Dr. Michael Wunsch is a Plant Pathologist at the Carrington Research Extension Center at North Dakota State University. He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2010, and has worked for NDSU ever since, focused on disease management problems on a wide breadth of crops grown in North Dakota. In this episode, Wunsch provides us with a lot of helpful details about Ascochyta Blight of chickpea, including some of the historical impacts of the disease, how it spreads, the range of hosts, the proces...
Jul 08, 2025•24 min•Season 6Ep. 10
Dr. Sabine Banniza is a professor of pulse crop pathology and a member of the Crop Development Centre (CDC) at the University of Saskatchewan. Her research program is focused on pulse crop pathology with particular emphasis on problems in Saskatchewan. The overarching theme of Dr. Banniza’s research program is to study the biology of fungal and bacterial pathogens and their interaction with host plants. In today’s episode, Dr. Banniza focuses on two important diseases in lentil: Anthracnose and ...
Jun 12, 2025•37 min•Season 6Ep. 9
Kyle Okke is an independent crop consultant in Dickinson, North Dakota with his own company, Agile Agronomy. Before starting Agile Agronomy three years ago, he had worked for several years as a regional agronomist in the area with Winfield United. Kyle deals with a wide variety of crops in his area including pulse crops, specifically lentils, chickpeas and field peas. He also has farmer clients that grow durum, wheat, flax, canola, corn, soybeans and sunflowers. In this episode, he discusses the...
Jun 02, 2025•33 min•Season 6Ep. 8
Dr. Kevin McPhee is a pulse crop breeder at Montana State University. He’s been there for just over eight years after building a similar program in pulse crop breeding at North Dakota State University. Prior to that, he was working on pulse crops with the USDA ARS based in Pullman, Washington. Together we discuss the pulse crop breeding program in Montana, including their goals for the program in pea, chickpea and lentils. He describes varieties they’ve released and what’s in the pipeline that g...
May 14, 2025•29 min•Season 6Ep. 7
Chris Holzapfel is the research manager at the Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation (IHARF). IHARF is a producer-led not-for-profit organization based in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. Their mandate is to provide extension type work for agricultural research and demonstration, including a lot of work with pulse crops. Holzapfel started in his role at IHARF in 2005 and over the years they've grown to now conducting 40 to 50 small plot trials as well as some field scale research on crops relev...
Apr 29, 2025•34 min•Season 6Ep. 6
Dr. Brian Jenks is a weed scientist at North Dakota State University based in Minot. Jenks has been in this role since 1997 and over that time he has seen an alarming rise in resistance to many of our herbicides from certain weeds, especially in kochia. In this episode, Jenks shares about the latest in kochia management including what’s working and not working, which products have built up resistance and which products are still effective. We also talk about a few other key weeds like palmer ama...
Apr 10, 2025•32 min•Season 6Ep. 5
After a tough year in 2023, agronomist Jeannie Rude and Northeast Montana farmer Blake Rasmussen were part of a project to create a video about their experiences with Real Ag Radio’s Shaun Haney. That video documented the far reaching impacts root rot can have on farmers and the local community. Blake is a fifth generation farmer on an operation that has included lentils and chickpeas in their rotations for the past 25 years. He has also been an active member of the Northern Pulse Growers Associ...
Apr 01, 2025•38 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Dr. Ian Burke is a weed scientist at Washington State University. His work focuses on weed biology and ecology, and he does a lot of work with herbicides. Dr. Burke discusses his research evaluating herbicides for use in peas, lentils and chickpeas and how to manage herbicide carry over issues that can impact these crops. This is the deep dive into herbicide carry over that you might not have even realized you needed. “ We have not enough moisture during the summer to break down the herbicides a...
Mar 19, 2025•36 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Paul Kanning is a farmer in Montana who grows mostly red lentils and yellow peas as well as wheat and canola. He also serves as the chairman of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council. Lewi Crow is a Risk Management Specialist with the USDA Risk Management Agency that services Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas. Lewi and Paul talk about the importance of RMA and crop insurance, but also the process behind developing crop insurance programs for pulse crops. “ As an individual farmer, I have to provide t...
Feb 25, 2025•30 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Chuck Penner founded Leftfield Commodity Research in 2010. The company provides market analysis and economic research focused on the crops that are important to farmers in Western Canada and the northern parts of the US. Penner shares about the global marketplace for peas, chickpeas and lentils. This episode was recorded on January 10th, 2025. “ One of the things that I've been telling Canadian farmers… is to forget about being the only show in town anymore. Now you have Australia producing more...
