The Millennial Ag Podcast

This week, we take a different approach from our usual episode structure and welcome back all together our guests from the last four ag labor series. With their return comes the kind of synergy that sparks even better conversations and perspectives. Each of these gentlemen brought their own experiences and ideas for improvement and solutions in the agriculture labor challenges our industry faces....

Double talk. Political correctness. Evading tactics. Idaho Dairymen’s Association has had enough. Rick Naerabout, IDA’s CEO, plunged into the deep end first thing this episode (and we stay there). He brings to light how many organizations - including his own - have long tried to stay above the fray in the immigration conversation, at least in the way it’s talked about. Realizing that this was gett...

This week, we welcome someone who might possibly be our most loyal listener (besides our parents: shout out to them!). We are delighted to host Katharine's brother-in-law Dan on this third episode in our ag labor series. Dan introduces himself in his role as one-third of the Lotspeich Family Farms team, located on the Lotspeich homestead in northern Nevada where they grow a diverse number of fruit...

In this second episode in our ag labor series, we're joined by Erik, a commercial heifer grower in the western US. This is an interesting episode - Erik first addresses the challenges that he, like all ag producers, is facing right now, but then he started in on a topic that doesn't seem to be covered whenever we talk about ag labor issues. Erik made a point of saying how important it is that pay...

This week, we kick off our series on ag labor. We're talking to a wide variety of people with skin in this game, and we start it off with a rockstar guest. Calvin Beasley is a third-generation farmer on his family's apple orchard in Indiana. Beasley's Orchard doesn't just produce apples - they have diversified into U-pick, several other different crops (strawberries, sunflowers, and more) and agri...

This week, we have a really cool guest. We welcome Steve Kiggins ,editor of the Twin Falls, ID local newspaper, the Times News. Steve has worked in journalism for nearly 30 years, both on local and regional levels, and national syndications like US Today. His broad experience brings a unique perspective that might surprise you in this very divided day and age. Steve's mission is to ensure that loc...

In the first week of December (2022) Katharine got on a 9 hour flight to Glasgow, Scotland. The reason? The company she works for is based there, and she was going over to see how the business runs from the home office, meet new and prospective customers (as well as colleagues she's only ever met over a computer screen), and get a glimpse into Scottish agriculture and hospitality. Valene interview...

Welcome to 2023 listeners! This week (as always) we bring you what we want this year to look like for ourselves. Instead of our usual quick rundown though, we’re a lot more thoughtful about how we approach this episode. We begin with how and why we set goals, and how we’ve been giving our years specific words that we want to center our efforts on. Next we do dive into our goals. Something differen...

This week is a quick one…..well we thought it would be, but ya put a quarter in us and we went for 1/2 an hour. Anyway, we talk about the topics we’re planning for in 2023, colored with our take and how we want to approach super interesting, relevant, and deep topics headed into the new year. And as always, we talk about our Christmas traditions old and new, and what we’re looking forward to most...

This week, we welcome Ethan Lane, Vice President of Government Affairs at National Cattlemen's Beef Association, based in Washington DC. He alerts us to something really unfortunate for the agriculture industry - Wayne Pacelle, animal activist extraordinaire (and we don't mean that as a compliment) has returned to the spotlight after getting whacked down by the #metoo movement. Pacelle has a new a...

This week’s episode is…..unclassifiable. In the best way possible. We welcome guest Kelly Maher, 9 News in Colorado Republican political analyst, urban farm aficionado, and all-around life wrangler. She wrote an article just after last month’s midterm elections and it hit us in the extremely relevant category, so we knew we had to have her on. While our goal was to talk about her views and perspec...

Happy Thanksgiving from Katharine and Val! We sit down and reflect on life’s happenings and where we are at currently. Right now with the hub-bub and devastation around the country, it is a little blah… However, as we reflect we find five things we are grateful for this Thanksgiving and remember that those are the things that keep us going through the lulls. We are grateful for you listeners and w...

