Field Work

This is the big one. Five leaders of regenerative agriculture — Rick Clark, Ray Archuleta, Mitchell Hora, Loran Steinlage and of course, Dave Brandt — talk it up in Carroll, Ohio. At 2 hours and some change, this conversation is a long one, but worth your time on a long drive or tractor ride.

Instead of talking it up at Dave Brandt's Field Day, host Mitchell Hora listened. That resulted in big thoughts, which Mitchell shares with his co-hosts. Zach and Tara aren't shy about chiming in with their own opinions in this lively episode. Plus: Tara says the big three words.

After attending college in Bismarck, North Dakota, Ryan Bruski returned to his family's ranch in Ekalaka, Montana, with big ideas. He wanted to graze cows a new way. Instead of letting cattle roam for weeks at a time, Ryan decided to move them more frequently in a regenerative agriculture practice known as “adaptive grazing.” Plus: our first live listener question! Photo by Eric Melzer for Field Work

Brad Buchanan didn't plan on owning a cattle ranch. He was a city guy who bought land a short drive from Denver, then bought some cows as "lawnmowers." Fifteen years later, he's the proud owner of the Flying B Bar ranch, a grass-fed cattle operation. In August 2021, Mitchell Hora chatted with Brad at his ranch.

As a college professor, Allen Williams had a fancy degree and tenure. In 2000, he quit that job-for-life to become a farmer. But he knew he couldn't do it the conventional way. So Allen minimized inputs and focused on “net profit per acre,” which he says is more important than yield or “net profit per head.”

Mitchell and Brad Bristle have made a lot of big decisions at a young age. Their father died when they were young, then the hired man running their Michigan farm quit. So at ages 21 and 19, the Bristle Brothers took over. Now they're in charge of 1,500 acres of wheat, corn, soybeans and alfalfa and they're pretty much all in on regenerative agriculture. Watch on YouTube

After a successful career at the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, Ray Archuleta began preaching about soil health. Mitchell caught up with “Ray the Soil Guy” inside an Ohio seed shed. The pair talked about Ray's life and the challenges of converting more farmers to regenerative agriculture.

On this episode, Mitchell makes a pilgrimage to Fairfield County, Ohio, to chat with farmer Dave Brandt. Known as "The Godfather of Soil Health," Brandt began experimenting with no-till and cover crops in 1971. "My goal is to show people throughout the United States how they can make more money and not spend so much to get a crop produced," Brandt says.

Farmers are independent people. But there are some things you don't want to do alone. Like struggle with mental health. In this episode, we talk with soybean farmer Bob Worth about his experience with depression during the 1980s farm crisis. Hosts Mitchell and Tara also discuss new efforts in agriculture to address mental health issues with Kate Downes of New York FarmNet.  National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255 Pictured: Bob Worth (left) and Kate Downes

Stephanie and Blake Alexandre milk 9,000 cows on 9,000 acres in northern California. Their business — Alexandre Family Farms — is the nation's first certified regenerative dairy. On this episode, Stephanie and Blake talk about A2 milk, dairy family road trips, working with Savoy Institute and the Regenerative Alliance on certification, chickens, and selling their products at Whole Food stores.

As CEO of Cultivo, Manuel Piñuela wants to regenerate carbon on 1% of the planet. That's no easy task. In fact, achieving that goal would require signing up enough farm and forest acreage to cover Texas twice. On this episode, Zach and Mitchell continue trying to unpack the complex world of carbon markets and Mitchell has strong opinions.

Is it Zach's birthday? You might think so. Because on this episode of Field Work, Joe Liefer of John Deere joins Zach and Mitchell to talk about green tractors, a thing Zach loves. Liefer is an engineer at John Deere who has been working on the company's autonomous 8R tractor, which doesn't require a human behind the steering wheel. Instead, it has six pairs of stereo cameras so it doesn't bump into stuff like, you know, fence posts.

Gabe Brown didn't grow up on a farm. But today he's way into regenerative agriculture. On his farm and ranch just outside of Bismarck, North Dakota, Gabe does no-till, cover crops, and a mini-version of mob grazing. He's also one of the founding partners of Understanding Ag and the author of “Dirt To Soil: One Farmer's Journey Into Regenerative Agriculture.”

