(bright upbeat music) - Welcome to "A Shot OF AG," My name is Rob Sharkey.

I'm a fifth generation farmer from just outside of Bradford, Illinois.

I started a podcast, led into an XM radio show, led into a national television show, and led to me being right here today.

But today, today is not about me.

Today is about Harley Curless.

How are you doing Harley?

- Good, good.

- And you're from Havana.

- I live in Havana.

- So for the people in Peoria, where is that?

- Oh, we're down river, about 50 miles down river.

- Okay.

And you are an aerial applicator.

- That's correct.

- We don't say crop duster.

- We don't say crop duster anymore.

We use aerial applicator, professional aerial applicator.

- So explain the history of that because I think most people see this and they think crop duster.

- Yeah.

And that was a term that was used.

It was coined originally, and actually this year, we being a National Ag Aviation Association celebrating a hundred years.

In 1921, they started in Ohio with dusting crops over there and actually dusting trees with sulfur.

And so that's how the term was coined as crop duster.

- So it wasn't the spray like we do now?

- Oh, no, it was dry fertile, dry insecticide.

- So how'd you get into it?

- Well, it was just a love of flying, Rob.

In 1975, Cessna had a promotional program, for $10, you could lay your $10 on the counter and take a demo right around the airport.

- Oh, really?

- I was hooked.

And four months later... - You said it was 75?

- 1975.

- [Rob] I'm trying to think of what $10 would be.

That'd be like 50, 60 bucks now?

- Probably more than that.

- Okay.

- I took a ride around the course and got hooked, and four months later I had a pilot's license.

Well, my wife and I had been, we'd just gotten married and we had children and couldn't afford just to go fly.

And so, I could try to figure out a way to support my flying habit if you will.

And I was also farming at the time.

And so I thought, well, why not try and give this a try?

So I went to Texas, did a couple of weeks course down there and came home, mortgaged our house and bought an airplane.

- Oh... - Yeah.

- All right.

Wait a minute.

So the class in Texas was that for application or just for flying?

- No, just application.

- Okay.

And that was, you had to go clear down there.

- Yup, there's no one around really that does teaching of the crop, you know, aerial application.

- Okay.

So you come home and you say, hi, honey, we're gonna mortgage our house and buy a plane.

How'd that conversation go?

- Actually, that took place before I left.

- Okay.

So she knew?

- That was already done.

We already had an airplane by that time.

So the only way to make it work was to get that course up behind us and get to work.

- Ah, take me through that process because you, its such a huge investment, did you, were you confident that it was gonna take off?

- Yeah, well, I was, I just felt like that I was at home in the airplane.

I've never felt uncomfortable in the airplane.

And as the years have gone by now, we just completed our 43rd year there and it just becomes second nature to me to get an airplane and go to work.

I just never did worry about anything happening or it was just second nature to me.

And with farming, we were trying to do our own spraying and of course, then here come the neighbors, they want me to spray theirs.

And then the neighbors, neighbors, wanted me to come spraying.

So for thing you know, I had to get a commercial license and get a certified spray commercially.

- So you were farming, you were not a farm kid, though?

- That's correct.

My grandfather was a farmer and I worked for my wife's grandfather as a hired hand when I was a teenager.

And in fact... - Before you met your wife?

- Before, well, that's how I met my wife.

- [Rob] Was that the plan?

- Well, maybe his plan.

I'm not sure, (chuckles) but it worked if it did, because we met each other, we were young and kinda sort of stayed in touch all through the grade school and high school years.

And then when she got up pretty much in high school, I was getting out and maybe I became more serious.

And for first think you know... - [Rob] You have to make your move?

- Yeah, we were.

'Cause she was a lady that was sought after.

- She's a hottie.

- She was a nice looking young lady and I didn't want her to get away.

And that poor lady has put up with me for 52 years.

- 52 years, what's the secret?

- Whatever she wants, she gets.

- [Rob] Okay.

Is there maybe there could be another secret that we could all live with?

- Well, when I first got out of school, I went to caterpillar and I asked an old fellow there, what his secret was because he'd been married that long.

And he says, there's just one secret that I found.

And he says, what's yours is hers, and what's hers is hers.

And as long as you know that, that's okay.

- Okay, I mean, there's gotta be something.

- She has endured so much and coming from the farm, in a farming background, she's got such a base of what agriculture is all about.

And when the corn buyers go into shed and we go to work.

So we raised our children, never had a summer vacation.

Oh, I'm working all summer long.