Feb 11, 2025•35 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Dr. Clain Jones is Montana State University Extension’s soil fertility specialist. In this role he covers anything that has to do with fertilizer or nutrient cycling in both agriculture as well as home/garden systems. He started at MSU as a tenure track faculty member in 2006, and has ended up doing quite a bit of work with pulse crops over the years. He joins me today to talk about fertility in pulses, the importance of inoculation, nitrogen credits, soil pH, and the overall importance of pulse...
Aug 29, 2024•35 min•Season 5Ep. 14
Kim Sauressig is a fourth generation farmer in Central North Dakota where he grows a wide range of crops including corn, wheat, durum, barley, soybeans, lentils, chickpeas and pinto beans. He also raised cattle until a few years ago when they decided to focus exclusively on crops. When not farming, Kim chairs the North Dakota Dry Pea & Lentil Council and has a seat on the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council where he serves as the chair of the research committee. Kim shares his journey into puls...
Aug 16, 2024•27 min•Season 5Ep. 13
At the time of this interview, Steve Sebesta was the director of the Foundation Seed Program at North Dakota State University and the Deputy Commissioner of the North Dakota State Seed Department. Steve has since retired from these positions, so we were very lucky to capture his years of experience and expertise in this area before his retirement. In this episode, Steve discusses the critical role of the foundation seedstocks program, how the plant variety protection act works and why seed needs...
Aug 07, 2024•30 min•Season 5Ep. 12
Nicole Atchison is the CEO of PURIS Holdings, a vertically-integrated plant-based food company that operates from field to fork in primarily yellow peas. Nicole leads the agriculture side of the business, including contracting with growers, seed development and breeding, and innovation in product development. Her brother Tyler leads the ingredient side of the business. PURIS operates throughout the entire supply chain from developing genetics to developing new markets. “So if you're making a hig...
Jul 16, 2024•38 min•Season 5Ep. 11
Dr. Eric von Wettberg is a professor at the University of Vermont and the director of the Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station. His research program focuses on understanding crop domestication as a means to harness the diversity of crop wild relatives to breed crops with improved climate resilience and stress tolerance. In this episode we discuss Von Wettberg’s work in pulses, his adventures in germplasm collection, the challenges and opportunities of maintaining genetic diversity, and the imp...
Jul 01, 2024•34 min•Season 5Ep. 10
Charlie Cahill developed his knowledge of dryland farming during the 1990s, ultimately becoming what one nominator called “the go-to guy” for information on agronomic practices and seed genetics in the region. A graduate of Montana State University, Cahill has served on the board of the Montana Seed Growers Association and helped create the pulse checkoff program in Montana, which allows growers a voice in how their contributions are invested around the state. “Farmers traditionally have been us...
Jun 17, 2024•32 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Dr. Michelle Hubbard leads a field, greenhouse, growth chamber and lab based research program at Agriculture and AgriFood Canada, a part of the Canadian federal government. Based in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, her work focuses on pulse pathology, including important diseases like ascochyta blight of chickpea, root rot of pea and lentil and anthracnose of lentil. Hubbard discusses a mystery illness that has been popping up in parts of Saskatchewan and other areas in recent years. She shares the ...
May 21, 2024•28 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Dr. Tom Warkentin is a professor at the University of Saskatchewan where he is part of a team at the Crop Development Center. He has been a pulse crop breeder for about 30 years, mostly focused on field peas. Warkentin discusses the progress of his pulse crop breeding program over the decades, including varieties that have had a big impact on the industry. He also shares how he balances the need to improve genetics on multiple fronts all at once, like yield, quality, lodging, disease resistance,...
May 07, 2024•30 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Zack Bateson is the Research Manager at the National Ag Genotyping Center based in Fargo, North Dakota. You heard a little bit about the work the National Genotyping Center is doing in episode five with Dr. Brian Jenks. In this episode we dive deeper into the services they offer to provide DNA testing for farmers and agronomists. Bateson got his start in DNA-based testing working in wildlife biology with prairie chickens and lizards, but says all of the skills can be applied to any organisms inc...
Apr 23, 2024•29 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Dr. Brian Jenks is a weed scientist at North Dakota State University based in Minot. He has been in this role since 1997 and over that time he has seen an alarming rise in resistance to many of our herbicides from certain weeds, especially in kochia. In this episode Jenks discusses the resistance problem and some of the work underway to help farmers manage these weeds that are getting tougher every year to control. He also shares an exciting new offering from the Ag Genotyping Center to identify...
