In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Tim Danley, a dedicated farmer and tech innovator, about his unique journey into integrating drone technology with agriculture. Tim's path began on his family farm, where he worked during school breaks, and later enrolled in the Air Force as a military policeman. After returning home to manage Danley Farms, he became deeply involved in a range of activities, from overseeing diverse crops to volunteering as a firefighter and leading a search-and-rescue drone team. Tim's adoption of drone technology was driven by his desire to complement, not replace, traditional farming practices. He explained how drones are particularly effective for tasks like targeted spraying on small plots, and while his introduction of drones faced the same skepticism that innovations like GPS in farming once experienced, Tim’s efforts to educate others have been key in easing concerns and highlighting drones' practical benefits. One of the most inspiring parts of our conversation was hearing how Tim, a self-taught drone enthusiast, has embraced experimentation and failure as part of his journey. His approach to learning and applying technology highlights endless opportunities in agriculture—opportunities not just for farmers, but also for tech-savvy individuals looking to make an impact. Tim has a passion for putting a human face to farming, connecting with his community, and sharing stories that educate and inspire. Even his neighbors and colleagues have gained new appreciation for the industry through his work. As someone who believes in the power of storytelling, I was energized by Tim’s commitment to changing perceptions one video, one story, and one connection at a time. If you’re curious about Tim’s journey, you can follow him on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook under "North Wind Aerial." His work is a testament to what can happen when you combine passion, innovation, and a willingness to share your story. This conversation left me inspired and hopeful for the future of agriculture, and I hope it does the same for you.
In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Tim Danley, a dedicated farmer and tech innovator, about his unique journey into integrating drone technology with agriculture. Tim's path began on his family farm, where he worked during school breaks, and later enrolled in the Air Force as a military policeman. After returning home to manage Danley Farms, he became deeply involved in a range of activities, from overseeing diverse crops to volunteering as a firefighter and leading a search-and-rescue drone team.
Tim's adoption of drone technology was driven by his desire to complement, not replace, traditional farming practices. He explained how drones are particularly effective for tasks like targeted spraying on small plots, and while his introduction of drones faced the same skepticism that innovations like GPS in farming once experienced, Tim’s efforts to educate others have been key in easing concerns and highlighting drones' practical benefits.
One of the most inspiring parts of our conversation was hearing how Tim, a self-taught drone enthusiast, has embraced experimentation and failure as part of his journey. His approach to learning and applying technology highlights endless opportunities in agriculture—opportunities not just for farmers, but also for tech-savvy individuals looking to make an impact.
Tim has a passion for putting a human face to farming, connecting with his community, and sharing stories that educate and inspire. Even his neighbors and colleagues have gained new appreciation for the industry through his work. As someone who believes in the power of storytelling, I was energized by Tim’s commitment to changing perceptions one video, one story, and one connection at a time.
If you’re curious about Tim’s journey, you can follow him on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook under "North Wind Aerial." His work is a testament to what can happen when you combine passion, innovation, and a willingness to share your story. This conversation left me inspired and hopeful for the future of agriculture, and I hope it does the same for you.
North Wind Aerial: https://www.northwindaerialimaging.com/
Tim Danley: https://www.instagram.com/northwindaerial/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/northwindaerial/
Kirti Mutatkar, President and CEO of UnitedAg.
Reach me at kmutatkar@unitedag.org, www.linkedin.com/in/kirtimutatkar
UnitedAg website - www.unitedag.org
UnitedAg Health and Wellness Centers - https://www.unitedag.org/health-benefits/united-agricultural-benefit-trust/health-centers/
Episode Contributors - Tim Danley, Kirti Mutatkar, Dave Visaya, Rhianna Macias
The episode is also sponsored by Brent Eastman Insurance Services Inc. - https://brenteastman.com
Blue Shield of California - https://www.blueshieldca.com
Elite Medical - https://www.elitecorpmed.com
Gallagher - https://www.ajg.com/
SAIN Medical https://sainmedical.com/
MDI Network - https://www.mdinetworx.com/about-us
This is Ag! – Tim Danley
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:00:04] Good morning. Tim. How are you?
