Feedstuffs in Focus

Dairy policy can feel like Washington noise until it hits the farm gate. From the World Dairy Expo, we sit down with Gregg Doud, CEO and president of the National Milk Producers Federation, to name the pressure points dairy producers are facing and what could realistically change in 2026 and 2027.

We start with immigration reform and the uncomfortable truth dairy lives with every day: the work is year-round, but U.S. immigration policy has not kept up. Doud explains why H-2A does not fit dairy, what a new visa program could look like, and why the “amnesty” label misses the fine print around temporary renewals and required re-entries. We also talk strategy, because even a strong bipartisan report does not pass itself. With major turnover expected on Capitol Hill, we discuss what it takes to educate new members and staffers when fewer of them come from farm communities, and why we are going to be “looking for friends” in both parties.

Then we pivot to trade and dairy exports, where the mood brightens. Doud shares why the US is headed toward a record year in dairy exports, how products like cheese and butter are competing globally, and why Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, looks like a critical next frontier as China demand changes. We close with a long-term heated nutrition debate: school lunch rules and the fight over chocolate milk, including the sugar context and the real-world question of whether kids will drink milk at all if it loses appeal.

If you care about dairy farming, agricultural policy, dairy exports, or school nutrition standards, this conversation connects the dots. Subscribe, share this episode with someone in ag, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.

Producer dollars power the pork checkoff, so the big question is simple: how do we make sure those dollars solve real problems on real farms? We dig into the National Pork Board’s producer-led advisory committee model and why the shift to “advice only” is meant to tighten focus, improve accountability, and keep decisions grounded in daily barn realities.

Jamie Burr, Chief Sustainability Officer, and Chad Herring, a NPB board member and advisory committee chair, walk us through the We Care advisory committee and what it is designed to deliver: practical resources and tools producers can actually use, plus a clearer way to document progress in animal care, environmental stewardship, community responsibility, and workforce care. We also talk about farm impact reports and why better measurement matters not just for the pork industry, but for customers and consumers who expect credible sustainability proof.

A standout theme is data trust. We unpack how voluntarily collected, blinded and aggregated on-farm information fits into the “principles times practices times proof equals public trust” framework, including how programs become tangible proof points. Just as important, we explore why producer input has to happen early, because if a program sounds good in a meeting but fails on farm, it does not deliver value or protect freedom to operate.

If you care about practical sustainability, producer leadership, and the future of pork production, listen now, share this with a producer who should have a seat at the table, and subscribe, rate, and review so more people can find the show.

Regenerative agriculture sounds simple until you’re the one changing practices, sharing field data, and taking the risk on yield and cost. We sit down with Paul Scheetz, Director of Regenerative Agriculture at ADM, to get specific about what they’ve learned since launching regenerative ag efforts and why the hardest part is often not the agronomy, but the trust. Farmers routinely ask, “Why do you want this data?” and we break down how that concern gets answered in real life through incentives, transparency, and feedback that actually improves the bottom line.

We also zoom out to the part of the story most people miss: consumer understanding. Paul compares regenerative ag awareness to the long road organic and non-GMO traveled, and explains why it may take a decade for shoppers to truly get what soil health practices mean for water quality, climate impact, and resilience. That’s where big brands and retailers can help, and we recap a standout collaboration with Farmers First, ADM, General Mills, and Walmart focused on regenerative wheat across three states.

On the farm side, we cover what adoption can look like when it’s done well: starting small, leaning on partner groups for technical support, and learning from other farmers who have already made the shift. We talk cover crops, reduced tillage, no-till, fertilizer efficiency, and the “light bulb moment” tools like rainfall simulators that make erosion and infiltration visible in seconds. Finally, we dig into ADM’s business case: creating value from measurable environmental improvements and sharing that value across the supply chain so farmers, processors, brands, and retailers can all stay profitable.

If you care about sustainable agriculture, soil health, and practical pathways to scale regenerative practices, listen now. Subscribe, share the episode with a farmer or food industry friend, and leave a review with your biggest question about regenerative agriculture.

The U.S. cattle industry can handle a lot, but the New World screwworm situation has forced hard, practical decisions across the supply chain, especially in Texas feedyard country. Our Clint Peck sits down with Laphe LaRoe, Chairman of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, to get a clear-eyed look at what’s actually happening as the border reopens to Mexican feeder cattle and why the return to “normal” volumes may be slower than many expect.