- So you're farming and doing the aerial applicating?

- Yes.

- So was that the start of the Farm Air, Inc.?

- No.

Farm Air Inc. came in 2009.

We didn't do that 'till then.

We had gotten our own operations, started in mid to late '70s and then we bought another operation in '88 I believe it was, we bought another operation and then that expanded our operation after four airplanes.

And then in 2000, we bought an 802, which was the biggest airplane that air tractor builds.

This is an air tractor.

- [Rob] Okay.

Are they all yellow?

- [Harley] Not necessarily.

Most of the Ag operations are, you'll see some red, white ones running around sometimes, we actually have a red and white one.

Those airplanes were it's exactly the same airplane, but it's painted red and white because the BLM used in Bureau of Land Management for firefighting.

And that's required for... - [Rob] Which you did too?

- But I did, I did some firefighting, I sure did.

- All right.

I know you don't wanna tell a story, but I kinda want you to tell a story, tell it, tell the Linkletter story.

- Well, that was several years ago and I got what they call carded to do fires.

And they sent me to Idaho to work out there for about a month, putting out fire.

- Beautiful.

Yeah.

It's a beautiful part of the country and do fight fires out there.

And we were just sitting in the terminal that day.

And we're just like a fireman here in Peoria or anywhere else, it's full time, we can't leave the base.

We have to stay right there.

And we kinda all decided, well, it's probably not gonna be much going on that day.

So we started fixing our lunch, and about that time, we got some lightening and some drizzling going on and the fire siren went off.

And so they loaded me up and sent me out to several small fires, just like some clumps of brush, it was on fire.

And I said, you gotta get out there and you gotta get them done, these are important.

If you can't get them done on one load, come back, get another one.

We gotta get these put out, it's an emergency.

So I was, okay so why not put them out, come back in and so I asked my boss, I said, what was the emergency of this?

I said, it seemed like it was pretty urgent.

He said, yes, it was.

He said, did you see that big house up on the hillside there?

I said, I sure did.

He said, well, that's Art Linkletter his house and his family's coming in this weekend and they didn't want a fire out there.

- [Rob] Did you get to meet them or something?

You should have.

- No, I didn't.

- You would've thought, if you would've saved my house, I would say thank you.

- But it's a completely different industry than what the spraying is, that's where the red and white airplanes come in at.

- [Rob] Well.

Okay.

Let's get back to this.

Let's say, how this affects people that are watching today.

So tell me like how this connects to this?

- [Harley] That happens to be a can have Del Monte peas.

And they actually raise peas all across the country.

A lot in California, Texas, here in Illinois, actually.

And we will spray those peas every three to five days to keep insects out and the fungus out of it.

So that's where the aerial airplane comes in.

- [Rob] 'Cause if you didn't, I mean, bugs would pretty much take over with that.

How about this?

- Well, those are actually raised right down in Mason County, just south of Havana down by bath.

- I didn't know that.

- [Harley] Yeah.

They've got the new Miller Sproul, has several thousand or several hundred acres down there, to close to a thousand of potatoes here.

And then they also raised some in Northwest Illinois, along the Mississippi.

- [Rob] Yeah.

These are the good ones too.

- Those are raised right here.

- Want one?

- Sure.

If you take one, you can't stop on one.

- I don't know what the rules are at PBS.

- And so we'll spray the potatoes every week.

We have them.

- Yeah, don't be shy.

- We have a potato day, what they call a potato day.

And we sprayed the potatoes every day with fungicide, insecticide to keep that plant healthy.

So and they put fertilizer on them as well, so.

- [Rob] So if it wasn't for the yellow planes, I mean, you wouldn't have a ton of stuff, right?

You wouldn't have the peas, you wouldn't have the potatoes.

I'll argue, you wouldn't have the pork chops, you wouldn't have the steaks because of like the fungicide that's going on, the soybeans and the corn, and all that.

- I will tell you that, I'll bet 95% of what you got on today, If it weren't to me, you wouldn't have that either.

- I only wear a rayon.

- Well, you got a cotton shirt on, I can see that.

- Okay, I see they want me out.

- The airplane takes care of the cotton.

- Yes.

- And so, everybody wears jeans, everybody's cotton shirts.

My T-Shirt's cotton.

- You started, so like in the '80s, I'm trying to, because now it seems like, in the mid-2000s, up until now, the fungicide has really taken off.

Were the planes is busy back before then?

- They were more seasonal back then.

We've been fortunate to live in a geography right here where we don't do a lot of herbicides.

