Field Work by Field Work

08.10.2022

Big Talk at Dave Brandt's Field Day

This is the big one. Five leaders of regenerative agriculture — Rick Clark, Ray Archuleta, Mitchell Hora, Loran Steinlage and of course, Dave Brandt — talk it up in Carroll, Ohio. At 2 hours and some change, this conversation is...

08.03.2022

What Mitchell Learned in Ohio

Instead of talking it up at Dave Brandt’s Field Day, host Mitchell Hora listened. That resulted in big thoughts, which Mitchell shares with his co-hosts. Zach and Tara aren’t shy about chiming in with their own opinions in this lively...

07.27.2022

Adaptive Grazing on the Bruski Ranch

After attending college in Bismarck, North Dakota, Ryan Bruski returned to his family’s ranch in Ekalaka, Montana, with big ideas. He wanted to graze cows a new way. Instead of letting cattle roam for weeks at a time, Ryan decided...

07.20.2022

The Accidental Rancher

Brad Buchanan didn't plan on owning a cattle ranch. He was a city guy who bought land a short drive from Denver, then bought some cows as "lawnmowers." Fifteen years later, he's the proud owner of the Flying B Bar...

07.13.2022

He's All About 'Net Profit Per Acre'

As a college professor, Allen Williams had a fancy degree and tenure. In 2000, he quit that job-for-life to become a farmer. But he knew he couldn’t do it the conventional way. So Allen minimized inputs and focused on “net...

07.06.2022

The Bristle Brothers Sure Do Experiment

Mitchell and Brad Bristle have made a lot of big decisions at a young age. Their father died when they were young, then the hired man running their Michigan farm quit. So at ages 21 and 19, the Bristle Brothers...

06.29.2022

With Ray Archuleta, It's All About the Soil

After a successful career at the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, Ray Archuleta began preaching about soil health. Mitchell caught up with “Ray the Soil Guy” inside an Ohio seed shed. The pair talked about Ray’s life and the challenges...

06.22.2022

The Godfather of Soil Health

On this episode, Mitchell makes a pilgrimage to Fairfield County, Ohio, to chat with farmer Dave Brandt. Known as "The Godfather of Soil Health," Brandt began experimenting with no-till and cover crops in 1971. "My goal is to show people...

06.15.2022

Get Help When You Need It: Mental Health on the Farm

Farmers are independent people. But there are some things you don’t want to do alone. Like struggle with mental health. In this episode, we talk with soybean farmer Bob Worth about his experience with depression during the 1980s farm crisis....

06.08.2022

America's First Regenerative Dairy

Stephanie and Blake Alexandre milk 9,000 cows on 9,000 acres in northern California. Their business — Alexandre Family Farms — is the nation's first certified regenerative dairy. On this episode, Stephanie and Blake talk about A2 milk, dairy family road...

06.01.2022

Manuel Piñuela Has a Big Goal: Regenerating Land Equal to the Size of Texas, Twice

As CEO of Cultivo, Manuel Piñuela wants to regenerate carbon on 1% of the planet. That’s no easy task. In fact, achieving that goal would require signing up enough farm and forest acreage to cover Texas twice. On this episode,...

05.25.2022

The Tractor Robots Have Arrived

Is it Zach’s birthday? You might think so. Because on this episode of Field Work, Joe Liefer of John Deere joins Zach and Mitchell to talk about green tractors, a thing Zach loves. Liefer is an engineer at John Deere...

05.18.2022

From Dirt to Soil: The Guys Get To Know Gabe Brown

Gabe Brown didn’t grow up on a farm. But today he’s way into regenerative agriculture. On his farm and ranch just outside of Bismarck, North Dakota, Gabe does no-till, cover crops, and a mini-version of mob grazing. He’s also one...

05.11.2022

An Interview with USDA's Robert Bonnie

Robert Bonnie grew up on a Kentucky farm. Today, he’s one of the most powerful people in agriculture, serving as a top USDA official in the Biden administration. One of the initiatives he’s working on is the Partnerships for Climate-Smart...

05.04.2022

The Genius of Prairie Strips

Farmers in 14 states have planted more than 14,000 acres of prairie strips to ease soil erosion. On this episode, Lisa Schulte Moore of Iowa State University explains the science behind planting native grasses and plants. “Prairie strips are oriented...