Tim Danley: [00:00:06] Doing good. Good morning.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:00:08] Good morning. This is - this is interesting. I'm excited to talk to you because you reached out to me. I think it's a couple months now, and I think.
Tim Danley: [00:00:16] It was back in springtime.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:00:17] Springtime. Yeah, yeah. And your mom suggested that you reach out to me, right?
Tim Danley: [00:00:22] Correct. So I put out a video on how rice is planted, and it got pretty well received. And I saw on a certain farming Facebook group that UnitedAg, my insurance company, liked the post, and I excitedly told my parents, I'm like, hey, look at this! And she goes, you know, UnitedAg has a podcast about farmers. You should really look into it and I did listen to a couple episodes. I'm like, you know, I feel like I could maybe bring a couple things to the conversation. So that's when I reached out. And finally, after several months of me being busy and you being busy, finally made it work to sit down and chat about it.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:00:59] Yeah, this is exciting. So yeah, this is what the whole podcast is all about. Right? I'm glad you reached out because this is a way of connecting a couple friends. Right. For me it is connecting with our members. That's what this is about. And also when I talk to you, when you reached out with your story of why you’re working in agriculture and what that means to you and the stories of agriculture, even from a technology [aperspective,] and things that you work on, was really something I think the listeners can take a lot away from. So I'm excited to talk to you today. So let's start off with that. Since you mentioned that your mom asked you to reach out to me, and that's how this happened. So I know you actually worked outside of agriculture and then decided to come back into agriculture. So tell us a little bit about what you do today and why you do what you do.
Tim Danley: [00:02:00] Gotcha. So today I'm a partnership in the farm. It's me and my dad. We're partners in Danley Farms, and I've been working on the farm for the last decade or so. But to keep working our way backwards. When I was in high school, every single break that I had from school was spent doing something. I never got a spring break, never got a fall break because that was planting and harvest seasons. So as a young teenager, I really wanted to get out and do anything besides the farm. So right out of high school, I enlisted in the United States Air Force, served as security forces, which is the Air Force's version of military police for four years, did three years as a military policeman, and then spent my last year working in an armory. Good thing I'd already decided I wanted to get out before I got into the armory, because we probably wouldn't be talking because I loved that job in the Armory so much I probably would have re-enlisted, but I found out military life is not quite for me -- especially being policemen. I love law enforcement, but it just wasn't for me. So I got out in 2014, came back and started working on the farm. And that's what I've been doing ever since. So I work on the farm. We manage about a thousand acres of almonds, about 200 acres of row crop on berry drip that we change up every year, and then in 550 acres of rice. And then on top of that, I have my wife and two kids that we love to hang out with. And then I am a firefighter, engineer and public information officer with my local fire department, and I am the drone team leader for my county search and rescue. So I stay quite busy. On top of deciding to get into drones for video production, because I felt like I needed a second job on top of everything else that I do.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:03:45] That's a lot that you have going on, I see you’re quite busy. You do, you do stay busy, and part of it looks like a lot of giving back that you do. Right. It's more of ‘service’ [is] kind of your personality. Seems like you're giving back with lots of things that you work on.
Tim Danley: [00:04:01] Correct. So the firefighting and search and rescue is completely volunteer. Even when we have big incidents where we might get called in for like a pre-positioned team, where they'll actually pay certified volunteers to staff the fire engines, I don't do that because I really don't want to take money to do it. I really enjoy doing it on a purely volunteer basis. Giving back to the community, especially when it comes to emergency services. It keeps things very interesting. And like you said, it's a great way of giving back to the community.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:04:31] Right. And especially in the region that you are right, there is a need for this. And partly when you think of agriculture in California, we are in areas of California that need some of kind of the growth and the community that it builds. Any thoughts on how agriculture is so important to California and what it means to communities?
