Send us a text 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 working with ranchers under Idaho's Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program which seeks to improve the com...
Jul 08, 2025•35 min•Season 4Ep. 87
Send us a text 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 increase long-term water capacity, including a study on the Teton Dam site. State Senator Kevin Cook, from Idah...
Jun 24, 2025•42 min•Season 4Ep. 86
Send us a text 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) loves to tell people the story about this industry. As the Executive Director of the Snake River Sug...
Jun 10, 2025•49 min•Season 4Ep. 85
Send us a text 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 interested in adopting an entire herd. The Nilssons share a fascinating story of how these popular animals...
May 27, 2025•45 min•Season 4Ep. 84
Send us a text 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 early in their lives and how schools can change lives by building programs that fit “hands-on” learners. T...
May 13, 2025•41 min•Season 4Ep. 83
Send us a text 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 writer. She has a message for anyone who says, "I am just a farmer or rancher."...
Apr 29, 2025•47 min•Season 4Ep. 82
Send us a text 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 that isn’t always accurate. The trickle-down effect of some apex predator policies has affected places...
Apr 15, 2025•50 min•Season 4Ep. 81
Send us a text 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, technological changes, pivotal decisions, and his feelings for those who changed his life....
Apr 01, 2025•38 min•Season 4Ep. 80
Send us a text 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 rural areas, making it difficult for some who live there. In this podcast, we meet Monica Hampton (U of I Exte...
Mar 18, 2025•45 min•Season 4Ep. 79
Send us a text 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 was serious. For 20 years now, Farm Rescue has organized volunteers and resources to help farmers who...
Mar 04, 2025•37 min•Season 4Ep. 78
Send us a text 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 small patch of land to travel to global modeling cities. What a cultural shock. After her brushes with ce...
Feb 18, 2025•45 min•Season 4Ep. 77
Send us a text 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.
Feb 04, 2025•33 min•Season 4Ep. 76
Send us a text 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 Culver's restaurants and invited any one of them to join him for the adventure. This is their story with a behind-...
Jan 21, 2025•39 min•Season 4Ep. 75
Send us a text 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 production and how the sustainability of this staple food depends on the relationship between producers, con...
Jan 07, 2025•29 min•Season 4Ep. 74
Send us a text 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.
Dec 24, 2024•18 min•Season 4Ep. 73
Send us a text 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 this podcast, Rulon talks about the journey from his childhood farm life to a world stage in Sydney, Australia. ...
Dec 17, 2024•52 min•Season 4Ep. 72
Send us a text 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 Threat Intelligence at Food & Ag-ISAC, gives us an inside look at what ag companies have experienced in...
Nov 26, 2024•45 min•Season 4Ep. 71
Send us a text 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, she started posting about her experiences, which have gone viral. Although she currently has a large social media...
Nov 12, 2024•36 min•Season 4Ep. 70
Send us a text 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 want to go down. Getting your hands in the dirt to make things grow and survive is one of Mother Nature's...
Oct 29, 2024•37 min•Season 3Ep. 69
Send us a text 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 clarifies how the avian bird flu raised the alarm in 2024 and shares how a shortage of large animal vete...
Oct 15, 2024•50 min•Season 3Ep. 68
Send us a text 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 taken years to find resources to help them raise their herd successfully. As a bonus, they have a suggestion for th...
Oct 01, 2024•41 min•Season 3Ep. 67
Send us a text 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 desk. She also talks about better sleeping habits and ways to deal with children who are picky eaters....
Sep 17, 2024•50 min•Season 3Ep. 66
Send us a text 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 common products we use each day. Mike also explains the mine's environmental priorities, commitment to the com...
Sep 03, 2024•38 min•Season 3Ep. 65
Send us a text When people hear about agriculture in the news headlines, a new trend is to find a podcast to break it down and give new insights and commentary. This is where Discover Ag Podcast hosts Tara Vander Dussen (known as the New Mexico Milk Maid, 5th-generation dairy farmer) and Natalie Kovarik (4th-generation cattle rancher from Nebraska) come into play. They talk about what it is like to be a woman in agriculture today while producing a top-ranked podcast that follows the weekly devel...
Aug 20, 2024•30 min•Season 3Ep. 64
Send us a text Tater Tots have been a staple around dinner tables, school cafeterias, and restaurants for many decades, but who thought to invent this finger food? It may surprise you how it came to be and what primitive process was used in the beginning to form these tasty snacks. Les Grigg, Co-founder of the F Nephi & Golden Grigg Legacy Foundation, tells us the story of how tater tots came to be, how large the industry is today, and how they are using a tater tot festival to bolster the f...
Aug 06, 2024•30 min•Season 3Ep. 63
Send us a text In Bob Hoff's family, teenagers didn't just get a driver's license. They also got a pilot's license because they never knew when to run out the back door, jump in a plane, take off from a grass runway and look for a lost cow. As Bob explains, every family has their passion, and for the Hoff family, it is farming and aviation. Bob shares stories from his first barrel roll with his Dad to helping develop a museum in his local community to teach about the beauty and history of soarin...
Jul 23, 2024•35 min•Season 3Ep. 62
Send us a text Jessie Jarvis had a time when she considered pursuing an occupation outside of agriculture. Born and raised as a rancher’s daughter in Southern Idaho, she tells how her love for agriculture and desire to raise children in agriculture changed her mind. With the support of her husband Justin, Jessie uses her experience in communications and media to build bridges for the next generation of agriculturists, whether they work in the dirt, with cows, in a lab, or on a computer. She expl...
Jul 09, 2024•48 min•Season 3Ep. 61
Send us a text Almost half of the land in the western United States is owned by the Federal Government. Compare that to only 4 percent of land east of the Mississippi. Obviously, there is a story to tell on this topic. Dirt Road Discussions visited with an online panel consisting of Amanda Kaster, Director of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation; Keith Hamilton, a fourth-generation rancher and farmer from Wyoming; and Ben Menges, a fifth-generation farmer from Arizona. Wi...
Jun 25, 2024•44 min•Season 3Ep. 60
Send us a text Imagine a succulent plant with sharp spines that can grow up to 6 feet tall and 10 feet wide. When it flowers, it can grow up to 8 feet tall, and its inflorescence can reach 25–30 feet tall. Sharla and Leo Ortega grow agave, a plant used for tequila and many other products. They talk about navigating the challenges of raising this "behemoth" crop.
Jun 11, 2024•47 min•Season 3Ep. 59
Send us a text Those who like to cast bait or a fly in the stream probably like a good salmon or trout filet, but it would never come close to meeting American's demand for fish. Welcome to the aquaculture industry. Jacob Bledsoe, Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist — Aquaculture Research, shares how fish farms are advancing, consolidating, and competing with imported products to provide fish or grocery stores, restaurants, and pet stores....
May 28, 2024•47 min•Season 3Ep. 58
