The Spokesman Speaks: Ag Insights for Your Farm and Family – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to Episode 181 of The Spokesman Speaks podcast. In this episode, futurist Jack Uldrich and Iowa State University ag innovation professor Matt Darr share their thoughts on artificial intelligence (AI), technology and the future of farming.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Learn more about the Digital Ag Innovation Lab at Iowa State University.
• Learn about ISU Extension’s new digital agriculture specialist, Doug Houser.
• Contact information for Doug Houser
• See ISU’s Planter University locations in early February.
• Learn more about upcoming Iowa Farm Bureau events and webinars.

Welcome to Episode 180 of The Spokesman Speaks podcast. In this episode, we share Iowa Farm Bureau’s priorities for the 2025 state legislative session, a new program that helps aspiring and beginning farmers get started with livestock, and a new program to help address the critical shortage of veterinarians in rural Iowa. 

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Contact your county Farm Bureau.
• Read more about Iowa Farm Bureau’s 2025 state legislative priorities.
• Learn more about the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers’ new Building Your Livestock Legacy Program.
• Learn more about Iowa Farm Bureau’s new Rural Veterinarian Loan Repayment Incentive Program.
• Learn about more scholarships and grants through Iowa Farm Bureau.

Welcome to Episode 171 of The Spokesman Speaks podcast. In this episode, Story County brothers Jason and John Maxwell share the journey that led to them becoming Iowa’s 2024 Conservation Farmers of the Year. Later in the episode, Iowa State University Extension behavioral health expert Dr. David Brown reminds farmers of steps they should take to care for their mental health needs during the stressful harvest season. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Read more about 2024 Iowa Conservation Farmer of the Year award winners John and Jason Maxwell.
• Learn more about Iowa’s conservation progress at ConservationCountsIowa.com.
• Iowa Concern website and hotline.
• Farm stress resources, including free, one-on-one, ongoing counseling for Iowa farm families, through Personal Assistance Services.

Welcome to Episode 81 of The Spokesman Speaks podcast. In this episode, American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall shares updates on some of the most important national policy issues facing farmers right now: possible environmental regulations, possible estate tax changes, and efforts to improve cattle market transparency. (President Duvall’s interview took place on August 18, 2021.)

We also talk with Iowa Farm Bureau President Craig Hill about a new series of videos that’s designed to improve consumers’ understanding of farming’s sustainability and animal care.

Resource mentioned in this episode:

• New Real Farmers. Real Food. Real Meat. video series

Welcome to Episode 80 of The Spokesman Speaks podcast. In this episode, we reflect on Iowa’s derecho recovery (including a unique program to help livestock farmers who were impacted by the storm) with Brian Waddingham of the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers. We also chat with the newly-announced winners of Iowa’s Conservation Farmer of the Year award; Ken Fawcett and his nephew Kent Stuart, who farm near West Branch.

Welcome to Episode 79 of The Spokesman Speaks podcast. In this episode Iowa Farm Bureau Conservation and Natural Resources Policy Advisor Rick Robinson discusses the water quality progress that you might not be seeing or hearing in recent news coverage. And Shane Wulf (Edge of Field Coordinator for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship) shares the assistance that’s available to help farmers implement edge-of-field conservation practices (like bioreactors and saturated buffers) on their farms.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• CleanWaterIowa.org
• Webinar | Utility-Scale Solar Energy Contracts: What You Need to Know
• Webinar | 2021 Transportation Rules for Farmers

Welcome to Episode 78 of The Spokesman Speaks podcast. In this episode, we dig into the crucial issue of cattle market transparency. We also receive a status update on the Shell Rock Soy Processing plant in northern Iowa – a project that combines rural economic development with the latest advancements in renewable energy technology and valued-added agriculture.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Virtual Roundtable | Carbon Credit Markets: What Farmers Need to Know
• Webinar | New Services for Managing Farm Stress

Welcome to Episode 77 of The Spokesman Speaks podcast. In this episode, Representative Chad Ingels discusses a recently-signed state bill that provides support for new and existing meat lockers, as well as the workforce needed to make those lockers successful. Also, Dr. Kathryn Polking (the Bureau Chief for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship’s Meat and Poultry Inspection Bureau) joins us to discuss the requirements for Iowans who want to open a locker or participate in other local meat processing opportunities.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Iowa Department of Agriculture's Meat and Poultry Inspection Bureau
• Webinar: Market Implications of the July WASDE Report
• Carbon Credit Markets: What Farmers Need to Know | Virtual Roundtable
• Webinar: New Services for Managing Farm Stress

Welcome to Episode 76 of The Spokesman Speaks podcast. In this episode, you'll hear some basics about private-sector sustainability markets for farmers, from Iowa Farm Bureau senior economist Dr. Sam Funk and American Farm Bureau economist Shelby Myers. This episode will prepare you for an even deeper dive into these markets, during Iowa Farm Bureau's virtual roundtable on July 14, titled "Carbon Credit Markets: What Farmers Need to Know."

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Register to attend Iowa Farm Bureau's "Carbon Credit Markets: What Farmers Need to Know" virtual roundtable on July 14.
• Apply for Iowa Farm Bureau's Grow Your Future Award.

Welcome to Episode 75 of The Spokesman Speaks podcast. This episode features two key players in a new, collaborative water quality "blitz" project that's adding 51 saturated buffers and bioreactors to the central Iowa landscape over the next year: Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig and Hardin County farmer (and Farm Bureau leader) Jacob Handsaker, who also runs the excavating company that's constructing these conservation practices.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Read more about central Iowa's water quality "blitz" project
• Learn more about Iowa's various water quality protection initiatives at ConservationCountsIowa.com.
• Stay tuned for Iowa Farm Bureau's upcoming "Carbon Credit Markets: What Farmers Need to Know" virtual roundtable. The roundtable will take place on July 14, and more details will be released here soon.
• Register for the Innovative Livestock Price Risk Management Webinar Series.