have to chat about the South you got it yeah, it's good to have life goals until then enjoy North Dakota.

Sarah:

Enjoy freezing your ear off. It's like paradise. If you squint really hard, the snow looks like sand and it's almost like a beach, but not really. Oh, that's awesome. So you've been working with Kyle since when did you start working?

Emma:

I started in September. So harvest got over and like middle of September I started with Kyle ish, I think it was like the last week September, because he goes on his like big vacation and then I started. So when I started we were he needed help with soil sampling. I was calling Bridget and I was like, hey, yo, I need to do something new. My brain needs like to be exercise. I don't know. I was just like I need something new and I think that's part of why what I do works for me is because I'm always like anymore, maybe I have problems anyway. Um, I talked to Kyle. He's like yeah, we can get you out soil sampling and because I think he mentioned that you did it with him for a little bit and then he didn't have his other intern anymore, because he was in school.

Emma:

So he's like yeah, I just need help. So I started and it was really nice to be in a pickup, because I used to pull soil samples for simplot in college for like a couple weeks and that was awful because it was a hand probe oh my gosh yeah, terrible on a side by side that I had to haul around everywhere terrible so the trailer like, not even in the back of the car, so you would trailer a side by side With a hand probe.

Sarah:

How big were the fields that you were pulling?

Emma:

I don't even remember. They were probably like half quarter section you know like A half section. Yeah, like smallish Maybe.

Sarah:

Well, a half section is like Fairly.

Emma:

I mean, yeah, as you go west you're gonna find some, there weren't like super, duper, huge, but they I cannot remember it was so long ago and I don't know like the average field in southern idaho was that for potato production? For some plot there was a lot of hay fields, a lot of pivot station stuff so you've soil sampled. Yeah, I soil sampled with a hand probe. So everyone that like comes at me my comments. I'm like brother, I've been there, I've been in, I've been in the trenches of soil sampling.

Emma:

I get it because they're like oh, you're so spoiled, your hydraulic pump soil probe.

Sarah:

I'm like I've been there. There is a fine line between tough and stupid oh, really yeah oh, that might be harsh to the audience well, you've got to work smarter, not harder.

Jodi:

There we go exactly and and the thing is too is like I think one misconception about like northern, the whole northern prairies um, people don't think about the 6 to 24 inch depth for soil sampling and same thing with, like testing for nitrate. So you might look at us and be like, oh, you guys are so fluffy in your soil sampling trucks, but that's a huge way for us to get that six to 24 inch data the knot in my shoulder would suggest otherwise well, and we need that data so we can get that nitrogen data.

Sarah:

And the irony is when, when we actually need to be pulling that, in drought situations.

Jodi:

Oftentimes that ground is extremely hard, so you can't push anything farther though yeah, three inches when it's so dry and this year was dry, yeah because you saw, I mean when you started back in september, like it was very dry, it was really dry like after it rained it made a world of difference.

Emma:

So I know kyle probably struggled more than I did at some point, I don't know, because kyle got on the group and was like yeah, this is terrible, and I was like I don't know what's wrong with yours. It's been fine, I haven't noticed, but I'm sure it was just his experience like because I hadn't had prior experience so I didn't know what it was like to have a nice soil core. I was used to like 18 max inches and he's like no, they should be pulling 24.

Jodi:

So yeah, but that's nice, like getting starting with the hard stuff so that you don't know any better. Yeah, perfect. So hopefully next year is not harder.

Emma:

See, yeah Miracles, it rained and then it was great again, except corn stubble. Like I hate sampling on corn stubble.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Emma:

I just kind of the no-till corn stubble that all the stocks are like up in your mirror and the pickup's just sitting there like the whole time and it's just you get out of the pickup and you got to like dig all the corn stocks out everywhere and the exhaust and you can, like you smell like a campfire because all your corn stocks are shoved up in your, your exhaust, because little probe thing is just sitting there like blocking everything nothing says safety like soil sampling on no-till residue csos signals it's not on purpose those are, those are accidental

Sarah:

so kyle on his soil sampling pickups actually has that push bar in the front. I know he likes to use it on sunflowers.

Emma:

He has it on his white one but not the black one.

Sarah:

Okay, did you get to use it on the white one at all? I?

Emma:

did on the sunflowers.

Sarah:

Yes, how did?

Jodi:

it work.

Emma:

I think it worked fine. I just I didn't really notice cause it just plowed through it anyway but it worked to not like get stuff stuck in like. When I got out of the field I didn't notice there was a lot less stock issues okay, so it went good awesome the first time I used it.

Emma:

I didn't. I think Kyle was busy or something. I couldn't get a hold of him, so I pushed it down. And then I couldn't find any pins, so I used a freaking paper clip. And he's like I normally don't do that, it's like I don't even pin the thing, I just push it down. I'm like brother, I didn't know the instructions here.

Sarah:

Yeah, I mean, I was just assuring that it was secure that's all.

