Dirt Road Discussions

Send us Fan Mail When J.R. Simplot met with Ray Kroc (McDonalds) and sold him on the idea of “consistent” frozen Idaho potatoes, the Simplot company was headed for big things. A second encounter with a guano (bat poop) salesman, led to an experiment that would inspire Simplot to build a large fertilizer business. And finally, Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Flo Jo) would help jump start the J.R. Si...

Send us Fan Mail Garrett Kleiner thinks more people should consider leaving traditional occupations in an office setting for a career in forestry. He loves being in nature and working with individuals to plan forest management.  What may surprise some is that many forestry jobs are in the private sector. Garrett, a consulting forester with Inland Forest Management, explains how forestry works toda...

Send us Fan Mail Raising cattle to produce quality beef is a process that gets better every decade. New research provides valuable knowledge, but the tricky part is getting this new information to our American ranchers, who are some of the busiest workers around. This is where Meranda Small comes in. As a Livestock Production Extension Educator with the University of Idaho, Meranda is constantly w...

Send us Fan Mail For many years, Idahoans have been working to solve the puzzle of increasing water storage to provide for farms and city municipalities and to recharge the aquifer. The goal is to have more water storage built up to use across Idaho's water corridors. Idaho's legislators recently passed Senate Joint Memorial 101 (SJM101) that asks federal agencies to study all options to...

Send us Fan Mail Sugar is such a critical commodity in this country that major steps are taken to protect its availability. Sugar works with other ingredients to provide taste, texture, and balanced acidity to the food we eat. However, sugar is commonly misunderstood, whether talking about its origin from sugar beet vs sugar cane, GMOs, or federal protections. Samantha Parrott (aka Sugarbeet Queen...

Send us Fan Mail The waiting list to buy miniature donkeys grew so fast at Simple Little Farm that Garrett & Ruth Nilsson finally decided to primarily sell to families who could visit their farms and get to know these amazing companion animals. Their story is funny, where a random call to check on getting information on a miniature donkey quickly became a question of whether they would be inte...

Send us Fan Mail Trent Van Leuven thought he might be an ag economist until a chance encounter with an ag educator and a 700-mile drive changed everything. Starting his career during the recession of 2009, Trent has seen the blessings and challenges of being an ag teacher in Mackay, Idaho, a town with under 1,000 residents. He shares how many students thrive when connected to technical skills earl...

Send us Fan Mail Paige Nelson didn't have the same class schedule as many of her fellow college journalism students. She came from preg-checking cows in her advanced beef reproduction class and smelled like manure, but she was determined to be an agriculture journalist.  In this podcast, Paige tells stories of how her upbringing has led to a life as a mom, rancher, and freelance agriculture w...

Send us Fan Mail Brody Harshbarger agrees that there is a place for apex predators like grizzlies and wolves, but from his experiences working with cattle and with Fish and Game, he shares that there is a growing need for common-sense management. He shares how public perception has often been detoured away from science and actual apex predator recovery numbers, influenced by emotion and marketing...

Send us Fan Mail Bryan and Mary Searle were just a young couple when they were invited to their first Farm Bureau meeting. Little did they know that they would stay for over 40 years.  In this podcast, Bryan Searle, who has served as president of the Idaho Farm Bureau for the past 10 years, takes us down memory lane by telling us six stories. He talks about the early years of being on the board, t...

Send us Fan Mail We all know someone who says they are technologically challenged, which may be a light-hearted comment until we realize how isolating it can feel in a world that requires skills with a smartphone or computer to pay basic bills, register kids for events, or video chat with family. High-speed or fiber optic internet opportunities can be late or non-existent in our country's rur...

Send us Fan Mail One day on a long flight over the Pacific Ocean, a fellow airline pilot asked Captain Bill Gross what he would do when he retired. Without hesitation, Bill answered, “I’m going to be this Good Samaritan that buys a tractor and goes around helping farm families plant their crops when they have a major injury or illness.” That generated some laughter until his coworker realized Bill...