And so, Mason Tazewell County, for example, there's a lot insecticide and fungicide goes on there, plus it's all irrigated.

And so, the seed companies come in there, the canny companies coming in there and raise it.

So seed companies keep us busy and the canny companies keep us busy.

- Okay.

I just kinda thought of something because it used to be like corn bore you were spraying for.

And then the seed all became genetically modified to where he didn't have to spray, did that hurt you?

- Yeah.

That took some work away.

Yeah, sure did.

- Okay.

Some people see this and they're afraid.

I think you've you brought some pretty good examples.

So what does a plane have to do with the Nix?

- [Harley] If a person that's watching the program has children, young children, for example, and you get notified from school, notified from school that there's head lice issue at school or concern, you can go to Walmart, Target, any place Hy-Vee and you can buy Nix Head Lice Shampoo.

In that shampoo, the primary products called permethrin.

That's exactly what we put on the seed corn and the seed beans to treat the insects for that.

It's a manmade bio-degradable insecticide.

And we did a study, when that first came out, you could take this, the Nix, shower your child with it, load your child in a car, take them out to the cornfield, let me spray it with my airplane.

And they would have showered five times more than what I sprayed them with in the field.

- [Rob] Yeah.

That is, I think a great example because I mean, a lot of times, like I said, the people see those yellow planes and it's automatically, they're poison.

They're putting poison in there.

- It's perception.

- Yeah.

But it's such a diluted version of what they would put on their kids and feel safe about.

- And if you gotta imagine if you only put on six to eight ounces, how much is in that bottle?

- [Rob] I don't know, three, three ounces.

- Okay.

So two bottles of that over a whole acre?

- [Rob] Which is bigger than a football field.

- That's correct.

That's all we're putting on.

- Yeah.

Okay.

And this?

- That's Desenex it's the same chemistry as you use for your feet.

- They should be like advertising with us.

I feel like we're giving away free advertising here.

- [Harley] That's the same chemistry as the fungicides that we put on for the corn now.

- Which I, the people in like the Peoria area, they're probably more of what they're seeing, right?

Is the fungicides.

- Absolutely.

- Yeah.

And it is nonstop, once it starts.

- It runs for, we've got about a six week busy, busy schedule in that month of July and first week or two of August.

- Yours is a family operation.

- It is.

- So who's all involved?

- Obviously my wife, she was the bookkeeper for many years.

Her mother came down with Alzheimer's.

And so, she needed to take care of mom and she's an only, so she went to do that.

The oldest son, Joe is involved.

He's now got a family and those kids help a little bit in the summer and I'll go about that in a minute.

And the daughter is involved and she does our lunches in the summertime.

So every day at noon, we have a hot lunch for all of our crew.

- Oh, really?

- She comes in for the month of July, fixes a meal for our crew.

- And talk about a seasonal business.

It's hard as a family, right?

Because you can't plan a vacation because I mean, this could be a week off, two, three weeks off of when you have to go.

And when you can go, you have to go.

I mean, you probably have missed some big events as a family.

- I can't remember when we celebrated the 4th of July, 'cause we've been, always been working.

And even before I started the spraying business, we were about always bailing hay or making straw.

So we got used to that.

And with my wife's background is in it from the farm and mine working at the farm all those years, that was not uncommon.

So our kids were raised in the farm community and we lived on a farm where we did is farming.

So schedule is all around the farm.

- [Rob] We interviewed your son, Joe, about you, put on cover crops with this.

So like when the corn is, I don't know, like a few weeks from being harvested, you'll go out and you'll spray the seeds or spread the seeds.

And so when you harvest a corn, the cover crop will already be started.

- Correct.

- So I mean, that was something new from, I mean, I don't know how many years you guys have been doing it, but that's a newer practice, isn't it?

- It is.

And the current administration is trying to get some money out for the farming community to support them $25 an acre to put cover crops on.

Now I'm sure there's some things they're gonna have to do to jump through them hoops and get qualified for that, but yeah, our cover crops, acreage and application just keeps growing every year.

- That's almost gonna double your workload.

- Well, it spreads our summer out and you spread your workload out because by the time our cover crop season starts, our spring system season is beginning to come to slow down, so as far as being in the air.

- [Rob] Did you ever sit back and think, all right, I'm kinda want to take a summer off.

- I'm getting close to that 'cause I'm getting old.

(chuckles) So that's what those kids and grandkids are for.

- But you're still up there doing it, right?

- I did, I did this, I'm still am.

- Okay.

So tell us about the process of it.

