Wheat's On Your Mind

GPS interference in wartime Ukraine offers a stark reminder of how much modern farming depends on technology—and what happens when that technology fails. Host Aaron Harries visits with fifth-generation Moundridge, Kansas, farmer Ray Flickner about his January 2026 trip to Ukraine, where large, technologically advanced farms face GPS jamming, air-raid alerts and grain export challenges. Back in Kan...

Host Aaron Harries and Kansas Wheat CEO Justin Gilpin sit down with Kieffer, CEO of the National Association of Wheat Growers, to discuss farm profitability, federal policy, and the value of farmers speaking for themselves.  Raised on a Pennsylvania grain and cattle farm, Kieffer shares how military service and a career with Farm Bureau shaped his approach to representing wheat growers. Recor...

Kansas Wheat: 100 Episodes, Lessons That Last Kansas wheat has a remarkable history, and 100 episodes of Wheat’s On Your Mind reveal how farmers, researchers, and industry leaders continue to shape its future. Host Aaron Harries and producer Dave Deken celebrate the podcast's 100th episode by revisiting memorable conversations from four seasons of Kansas wheat storytelling. From the arrival of Tur...

A quieter wheat market doesn’t mean the opportunities—or risks—have disappeared. Mike O’Day of StoneX joins host Aaron Harries and Kansas Wheat CEO Justin Gilpin to examine where wheat prices could go next. They discuss the correction in Kansas City futures, Black Sea shipping disruptions, global wheat demand, milling-quality supplies and why basis may strengthen before futures make their next maj...

After a brutal wheat harvest and another difficult year for farm economics, why keep planting wheat? For northwest Kansas farmer Mike McClellan, part of the answer is simple: wheat still has a job to do. McClellan farms in Rooks and Graham counties and serves on the Kansas Wheat Commission and U.S. Wheat Associates boards. He joins Aaron Harries to discuss how his operation has changed since he re...

Getting more wheat from limited water may depend less on finding one breakthrough and more on improving the entire farming system. Australian farming systems agronomist John Kirkegaard Ph. D. joins K-State wheat and forage Extension specialist Romulo Lollato Ph. D. to discuss what Kansas and Australian wheat producers can learn from each other. They explore farmer-led research, water-use efficienc...

Bread remains a cornerstone of the American food system, but declining consumption and changing consumer attitudes could have consequences all the way back to the wheat farm. Josh Sosland, president of Sosland Publishing Company and editor of Milling & Baking News , joins Aaron Harries and Justin Gilpin to examine what more than a century of milling and baking history says about today’s wheat-dema...

The 2026 wheat season showed just how quickly a promising crop can become a test of every management decision a producer makes. Host Aaron Harries sits down with K-State wheat and forages specialist Romulo Lollato Ph. D., CSIRO farming systems agronomist John Kirkegaard Ph. D. and Dave Deken for a roundtable on the 2026 Kansas and Oklahoma wheat crop. They trace the season from strong fall establi...

America's story cannot be told without agriculture—and few people understand that story better than historian and author Douglas Hurt. As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Hurt joins Aaron Harries to explore how farming helped build the nation. From colonial wheat production and westward expansion to the Homestead Act, land-grant universities, the Dust Bowl, conservation programs...

A smaller hard red winter wheat crop will test whether last year’s export buyers were chasing price or choosing lasting value.  Brian Liedl, vice president of overseas operations for U.S. Wheat Associates, joins Aaron Harries and Justin Gilpin to explain how strong 2025/26 wheat exports changed the outlook for Mexico, Nigeria, Indonesia, and other important markets. They discuss why U.S. wheat qua...

Federal farm programs are changing, and Kansas wheat producers need to know what those changes could mean at the county office, in the crop insurance conversation and on the farm. In this episode, Aaron Harries talks with Richard Fordyce, USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation, and David Schemm, Kansas FSA State Executive Director, about USDA reorganization, FSA modernization an...

Kansas wheat farmers are facing a mixed harvest, fragile margins, and fertilizer markets that are finally easing but still hard to pencil. Aaron Harries and Justin Gilpin are joined by Mike O’Dea and Josh Linville of StoneX for a wide-ranging market discussion on Kansas harvest progress, hard red winter wheat quality, export competitiveness, fertilizer prices, and crop-input security. They cover w...

A farmer-owned wheat, milling, and bakery project in Goodland could change how Kansas wheat reaches the grocery shelf. In this episode of Wheat’s On Your Mind , Aaron Harries talks with Brian Linin and Alan Townsend, co-founders of Golden Waves Grain, about their plan to receive wheat directly from farmer-owners, mill it into flour, and bake it into bread in one integrated facility. They explain h...