Robert Bonnie grew up on a Kentucky farm. Today, he's one of the most powerful people in agriculture, serving as a top USDA official in the Biden administration. One of the initiatives he's working on is the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, a $1 billion program aimed at reducing the ag sector's carbon footprint. Disclaimer: Hosts Mitchell Hora and Tara Vander Dussen have applied for funding from the USDA's Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program.

Farmers in 14 states have planted more than 14,000 acres of prairie strips to ease soil erosion. On this episode, Lisa Schulte Moore of Iowa State University explains the science behind planting native grasses and plants. “Prairie strips are oriented perpendicular to that flow of water,” she says. “It's really about slowing that water down, allowing it to infiltrate.”

Food deserts are places with limited access to fruits and vegetables. When the topic popped up in one of his college classes, Kamal Bell decided to do more than just talk about it. Bell started Sankofa Farms, a 12-acre farm in North Carolina. He grows kale, raises farm-fresh eggs and keeps bees there. In this episode, Bell talks about overcoming the challenges he faces as a first-generation Black farmer and why he's committed to helping young people gain valuable agriculture experience.

Lots of scientists give farmers advice. But not many of them have actually farmed. Jonathan Lundgren quit the USDA and started Blue Dasher Farms in South Dakota. In just a few years, he's learned some things, including how difficult farming is. Lundgren is also the driving force behind Ecdysis Foundation, a research organization that aims to study regenerative farming practices on 1,000 farms.

Tara Vander Dussen makes her Field Work debut at Zach Johnson's Minnesota farm. In this episode, Tara tells Zach and Mitchell about the wonders of New Mexico: sand dunes, square roads, fainting goats, and how she encourages dairy farmers to be more sustainable. She also seems genuinely surprised at the concept of rain.

Big changes are coming! Tara Vander Dussen, a New Mexico dairy farmer, will be joining Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora as a Field Work co-host. Throughout Season 4, Zach, Mitchell and Tara will be engaging in honest and authentic conversations about the ups and the downs of sustainable agriculture. They'll learn about prairie strips, talk to the founders of a regenerative dairy farm, visit the “Godfather of Soil Health,” and continue the conversation about agriculture's role in curbing climate change. The new season launches ​April 13​​.

According to the EPA, the agriculture sector of the economy causes 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, far behind energy, transportation, and industry. But there's a lot of interest in how to reduce ag's carbon footprint. Regenerative practices on the farm, especially using cover crops for soil health, can reduce those emissions by sequestering carbon below ground. Yet carbon markets for ag are still kind of the Wild West. On this episode of Field Work, hosts Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora explore the roles of finance and government in building the markets. Guests are Cristian Barcan, vice president for sustainability for Rabo Agrifinance, one of the biggest agricultural lenders in the U.S., and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. Read more: The roles of finance and government in building the markets

One of the most important resources for farmers interested in sustainable practices is a soil test commonly known as the Haney Test. In this episode, we talk to the developer of the test, Rick Haney, a soil scientist who will retire from USDA Agricultural Research Service on June 30. Rick tells Field Work producer Annie Baxter how he came up with his legendary soil health test — and exactly how it works. We also hear from Indiana farmer Rick Clark about how he converted his 7,000-acre farm from conventional corn and soybean to no-till and diversified his crops. The Haney test played a crucial role.  The two Ricks help lead a brainstorm about scaling up regenerative practices to slow climate change and help farmers be more profitable — with Iowa farmer Brian Hora (Mitchell's dad), North Carolina farmer Russell Hedrick and Great Plains Regeneration Executive Director Jessica Gnad also joining in.  Our show was recorded at Field Work co-host Mitchell Hora's field day June 3, 2021, in Washington County, Iowa.

