Watch the full interview here!
Jason’s a 3rd generation farmer, and his wife is a 6th generation farmer. They run 5,800 acres of canola, lentils, and durum wheat, with barley making an appearance every once in a while. They dove into vertical farming for a more stable, year-round crop endeavor around 3 years ago in Vancouver and now have locations in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. This hydroponic-based greenhouse produces multiple kinds of lettuce, basil, parsley, and more. Farr explains he is excited about getting some Green Lightning on the plants in his greenhouse this week, which is how Travis got started with Green Lightning in the first place and saw the difference it made, making it an impactful opportunity to feed the world.
Fun facts about Jason:
-Durum wheat is Jason's favorite crop to grow.
-He started farming in 1988.
-If he can describe Green Lightning in four words, it would be exciting, innovative, and game-changing.
-He loves riding his motorcycle.
Farrs family farm did trials with Green Lightning on both wheat and canola, but they couldn’t get data on the canola because it got hailed out. Jason found that Green Lightning improved the bushels on his durum wheat by 3.9 bushels per acre versus their regular fertility program. He notes they had two separate trails; one was Green Lightning in-furrow with orthophosphate; they also sprayed 10 gallons with a broadleaf spray than another 10 gallons of fungicide.
On the other side of the field, they sprayed 20 gallons of Green Lightning opposed to in-furrow and applied the same 10 gallons of broadleaf and 10 gallons of fungicide. He notes, “Where we sprayed it on and not in-furrow was actually the best result." It was like 4.2 or 4.3 bushels better on that part of the field.” That field they sprayed it on the ground before seeding it, then fed it foliar twice, and it was better than the in-furrow and sprayed twice. Totaling in 40 gallons of Green Lightning per plot. They also applied about 65 pounds of N in the fall before they knew about Green Lightning. Their fields with only synthetics held about 125 pounds of N in total. Within these trials, the Farrs found they made $120 an acre more with the wheat bump and savings on fertilizer costs with Green Lightning.
They used Green Lightning as a carrier for their sprays, making it more time-efficient, and it doesn’t affect the chemicals. Hesitant until they tried, it worked out perfectly when applying herbicide and fungicide. At 12-15 cents a kilowatt, he would be paying around 1,200 a year to run his green lighting machine. Making 50,000 gallons of product a year, the cost would be less than a dollar per acre.
Jason has been running an RO system on his farm even before installing a Green Lightning machine. Which is a new Green Lightning standard. He received his machine in the first week of May, which was the first one in Canada. Jason installed the machine himself, noting it was simple to get’er rolling.
He plans to make 20,000 gallons of Green Lightning to store throughout the winter for spring applications.
Jason’s RO system has a TDS monitor, making it simple to keep an eye on. Travis notes that Green Lightning is working on a new version that has the ability to check the TDS and PH to monitor for full potential of the product.
Travis asks Jason if he plans to use 28 with Green Lightning in the future or go full boar on GL. The Farrs would like to fully replace their nitrogen source with Green Lightning after evidence on their family farm this up coming year that it will proceed the way it’s been working for them. They plan to apply some on 40 acre plots with just Green Lightning; they will be spraying 25 gallons this fall, and aside this plot will be GL with a carrier. (I can’t wait to see the results.) They will be doing soil tests to see if applying Green Lightning to the soil in the fall makes a difference or not.
Travis talks about how Green Lightning has been helping break down corn silage. Finding; "We were at two times the fungi to bacteria ratio, which most guys want to be at 1:1 to help break down the soil and get your microbes going." Making your land more bioavailable.
Jason states that they have found you do not want nitrogen on your lentils because it stops them from nodulating, which prohibits the growth of the pods. “They need to make their own nitrogen; if you make them too happy, they’ll just grow lots of plant and won’t grow any seed,” Farr notes.
Jason’s durum trial was done after a canola crop; he’s interested in seeing how Green Lightning plays out after the lentils being the rotational crop, seeing how they carry nitrogen over.
Jason’s nitrogen costs aren’t big in the greenhouses, but if they can gain 20 or 30 percent mass in their plants by spraying a little bit of Green Lightning, “that would be huge." He explains. Travis notes that Green Lightning could also have an effect on preservation in the greenhouse crops as well, maybe seeing how it affects chlorophyll, micronutrients, and even Brix testing to see the impact.
RJ notes that it’s really simple to set up; "the biggest problem we run into is that it always comes back to the water quality." He notes that water is the hardest thing (literally, haha!!) It all comes down to keeping that ph at 6.5 going in and TDS around 50. He notes they had some machine problems in the past, having to shut it down, but it was fine being close to harvest. But he is excited about the new model coming out, seeing the effects Green Lightning has had on crops. He said he has to see to believe, and now he believes. Seeing how Green Lightning takes the initiative to improve makes RJ happy.
RJ talks about how this past July was a hard dry time for Canada. But in that, with the plants stress and drought, they still saw an 8.4 bushel increase in canola when they applied 20 gallons of Green Lightning at the late stage. Canola is currently at $11.50, when last year it was around $14-15. With the highest sicne Jason has been farming being around $27-28. With unexpected commodity changes, you have to think through farming. RJ says he has some farmers doing a trial on wheat with really good fertilite ground and got a 5 bushel increase. Spraying 50 cents worth of product made about $35-40 more profit (at $7 a bushel of wheat).
Travis and RJ talk about a grower that saw 3 times as much as normal pod count in his canola. Which could have been affected by the way they treated the field in their fertility program. RJ says, “It’s doing stuff, and that’s what I’ve learned." With tissue testing and protein tests, there’s no doubt in his mind that Green Lightning has an effect on crops. Jason states the reality is that we need to run Green Lightning for like 4 years on the same ground to get real data. To see if this can be a full replacement or if it is best fall applied or a simple boost to N to create more crop production.
Jason would love to replace all his nitrogen with strictly Green Lightning after proving he can with testing on his own farm. Would it be the way to go? We shall see. “Everybody’s got their own risk tolerance. I think if we get a pretty good result again next year, if we can duplicate and actually just be all Green Lightning on 80 acres of canola and 80 acres of durum and see what those test results look like next fall, we’ll be that much smarter again.”
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