Tim Danley: [00:04:53] Well, I don't have the exact stats in front of me, but I know California is kind of the breadbasket of the United States. We grow so many different crops, and we have such a high GDP because of it that it's very important not just to my local community. It's important to all United States, the world, but my community here in Glenn County is a completely agricultural community. You have the towns and then you have farmland. You either have orchards, row crop ground or rice fields. So that's agriculture is what my entire way of life, everyone's way of life basically is all focused on agriculture around here, whether it is directly producing the crops or helping maintain the equipment, sell the equipment, so on and so forth.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:05:40] Yeah. You know, you sometimes forget that that California sometimes we get caught up in Orange County or Northern Cal, right. The San Jose and the tech side of things. And you forget that agriculture is such a big part of California. And I've noticed sometimes when people listen to This is Ag! and they realize, I mean, this is like one of the top industries in the state and it doesn't get the credit or that it's dues, right, from how it's building things up. Ground up.
Tim Danley: [00:06:10] Correct. Yeah. People think of California as you know, there's always the old meme, the old joke that goes around, oh, you're from California, and they imagine big cities and beaches. And in reality, so much of California is farmland and woods and mountains. That kind of gets lost in the translation. I mean, California is known for its technological industry, but so much of it is agriculture based. And that's why I enjoy the whole drone thing, because it's kind of a huge blending of the two.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:06:35] Right. So what do you do on the drone side? Let's talk a little bit about that.
Tim Danley: [00:06:39] Gotcha.
Tim Danley: [00:06:39] So a little bit of background. I started flying drones about two and a half years or so ago when the Russo-Ukrainian war kicked off, and drone technology really started taking the forefront of, hey, look at all these things drones are being used for. I saw a video of someone using a drone that you wore goggles to fly it, and I didn't know that was a thing. You could just go out and purchase. And I went, I gotta get me one of those. So I ordered one, started getting really comfortable with it, and then started realizing, oh, there's a lot of applications this can be used for, especially with more of the higher end drones. So that's when I realized I didn't know. Not sure if you knew this. Do you know you need a pilot's license in order to fly drones commercially?
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:07:23] Right, right. I think I knew that, but I think a lot of people don't really know. Yeah, that's a good point.
Tim Danley: [00:07:29] I didn't know until I started saying, hey, we could use this for firefighting and search and rescue. Then I found out, oh, I need my part 107 pilot's license. So I went out and I got that right. After I purchased that, I got a drone that has a lot more capabilities into it. You don't fly it with goggles, but I got the Mavic 3T, which has a wide camera, zoom camera and a thermal imaging camera, and that's when I really started using it for firefighting and search and rescue and whatnot. And then I started finding a lot of different ways to use it for the farm. For instance, the first major job that I did with the drone for the farm was we have one of our almond orchards. We planted a variety of almonds that was really under producing. It just had something wrong with the Woodstock, the rootstock. Not entirely sure, but we knew we had areas of trees that just had no blooms on them at all. So I flew a mapping mission with it where essentially you just draw a grid that you want the drone to fly autonomously, and it flies over and takes photos 90 degrees facing straight down, and then compiles all that photos into one large map that's called an orthomosaic photo. And for instance, if you ever go on Google Earth, Google Earth is essentially one large orthomosaic photo just taken by satellite. Google Earth is sometimes months or years outdated. By going out here and flying this mapping mission, I was able to get a snapshot of this orchard as it was right now. Then compile an orthomosaic, go through a couple of different settings, and look at the ndVi, which is near dense vegetative index, to basically narrow it down.
