FOCUS on Agriculture

Randy Oliver sees beekeeping through the eyes of a biologist, building a small commercial beekeeping enterprise in the foothills of Northern California. His sons now manage around 1500 colonies for migratory pollination, and produce queens, nucs, and honey, freeing Randy to engage full-time in beekeeper-funded research projects. Randy analyzes and digests the scientific research, and is in touch w...

Corn Rootworm is the most important insect pest facing corn growers in the United States.  Each year, around $2 billion is spent to manage this problem.  In this episode Preston and I discuss the latest development in the battle against the pest. To learn more about corn rootworm, you can listen to an earlier episode in which we learned about its biology: https://anchor.fm/focusonagricul...

Over the past several years, farmers in the Midwest have been planting a greater portion of their soybean crop increasingly early each year.  In this episode, Preston and Jason discuss the results of their own research on the risks and benefits of this trend. Although we plan to return to our normal format of interviewing guest experts on ag topics in a couple of episodes, we would love feedb...

Fertilizer is the most expensive input that farmers use to produce crops.  The rapidly increasing price of fertilizer in 2020 and 2021 has put additional pressure on producers.  In this conversation with Megan Dwyer, nutrient loss reduction manager for the Illinois Corn Growers Association, we discuss strategies that growers can implement to more efficiently utilize these products. To in...

Georgia gets a lot of press as The Peach State, but in this episode we learn that it is not even in the top 3 states for peach production.  Listen in to learn where it falls in the rankings. Ksenija Gasic is a peach breeder at Clemson University and the president of the National Association of Plant Breeders.  In this episode she describes the challenges facing peach producers and how sc...

The Donald Danforth Center in St. Louis, Missouri is the largest non-profit plant science research institution in the world.  In today's episode, we spoke with Dr. Jim Carrington, who leads the Center in its mission to improve the human condition through plant science.  One topic of conversation was the lack of access to technology in third world countries, and how the Danforth Center is...

Dr. Chinmay Soman is the co-founder of Earthsense, an ag startup that is developing teams of robots which can collect data on every individual plant in a field.  It may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but is much closer to reality than you might think.  Listen to learn how Chinmay's passion for making a difference in the world has led him to the intersection of technology and ag...

Brown marmorated stink bugs are the latest in a long line of insect invaders which causes severe damage to agricultural crops.  They were first collected in Pennsylvania in the late 1990s, and since that time, have steadily continued westward across the United States.  This pest not only damages crops, but also likes to congregate in homes and other buildings as fall weather begins each...

John and Eve Ackerman are owners of Ackerman Family Farms which is located in the Pumpkin Capital of the World, Morton, IL.  Each fall, thousands of visitors to this popular agritourism destination are able to choose from an wide range of pumpkin varieties, feed farm animals, or explore a corn maze. In this episode, John shares the story of the evolution of his family's farm over the past cen...

John Kowalchuk is a farmer in western Canada who grows canola, malt barley, wheat, yellow peas, faba beans, and red lentils on his 2,000 acre farm.  He enjoys actively sharing the stories of his farming journey and promoting agriculture through social media.  In this conversation, we learn about John's farm and he shares tips to encourage his fellow farmers to become active in sharing th...

We're all familiar with the tendency of apples to turn brown shortly after cutting them up in preparation for eating.  Okanagan Specialty Fruits is a biotechnology company that has developed a technique to turn off this browning reaction, allowing apples to maintain a favorable appearance and flavor for extended periods.  Listen to this episode to hear company president Neal Carter descr...

Tar Spot is a devastating disease of corn that was first identified in the upper midwestern United States in 2015.  The disease led to devastating yield losses in farmer fields in 2018 and 2021.  Dr. Matthew Helm is a research molecular biologist with the Agricultural Research Service arm of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS) and is stationed at Purdue University. &nb...

Kato Ssentamu is a farmer from Uganda and visiting researcher at the University of Illinois.  In this eye-opening episode, we compare and contrast farming in the United States to his home country.  Kato's unique perspective allows him to explain the benefits of modern technology in agriculture.

Farmers are aware of the multitude of insects and diseases that attack their crops, but consumers may be unaware of the amount of effort that goes into protecting crops from diseases.  Dr. Dean Malvick is a plant pathologist at the University of Minnesota and conducts research to support farmers in this battle. One corn disease that has attracted a lot of attention among farmers over the past...

In this episode, Dr. Tammy Horn Potter, Kentucky State Apiarist, describes the fascinating history of honey bees in America from World War I to today.  Listeners may be surprised to learn that bees were so integral to the war effort in WWI that beekeepers were exempt from the draft.  Listen to also learn how traumatized veterans found mental healing in beekeeping. Tammy keeps bees with h...

Dr. Tammy Horn Potter is currently the Kentucky State Apiarist.  Although she grew up on a farm, she was determined never to be involved in science, agriculture, or math as a career.  That all changed when she helped her grandfather with his bees in 1997, and her career shifted to focus on them.  Tammy is the author of several books, Bees in America: How the Honey Bee Shaped a Natio...

This episode is the second part of our conversation with Dr. Stephen Powles, one of the world's foremost experts on herbicide resistance in weeds.  In this conversation we discuss novel methods of managing herbicide resistant weeds.  Listen for Steve's explanation of his seemingly counterintuitive advice, "When you're on a good thing, change it."  If you haven't listened to Steve te...

Dr. Stephen Powles is one of the world's most highly respected and cited plant scientists.  He has received countless awards for his pioneering work in the area of herbicide resistance and published over 250 research papers on the subject.  You may be surprised to learn that Steve's career began inauspiciously when he dropped out of high school to help support his family.  In part o...

Happy 2nd anniversary to the Focus on Agriculture Podcast.  In this brief update, we discuss the 5 most downloaded episodes from the past year.  Be sure to rate and review us on your favorite podcast app.

Dr. Nick Seiter is an entomology professor and extension specialist at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign .  His research focuses on identifying new ways for farmers to battle insect pests.  Listen as Nick describes his latest research, including the use of parasitic nematodes as a biological control for Corn Rootworm, a pest that is often called the "Billion Dollar Bug" due...

Dr. Leandro Mozzoni is a soybean breeder with the University of Arkansas. He utilizes conventional plant breeding and advanced breeding tools in the areas of genomics and phenomics to maximize farmer’s profit. His research involves exploring niche-market, food-grade or modified-seed-composition varieties, and identifying breeding solutions for diseases and abiotic stresses of soybean.  Our co...

Farmers across the globe face similar challenges, but there are also many differences in their operations.  In this episode we chat with Bernardo de la Vega about his farm in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.  For the past few years, Bernardo has been growing Vitala corn.  Listen as he discusses the unique problems facing Mexican farmers and how the launch of short stature corn has help...

Dr. Kelly Gillespie is a crop physiologist with degrees from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. She currently leads corn and soybean crop efficiency portfolio strategy for Bayer Crop Science .  Kelly also sits on the executive board of the North American Plant Phenotyping Network and the advisory board of the Iowa Soybean Research Council ....

The World Food Prize was created by Nobel Peace Prize winner and father of the Green Revolution, Dr. Norman Borlaug to honor those who have made significant and measurable contributions to improving the world's food supply.  To date, there have been 50 laureates, with the 2021 World Food Prize winner to be announced in May. Barbara Stinson was named the second president of the World Food Priz...

In this episode we chat with Monticello, IL farmer Wyatt Muse.  Wyatt was recently honored with a Young Alumni Award from the college of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences ( ACES ) at the University of Illinois .  He grows both conventional and organic crops on his east-central Illinois farm.  In this interview, he discusses some of the challenges and benefits of eac...