Wheat is being pulled into bigger national conversations about dietary guidelines, school meals and ultra-processed foods. In this episode, Aaron Harries talks with Erin Ball, executive director of the Grain Foods Foundation, and Leah Johnston, director of nutrition strategies and communications with Wildhive Strategic Communications. They explain how the grain foods industry is responding to chan...

Kansas wheat producers have several farm program changes to keep on their radar, from higher wheat reference prices to 2026 ARC/PLC elections, new base acre opportunities and disaster relief payments. In this episode of Wheat’s On Your Mind , Aaron Harries talks with David Schemm , state executive director for the USDA Farm Service Agency in Kansas, about how USDA is implementing recent farm progr...

Kansas wheat producers are heading into harvest with drought, freeze injury, possible abandonment, and seed supply questions all on the table. In this episode of Wheat’s On Your Mind , Aaron Harries talks with Justin Gilpin, CEO of Kansas Wheat, and Bryson Haverkamp, CEO of the Kansas Wheat Alliance, about what they are hearing from the field, how newer wheat varieties are holding up, and why grow...

Maryland wheat farmers juggle humidity, disease pressure, poultry markets, and tighter nutrient rules, yet Jason Scott says there is still room to raise strong wheat and make smart management decisions. In this episode, Aaron Harries visits with Jason Scott, a sixth-generation farmer from Maryland’s Eastern Shore who grows soft red winter wheat alongside corn, soybeans, malted barley, and sweet co...

Hybrid wheat has long been one of agriculture’s biggest “what ifs.” In this episode of Wheat’s On Your Mind, host Aaron Harries talks with Dan Wiersma of Corteva about why that may finally be changing — and why Kansas is expected to be the epicenter of the company’s planned hard red winter wheat launch in fall 2027. Wiersma breaks down the science in plain language, from hybrid vigor and wheat gen...

Mike Spier, the new president and CEO of U.S. Wheat Associates, joins Aaron Harries and Justin Gilpin to talk about the relationships, strategy, and boots-on-the-ground work behind U.S. wheat exports. Spier shares how his career took him from the West Coast grain trade to overseas posts in Egypt, the Philippines, and Singapore, and how those experiences shaped his view of global wheat demand, trad...

Global conflict is colliding with farm economics in this episode of Wheat’s on Your Mind . Host Aaron Harries is joined by Mike O’Dea, risk management consultant at StoneX, and Josh Linville, vice president of fertilizer at StoneX, to unpack the fast-moving fallout from the Iran conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Together, they explain why wheat prices were already moving higher bef...

Don Keesling has lived through 80 Kansas wheat harvests, and he remembers when harvest was a full-family operation—kids hauling water, older siblings driving trucks, and every load requiring real muscle. In this special episode, Don and host Aaron Harries walk through how wheat harvest used to work, the machinery transitions that changed everything, and why the culture of neighbors helping neighbo...

Fertilizer isn’t just an input—it’s a globally traded commodity with price signals driven by geopolitics, energy markets, and overseas demand. In this episode, Aaron Harries sits down with Corey Rosenbusch, president and CEO of The Fertilizer Institute, to unpack why fertilizer markets can feel like “three-dimensional chess,” especially for wheat producers balancing tight margins. Rosenbusch expla...

Cindy Falk has spent 40 years helping Kansas Wheat connect with consumers through recipes, baking demonstrations, nutrition education, and the beloved Kansas Wheat recipe booklet tradition. In this episode, host Aaron Harries chats with Cindy about her upbringing on a Kansas farm, the “Speak for Wheat” spokesperson program she helped grow, and the behind-the-scenes work of answering baking questio...

Brian Walker didn’t start in a corner office—he started six weeks out of high school as a “sample jockey” in a flour mill, learning the business from union millers, lab mentors, and long days when the mill ran. More than 45 years later, his career spans Seaboard, Cargill, Ardent Mills, and Miller Milling—and he’s seen the milling industry transform through consolidation, shifting competition, and...

2025 didn’t fit in a neat box for Kansas wheat farmers—it was “variability,” from a dry start to long stretches of wet weather that stretched harvest timelines and narrowed fieldwork windows.  Kansas Wheat Commission Chair Derek Sawyer and Kansas Association of Wheat Growers President Chris Tanner join host Aaron Harries and Kansas Wheat CEO Justin Gilpin to break down the year’s biggest storyline...