Apr 09, 2024•29 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Dr. Chris Graham is an associate professor at South Dakota State University. He’s also the manager of the West River Research Farm near Sturgis, South Dakota. At that facility they focus a lot on regenerative agriculture, including doing a lot of work with peas and other pulses to extend crop rotations in that semi-arid region in the western part of the state. Graham shares about pulse production in South Dakota, focusing mostly on field peas. He also shares some of the complexities of nitrogen ...
Mar 19, 2024•26 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Dr. Breanne Tidemann is a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada based in Lacombe, Alberta. As a weed scientist, her job is to explore new and novel ways to manage weeds. Her focus is to research applied management strategies, weed biology and ecology, and screening for herbicide resistance. In this episode, Tidemann discusses the work she has been leading in Canada on the effectiveness of weed seed destruction technology including the use of mills and shares that this approach...
Mar 05, 2024•35 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Farmer and Northern Pulse Growers Association president Sam Arnson and executive director Shannon Berndt join us to talk about their work at NPGA, the importance of bringing the industry together to fund research, marketing and education efforts, and how other pulse growers can get involved. They share what NPGA has accomplished and what the future holds for northern pulse growers in the region. “This is an exciting time to be part of this industry because we are still a fairly small industry, b...
Feb 20, 2024•27 min•Season 5Ep. 2
In this episode we’re looking at a new pulse crop: sweet white lupins . Dr. Mike Ostlie is the director of the Carrington Research Extension Center at North Dakota State University. In the early 2000s a private company that was developing lupin varieties had gone out of business and the germplasm was given to NDSU to work on varieties. Now they’re close to releasing new varieties and Ostlie joins us to share why this is exciting for growers and for the pulse crops industry in general. “It's actu...
Feb 06, 2024•31 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Take our audience survey and let us know your feedback about the Growing Pulse Crop Podcast! Whether you’re from Nebraska or elsewhere, this is a great episode about what’s possible for the future of pulse crops. We talk about peas and chickpeas, but we also get into other niche opportunities like mung beans, cowpeas and more. You’ll get a sense of the emerging pulse industry in Nebraska, but also what it takes for the development of pulse crops everywhere. We discuss genetics, agronomy, disease...
Oct 04, 2023•29 min•Season 4Ep. 14
Take our audience survey and let us know your feedback about the Growing Pulse Crop Podcast! Terry Angvick farms in Sheridan County, Montana which is in the extreme Northeastern corner of the state. He was born, raised there and came back after earning a plant and soil science degree from Montana State University. In his first career, he spent 31 years as the Sheridan County Extension Agent, a position he retired from in 2010. Today he farms mostly durum and dry peas alongside his two older brot...
Sep 18, 2023•28 min•Season 4Ep. 13
Take our audience survey and let us know your feedback about the Growing Pulse Crop Podcast! Dr. Steve Van Vleet spent about 18 years as a regional extension specialist for Washington State University, and today is a research agronomist with The McGregor Company . For most of his career, pulses have been an important part of his work, and he joins us to talk about his excitement for the potential of winter peas. We’re not talking about Austrian Winter Peas, which are feed grade peas that are sma...
Aug 29, 2023•30 min•Season 4Ep. 12
Eric Bartsch is the division head for global food ingredients at AGT Foods based in Bismarck, North Dakota. He’s been with the company for 16 years and through that time they have grown from just a couple factories to now over 45 facilities and $2B in sales. Processing peas, lentils, chickpeas, fava beans and dry edible beans has been their primary focus since they were founded in 2002. While they have ventured into some grain-based products since that time, they still remain focused and bullish...
Aug 07, 2023•29 min•Season 4Ep. 11
At the time of this interview Dr. Abbey Wick was the associate professor and extension soil health specialist at North Dakota State University. She has since gone on to a new role after nearly 12 years at NDSU. She is now the Global Soil Health Education Program Lead at Syngenta. We talk about what is motivating more farmers to want to try new practices on their farms to improve their soil health, some of the barriers to adopting these practices, and the support and resources available for anyon...
Jul 27, 2023•25 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Dr. Drew Lyon is a Professor and the Endowed Chair of Small Grains Extension and Research for Weed Science at Washington State University in Pullman. Prior to moving to Washington in 2012, he spent 22 years as a Dryland Cropping Systems Specialist at the University of Nebraska at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff. His endowment is from the WA Grain Commission, so he spends a lot of his time with wheat growers, but most of them also include pulses in their rotations. Our ...
Jul 10, 2023•26 min•Season 4Ep. 9