04.27.2022

Why Kamal Bell Became a First-Generation Farmer

Food deserts are places with limited access to fruits and vegetables. When the topic popped up in one of his college classes, Kamal Bell decided to do more than just talk about it. Bell started Sankofa Farms, a 12-acre farm...

04.20.2022

The Hunger for Regenerative Ag Data

Lots of scientists give farmers advice. But not many of them have actually farmed. Jonathan Lundgren quit the USDA and started Blue Dasher Farms in South Dakota. In just a few years, he’s learned some things, including how difficult farming...

04.13.2022

New Mexico Milkmaid Shines in Field Work Debut

Tara Vander Dussen makes her Field Work debut at Zach Johnson’s Minnesota farm. In this episode, Tara tells Zach and Mitchell about the wonders of New Mexico: sand dunes, square roads, fainting goats, and how she encourages dairy farmers to...

04.06.2022

Coming Soon: Field Work Season Four

Big changes are coming! Tara Vander Dussen, a New Mexico dairy farmer, will be joining Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora as a Field Work co-host. Throughout Season 4, Zach, Mitchell and Tara will be engaging in honest and authentic conversations...

06.23.2021

The Episode Where the Chopper Arrives and Carbon Markets Are All Figured Out

According to the EPA, the agriculture sector of the economy causes 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, far behind energy, transportation, and industry. But there’s a lot of interest in how to reduce ag’s carbon footprint. Regenerative practices on the...

06.16.2021

Rick Haney's Uncommon Sense

One of the most important resources for farmers interested in sustainable practices is a soil test commonly known as the Haney Test. In this episode, we talk to the developer of the test, Rick Haney, a soil scientist who will...

06.09.2021

Forget Horsepower, We’re Talking Cow Power!

This week on Field Work, Zach and Mitchell talk about the future of tractors with New Holland’s Director of Commercial Marketing, Mark Lowery. First up is a look beyond diesel fuel to the methane powered tractor New Holland is planning...

06.02.2021

The Promise of Perennials

Research at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, over the past couple of decades has advanced the concept of perennial grain crops to the point of commercially available kernza. Mitchell and Zach talk to a Minnesota organic farmer, Luke Peterson,...

05.26.2021

Banking on Innovation

Marc Schober is director of specialized agriculture solutions for Bremer Bank, the nation’s 9th largest farm lender. Zach and Mitchell ask him about how he decides which #fintech and #agtech solutions are worth recommending to the bank and to farmers....

05.19.2021

How Conservation Saved a Cotton Farmer

Field Work hosts Mitchell Hora and Zach Johnson talk to cotton farmer Adam Chappell about cotton and sharecropping. Chappell nearly lost his farm 10 years ago to a triple whammy of drought, pigweed and a customer who didn’t pay. He...

05.12.2021

Can Cotton Drive American Ag Sustainability?

Farmers from 17 southern states supply more than a third of the world’s cotton and bring in $7 billion a year. But brands and retailers — cotton’s customers — are getting picky about how their cotton is produced. They want...

05.05.2021

Small Farmers, Big Stakes

John and Kara Boyd are equally committed to farming and to farm ownership for people of color. John heads the National Black Farmers Association, and Kara runs the Association of American Indian Farmers. They told Field Work hosts Mitchell Hora...

04.28.2021

A Winning Personality?

For a few years now, Iowa State University Professor Kevin Kimle has been asking students in his ag entrepreneurship classes to take a personality test. What he’s found so far is that compared to the average person, those ag students...

04.21.2021

The Magical Dividing Line Between Counties

The Nature Conservancy and Purdue University are among a lot of people in the sustainable ag keen to figure out what it takes to scale conservation practices. Does it come down to the availability of funding? Climate? Soils? What happens...

04.14.2021

Carrying the Torch

Young farmers coming back to a family operation often have to tease out a place for themselves with hard work, creativity and an entrepreneurial zeal. For Trent Stout, that meant taking on the family seed business and migrating it from...

04.07.2021

The Down-Low from DC: Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack

The Biden administration has ambitious climate mitigation goals, and agriculture has been called upon to be a strong partner. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack led the department throughout the Obama years and is back at the helm. He talks with Mitchell...

03.31.2021

The Bleeding Edge

Several Washington County families trace their conservation interests back decades. For Rob Stout and Darrell Steele, their dads’ interest in conservation primed them to be open to the idea of no-till. Still, getting it to work took a lot of...