Because I remember as a kid watching the aerial applicators and they would get to the end of the row and they would throw a roll of toilet paper out to mark where they, that's the way of the Dodo.

- That's all gone, yeah.

When I started, my oldest son, Joe would actually do, did the human part, the human flagging, you takes so many steps across the field.

And then it wasn't long after that and then we did the flagger, which you call it, it's an apparatus was a bolt to the right side of the wing.

And it was biodegradable paper.

It was okay.

- It wasn't toilet paper?

- It wasn't toilet paper.

And the first couple of dudes you had on it, it was gone.

And then along along came the GPS.

And we were the actually, the first operator in the state of Illinois to have GPS when it first came out.

- [Rob] So it's not flying the plane, but you can look at a screen and know I need to stay on that line.

- Yeah.

We have a light bar out on the Cali.

And we're actually flying that light bar.

And as we're going across the field, the airplane and go across the field about 150 or 60 miles an hour and we can move over one row and you get one light, you can go over two rows and you get two lights.

You moved back to back the center where you were and you get zero lights.

- [Rob] You ever get scared up there?

- I can't say I haven't been, but it's just second nature to me, you know?

- 150 Miles an hour, and you, how far are you off the canopy?

- Our preferred tested height is about 12 feet off the canopy.

- That's not a whole lot.

- Yeah.

- And then you got wires?

- Yeah.

Wires are one of the big, big challenges.

And now in today's world, we got the big cross country wires.

They really get to be a challenge.

And what happens there is that you run up to the wire and you're looking at it through the windshield, and soon as you pitch the nose up, the wires gone.

And so you really got to plan out ahead of that wire.

- Yeah, I told you when we talked on the radio that the guy was trying to impress me as a kid, as he was rolling the tires on the wire.

That's a little nutty.

- Yeah.

- We have the turbines, the wind turbines.

Do you have to fly around those?

- Yes, we do.

- What's that like?

'Cause I've heard they push you down.

- Well, they can, actually behind them is as much of a challenge, anything 'cause they're disturbing the air and getting in and around them are challenging too.

And that's a moving object you're trying to work around.

- [Rob] Yeah.

Do you get calls?

Like when you're out spraying, people are upset and they call, I don't know who they call the cops or whoever?

- We get calls, they can also call the FAA, Department of Ag, all those things and in today's world, cell phones there so that we're not only getting calls, we're getting videoed all the time.

Yes we do.

- [Rob] I see it on social media though.

I think most people are videoing it 'cause it's so cool.

To see something that close and I mean, it's like an acrobat, it's really amazing.

Does it still fun?

- It is.

I still enjoy it, yeah.

I'm over 70 years old and can't wait to get in an airplane.

I just, I just look forward to it.

- Is it, do you ever, like you're out there spraying and you see the family out there watching you, and waving and that.

- No, they they're not interested anymore.

- Really?

- No, I mean the oldest grandson is 'cause he's learned how to fly now.

- [Rob] No, I mean like just a random farm family.

- Yeah, the kids will wave, yeah.

And when we had the flaggers on board, I'd go by and put out the toilet paper, like you said.

But now we can't do that.

- The non-toilet paper.

- We have a, you're familiar with the air show, and when they do the smoke where they do their aerobatics with smoke, we had the same system on the airplane.

And what we're doing is we're injecting oil, there's a piperazine based oil, we've got a tank back here in the back of the airplane and we pump it into the exhaust, which makes it smoke.

And so we can pull into a field and we can put the smoke out, and we can tell which way the wind is traveling.

- Oh, okay.

- And so sometimes, if we see somebody out like that, we'll go by and smoke them, you know?

And we've been accused of spraying them with the smoke and it's just smoke, you know?

- Oh, they think you, yeah.

- They think you're trying to spray them but it's actually smoke.

- They're all like, Oh, I can feel my skin burning in here.

That would be fun.

(chuckles) - Well, what's funny is we get some calls and they'll say, well, I was driving down the road and my car was just soaked.

Well, if you remember a while ago, I said it was only two of them little bottles per for an acre in two gallons of water.

- [Rob] Yeah.

I mean, that's like a going through with a ground sprayer.

I mean, a lot of times we're doing 20 gallons, an acre, you're only doing two.

So it's incredibly efficient.

And it does work.

- And one of the other things we got on the ground or egg, not to take away from ground rigs as we need them, we don't have, we try not to have much compaction.

- [Rob] Yes.

You don't run over crops like I do.