This week on Field Work, Zach and Mitchell talk about the future of tractors with New Holland's Director of Commercial Marketing, Mark Lowery. First up is a look beyond diesel fuel to the methane powered tractor New Holland is planning to introduce late this year. It will have reduced fuel costs and greatly reduced emissions versus a traditional diesel tractor, with the potential to have essentially zero emissions if it is paired with a bioreactor capturing methane from manure. Later, they talk about autonomous operation, where it is now, where it is probably going next, and why we don't need to worry about them taking over the world (yet). Read more: A methane-powered tractor

Research at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, over the past couple of decades has advanced the concept of perennial grain crops to the point of commercially available kernza. Mitchell and Zach talk to a Minnesota organic farmer, Luke Peterson, who’s been growing kernza in his fields and cultivating interest in it among other farmers, food processors and retailers. They’re joined by Tessa Peters of The Land Institute who explains where the name came from and why her team is so committed to making perennial grains viable. Read more: Research at The Land Institute

Marc Schober is director of specialized agriculture solutions for Bremer Bank, the nation’s 9th largest farm lender. Zach and Mitchell ask him about how he decides which #fintech and #agtech solutions are worth recommending to the bank and to farmers. Schober tells Field Work he is bullish on finding ways to incentivize transitions to regenerative ag for farms of all sizes, but less sure of how exactly carbon markets will work, or what changes they can expect with the Biden administration. Read more: 5 ideas for farmers who want to minimize risk

Field Work hosts Mitchell Hora and Zach Johnson talk to cotton farmer Adam Chappell about cotton and sharecropping. Chappell nearly lost his farm 10 years ago to a triple whammy of drought, pigweed and a customer who didn’t pay. He fought his way back to profitability by adopting regenerative practices. Now he uses much less seed, fertilizer, herbicide and irrigation than he used to. He has integrated livestock and figured out what cover crops work best for corn and soybeans, as well as cotton. Now he’s looking into chicken tractors, sheep and downsizing his acreage because his margin is so much better. Read more: Changes Chappell made on his farm

Farmers from 17 southern states supply more than a third of the world’s cotton and bring in $7 billion a year. But brands and retailers — cotton’s customers — are getting picky about how their cotton is produced. They want to assure their customers that farmers care about the environment. The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol gives farmers a way to measure and improve soil carbon, greenhouse gas emissions, water use and energy use, among other things. Dr. Andy Jordan, who helped write the protocol, explains how it works to Field Work hosts Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora. They also discuss how the protocol might be adapted to other crops. Read more: Five questions about the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol

John and Kara Boyd are equally committed to farming and to farm ownership for people of color.  John heads the National Black Farmers Association, and Kara runs the Association of American Indian Farmers. They told Field Work hosts Mitchell Hora and Zach Johnson they became activists because of their own experiences with a racist USDA. Meanwhile, they are trying to spread the word about cover crops, no-till farming and conservation. Read more: John and Kara Boyd

For a few years now, Iowa State University Professor Kevin Kimle has been asking students in his ag entrepreneurship classes to take a personality test. What he’s found so far is that compared to the average person, those ag students score pretty low when it comes to openness. He and the Field Work hosts talk about what that lack of openness might mean for trying new practices like cover crops. And after taking the personality test, Zach and Mitchell learn some awkward things about themselves. Read more: The Big Five Aspects Scale

The Nature Conservancy and Purdue University are among a lot of people in the sustainable ag keen to figure out what it takes to scale conservation practices. Does it come down to the availability of funding? Climate? Soils? What happens if all those factors are pretty equal between, say, two neighboring counties, but the level of adoption of conservation practices varies dramatically between them? Kris Johnson from the TNC and Linda Prokopy from Purdue talk about research in three different states where they compare counties with a robust conservation culture to neighboring counties that aren’t doing much. They talk with Zach and Mitchell about cover crop culture, the importance of collaboration among farmers, government agencies and entrepreneurs, and what they still don’t understand. Read more: The Magical Dividing Line Between Counties

Young farmers coming back to a family operation often have to tease out a place for themselves with hard work, creativity and an entrepreneurial zeal. For Trent Stout, that meant taking on the family seed business and migrating it from being a local corn and soybean dealer to be the go-to source for diverse cover crop seeds. Michael Vittetoe brought cattle to the farm as an integral part of a rotation that relies on cover crops. He might just fold the chickens into the system, too. Hosts Mitchell Hora and Zach Johnson hear how some of their peers are making conservation their part of the family business. Read more: A New Generation Advances the Cause

The Biden administration has ambitious climate mitigation goals, and agriculture has been called upon to be a strong partner. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack led the department throughout the Obama years and is back at the helm. He talks with Mitchell and Zach about consumer demands for sustainably grown food, how to develop carbon markets that serve farmers first, the need to create more opportunity to sell what’s currently considered waste, and how farmers can make sure their interests are part of any future plans and policies. (Hint: comment here). Read more: Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack on Climate Solutions

