Tyree Ag: Keeping ‘Midway USA’ Safe

Tyree Ag Plane

There is a Regional Environmental Respect Award winner in a town that folks call “Midway USA.” Tyree Ag is in Kinsley, KS — a place 1,651 miles west of New York City and 1,651 miles east of San Francisco.

Advertisement

It doesn’t take long to discover the map location has not rubbed off on business owner Tim Tyree. He doesn’t do anything halfway.

Top Articles
Best Agriculture Apps for 2024 (Update)

Tyree began his career in ag as an aerial application pilot. He and his wife, Paige, began their own flying operation 12 years ago. In two years, the business had its second pilot and soon after, its first ground application rig. Next, Tyree purchased two acres on the Kinsley municipal airport site.

“We were the Kansas state Environ­men­tal Respect winner back in 2009,” explains Tyree. “We first entered as a way to help us learn more about what we could do to improve the operation. Each year after winning the state award, we would make improvements and update our application for a regional award to reflect these improvements. “I guess perseverance pays off.”

An Air Show

The flying side of the business works out of a modern hanger and load-out facility constructed in 2008. The state-of-the-art Junge computer-controlled mixing system inside the hanger helps with both efficiency and accuracy. The hanger floor is a large cement containment pad that could hold up to 10,000 gallons of a spill. “Back before we had a loading system for the planes under roof, we would spend an hour just cleaning up after a rain before we could start filling,” says Tyree.

Tyree explains the thinking behind his design this way, “We must minimize any harmful repercussions of what we do to make sure that what we do is good for us, growers and consumers,” he says. “If we don’t take care of what we have, we will not meet the world food production goals.”

0
Advertisement