Tim Danley: [00:09:05] And I was able to create an entire map of this 70 acre orchard with all of the bloom clusters. It showed all of the bloom, but like how dense it was. So we had this whole map and we could see very clearly where all the lines are completely geolocated of where all the problem trees are. And I took that map, showed it to my dad. He stared at it and without saying anything, pulls out his phone, calls the nursery and goes, we have a map of all these problem trees. We want to start figuring out what we need to fix them. And the guy was kind of blown away that I had this technology and he's like, cool, yeah, we'll start doing it. We were able to count every single tree that was wrong. So we get a good count for the grafting of the wood. And after that, my dad turns to me and goes, you know, Tim, I think that drone just paid for itself. And I went, hey, there we go. We're starting to find applications for drone usage in farming. So that was one of the first things I did with them that I went -this is huge- because until the advent of drones and being able to create images like this and get the aerial footage of it, you'd be reliant on airplanes or helicopters to fly over. And that's incredibly expensive. Unless you have a friend who wants to come out and fly for free, and they still wouldn't be able to really get that orthomosaic photo of exactly how the field looks.
Tim Danley: [00:10:42] So that's one of the big reasons that I started Northwind aerial Imaging, the hat that I have on my Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, all of that was because until I started telling people like, hey, did you know that in the back of my truck I have a drone that can I can put in the air within seconds and see in the dark with the thermal imaging, find missing people and map out fields. All of this, did you know this existed? And so many people went, no, I had no idea. Until recently, everyone just thought drones were RC planes with a camera attached to it, and they were kind of a toy or a gimmick. I mean, you go and you purchase a drone online like you go on Amazon. You'll see they're listed as toys. And I'm going, these are not toys. These are -Yes, they might technically be RC aircraft, but they are such powerful tools. So that's why I started making videos and doing posts, taking photos, trying to get that message out, talking with people on various online forums, and being like, hey, here's the stuff. I'm using drones for making videos with kind of like workflows showing. Hey, here's how I'm using it for this. Here's how I'm using it for that. Trying to kind of get that word out there because you never know, someone might be trying to figure out, how do I get that same ndVi map that I was talking about with the orchards. How do I get that for my farm? They don't know that the technology exists until they stumble across it. So that's why I'm really trying hard. One of the big reasons I reached out to you was hopefully we can start letting people know.
Tim Danley: [00:12:04] Educate people.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:12:05] Right? Right. That’s the exciting part. When I had actually talked to you a couple of months ago, a couple of things were really inspiring to me when I got off, or energizing, I should say, because one was the drone, right? The technology and what you kind of stumbled into. And the other thing was looking at how passionate you are, right? You come in from outside, you come in to agriculture and the creative part, the innovative part, the technology part that you bring into this and the family part, right? Living close to your parents and kind of community and all that. So you're combining giving back to the community, being with your family, working with them every day and bringing innovation and technology, right? What an awesome thing to do. I wonder if people listening to this should get excited and think, how can I be a part of this?
Tim Danley: [00:12:58] Oh yeah.
Tim Danley: [00:12:59] It's just funny you're talking about the family and the whole drone thing. I live about two miles away from my parents, just so we can kind of touch on the whole family thing. About two miles away from my parents. So I can go over there. I bring the kids over, we'll have coffee. And not so much right now because it's windy and stormy. Although I do have a drone that will fly in the rain. I'll come over and have coffee with my parents, and I'll be sitting there chatting with my dad and mom, watching the kids play, and I'll have the drone in the air and checking all 550 acres of our rice field, basically from the front porch. So it's nice again. I go sit down with my family while using the technology in agriculture.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:13:32] Right. That's true. And how many of us can say that? Right? How many of us can say that? I hang out with my mom and dad and my siblings and and you're working. And that's an awesome thing to have.
Tim Danley: [00:13:45] Yep. No, it's I understand I'm very privileged to have a great relationship with my parents. Great working relationship with my parents. Live so close and be able to come over and hang out with them while doing all of this.
Tim Danley: [00:13:57] Yeah. Yeah. Great. Yeah.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:13:59] And then playing, like, all the creative things that you're testing out. Right. Within the industry. What have you found? Have you seen as you are kind of introducing people to the drone technology and the other creative things that you're working on? Do you see that's well received? What has been your experience?