Several Washington County families trace their conservation interests back decades. For Rob Stout and Darrell Steele, their dads’ interest in conservation primed them to be open to the idea of no-till. Still, getting it to work took a lot of perseverance through various failures. Eventually, the planter attachments helped. The early pioneers emerged with a willingness to share what they were learning with other local farmers. Like no-tilling, that generosity persists in Washington County. Read more: Families that Led the Conservation Charge in Washington County

Paul Reed and Dave Moeller explain to Zach and Mitchell that the modern planter row unit was designed to provide good seed to soil contact in the dry, cloddy seedbed of a conventionally tilled field. And why that created a different set of problems in cool, wet early season, no-till fields. They start with the release of the John Deere MaxEmerge row unit in 1972 and follow the development of planter technology right through today’s precision technology, describing how their constant experimentation and collaboration with other pioneers like Howard Martin and Eugene Keeton led to successful no-tilling and a business selling planter attachments. Zach also gets some advice on how to set up his own planter. Read more: Zach and Mitchell go to planter school

Mitchell and Zach are trying to understand how Mitchell’s home county in Southeast Iowa developed such a strong conservation culture. Jim Frier, now 88, showed up to the interview with a box full of documentation of all the work he put into educating farmers: flyers from the twilight meetings and field days he organized, which could attract as many as 500 attendees, articles he penned promoting conservation tillage, including one that wondered, back in the 60s, whether traditional tillage systems were on their way out, and photos he took of equipment attachments folks were designing to make no-till work with their existing planters. To be sure, there were a lot of other key people who helped build a conservation movement in Washington County, but Jim Frier teaches us the value of cheerleaders. Read more: Evening meetings helped launch a conservation culture Video: Mr. Johnson Goes to Washington (County, That Is)

On this episode of Field Work, hosts Mitchell Hora and Zach Johnson talk money with the founders of two startups. Sami Tellatin says FarmRaise will be a one-stop shop to help farmers apply for grants and loans. And FarmRaise will do all the paperwork! Robyn O’Brien helps lead rePlant Capital, a new venture capital fund that invests in farmers who implement regenerative practices. Replant is working with Danone, and other big food companies whose customers want to know more about sourcing. Read more: New Ideas in Ag Finance

President Joe Biden has said he wants to pay farmers to grow cover crops and put land into conservation. How will that work? He also has big plans to reduce and capture carbon emissions, which could spell opportunities for farmers. But the science is still tenuous and the math would have to pencil out. Zach and Mitchell tap Farm Journal News Director John Herath for an overview of how the Biden administration is addressing sustainable ag and who farmers need to pay attention to. Then former USDA Undersecretary Bill Northey discusses his takeaways after serving as the first head of Farm Programs and Conservation, where he brought FSA, RMA and NRCS together under one mission area. Read more: Five things to keep an eye on in the Biden administration

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The world has changed in some massive ways since Field Work hosts Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora sat down to record the first episodes of the season back in December. We’re now living amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning of 2020, farm incomes were expected to rise. Now they’re projected to dip as commodity prices slump. So that raises the question: what is the outlook for sustainable ag in this environment? What becomes harder-- and what becomes easier-- for farmers wanting to swap ideas about conservation practices? What are the roadblocks or advantages to trying something new right now? In our season finale, Zach and Mitchell discuss these questions with Lauren Lurkins, the Director of Environmental Policy at the Illinois Farm Bureau.