Emma:

Did you a favor that's so funny, just macgyver it literal paperclip yeah, so emma macgyver and you have paperclips all over because those agvis samples like we paperclip all of them together for a field. So there's paperclips all over because those Agvize samples like we paperclip all of them together for a field. So there's paperclips literally everywhere. Like if you need something and you can't do it with a paperclip, you're probably in the wrong profession.

Sarah:

So please tell me that you've got WD-40 in your cab. Yes, I never used it, though.

Emma:

What.

Jodi:

I used it one day. But then I switched to a non-slotted probe.

Emma:

That like a really bad. That was the day. It was snowing, it was whiteout conditions. I hit a rock. My probe was disgusting. There was mud water everywhere. Like I, it was nasty.

Sarah:

I think I remember seeing some of those pictures because I sent a video to the probe puss.

Emma:

You know it's like I don't think I've ever sworn more so there is this uh internal group snap Sorry I mention it all the time. What is this?

Sarah:

And so there's some of us out there that enjoy soil sampling probably more than we should, and we turn it into. We try to make it as pleasant as possible. We learn from each other. We have a couple members that are a member down in South Dakota. We have some members out in Dickinson, one by Dickinson, north Dakota, one by Devil's Lake, north Dakota, and then I'm over here by Hillsborough Halstead in the midst of the Red River Valley, and Jodi is up at Northwood, which is just on the edge of the Red River Valley, kind of going out of the Red River Valley of North Dakota. And then we've also got a gal who's up by um basically in Canada.

Emma:

Yeah, she lives with the moose.

Sarah:

Yeah, Northwest North Dakota. She's very close to the Canadian border, so we've got a lot of geography differences in there and we just got Lane in South Dakota. Yeah, yeah, you said that and so we just like exchange snaps all day long and we see what everybody's doing and so, yeah, when, when emma got to experience soil sampling in the snow, I was like, wow, that's a lot of mud in that cab it was impressive.

Emma:

I told Kyle I will never be doing that again. I will be on the combines rear end if that means I never have to sample the snow again, which probably isn't realistic.

Sarah:

But I told him next year, if I have to do this, I won't be that was just a really bad day so yeah, you gotta have it, you gotta, you gotta have those character building days it makes the good ones really good.

Emma:

It really does. I really appreciated the summer after that day because I hit that rock on my passenger side and I didn't see it because the wind and the snow was blowing and I just thought it was dirt.

Emma:

I ran over it and my whole pickup just like boom boom and I was like I didn't see like everything, like it was bad. And then my exhaust is sitting there like and I'm like I was hot boxing myself because the exhaust broke off and it's right by the hole, like the soil sampling holes right here. The exhaust separates right there. So I was hot boxing myself. I had to keep the window down, like cracked for the rest of the day yeah, while it was snowing, yeah so, and then we had to drive home.

Emma:

We literally pulled out of the last field because we were like we literally can't do anything about this and it was being unsafe to stay there more. So we were in the pit of the worst of the blizzard that was happening that day. And then the wind was like, oh, you thought you were getting out of here. Live shoddy, say otherwise. So we drove home, we got back on the interstate we're I, I don't know. I was literally so scared. And then my exhaust. I couldn't hear myself think because it was just like and the cab like a little rice burner.

Jodi:

It was terrible so that was a nightmare in itself. I was gonna say this probably did not help to like quell any of your dreams about soil sampling, yeah um, do you want to share any of your soil sampling dreams? Because I? I asked this because you are not the only person that has dreamt about either like field scouting or I can't even fathom the nightmares I'm gonna have about scouting.

Sarah:

I don't even want to know you're an agronomist when you have bad dreams about kochia and WD-40 in your soil sample probe you guys laugh because you know I'm right it's a part of the territory yeah, it's just terrifying.

Emma:

Well, the day before I hit the day, like the week prior to the snowstorm event, I had a dream that I was like driving around soil sampling and my tire fell off or something. I honestly can't remember my dream, like the nightmares that. It was nightmares. I can't even remember what I was dreaming about anymore, but they were scary and I always told the group about it and they're like Emma, I think you need to go to therapy. Jenna's like are you okay?

Sarah:

every now and again, emma likes to come onto our snapchat group and share with us what her agronomy dreams are.

Emma:

They're very vibrant dreams they're not scouting dreams yet, though. It's just soil sampling, so I can't imagine what the bugs are going to do to me the wire worms, oh.

Sarah:

I don't think we. Are you an entomologist type person?

Emma:

No, I just hate bugs, like the feeling of bugs.

Jodi:

No, thank you, you know, for like scouting. I think you're in a really good place, yeah.

Emma:

I mean we do a lot of like wire worm stuff and I haven't seen a lot of other.

Jodi:

Yeah, so I used to work with a guy from like missouri and they would do corn tasseling to tasseling for um seed corn and they would go up to the tassels and, like the tassels will be full of aphids. And of course you got to detassel it. So your hands are like full of aphid juice the whole time I would cry.