Tim Danley: [00:14:20] I'm thrilled you asked that question because I have a perfect example of it. One of the big hot button issues that's kind of going on right now, as the technology has gone from 0 to 60 within the last couple of years, is drone sprayers; using drones as essentially crop dusters. And you have a lot of farmers, you have a lot of ag pilots that are very worried that it's going to replace them, or they're worried how dangerous they are, and it's generally not well received on a lot of different forums, so I try to go on there and explain to people, as someone who has a lot of experience with these now, hey, they're not going to replace anyone. They're another tool in the box. The best adage I have for it is drone sprayers are scalpels, while helicopters and airplanes are hammers. If you have 500 acres of something you need done right now, you're going to want to hire a helicopter or an airplane. But if you have like one check of rice that's like 30 acres or so and the flyboys don't want to come and load up their plane just to do that one, or they're so backed up and so busy being able to get a drone sprayer in the air and go out there and hit that one single check whenever you want to. That's huge. So that's why I try and explain to people like, look, this technology is very safe. It has its merits. It's not going to replace anyone. I try to give people that perspective as a farmer, as someone who's not coming in, as looking at technologies to end all, be all and say, this is going to make everything obsolete. No it's not. It's everything working together to make things more efficient. So that's a big reason that I do all this, is try and educate people on it.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:15:58] That's so true, right? People usually are a little bit skeptical about technology because they think the human part is going to be taken away. But you are using that to augment what human beings can do. Right?
Tim Danley: [00:16:12] Correct.
Tim Danley: [00:16:12] Even for search and rescue, my captain was very reluctant to purchase a drone for search and rescue organization because he goes, he thought the same thing. They were flying cameras until I used it on a successful search and rescue mission to find someone who's lost in the middle of the night. And it was freezing cold. And then I was able to show him, hey, this is what this is used for. This has great applications, and I slowly but surely brought him around to the point where he goes, yeah, let's go ahead and get one for our organization. And it's great. But again, it's all education and new technologies, oftentimes scary and hard to understand. And that's why I try as kind of a layman. I'm not the guy who's going to sit here and bring in a bunch of technical terms, even as I mentioned, ndVi and Orthomosaic and all that. I try and explain all this stuff in a way that anyone can understand, and kind of take away some of the mysteriousness of it and start showing, hey, here's how we can use this.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:17:04] You know, that's so true even in healthcare, right? I mean, we serve agriculture. We are in healthcare. That's the same thing that happens. And I find not just in agriculture and every industry, right there is a little bit of it's a new thing, technology. And there is a little bit of anxiety around what that would look like from a career standpoint, from a job standpoint. So then you're hesitant to explore it.
Tim Danley: [00:17:32] When we put it in our berry drip, that was a big kind of jump for us because we were going into a completely new technology, a new way of irrigating all of our crops. For most of my life, we were pulling ditches and IVs and using siphon tubes. That was a huge jump in technology for us. And yeah, there was a lot of anxiety of how is this going to work? Is it going to pay for itself? Is it going to just be a mess? What are we doing? Are we doing the right thing? But we have to keep innovating and keep moving forward because we just have to. We have to keep growing.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:18:02] Right. So somebody from your generation, right, looking at this industry and might feel that, oh, maybe this is not for me. I want to do something else. Right. Because there is maybe there's no innovation, no technology happening. What would you say to people like that? Because I see that in you that you're causing the change. But there will be some frustrations that come your way, right?
Tim Danley: [00:18:24] There are some frustrations. And it's, you know, the best way I can kind of put that. For example, I am old enough. I know I'm a youngin, but I'm old enough to remember when tractors did not have GPS autosteer and that was just starting to come around. And I think my middle school, high school years, and I still remember the first tractor that I drove that had it. And being able to poke a button and have it drive a straight line and go on. This is insane. This is fantastic technology. We don't have people standing on the ends of fields waving flags anymore. I again, I'm old enough to remember when my dad was a crop duster and my mother would go out and flag for him to show him, hey, here's where you need to fly over the top of me. The thought of doing that nowadays seems like caveman days, because every crop duster has GPS tracking in it. Every tractor on our farm I think has GPS on it. Even my rice combine that I, you know, drove all through harvest now doesn't just have GPS, it has RTK in it. So it'll hold that straight line for half a mile and have three inches of overlap. That technology is so commonplace nowadays that no one thinks anything of it. And that's where I'm trying to do with the whole drone thing, is be like, hey, if you see a drone flying over your property, it's not spying on you. It's being used for actual purposes.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:19:37] That's true. So what? So based on this, if I ask you a question, which I tend to ask most of my team members here, you excited about these? Everything that's going on in your life. How can you make it 10% more exciting, you think? What would make it even more exciting.