Samantha Schmidgall, the Agronomy Marketing Manager with Ag View FS in Walnut, IL, is driven by the cooperative foundation of her agricultural retail company.  “If we're not doing what our farmers and our farmer-based board want us to do, we're not checking the box of doing the right thing that day,” she said. In recent years, her farmer community has encouraged the company to embrace sustainable ag technologies and practices. “We might have one or two growers that suggest, you know, hey, can you look at this? Can you see if this is cost effective for us? And when we find those things, we're implementing them across our company,” she explained. Over time, the addition of these conservation practices has evolved into a core philosophy of how they run their business. “Trying to be the leader in conservation is something that we truly take pride in and our customer owners do as well,” Schmidgall said. Agricultural retailers have a significant impact on the types of agronomic practices farmers adopt in the communities they serve.  Farmers rely on these companies for everything from seeds and inputs to essential agronomic advice. That role of trusted adviser gives retailers influence with the farmers they work with. Trust In Food, in collaboration with Environmental Defense Fund, recently published a report called “Growing for the future: Business lessons from ag retail’s conservation leaders”. The report notes, “More so than almost any other stakeholder, ag retailers are positioned to play an influential role in the continuous improvement of sustainability across the agricultural value chain.” But many retailers prefer conventional growing over sustainable ag. “Retailers can be a roadblock to adopting sustainable ag practices if they’re not into conservation,” said Field Work co-host Mitchell Hora, a farmer in Iowa. That’s why Hora, along with fellow farmer and co-host Zach Johnson, wanted to hear from folks on the retail side who have made conservation a top priority. Malcolm Stambaugh works with Schmidgall at Ag View FS as a Crop Specialist. In 2012, he began working with his farmers to implement 4R nutrient management.  4R Nutrient Stewardship is an efficient framework for applying nutrients that emphasizes using the right fertilizer source, the right rate, at the right time, and in the right place.  Since 2012, Stambaugh has helped 16 growers participate in the 4R program, and was recognized as one of the 4R advocates of the year in 2019. Along with their 4R work, Ag View FS encourages all their salesmen to use the ‘maximum return rate on nitrogen,’ or MRTN, tool to calculate the most profitable rate of nitrogen application for each grower. “Just to make sure that we're doing the right thing economically and we're doing the right thing agronomically,” Schmidgall explained. “It doesn't do any good for anyone to put on an excess of nitrogen that's not getting used in the right way.” Schmidgall has seen that as more growers adopt conservation nitrogen application techniques, it sparks interest in the larger community. “When people in the area see that we have more of these enduring farmer 4R advocates… there's a lot of guys that are asking, ‘How do I do that? How do I be a part of that?” she said. That initial interest in conservation opens the door for Ag View FS to introduce those growers to a whole set of sustainable practices that could benefit their operation. “It's not only fertilizer, it's not only doing the 4R practices, but it's soil sampling on a grid. It's VRT (variable rate technology) application of lime, phosphates and potassium. It's no applications on frozen ground. It's utilizing cover crops,” she said. Schmidgall and Stambaugh see that it’s going to take years to refine the best uses of newly developing conservation techniques. Right now, they’re collecting data on the best uses of these techniques. That information will guide their company over the coming decade. “So right now we're doing the legwork, doing the trials to figure out what's going to work, what isn't working,” Schmidgall said. “And if you're not working with an ag retailer who's interested in doing those trials and working with those products, there's a potential for you to get left behind.”

 Crop prices ain’t what they used to be, so some farmers have sought out additional sources of income. On this episode of Field Work, Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora talk to Pat Duncanson, a fifth generation corn and soybean farmer in Minnesota who has installed multiple solar panels on his land. We also hear from Fritz Ebinger, who works with farmers to assess their options for solar panels or wind turbines.

There’s a whole world of funding that can help to bring conservation practices onto a farm, but wading through the web of federal, state, and private programs can feel like a full time job of its own. So Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora bring on Kevin Norton, the Associate Chief of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to learn about government cost share programs. Then, Wisconsin dairy farmers Tom Zwald and Todd Doornink explain how their farming community has banded together to find money for sustainable agriculture on their own through the Western Wisconsin Conservation Council. Be sure to check out a video of Mitchell’s visit to Tom’s farm on our YouTube channel, where Tom describes what he’s doing on the crop side of his farm to protect water, and how his dairy is also re-using water multiple times in its operation.

Food companies are seeing a lot more demand from consumers for sustainably-grown food. But how is that demand translating into actual incentives for farmers to adopt conservation practices? In this episode, we bring you the conversation Field Work co-host Mitchell Hora moderated in November 2019 at the Sustainable Agriculture Summit. Panelists included Unilever’s Stefani Millie Grant and Ben Crook from Hellman’s Mayonnaise, who explain how big food companies are trying to encourage more farmers to use sustainable ag practices, and farmer Scott Henry, who participated in Unilever’s sustainable soy program. Special thanks to the host partners for inviting Field Work to record at the 2019 Sustainable Agriculture Summit. It’s an annual gathering for major food companies, government agencies, academics, conservation groups, and farmers committed to advancing a coordinated and comprehensive approach to driving change in agriculture sustainability. The Host Partners are Field to Market and Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. The next summit will be held in Phoenix, AZ in November 2020.