I'm really good at that.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

(chuckles) I haven't bought the high boy sprayer and I can still run over a lot of crops.

So the Farm Air, Inc., so it is what?

It's an applicator, but you guys are also mechanics and you're selling stuff.

What is it all include?

- The spray part of our business is Curless Flying Service, that's what we started with.

And in 2009, there was a air tractor dealership in Southern Illinois.

- That's what this is?

- That's what this is.

It's a new air tractor and I'll tell you more about that in a second.

They were, that gentleman was getting ready to retire, and he contacted us to see if we would be interested in taking over the dealership.

So we applied and I think there were eight other folks that applied and it took about a year for the air tractor company to decide who they wanted.

And they chose us to do that.

So we now service and sell, and stock the parts for the air tractor.

The air tractor's made in which, in basically, all on the Texas, which is south of Wichita Falls.

We got 260 non-union employees that worked there, full time.

And build about this year, we're gonna build about 170 airplanes for the world.

And it's a true American story.

Leland Snow, the gentleman that started has passed away now, but it was a dream of his.

He would build an airplane flat through the summer months, sell airplane, have enough money, then go back to engineering school.

Did that five years to get through the engineering school, to start the company.

- [Rob] I mean, what's so special about them because I mean, to me, it's an airplane that just has a sprayer on it?

- Correct.

It is, it's not just an airplane.

If you saw the airplane up close, it's got a real thick leading edged wing on it, which is right here.

The wings are big and basically fat.

This is the hopper area from the windshield up to the engine area, which holds the liquid.

We have several models, we call it 402's, four-a-gallon hopper, 500 gallon hoppers a 502, clear up to an 802, which is 800 gallon hopper.

- Cool.

That's a lot of lead.

- The 800 gallon air airplane, it weighs 16,000 pounds when we take off with it on a single engine, single pilot, single engine.

- [Rob] And you were telling me it's not good, if you get up in the ear and you have to land full.

- That's correct, you got your hands full as a pilot.

- Why?

- We got so much weight, you're trying to get back on the ground and slow it down to stop it.

- [Rob] Have you had to do it?

- Yes.

Oh, yeah.

- What's happening, were you scared with that?

- No, I'm scared, but just have to stay on the edge of your seat and be up with it.

- Okay, I got to feeling, I'd be scared a lot more than you or.

(chuckles) - You just, I think we're those of us that are pilots.

We just, that's just part of our nature.

- [Rob] I suppose it gets almost a little monotonous.

- It can, it can.

And did you see the movie Top Gun?

- Oh, yeah.

- Where Maverick was saying, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, well sometimes that's what we're doing in an airplane.

We're returning the airplane.

- And so, it's so slow and making around the tourists, like I was saying to come on airplane, let's go, we had to get back over here and get to going across the field so we can get the job done.

- Did you just say that you're Tom Cruise?

- No, I did not say that.

(chuckles) - Do you have leather jacket?

- You're my Goose.

- No, we don't want to be Goose.

Yeah, I think it's very cool.

It's a very misunderstood industry.

- It truly is.

- And I think you given these examples really, it helps me because I know they're safe, but I mean, still to kinda equate that to everyday products.

I think it's a great thing.

- Well, and one of the things that's different about this airplane and some, the visibility, so good out of it.

When we're up spraying and the airplane is going through the field almost at the angle it is right now.

So we can actually see out, I mean, almost right out in front of us and all around us.

So it's gotta lot of visibility out of it.

And when we make our turns at the end of the field, and though it doesn't have it on this model, there's actually a little window here on the top of it, right here on each sides, so we can actually look out that window as we're turning 'cause now it's not up here, it's down here.

And so we can look out that window and see the ground.

- It's craziness.

- With the GPS, it's just made it so much easier.

And it's so much more efficient.

- So a Careless Flying Service, what's it called?

- Curless Flying Service.

- Yes, and then a Farm Air, Inc.?

- Farm Air, Inc. - Yeah, so I mean, if people wanna find out more about that, do you got websites?

- Yup, both of them - You just Google them.

- You just Google.

- That's what the kids do nowadays.

- That's what they do.

- I think it's really cool.

I mean, obviously what you do is cool, but I think what is really interesting about you is the way that you want to get the perception of your industry in the right light.

People understand what you're doing.

And I really appreciate you.

I know you're busy, you're crazy busy, but you still took the time to come here and talk to us.

So Harley Curless, thank you so very much for what you do.

Thank you for explaining us and to everybody else, we hope you catch us next week.

(bright upbeat music)