Tim Danley: [00:19:55] Like advances in technology wise, or-?
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:19:57] Just what you do in this industry? I know you haves something. I can hear that in your voice, right? You're passionate about how your technology has been received. You're passionate about what you do every day, being part of the community and the family. But what would make it even more fulfilling?
Tim Danley: [00:20:16] Oh man, I hate to keep bringing it back to it, but making the videos on it. We as farmers. Yeah, educating people, educating people because-
Tim Danley: [00:20:25] There's so, so many people that don't know like how farming works. And we all as farmers tend to take that for granted because like, there's days where I won't talk to anyone but my family and I'll just spend the entire day in the tractor. And it's completely mundane to me. I mean, rice harvest at this point, I've been doing it for however many years is just completely mundane to me. But when I started making videos on it and sharing it with people, I have people that I've known for years that live and work in the same community, and they have no idea what we do on a daily basis. For instance, like when I put out my video about rice harvesting, I had so many people the entire world over, had no idea how cool this technology we have is. I had one guy from the Philippines comment on the video and say, this is mind blowing technology for us. We harvest our rice almost by hand and put it on the road, and then we come pick it up afterwards and I go, that's cool to me as a farmer to learn how you do it. But I had no idea that people didn't do it our way, I guess. So being able to share, educate people and try and make it in a entertaining way to explain like how things work, I find that it adds a lot more excitement to my life because being able to share it with people, it's fun to me because I'm excited to go out and work and not just work. I'm excited because, okay, I head out to work now instead of my lunch box. I'm carrying a huge camera bag with two cameras and a drone to capture all the video footage. And as I'm getting that perfect shot of okay, that's going to make it into the final edit, I can tell it gets me more excited to go out and do some jobs that I might find more mundane, because I get to share it with people and explain how it works.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:22:07] You know, you just said something that struck something in my actually heart because that’s This is Ag!. The birth of This is Ag! was very similar to what you're saying, right? Because you were looking at it from a technology standpoint. I was looking at it from the stories that we can tell about agriculture, because you come in from Orange County and you come in from other places in California, you come in to the members that we serve and you walk out. I'm like, This is Ag!. I didn't know that. Right? So you're trying to do that from a technology standpoint. You're saying what? You can use this technology in agriculture? I didn't know that. Yep. And that makes, as you were saying, your mundane things that makes it interesting. Just as you were talking about it and I'm going through a lot of stuff at UnitedAg; we're growing like crazy. And, you know, the stresses and the growth pains that come with that. As I was reflecting back, I said, this is why I do it. The story of agriculture is so powerful. And what we do within UnitedAg, and the story of how providing empathy to our agriculture members and what that means from an healthcare standpoint, this is it, right? I mean, educating and talking to people and getting them to understand. I think you nailed it. You nailed it.
Tim Danley: [00:23:31] Absolutely.
Tim Danley: [00:23:31] It sounds like we're kind of on the same mission. Just you're doing it with podcasts and I'm doing it with videos, so -
Tim Danley: [00:23:36] Exactly. I love it.
Tim Danley: [00:23:37] Especially in the times we live in where a lot of people kind of have a negative view of farmers. In some ways, they think we're out here trying to use up every ounce of water we can, and just use up the dirt and spraying all sorts of horrendous chemicals and whatnot, trying to kind of teach people that, no, that's not how we do things. We are accounting for every spray we do. I do reports on everything. We're very, very careful with how much water we use. So trying to kind of make the videos to kind of combat that misinformation out there and be like, hey, no, look, this is how farmers actually are and put a face to it with, you know, your face, my face and be like, it's not just a random corporation saying, hey, no, we actually are the good guys. It's like, no, look, I am some random guy from Northern California who, you know, wears flannels and ball caps. And let me show you what I do every day and how careful I am with it.