We talk through the business reality behind today’s headlines: record fat cattle prices paired with record replacement costs, tripled capital requirements, and the kind of risk that can shrink your appetite to keep yards full. LaRoe also explains how a hot, dry Texas Panhandle summer pressures grazing, hay, silage, and corn yields, tightening inputs right when supplies are already scarce. If you care about cattle market outlook, margins, and how border policy affects cattle numbers, you’ll hear the details that connect those dots.

From there, we dig into biosecurity and confidence: inspection protocols, putting eyes on cattle, and why additional treatment steps can matter when cattle start moving again. We also zoom out to the bigger system, including relationships with cow-calf producers, retained ownership and performance feedback, and downstream packing capacity shifts tied to historically low cattle inventories. We end with what’s keeping beef demand strong, and how Beef Quality Assurance, genetics, and consistency have helped build a premium product consumers still choose.

If this helped you understand what’s next for cross-border cattle flow and U.S. beef supply, subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave us a review.

Four organizations can sit in the same supply chain and still act like they live on different planets. We wanted to see what changes when they stop acting alone. Sarah Muirhead talks with Paul Scheetz, Director of Regenerative Agriculture at ADM, about a new collaboration with General Mills and Walmart designed to accelerate regenerative agriculture on 40,000 wheat acres across Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri.

We dig into why this cross-industry partnership matters for scaling regenerative farming, and why “local” is not a buzzword when you are dealing with soil types, weather swings, and field-by-field management. Paul explains how ADM works as the on-the-ground facilitator, what it means to move beyond simply buying grain, and how technical assistance partners like Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, and Ducks Unlimited help farmers pressure-test practices in the real world.

We also get practical about incentives, risk, and measurement. You will hear why financial payments are often necessary for long-term adoption, how data collection and verification are handled, and which practices this wheat program prioritizes: no-till, cover crops, and fertilizer efficiency, including nutrient stewardship and outcome-based nitrogen use efficiency. Along the way, we talk about what success looks like for farmers’ bottom lines, for resilient sourcing, and for a regenerative agriculture business case that can actually scale.

Subscribe for more conversations like this, share the episode with someone in agriculture or food, and leave a review with your biggest question about regenerative agriculture so we can tackle it next.

A border closure can feel like a single policy switch, but the beef industry experiences it like a chain reaction. We sit down with Alvaro Bustillos, cattle rancher and founding partner of Vaquero Trading LLC, and president of the Chihuahua Cattlemen’s Association, to unpack what happens when the U.S.-Mexico feeder cattle trade stops moving, why the shutdown tied to New World Screwworm keeps returning, and how the economic shock spreads from ranches to feedlots to packing plants. If you care about cattle markets, beef supply, and real world biosecurity, this conversation gets specific fast. 

We hear how a cross border system built over generations works at ground level, then we dig into the protocol designed to manage risk: pre-inspection pens, multiple inspection points, quarantine handling, treatment applied ahead of arrival, and strict control of cattle movement. We also challenge a common misconception by tracing how New World Screwworm moved north from Panama and why containment depends less on rhetoric and more on verification, traceability, and enforceable procedures. 

From there, we follow the money and the capacity. The argument is made that blocking Mexican feeder cattle can cost the U.S. supply chain more than it costs Mexico, because of the level of value created in U.S. feedyards, the logistics, corn demand, and packing plants. We also explore the unintended outcome many people miss: when feeder cattle cannot cross, Mexican feeding and certified meat packing can ramp up, pushing more Mexican beef exports into the market and changing competitiveness over time. 

We end with a practical proposal: a regionalized, gradual reopening based on risk zones, disease accreditations, and tools like RFID cattle traceability, plus a call for U.S. and Mexican stakeholders to act like one North American industry. Subscribe, share this episode with someone in the cattle business, and leave a review so more producers and policy watchers can find the conversation.

Endemic disease already steals margins, but a foreign animal disease outbreak could rewrite the rules overnight. From the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, we sit down with Marisa Rotolo, Director of Swine Health for the National Pork Board, and pork producer Paul Ayers to explain why the industry is building a National Swine Health Strategy and why it starts with one simple idea: let producers define the real problems and the practical fixes.

Our Ann Hess digs into what we keep hearing across the pork industry, from PRRS frustration to the ongoing impact of PEDv, and why “moving the needle” matters more than chasing quick wins. Marisa breaks down the strategy’s two core goals: prevent and prepare for foreign animal diseases while reducing the impact of endemic swine diseases that producers battle every day. Paul shares what the swine health advisory committee is doing to keep priorities grounded in what works on farms, with input from operations of different sizes and even the show pig segment.

