Ag Emerge Podcast

Ron Joyce, President and CEO of Joyce Farms joins us to discuss how their company is working with farmers using regenerative agriculture to grow, as Ron says, “flavorful meat.” And just as important, he's listening to chefs and customers who are asking for these quality products. Ron is quick to point out that there’s more to regenerative agriculture than just planting a cover crop or going organi...

The podcast today with Chef Rick Bayless is another great example of connecting dots and helping us understand how the food we grow impacts not only you the grower but the businesses and communities where our food is enjoyed. Most people know Rick Bayless from winning the title of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters. His highly rated public television series, Mexico: One Plate at a Time, is broadcast coast t...

We’ve got a great conversation with Sarah Carlson, Sarah is the Strategic Initiatives Director for PFI, Practical Farmers of Iowa. And well, there’s just a whole litany of things she does as an agronomist, agronomic researcher, educator, writer and just all-around amazing resource for everything cover crops, small grains, integrated crop and livestock concerns, all kinds of soil health practices a...

Welcome our guest Dr. Mike Bredeson, Research Agroecologist at the Ecdysis Foundation. Mike has been with Ecdysis since day one and his passion for the work they are doing to change the way research and science interacts with farmers is really evident. Mike talks about how even growing up on the farm he didn’t realize the impact of actually digging around and making observations in the soil. He sa...

Welcome our guest Blaine Hitzfield, a second generation farmer and business entrepreneur with a passion for regenerative agriculture. Blaine carved out an early life career by helping his family of seven brothers establish a farm-to-consumer food business that thousands of consumers know as Seven Sons Farms. We discuss the success of the Seven Sons brand and how he and his family transitioned from...

We’re so glad you’re listening, we’ve got Jeff Moyer, CEO at Rodale Institute joining us on the podcast. And there’s a little something for everyone today! One of the really cool things about being able to sit down and visit with our guests, is how we get to dig into the story behind the stories and learn where great ideas come from, and some of them just might surprise you! As many of you know, J...

We’re so glad you joined us for today’s episode as we talk with Dr. Michelle Perro who was also one of our speakers on this years’ AgEmerge stage. As you know, we think it’s so important to bring you guests that speak about all the spokes in the wheel of soil health including its impact on human health. Michelle Perro, MD, DHOM is a veteran pediatrician with over thirty-nine years of experience in...

Have you ever wanted to brainstorm with an ag-tech / equipment manufacturer? Well, that’s just what we did on today’s podcast. Joe Bassett, CEO of Dawn Equipment and Underground Ag joins us to discuss the full gamut of equipment, technology, software, management practices and, farming mindsets that drive research, development, investment and, implementation of these technologies. Grab a cup of cof...

Have you ever heard the saying, “the second mouse gets the cheese?” Well, today we’ll talk about the work and practical research Monte Bottens and his team are doing on the farm to discern practices that do and don’t work as we continue to fine-tune this system we call regenerative agriculture. As Monte says, they work to be the first mouse, taking one for the team so you, the second mouse can get...

Thanks for joining us today, we always enjoy visiting with all our guests on the podcast and Monte was particularly excited to speak with our guest today, Will Harris of White Oak Pastures. Will has been recognized all over the world as a leader in humane animal husbandry and environmental sustainability. As a fourth-generation cattleman, he and his family were raising livestock in the typical con...

Nutrient-dense food, it’s a big topic in regenerative agriculture. It’s just one of the many goals of improved soil health and it’s so very important to our own, human health. But how do we quantify it? What new research techniques are uncovering these connections and how can we identify practices and systems that will improve nutrient-dense food? Our guest today is trying to discover just that, D...

Thanks for joining us today. Have you seen the acronym I.R.L.? It stands for “in real life’ and that’s what Mikayla Tabert and her family are practicing to improve their farming operation, they’re not just talking about soil health, they are pursuing it in real life. They’re building diversity, using on-farm research, observation, innovation, trial and error, all working together to create a succe...

Join us as we explore the work Dr. Joel Gruver is conducting at Western Illinois University. Dr. Gruver teaches soil science and conservation classes and he’s the recipient of the National No-Till Educator of the Year Award in 2015. We’re going to dive into what tools in the toolbox they use to research organic grain production. You know the old adage for selling real estate is location, location...