Emma:

I would not I always hear about the detasseling kids and I'm like y'all stronger than me.

Jodi:

Have you worked on like on a detasseling crew yet?

Emma:

No, I haven't and I don't think I will, because I'm like I walking through cornfields me off, like just getting so itchy and like everything like I've worked in cornfields before, like I've done a lot of data stuff with people before, we had a whole day that we had to go pick corn, like for data collection, and I was so itchy for like a week so I told Kyle, when he has to go scout cornfields, forget I exist. It's a good learning experience. I just prefer to not when the corn leaves are scratching out. It's fine. We used to run through cornfields all the time when we were kids.

Sarah:

I don't like doing scouting at corn either.

Emma:

Short corn is fine.

Jodi:

I've been slicing the eye. Yeah, it's not good. You got to wear like goggles.

Emma:

You got to go in there looking like a chemist? Yeah, pretty much, so it's not my cup of tea.

Jodi:

I hear you. I'm good there are softer crops out there.

Emma:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just I can't remember specifics about the dreams that I had. That's going to make me mad. I think I might have saved up my Snapchat memories honestly because it was so cooked that I was like dude. You need to record that.

Jodi:

Have you had similar dreams still about any of the other jobs that you've done in agriculture?

Emma:

Oh yeah, I've had dreams about dying in tractors and stuff like that.

Sarah:

Oh, no, no, that's terrible.

Emma:

I have nightmares about work or, like the typical, being late for work. Kind of you know, it's like when you're a kid and you dream about Missing the school bus. Or you have to get on the school bus naked.

Sarah:

Sorry but.

Emma:

My brain is fried. I don't know why, but well, it sounds like your.

Jodi:

Your dreams about soil sampling are at least like doesn't involve you dying, right? No?

Emma:

it's just like weird stuff that, oh, I think I had a dream about like phantom probes, like I kept probing and the like it just came back empty every single time. I was getting so mad and like I had a dream about being in g, garrison or something, but I didn't know, like my brain. I woke up and I was like how did my brain know that Garrison was a place? Because there's one field that we sample called Garrison and I didn't know it was an actual town in North Dakota, because I don't pay enough attention to be like, oh yeah, that field's named Garrison because it's inarrison crazy so I woke up, but I remember that I was having a dream, and I like had to look on google maps to find out where I was going, and it pointed me right to garrison, like, where garrison is on an actual map.

Emma:

My head remembered that, and so it was like you're going to garrison, but it was a little off, you know, I was like how did I know that, though? Because I've never looked for garrison, like I knew it was a field name, but why did it take me exactly right there?

Jodi:

The brain's amazing. You probably looked at a map like 10 years ago and like had some sort of like nugget when we have all this stuff pulled up and you're just looking at maps everywhere.

Emma:

That's like the only thing I can think of that it would have popped up Crazy.

Jodi:

I love it. I love it, yeah, so.

Emma:

I'll be sure to keep you guys posted on more of my nightmares. Maybe I'll make it a TikTok series. Tiktok is back. It was like a toxic ex-boyfriend. It's going to dump you one night and be like Shadi. I miss you. The next one the best explanation.

Emma:

I didn't even notice, I was sleeping the whole time it was banned. Like wake up and I get one alert and I'm like oh, that pisses me off. And then you log on like three hours later because you have a crippling tiktok addiction and you keep checking the app, anyway you know. But and then all of a sudden lunchtime it's back up. Here you go. Didn't even lose any money off it, man, it wasn't even gone long enough to miss it. They hyped that up for a month for nothing they need.

Sarah:

I think it was a marketing stint, no marketing.

Emma:

People would never do that. I don't think so. It seems illogical, I know.

Sarah:

But oh goodness, okay, so you are. You're you're kind of in the agronomy world right now and you're planning on being in the agronomy world through through the next year. Before we go, I am going to ask how you know you? You're doing soil sampling, you got to do crop scouting. What do you think is going to be your most favorite part of agronomy by the time you're working for Kyle for a year?

Emma:

I think when I get to tie it all in together on fields that I've like created maps for, to making roundabout on scouting and seeing where all like the issues came from, and then like finally knocking it in the butt, I mean like that was the issue, or being able to see like that's what that affects, or that's why that's a red zone, or these are the issues that were only in the red zones, and here's what the protein looks like on it. I love connecting the dot it. Just that's why I'm here, oh man you're gonna love that.

Sarah:

The next year it's gonna be great. Well, part of the soil sampling and the map making is that Emma has been using our software, and so on the next episode we will be talking to her a little bit more about that and her experiences with precision agriculture so far. It's gonna be a great conversation. This was a very fun conversation to have with you, just getting a chance to meet you a little bit more and learn a little bit more about you. So with that, we're going to bid everybody adieu for this episode and at GK Technology we have a map and an app for that.