There are certain regenerative practices that help to put carbon back into the ground, which can be beneficial for crops, soil, and the broader environment. Some companies are trying to provide another benefit to these practices -- a way for farmers to get paid. Through emerging carbon markets, companies trying to offset their carbon emissions can pay farmers for the services that take carbon out of the atmosphere. This week, Field Work hosts Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora talk to Christophe Jose, the co-founder of Nori, one of the companies working to make this possible, about the challenges and benefits of carbon markets.

Water plays an important role in all of our lives. But how much do we actually understand key water topics, like the share of Americans who get their water shut off or the biggest causes of pollution? Field Work co-host Zach Johnson talks to Andi Egbert from the American Public Media Research Lab as well as Kinsie Rayburn and Drew Slattery from Farm Journal’s Trust in Food initiative about research into average Americans’ and farmers’ understanding of key water issues.

Farmers often get the advice that they should “start small” when it comes to conservation practices. But Indiana farmer Rick Clark of Clark Land and Cattle is proof that you can do regenerative ag at scale. He raises no-till soybeans, no-till corn, and has had great success planting cover crops on his 7,000 acre farm. What’s more, this is the first year that all his acres will be grown without chemicals as he transitions to organic. Field Work co-host Mitchell Hora visited Clark’s farm to learn about his journey as a farmer. And he learned the secrets to Rick’s massive cost savings of $670,000 a year.

After a big bet on growing asparagus backfired, the Nuss family had to rethink their approach to running Nuss Farms. Tim and Tyler Nuss, the 5th generation on the farm and the hosts of The Modern Acre podcast, join Mitchell Hora and Zach Johnson to talk about how their family decided to embrace regenerative agriculture. Featuring: pastured poultry, diversifying your business, how to change an old school farmer’s mind, and a really bad chicken joke.

Like much of the world, agriculture is facing a lot of uncertainty and change from COVID-19. In this bonus episode, Field Work host Mitchell Hora hops on the mic in his home studio to talk to AgriTalk host Chip Flory about the biggest challenges and solutions facing farmers right now. The two talk about the pork, dairy, and ethanol industries and the role sustainable agriculture could play as farmers assess how to diversify their crops and boost their bottom lines.

The word “organic” is familiar to a lot of consumers -- in the last decade we’ve seen a rise in organic foods in our grocery stores and markets. And there’s a whole raft of standards, developed by federal regulators, that farmers have to meet in order to certify as organic. That kind of check list does not exist for food grown according to “regenerative” principles, which are gaining traction in conservation circles. Field Work hosts Mitchell Hora and Zach Johnson talk to Eric Jackson from Pipeline Foods and Sara Harper from Grounded Growth about the differences, markets and challenges of regenerative and organic practices.

Growing hemp was illegal in the U.S. for decades. But recent changes in federal law have opened the door to growing the crop. So as farmers across the country begin to experiment with hemp, hosts Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora decide to learn more about commercial hemp production. In October, Mitchell visited Scott Thellman at Juniper Hill Farms in Kansas to hear about his first stab at growing industrial hemp. They talk sourcing seeds, keeping hemp under legal THC limits, harvesting with chainsaws, and much more.

Tim Hammerich is the founder of AgGrad, an agribusiness recruiting company, and the host of the Future of Agriculture podcast. He joins Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora to talk about the latest innovations in farming, the changing skill sets agriculture demands, and the essential role of data management in sustainable ag. They also discuss the reasons why it’s so hard to recruit young people into ag and why more farmers should think of themselves as CEOs.

Edge-of-field practices like bioreactors, buffers and wetlands filter a farm’s runoff before it reaches nearby waterways. Mitchell Hora and Zach Johnson bring on Professor Amy Kaleita from the Iowa State University Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering to explain how edge of field practices work and who might be able to install them on their land. Farmer Mike Ehlers also joins the show to talk about his experience installing a bioreactor and why conservation practices are important to him. Also included: kayaking in drainage ditches, magic wood chips, and a dead zone in the Gulf of New Mexico.