Michigan AF Podcast

Greg Shooks of Central Lake grows cherries, wine grapes, and small grains on his fourth generation farm, where he works with his brother and cousin. The wine grapes are new, because last year they sold their 550 head of cattle and built a winery – Cellar 1914, with a nod to the year his family started the farm. They actually built the winery in the same footprint they were housing the cattle. As G...

Isaiah Wunsch farms cherries and apples on Old Mission Peninsula, and he also owns a cherry and apple packing and marketing business. After graduate school at Michigan State, he worked for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation as their agribusiness specialist. He’s part of the Michigan Cherry Commission, his township board, the school board, and Michigan Farm Bureau. He enjoys touring farm...

Cora Okkema is studying Livestock Behavior and Welfare under Dr. Temple Grandin at Colorado State University. Her interests include fresh heifer wellbeing, newborn calf care, and crossbreeding. She was born in the Netherlands and moved to the U.S. in 1999 with her family, where she grew up on their dairy farm. Before graduate school, she spent two and a half years as a herdsman on her family’s far...

Elise Thorp started Trillium Wood Farm with her sister, Allie. They were both vegetarians, but they decided to experiment with raising meat for themselves and friends. Seven years later, they are raising hogs, lambs, chickens and turkeys as their full-time jobs. They handle all the aspects of the business from raising the animals, to farmers markets, to online sales and shipping. Outside of work,...

Caleb Stewart raises hogs, grows cash crops, and buys and sells farm equipment.  After graduating from Michigan State, he started farming with his parents, Carol and Jim.  Three years ago, he and his wife Teresa, along with their two kids, became sole proprietors in Bannister.  Caleb loves traveling, going to Houghton Lake with his family, and volunteering for ag organizations.  He is currently ge...

Mike Klumpp and his wife Jaime own AgMarvels, where they help hemp farmers grow, process, and sell their crop.  They also grow their own hemp, as well as corn, soybeans, and wheat.  Mike and Jaime are entrepreneurs, and the hemp business is just one of many of their current endeavors.  Between farming, crop insurance, rental properties and four kids, they do find time to go south in the winters –...

Jim and Jean Reverman grow and sell Christmas trees from Reverman Farms in Grand Ledge.  They have recently started painting trees – not just green, but purple, pink, and even a patriotic red, white & blue.  When he’s not shearing trees, Jim also works for the Michigan Department of Transportation.  The couple has three adult children.  Listen as Jim talks about: Their Christmas tree that last...

Mike Mathis is the director of MSU Tollgate Farm and Education Center, which gives 22,000 visitors a year the chance to experience hands-on agriculture.  From milking goats to growing kale, the farm offers a variety of programming and camps for the community.  After growing up on a crop and livestock farm, Mike taught middle school in a windowless classroom and knew he liked the people part - but...

Jeff VanderWerff farms in Western Michigan, where he and his family grow 2000 acres of corn, soybeans, and apples.  He’s currently transitioning his orchard into an organic operation.  A self-professed salesman at heart, he also started an ag retail business named Gold Coast Sales LLC.  He lives in Kent City with his wife Alyssa, a cancer researcher, and two daughters.  As an advocate of speaking...

James Weber of Weber Family Dairy milks 130 Jersey cows and raises crops on his Frankenmuth farm.  A graduate of the MSU Ag Tech program and Cal Poly, (California Polytechnic State University), he returned to Michigan in 2015 to reopen his parents’ farm.  He now works with his parents, Duane and Sandy.  He recently was named Outstanding Young Dairy Cooperator by the Michigan Milk Producers Associa...

Hilaree Fraly is a BASF Innovation Specialist, which means she works with farmers to help plan their growing seasons and figure out solutions for their crop problems.  Originally from Montcalm County, she started in FFA, graduated from Michigan State, and began working for the ag industry.  She loves that her job consists of getting in her truck to talk to farmers, and that she can take her dog -...

Dan Vogler owns Harrietta Hills Trout Farm LLC, the largest private fish farm in Michigan.  For 22 years, he has been on the farm with his parents Jim and Katherine, his wife Susan, and their six children.  He’s president of the Michigan Aquaculture Association, and he served on the Board of Directors of the United States Trout Farmers Association for a number of years.  He’s also very active in M...

Andy Rozendaal is the farm director at Eighth Day Farm in Holland, MI.  The urban farm, which is right in the middle of a ripped-up parking lot, focuses on taking care of the land as well as people.  The faith-based, non-profit also donates 10% of what they grow to low income families.  Andy grew up on an Iowan dairy farm, went to Iowa State, and then entered the seminary.  After serving a church...