Tim Danley: [00:24:33] That's -
Tim Danley: [00:24:34] Yeah. Sounds like we're on the same path.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:24:36] Yep, yep. And then it's very interesting that our neighbors - I mean, even in your same community like you were talking about earlier- the next door neighbor might not know what you do right and they might not understand what's actually happening on the fields and what's going on. So it's amazing to see.
Tim Danley: [00:24:53] I’ll come to the fire department I've been a part of for ten years, and I'll talk to guys I've known for ten years, and they'll have watched one of my videos, which makes me weirded out sometimes because I'm like, hey, I'm just the weird kid. And they'll tell me, like, I had no idea rice harvesters could do that. I had no idea that this technology was out there. I had no idea that this is how you mill rice. And can you make that rice dish for us next time? I'm like, sure. Hey, I'm happy. But again, it's guys that I've worked and lived with for a decade or more that have no idea what we're doing, and we live seven miles apart in the same community. It's awesome to be able to do that from a small scale and do that on a large scale.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:25:30] Yeah. And when you see that expression, the aha moment on their face. Right. I mean that that's the most fulfilling thing there is.
Tim Danley: [00:25:37] Absolutely.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:25:38] What do you think. What else can we do to spread the ideas around, spreading this further. I mean, we're doing a small piece in this whole thing, right? But more stories have to be told like this for that perception to change or people to get educated and people just for even enjoyment. Right? To understand how a rice is grown, what happens, even what else can we do? Any ideas around that?
Tim Danley: [00:26:04] I think what we're doing is a great start. Getting out, making the videos, making the podcasts and just putting them out there because you never know who's going to search for it and find it. Sometimes they might not get a lot of views, sometimes they'll get a lot. But just continuing moving forward and saying what we're doing, speaking about what we're doing, I think that's a huge start. Getting involved in various communities like that Facebook group about my job depends on ag.
Tim Danley: [00:26:29] Like again, when I saw UnitedAg liked my post, I went, wow, perfect. They're involved in the community getting out there and just sharing this stuff, creating content, sharing stuff with people to just at least have it out there, because you never know who's going to click it, and it might change their mind. They might have a very negative view on farmers or agriculture and getting to see again the faces and the voices and seeing how things work, I think I'm not sure how much I would change, but I think what we're doing is the right way, because, again, a lot of farmers tend to be kind of reclusive, and it's up to us to if we're going to be reclusive and not say what's actually going on, then we're going to get overtaken. So doing stuff like this, I think is pretty much exactly what we should be doing.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:27:11] And even if it touches one person, right. If even if a team is looking at it and listens to it, or if your mom is looking at it and listens to it, and that changes the perception. I mean, the same way we're changing one person at a time a little bit when you really think about it. And what my excitement when I first thought of you was, any person who's thinking of maybe looking at different careers, or they could be just starting off their life and listening to a team saying, oh my God, I can do all of this when I'm part of this industry. I mean, how exciting is that? Because some of us come to our 50s and 60s and go reflect back and say, now I want to give back, or now did I really lead a fulfilling life? You're doing it from the beginning. And how amazing is that, right? I mean, somebody listening in, what an amazing thing to do.
Tim Danley: [00:28:03] Absolutely. And hopefully, you know, with me doing this, you can tell people like, hey, you know, 30 years old is not too late to start learning something new. That's when I started doing all this drone stuff, and it went from 0 to 60 in two and a half years. And hopefully, you know, someone might not be the greatest at working with their hands, but they might be really technologically savvy as more like autonomous vehicles and stuff become commonplace for farming. I've seen a lot of autonomous vehicles for spraying. My cousins were actually testing out an autonomous bank out wagon for rice harvest and everything.