On today’s podcast, Ag Solutions Network brings you the address Monte delivered for our virtual AgEmerge event this past January. Watch it on YouTube at this link: https://bit.ly/2TRqObn Monte examines the why of making changes in your farming operation. Why regenerative ag? Why are we so passionate about soil health? Simply put, sustaining is not enough. He explores what it looks like to adopt th...

Have you ever wished you could have a cup of coffee or a cold beverage with leading soil health and regenerative ag thinkers? Well that’s just what we made possible for you as we recorded our live Q&A session from our AgEmerge event where our speakers, Ray Archuleta, Rick Clark, Loren Poncia, and Tommy Fenster join Monte Bottens and Dawn Bull in an engaging conversation of Scaling up Regenerative...

On today’s podcast, we welcome Jay McCaman. Jay is the author of “When Weeds Talk”, a top ten book on Acres, USA’s 2019 list. (Acres is North America's oldest publisher on production-scale organic and sustainable farming). And more than a book, “When Weeds Talk” provides a comprehensive list of weeds and the soil conditions that enable those weeds to grow. On his mission to discover what weeds are...

Welcome to our 50th podcast! We're excited to share this episode with you! Today, we’re going to talk about the journey the Bottens family has been on to adopt key soil health practices in their operation. And we’ll talk about the family connection between farming and adopting change with our special guests, Monte’s dad, Bob Bottens, Monte’s wife Robyn and Monte! You know, there’s a proverb that s...

Today we’re so excited to have Dr. Dwayne Beck join us from the Dakota Lakes Research Farm in Pierre, SD. Dr. Beck’s work on developing and promoting diverse no-till cropping systems played an important role in allowing producers in South Dakota to dramatically improve their profitability while also protecting soil and water resources; enhancing wildlife habitat; reducing net carbon dioxide emissi...

We’ve got a great guest to kick off this new year, it’s a grassroots discussion with John Heermann, a farmer from northeast Colorado. John was a guest at one of our events back in 2016 and really got our gears turning when it came to thinking differently about how we saw our management practices. He challenged us to look at how cover crops were changing the way the soil functioned. John really had...

We appreciate you joining us for this year end AgEmerge podcast. We’ve focused this year on bringing you speakers that are not only ag thought leaders, but implementation leaders. They’re talking the talk but also walking the walk. We’re finishing out our podcast year by looking back on the opportunities our guests have challenged us to explore in our operations and move the needle forward on buil...

On today’s podcast, Colin Hurd joins us as we discuss autonomous technology innovations and how a college project turned into a mission to find solutions that solve some of today’s challenges in agriculture. Listen in as we talk about situational awareness and not just the function of autonomy but the data that can be generated to improve our decision making in the field. And we explore how this t...

Creating and measuring a smorgasbord for your microbes is on the menu for today’s podcast with Dr. Stacy Zuber, NRCS Illinois State Soil Health Specialist. We’ll dig into the soil health tests that are available and explore the work Dr. Zuber has done, evaluating soil health tests and key indicators. We’ll discuss soil health opportunities not only in carbon credits but also some of the other bene...

In today’s episode, join us as Monte, Kim and, Megan announce the speaker line-up for AgEmerge! As you might expect, there are some modifications to the delivery, due to the pandemic, but the great news is, that hasn’t affected the awesome lineup of speakers that are participating in the AgEmerge event. This year we are focusing on Scaling Up Regenerative Agriculture. It’s time to ramp it up and p...

AgEmerge is brought to you by Ag Solutions Network and one of the things we think makes us unique is that we are the boots on the ground helping growers navigate a systems approach to regenerative agriculture. Today we discuss what that looks like with our guest Silas Rossow. Silas is President of California Ag Solutions, and one of the member dealers that makes up the Ag Solutions Network. Silas...

What does it look like when an idea becomes reality? Loren and Lisa Poncia of Stemple Creek Ranch in Marin County, CA, tell us how they took a chance on an idea and made it a reality. They started Stemple Creek Ranch with the dream of raising quality, grass-finished beef, pork, and lamb to work with, not against, mother nature and they’ve redefined small-scale family ranching. Listen in as we disc...