03.24.2021

Mudholes in March

Paul Reed and Dave Moeller explain to Zach and Mitchell that the modern planter row unit was designed to provide good seed to soil contact in the dry, cloddy seedbed of a conventionally tilled field. And why that created a...

03.17.2021

Twilight in Washington County

Mitchell and Zach are trying to understand how Mitchell’s home county in Southeast Iowa developed such a strong conservation culture. Jim Frier, now 88, showed up to the interview with a box full of documentation of all the work he...

03.10.2021

Show Me the Money!

On this episode of Field Work, hosts Mitchell Hora and Zach Johnson talk money with the founders of two startups. Sami Tellatin says FarmRaise will be a one-stop shop to help farmers apply for grants and loans. And FarmRaise will...

03.03.2021

We're Back: Carbon Markets, Choppers and Charm

President Joe Biden has said he wants to pay farmers to grow cover crops and put land into conservation. How will that work? He also has big plans to reduce and capture carbon emissions, which could spell opportunities for farmers....

02.24.2021

Coming Soon: Field Work Season Three

Farmers Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora are back with more honest and authentic conversations about the ups and the downs of sustainable agriculture. They'll explore new sustainability standards for crops like cotton and the outlook for conservation under the Biden...

06.24.2020

Your Field Day is Buffering: Sustainable Ag Navigates a Pandemic

The world has changed in some massive ways since Field Work hosts Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora sat down to record the first episodes of the season back in December. We’re now living amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning...

06.17.2020

Ag Retailers and Conservation: Can They Work Together?

Samantha Schmidgall, the Agronomy Marketing Manager with Ag View FS in Walnut, IL, is driven by the cooperative foundation of her agricultural retail company. “If we're not doing what our farmers and our farmer-based board want us to do, we're not...

06.10.2020

Solar, Wind and Cranky Neighbors

Crop prices ain’t what they used to be, so some farmers have sought out additional sources of income. On this episode of Field Work, Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora talk to Pat Duncanson, a fifth generation corn and soybean farmer...

06.03.2020

Where's the Money for Sustainable Ag?

There’s a whole world of funding that can help to bring conservation practices onto a farm, but wading through the web of federal, state, and private programs can feel like a full time job of its own. So Zach Johnson...

05.27.2020

Farmer Incentives, Mayonnaise and More!

Food companies are seeing a lot more demand from consumers for sustainably-grown food. But how is that demand translating into actual incentives for farmers to adopt conservation practices? In this episode, we bring you the conversation Field Work co-host Mitchell...

05.20.2020

The New Cash Crop: Carbon

There are certain regenerative practices that help to put carbon back into the ground, which can be beneficial for crops, soil, and the broader environment. Some companies are trying to provide another benefit to these practices -- a way for...

05.13.2020

Water + Us

Water plays an important role in all of our lives. But how much do we actually understand key water topics, like the share of Americans who get their water shut off or the biggest causes of pollution? Field Work co-host...

05.06.2020

Rick Clark’s 7,000 Acre Investment in Regenerative Ag

Farmers often get the advice that they should “start small” when it comes to conservation practices. But Indiana farmer Rick Clark of Clark Land and Cattle is proof that you can do regenerative ag at scale. He raises no-till soybeans,...

04.29.2020

A Visit with the Hosts of The Modern Acre

After a big bet on growing asparagus backfired, the Nuss family had to rethink their approach to running Nuss Farms. Tim and Tyler Nuss, the 5th generation on the farm and the hosts of The Modern Acre podcast, join Mitchell...

04.27.2020

Agriculture in a Time of Pandemic

Like much of the world, agriculture is facing a lot of uncertainty and change from COVID-19. In this bonus episode, Field Work host Mitchell Hora hops on the mic in his home studio to talk to AgriTalk host Chip Flory...

04.22.2020

Regenerative vs. Organic

The word “organic” is familiar to a lot of consumers -- in the last decade we’ve seen a rise in organic foods in our grocery stores and markets. And there’s a whole raft of standards, developed by federal regulators, that...

04.15.2020

A Farmer's First Foray into Hemp

Growing hemp was illegal in the U.S. for decades. But recent changes in federal law have opened the door to growing the crop. So as farmers across the country begin to experiment with hemp, hosts Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora...

04.08.2020

The Future of Agriculture: A Visit with Tim Hammerich

Tim Hammerich is the founder of AgGrad, an agribusiness recruiting company, and the host of the Future of Agriculture podcast. He joins Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora to talk about the latest innovations in farming, the changing skill sets agriculture...