Tim Danley: [00:28:36] Yeah, it was really interesting. We kept wondering what they were doing, driving in circles, around and around and around on this dirt road until they told us, hey, yeah, this is what this is for, being able to let people know, hey, there's all sorts of niches that can be filled in agriculture, especially as we tend to have less and less employees. For instance, my farm is literally only family members besides the partnership that we're in and the partnership we're in is with a husband and wife that are younger than me, and they do all of the work pretty much on about 700 acres of almonds, letting people know, hey, there's lots of different niches you can fill in the agricultural industry, right?
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:29:15] And what made you test out these things? So if somebody is looking at it. So my son, my younger son is a mechanical engineer. He actually works for UnitedAg right now and as a data engineer. And when you're talking about autonomous drones and self-driving cars, right? I mean, there's so much need of that in agriculture. So what gets somebody like that? What would you say to somebody looking at this and saying, okay, what made Tim explore this? What can I learn from this as a what can I take from him and do the same thing? What would that be?
Tim Danley: [00:29:52] I would say best advice I have is just experiment and don't be afraid to fail. You're never going to get something right the first time, and until you sit down and essentially beat your head against the keyboard until you figure out a problem, you're probably not going to fix it. I mean, that whole going back to that ndVi mapping, that was me. No formal education on any of this. I enlisted to avoid going to college because I was not a huge fan of school. And all of the stuff I've done has been self-taught through dozens, if not hundreds of hours of trial and error, of sitting here and thinking, I wonder if I can use this for this, and then going out and seeing, did that work? No. Okay, let's go back to the drawing board and see what I can do to make it a little bit more efficient. A little bit better. What if I tried this program instead? What if I try flying this height instead? Just get out and experiment.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:30:50] Great advice. Get out and experiment. And, you know, we do that. We say that at UnitedAg. If you fail, you fail. But every time you fail, you learn something that you could have done slightly different, right. The next time around.
Tim Danley: [00:31:04] Absolutely.
Tim Danley: [00:31:05] There's been there's been plenty of bets I've made that have not paid off. And then there's been some where I've just sat down and worked on it, worked on it, worked on it and just went, wow, I can't believe this worked out. And then go and show it to people and they're very excited about it.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:31:20] That is very well said. And you know what? Just listening to you, I'm inspired. Right? It is. It is exciting. It's like a I want to experiment. I want to try things. And you validate a lot of things that I say and do. So really excited about that. Is there anything else that you think I missed asking?
Tim Danley: [00:31:41] I don't think so. I think we pretty well covered it. I don't want to sit here and bore everyone with all sorts of more talk about how I use drones for various stuff, but no, I think we've covered it pretty good.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:31:51] Is there something so people are excited about what they just heard and they want to follow you or kind of learn more? What would they how would they reach out to you?
Tim Danley: [00:32:01] They can reach out to me. I am North Wind Aerial on YouTube and Instagram and TikTok, although I don't use it all that much because I find that's not the greatest place to share information. Um, and then North Wind Aerial Imaging on Facebook, because I haven't gotten around to changing the name yet. I started dropping the imaging because North Wind Aerial runs off our tongue a lot easier, but that's where they can find me. I apologize for naming my business after the terrible winds that go through our valley, but I like them. I get a lot of flack for that because the north wind is pretty miserable up here. But yep, that's where they can find me. North Wind Aerial.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:32:35] But you know what? For every challenge, there is something that comes out of it. So even in your name, you've kind of done that. So yeah, maybe that's not something good that happens in that region. But you know what? You learned that experiment and see what can you learn from that and what way can we take it so precisely. Your name also says a lot. So thank you so much, Tim. This has been really, really good. And like I said when I first met with you and I'm glad you reached out to me, it was very energizing to kind of see what you do and continue to do the good work and educate people, and I hope you get all the success. Thank you for doing what you do.
Tim Danley: [00:33:16] No, thank you for having me on. And yeah, be more than happy to keep helping out in the future. Okay, bye.