The Prairie Farm Podcast

Molly Pickering, Policy Director for Illinois Stewardship Alliance, joins Nicolas and Kent for a wide-ranging conversation on what's actually broken in America's food system. From monopoly meat packers to cottage food laws to pesticide drift hitting small farms, Molly brings the policy perspective that most farmers never get to hear.

 

hokseynativeseeds.com (for all your native seed, native pastures, native habitat mixes, and more)

BirdHunterSupply.com (for all your bird hunting supply needs)

Welcome back to another riveting episode of Coffee Time Wednesday!

The Nebraska Sandhills just went through the largest wildfire in state history. What does that mean for the prairie and the cattle on that prairie?

Then the conversation shifts to Iowa's water. Two new reports just tied nitrates and pesticides to Iowa's extremely high cancer rate. Who's responsible? Who pays?

hokseynativeseeds.com (for all your backyard prairie, native pasture, and native seed mixes)

Iowa Cover Crop (for all your cover crop and alternative crop needs)

McKay Insurance (for all your insurance and financial planning needs)

Ray Geroff is a district heritage biologist for the Illinois DNR and has burned over 100,000 acres of prairie. 3,900 were just the day before the podcast. In Episode 344, Kent and Nicolas break down burn safety, proper weather windows, what each season of fire does to your landscape, using fire against sericea and brome, and what happens when a prairie never burns. This is burning 101 from someone who does it for a living every single year.

hokseynativeseeds.com (for all your native seed needs. And we also do prairie restoration and management and site visits.)

McKay Insurance (for all your insurance needs)

BirdHunterSupply.com (for all your bird hunting supply needs, as well as bird dog gear, and more!)

Nicolas and Kent start this one recanting how a man tried to steal two tractors from them through their recent farm auction. Tim Brown, The Bearded Uplander, is back, and this one gets real fast. His bird dog Mac nearly died from a grass awn that migrated through his body — and it happens way more than people think. The guys break down which wild ryes are dangerous for hunting dogs, how to protect them at the tailgate, and then get into building pheasant habitat that actually works. Informative, honest, and a little terrifying if you run a bird dog.

 

hokseynativeseeds.com (for all your CRP, backyard prairie, and pollinator mixes)

 

Iowa Cover Crop (for all your cover crop and alternative crop needs)

Eddie Andrews joins us to discuss the riff between republicans and democrats in Iowa, property taxes, school ESA's, and of course water quality. We enjoyed this conversation and believe you will as well!

hokseynativeseeds.com (for CRP mixes, backyard prairie mixes, native pasture mixes, and hunting habitat mixes)

Iowa Cover Crop (for all your cover crop needs)

McKay Insurance (for all your insurance and financial planning needs)