Brittney Rooney is an urban farmer in the Brightmoor neighborhood in Detroit.  She, along with her partner Kieran Neal, started the two-acre farm with the long-term goal of growing an agroforestry system.  While their 500 trees are maturing, they are direct marketing vegetables.  Originally from Minnesota, after focusing on political science and environmental law at school, Brittney decided she wa...

Alison and Ben Sklarczyk own Sklarczyk Seed Farm LLC, which is one of the only hydroponic seed potato farms in Michigan, the other being a research farm at Michigan State University.  They produce six million mini tubers a year, plus grow 1100 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, and barley.  They have two kids and are on their way of achieving their goal of them visiting 50 states before they graduate...

Jay Parr farms 1300 acres of sugar beets, soybeans, and corn.  He works alongside his dad Jeff in Brown City, where he also lives with his wife Tara and daughters Millie and Hazel.  A graduate of Michigan State University, Jay enjoys going to livestock shows, snowmobiling, and taking their camper on vacation and parking it perfectly. Listen as he talks about: Why his daughters’ swimming lessons ar...

Christie Apple is an agronomy and soil health specialist at Timac Agro USA. She is a self-proclaimed ‘soil nerd’ and loves everything to do with soil health and plant nutrition.  She works with clients, trains farmers and other agronomists, and in her free time, farms her own land.  She’s active in Farm Bureau, FFA, and 4-H.  She and her husband - also an agronomist - have five teenagers.  She enj...

Ben Randle is general manager at GDW Farms LLC, which is a turkey farm.  After a career as an electrician, Ben took on a new role as a farmer, where he helps raise turkeys from one-day to 20-weeks old.  In Hamilton, he’s the assistant basketball coach and school board president.  He and his wife have one high school senior and three kids in college.  (All four next year!)  He loves hunting, kayaki...

Lori Hedrick and her husband Jeff own The Wild Pumpkin, where families can visit a petting farm, navigate a 1000-bale maze, go down mega-slides, play in the corn box, eat warm donuts, and of course, get pumpkins.  Outside of the farm, Lori also is a special needs teacher for students transitioning into independent life.  After a devastating barn fire last year, Lori and her family were buoyed by m...

Madeline Meyer is a senior at Michigan State University, majoring in animal science and minoring in food processing and technology. She’s from a dairy farm in Ionia, and she grew up being involved in the farm, 4-H, and FFA.  She’s now active in the MSU Dairy Club, MSU Block & Bridle, Collegiate Farm Bureau, and is serving as the FFA Convention Director.  At the World Dairy Expo, she and her te...

Sara Reisinger is the event planner and manager at Leaman's Green Applebarn in Freeland.  This year, her family’s farm and agritourism business is celebrating its 130th anniversary. In addition to a corn maze, apple picking, and movie nights, they also host very popular goat yoga classes.  Sara recently worked with her township to create an agritourism ordinance, represented her industry as t...

Sarah Zastrow founded Bay Area Wellness to help people deal with pain, stress, and their mental health.  She and her husband have a crop farm, plus she is from a farm, and she is invested in providing stress management resources to farmers.  She enjoys traveling to new places, working with her husband and the other generations on the farm, reading – and sharing what she learned. Listen as she talk...

Noelle Nachreiner has the dual role of Executive Director of the Michigan Ag Council and Manager of the Agent Charitable Fund for Farm Bureau Insurance.  Noelle and her husband recently moved from Indiana back to Michigan with their dog, Hank the Tank.  Noelle’s past with 4-H and FFA made her want to work in the agricultural area, because she’s passionate about farming, food, communication, and en...

Claire Smith certainly didn’t want to work on her family’s seventh generation farm, but when her parents suggested trying to grow teff, she was intrigued.  Teff is an ancient grain that’s a main ingredient in Teffola, a nutty grain granola they now make, sell, and distribute.  It all started from a suitcase of grain brought from Ethiopia!  One of seven children and a decided extrovert, Claire also...

When Triston Cole met his own representatives as part of his teenage 4-H Capitol Experience, he never pictured becoming an elected official. But after starting his own farm and becoming involved with policy, he changed his mind. When he’s not working for his constituents, Triston enjoys hunting, cross country skiing, fishing, and raising adults - not kids. Triston talks about: Their farmstand inci...