We also talk about what success actually looks like when goals are ambitious and long-term: sustained producer engagement, industry alignment, and progress you can measure. The conversation closes with the two-pronged plan to get there: targeted swine health research, plus education that turns findings into slat-level solutions, including a National Swine Health Strategy Research Summit to align the research community around shared priorities. If you care about swine biosecurity, disease prevention, and protecting the future of pork production, hit play, subscribe, share this with a producer or vet, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Margin pressure in agriculture is not a headline, it is a daily operating constraint. When diesel swings, fertilizer tightens, and geopolitics disrupts supply chains, agribusiness leaders have to make decisions fast, often without the ability to simply raise prices and move on. Host Sarah Muirhead sits down with Jim Clark of Granite Creek Capital Partners to map the biggest challenges to growth in agribusiness in 2026 and the real-world choices operators face when input costs surge.

They dig into what has driven inflation across the last several years, from the pandemic and shifting tariff policies to conflicts that ripple through energy markets. Jim explains why products tied to petrochemicals, including fertilizer and crop protectants, can become both expensive and hard to source, and how fuel and freight can turn into a second profit-and-loss statement all by themselves. We also talk about the “pass-through” problem: many agriculture businesses are price takers, so protecting margins often means tough trade-offs between pricing, volume, and asset utilization.

The conversation breaks down which sectors appear to be getting hit harder, why row crops have struggled more than livestock in recent years, and where biofuels exposure can help soften the blow. We also explore practical innovation, including efficiency gains that make NPK products or crop protection work harder at lower rates, and how precision agriculture tools like drones can make post-emergence application more feasible and targeted.

If you want a clearer view of agribusiness risk management, commodity market realities, and the technologies shaping farm profitability, this one is for you. Subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

A parasite the US eliminated decades ago is back on the radar, and the clock starts the moment someone notices a “not quite right” wound. We sit down with Dr. Patrick Webb, Assistant Chief Veterinarian with the National Pork Board, to unpack what a confirmed New World screwworm case in southern Texas signals for pork producers and the wider livestock industry, and why early reporting beats waiting for certainty every time.

We walk through how a suspected case typically moves from farm observation to state notification, investigation, and lab confirmation, and what that process tells us about readiness right now. From there, we get practical about containment: unified command, the 20-km infested zone concept, and how disease control measures can affect movement, and day-to-day business continuity. Dr. Webb also points to proven tools, including the sterile fly approach, as part of a multi-layer response that can push the threat back again.

The biggest takeaway is simple and actionable: monitor your animals closely, tighten biosecurity, and keep communication open with your herd veterinarian and state animal health officials no matter what state you operate in. Summer conditions raise risk, and movement of infested animals is a key pathway, so fast action protects your herd and your neighbors. For clear guidance on what to look for and how to report, we share the best place to start: screwworm.gov.

If this conversation helps you think differently about surveillance, traceability, and outbreak preparedness, subscribe, share it with another producer, and leave us a review so more people find it when it matters.

An excessive number of questions can turn “reporting” into a full-time job. So what happens when an industry decides to cut the noise and keep only what actually drives improvement? Sarah Muirhead sits down with Kristi Block, lead for the Meat Institute’s reporting strategy, to unpack the newly updated Meat Institute Reporting framework and what it means for packers, processors, and the wider meat and poultry supply chain.

We walk through how the framework started as a proactive way to gather credible, sector-wide data on priorities like animal welfare, food safety, worker safety, environmental performance, and sustainability. Block explains why the framework was refreshed for 2026 and how the updated approach reduces complexity by shrinking the survey from roughly 500 questions to about 50 while still meeting customer and stakeholder expectations for consistent, comparable data. A big theme is flexibility: reporting is voluntary, and companies can start where they are strongest, then expand as capacity grows.

The conversation gets especially practical on sustainability reporting and ESG metrics, including greenhouse gas accounting, the GHG Protocol, and the pace of change around science-based targets. We also cover what participating companies get back, including establishment-level data that rolls up into a dashboard view across facilities, plus options for audit uploads and verification steps designed to support trust without creating extra chaos. Finally, they look ahead to the long game: tracking trends over time and aligning progress toward 2030 targets alongside initiatives like the US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and the US Roundtable for Sustainable Poultry and Egg.

Subscribe, share this with someone managing supplier questionnaires, and leave a review if you want more clear, grounded conversations on the biggest issues in animal agriculture.