Dr. David Frame, DVM of the USU Extension Service, is a poultry specialist in Sanpete County, Utah. With Thanksgiving just one week away, we wanted to investigate why our turkey dinner seems to have spiked in price this year. Dr. Frame walks us through from the very beginning of this discovery….he starts out with the avian influenza strain that has hit US shores, the thinning of the US poultry flo...

Whew! We made it....the 2022 US midterm elections are finally in the rearview. Now we're just left to deal with the carnage. Just as he gave us a forecast, we're rejoined this week by Tanner Beymer to do the postmortem. As always, his perspective is colored with wit and humor, and underlaid with incredible knowledge and insight. Tune in this week to hear about what's next in.....as the talk shows...

Returning guest Tanner Beymer joins us to give our audience an overview of what he's seeing in the political world as we rapidly approach the U.S. midterm elections. He shares not only what agriculture lobbying groups try to accomplish on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, but also the races he is closely watching all over the country as the majorities in both chambers may be at risk (or not, dependi...

It’s that time of year……Katharine’s favorite national holiday, the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis! This week, we’re joined by some girls who are more than familiar with your host’s favorite topic….milk. The Colorado Milk Quality Contest champs are headed to their national competition next week, and crash the show to tell us all about it. They tell us their most and least favorite parts of...

Why would a plant-based beverage brand (no, it is NOT milk, ask Katharine the legal definition of milk and she'll give you an earful) turn up at the dairy industry's premier annual event, the World Dairy Expo? Last week, Oregon dairy farmer and industry advocate Derrick Josi tweeted a request he received personally from Oatly. They asked him to be their guide to all things dairy. Derrick, immediat...

Aaaaand we're back! We start hot out of the gate for our first episode in the third season of Millennial Ag. We welcome back guest Damian Mason, who introduces us to the concept of the "Uberization of Ag". Does it still make sense in this era of production agriculture to own capital that only works two weeks out of the year like combines and sprayers? What are the risks and benefits of this type o...

Hi listeners! We know it's been a few weeks. In this episode, we share where we've been, and what our plans for summer and fall are, both in our personal lives and what we've got planned for the podcast. Thanks so much for being loyal listeners....we've got great content coming your way! Love, Val and Katharine

In our last episode with Dr. Nora Feldpausch, we brought up the idea of Mental Health Moments. It's been awhile since we've checked in in that department, so this week's episode is about taking a moment and checking in with ourselves. We share some of the ways we each take stock of our own moods and frames of mind, and some things that help us get back on track when we notice we're slipping. Maybe...

This week, Valene gives an overview of what she's been hearing from producers in the countryside. She talks about how some producers are looking to expand, but can't get the necessary feed delivered. It's not an issue of supply or demand, but rather labor. We're heading into a droughty crop season and there's lot of speculation on whether there's going to be enough water to get farmers through the...

This week, we're joined by Angie Setzer, or, as she goes by on Twitter, @GoddessofGrain. She gives us the rundown of what in the world is going in with global grain markets. She discusses the Ukraine/Russia situation, talks about how grain marketers now have to be geopolitical watchers as well as marketers, drought in the US and South America, and what producers can do to somewhat insulate themsel...

This week, Katharine and Val are back in the same space, recording together. We take a look at how we are and aren't involved in our agricultural organizations, and discuss how they may be struggling to speak to our generation. We walk carefully, because these organizations are institutional and have served vital purposes over the years, but also ask the question of how can they be more? How can w...

This week, we're joined by Brittany and Bonnie, who together form Peters Family Farms. These ladies started out with a U-Pick strawberry venture which has morphed into a fully fledged diversified vegetable and cut flower operation. They talk about how they got started, challenges they've overcome in four seasons, and what's next for them. They share how their families are an integral part of their...

This week, we're joined by a guest with a deep background in global ag. Dr. Kelly Wilson is the Assistant Director of the University of Missouri Center for Regenerative Agriculture, and brings us what she calls the definition-defying nature of regenerative ag. She doesn't give us a specific definition, because she believes that regenerative can mean different things in different places to differen...