Send us Fan Mail As a young girl, Kaala Clark was the daughter of a single mom who had acquired 3 acres of farmland in Hawaii. They lived in a camper trailer with no running water and no mirrors. However, when Kaala started finding photos of her mom with celebrities around the world, she began asking questions.  Recruited to be a young model, Kaala had to wait until the age of 17 to leave their sm...

Send us Fan Mail When ranching families decided to bring the cowboy experience to tourists in Jackson Hole, it became a dedicated lifetime adventure. It requires a love for people and a love for open Western living. Bar T 5 co-owner Chris Warburton shares how the whole thing started and how, after 2,500 shows, their passion and love of what they do are not slowing down anytime soon.

Send us Fan Mail Eugene Smith loved working at McDonald's as a young man. Being in the high-paced fray of fast food was thrilling, but what Eugene didn't know was that this passional would reemerge in 2008 when a cow broke his leg, farm prices started to tank, and he had to figure out what was next.  Eugene told his adult kids that he was going to move from Wisconsin to Idaho to expand C...

Send us Fan Mail Live Audience Recording! Nearly 70% of Americans eat beef at least once per week.  In this episode, Dr. Phil Bass, Associate Professor of Meat Science at the University of Idaho, talks about how lessons learned as early as 1906 have shaped meat safety measures in the United States.  He also shares how the American meat industry should embrace people who know little about meat prod...

Send us Fan Mail As a continuation of his original interview, Rulon talks about life after winning gold, two near-death experiences, advice for young people, and participates in Cam and Ott's speed round.

Send us Fan Mail Those who witnessed the 2000 Olympics will remember the David vs Goliath wrestling upset of a Wyoming farm boy, Rulon Gardner, over Russia's historic dominator Aleksandr Karelin.  What most people don't know is that Rulon did not grow up as an early wrestling prodigy. There were many times in his life where he faced forks in the road to determine what he might become. In...

Send us Fan Mail Today, people use computers as weapons to target key industries. Some do it for financial gain, while others are connected to international political factions. Regardless of their intention, the agriculture industry has had to take these threats seriously and is working to share information across companies to keep America's food chain protected. Jonathan Braley, Director of...

Send us Fan Mail When Emma from "Ag With Emma" told her dad that she wanted to be on the road with a harvest crew, he did not approve. The interesting part was that her dad himself was once part of these crews that traversed states (sometimes with 50 combines) to help with harvests all over the country.  As Emma started this adventure as a young woman in the United States and Australia,...

Send us Fan Mail Jeff Middleton knows that addiction is difficult and addicts are worth saving. As Director, his approach to getting addicts connected with Boise Vertical Farms is helping those in recovery find something to feel good about during their journey. Jeff shares how many addicts in the court system are not hardened criminals but people who are trying to escape paths that they do not wan...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Scott Leibsle graduated from the University of Wisconsin but now serves as Idaho’s State Veterinarian with the Idaho Department of Agriculture. Dr. Leibsle talks about how each state deals with different issues based on their location and the animals raised in those locations. In Idaho, his office is forever on the watch for Brucellosis from neighboring Yellowstone Park. He cl...

Send us Fan Mail What do you get when you mix a buffalo and a cow? It sounds like the beginning of a laffy taffy joke, but for Megan and Trevor Stark, this is their reality.  If it sounds hard, it absolutely is! Something of this nature requires a meticulous process to do it right. They talk about how narrow the margin of error is raising these "non-traditional" animals and how it has ta...

Send us Fan Mail Kennedy Youngren's life has an interesting connection to food. She is a licensed dietitian who is married to a dairy farmer. As a high school athlete looking at college prospects, she had to learn what her eating disorder was doing to her body. In this podcast, she offers important insights on taking care of our bodies, whether we farm all day, play sports, or work behind a d...

Send us Fan Mail They say we live in an information era, but you can't wear or eat information. Those who manufacture goods and products are dependent on those who mine and produce the elements that give us those products. Mike Veile,  Site Operational Excellence Lead with Bayer Crop Science, shares how mining in Soda Springs, Idaho, is playing a vital role in producing phosphorus for many co...