The Prairie Farm Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 402 Why Walmart Will Never Tell You Where Your Food's From And Why Food Hubs Fail or Succeed Oct 16, 2026

Show notes

Tommy Hexter bought a tiny local food market at 20 and grew it to nearly seventy Iowa producers. We talk food hubs, pay-what-you-can groceries, why Walmart can’t tell you where your eggs came from, running for the statehouse at 24, and why Iowa’s soil should make it America’s food capital.

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

iowacovercrop.com (for all your cover crop mixes, waterway mixes, forage mixes, small grains, and more)

MckayInsAgency.com (for all your financial planning and insurance needs)

Chapters
0:00:00 Introducing Tommy Hexter
0:04:00 Iowa Trust and California Stereotypes
0:08:00 Summers Working and Being From Iowa
0:12:00 Grinnell College Pig Roast
0:16:00 What a Food Hub Is
0:20:00 Pay What You Can Groceries
0:24:00 Iowa Food Hub Scale Without Walmart
0:28:00 Soil and Water Conservation Race
0:32:00 Learning Iowa Ag From Outside
0:36:00 Running for Office With Curiosity
0:42:00 Debating Like Gentlemen
0:46:00 Leading With Values Not Fear
0:52:00 Why Food Hubs Fail on Scale
0:56:00 Healthy Food That Actually Tastes Good
1:00:00 Future Grocery Carts Versus Oreos
1:06:00 Farm Work Dirty Hands and Blue Collar
1:20:00 Radiance Dairy and Ascribing Value
1:24:00 Wrap Up and Where to Find Tommy

Ep. 401 (Coffee Time) What Happened to All The Different Tractor Companies?? Oct 14, 2026

Show notes

Harvest has the Hoksey crew running on fumes and fighting old combines, so naturally we’re talking tractors. Nicolas, Kent, and Judd dig into how John Deere, Case IH, Allis-Chalmers, Oliver, and Ford got where they are, why farmers stay loyal to one color, and what right to repair means today.

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

BirdHunterSupply.com (for all your bird hunting supplies and dog hunting supplies)

Chapters:

0:00 Long Harvest Hours and Grumpy Crew

4:00 Right to Repair and John Deere

7:00 Coffee Time Intro with Jud McCoy

10:00 Who Owns Which Tractor Brands

14:00 Growing Up in John Deere Country

16:00 Buying Reliability

22:00 International Harvester, Case and New Holland History

26:00 Early Tractor Makers and the Railroads

28:00 Planned Obsolescence and Manufacturing

32:00 Family Tractor Brands and Loyalty

40:00 Companies Moving Production to Mexico

42:00 John Deere and the 1837 Plow

46:00 Consolidation and Capitalism

50:00 The First Tractor from Charles City, Iowa

52:00 Inventors vs Money Makers

56:00 Wrap Up

Ep. 400 Iowa's New Trail Camera Rule, Cross Bows, Drones, CWD, and Is Iowa REALLY The Trophy Buck State? Oct 09, 2026

Show notes

Iowa DNR state deer biologist Jace Elliott sits down with Nicolas and Kent to talk about the new trail camera ban on public land, drones for deer recovery, nonresident tags, crossbows, and chronic wasting disease, including surprising new data on genetic resistance that has even the experts rethinking a few things.

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

iowacovercrop.com (for all your cover crop mixes, waterway mixes, forage mixes, small grains, and more)

Chapters:

0:00:00 Intro with Jace Elliott, Iowa State Deer Biologist

0:02:00 Sponsor

0:04:00 Deer Repellents

0:06:00 Trail Camera Photos

0:10:00 The Trail Camera Rule on Public Land

0:12:00 What Hunter Surveys Showed

0:16:00 Cell Cameras and Outfitters

0:20:00 Woodsmanship vs Trail Cameras

0:22:00 A Perfect Saturday in the Tree Stand

0:24:00 Is Iowa Really the Trophy Buck State

0:28:00 What Makes a Great Deer Hunter

0:32:00 Under-the-Radar Hunters

0:38:00 Where Whitetails Thrive

0:42:00 Public Land Fairness, Haves and Have-Nots

0:48:00 Cameras and Law Enforcement

0:52:00 Cameras Used to Monitor Hunters

0:54:00 Drones for Deer Recovery

0:58:00 Potential for Abuse

1:00:00 Tracking Dogs and Permission

1:02:00 Wounded Deer and Recovery Ethics

1:08:00 Rules Getting Looser Over Time

1:10:00 Iowa's Nonresident Tags

1:14:00 Iowa vs Wisconsin Timber

1:18:00 What Iowa Offers Outdoors

1:24:00 Defending Iowa's Natural Resources

1:26:00 What Deer Tags Fund

1:28:00 EHD and License Sales

1:30:00 Hunter Numbers and Recruitment

1:32:00 Hunter Age in Iowa

1:36:00 Sponsor

1:38:00 Chronic Wasting Disease

1:42:00 Which States Handle CWD Well

1:48:00 Wayne County and Southern Iowa Prevalence

1:50:00 Illinois vs Wisconsin Approaches

1:52:00 Earn-a-Buck and Working with Hunters

1:54:00 My Time vs Nature's Time

2:00:00 Iowa's First CWD Positive in 2013

2:02:00 Disease, Tolerance and Prions

2:10:00 Genetics That Prolong Infected Deer

2:18:00 Could CWD Jump to Humans

2:24:00 CWD as a Threat to a Valuable Resource

2:28:00 Daniel Boone and Eating Deer

2:30:00 Jud's Question

2:34:00 Prions in Scrapes

2:38:00 Cat Guts Denature Prions

2:42:00 Could We Manage It Like Rabies

2:44:00 County CWD Seasons and Deer Management Zones

2:48:00 Wrap Up

Ep. 399 (Coffee Time) Harvest Week is Stressful! And Noise Pollution for People and Animals Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

Harvest is here and the crew is running on fumes. Nicolas, Kent, Riley, and Judd talk through a stacked week of native seed harvest, then dig into the science of sound: how traffic noise steals sleep and health, and why birdsong, running water, and prairie soundscapes actually lower your stress.

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

MckayInsAgency.com (for all your financial planning and insurance needs)

BirdHunterSupply.com (for all your bird hunting supplies and dog hunting supplies)

Chapters:

0:00 Pre-Show Banter

2:00 Toy Catalogs and Raising Consumers

10:00 Coffee Time Intro

12:00 Favorite Past Episodes

16:00 Harvest Week To-Do Lists

18:00 Losing Rough Blazing Star Seed

20:00 Fall Forb Planting and Deer Season

24:00 Prioritizing Harvest Decisions

26:00 Fewer Calls During Harvest

30:00 Combine Cleaner Trouble

32:00 Noise Pollution and Tinnitus

34:00 Living Near Wind Turbines

36:00 Natural Sounds Lower Stress

40:00 Studies on Traffic Noise

42:00 Boise State Phantom Road Study on Songbirds

46:00 The Shoe Horn

48:00 Prairie Farm Ambiance Videos

52:00 Wrap Up

Ep. 398 Hunting Trail Cameras, The Upcoming CRP Cliff, and Why Land Prices Are Stagnant Oct 02, 2026

Show notes

Realtor and CRP planter Steve Hansen joins Nicolas and Kent to test a new Friday format: a rolodex of topics. They cover Iowa's public land trail camera ban, drones in hunting, the 2016 pollinator CRP boom, 44% of Iowa CRP expiring in 2027, farmland values, and whether elk could return.

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

BirdHunterSupply.com (for all your bird hunting supplies and dog hunting supplies)

Chapters:

0:00:00 Intro with Steve Hansen

0:02:00 Sponsor and Harvest Day

0:04:00 High School Workers and OSHA

0:06:00 Why Steve Is Back

0:08:00 Trail Cameras on Public Land

0:12:00 Hunting Stories

0:14:00 Old World Hunting Laws

0:18:00 Technology Moving Faster Than Ethics

0:20:00 Drones and Hunting

0:24:00 Drone Perimeter Systems on Farms

0:26:00 Early CRP Seed Mixes

0:28:00 Burning CRP Fields

0:30:00 Photo Monitoring a Planting

0:32:00 Working with Landowners

0:34:00 Using CRP Strategically for Deer

0:36:00 CRP Paperwork

0:38:00 The Dust Bowl and Where CRP Came From

0:40:00 Railroads and Public Land History

0:44:00 What the Prairie Would Look Like

0:46:00 Paying Landowners for Conservation

0:48:00 Interest Rates and Land Loans

0:50:00 Who Is Buying Farmland

0:52:00 Development Around Pella

0:54:00 Realtors, Commissions and Land Prices

0:58:00 Handling Land Sales Quietly

1:00:00 Terrace Repair and a Lawsuit

1:06:00 Frivolous Lawsuits

1:12:00 The Expiration Date on Ethanol

1:16:00 AI and Universal Basic Income

1:18:00 Land in Southern and Northeast Iowa

1:20:00 How Steve Uses AI

1:22:00 Movie Recommendation

1:24:00 Land Values by Region

1:26:00 Wrap Up

Ep. 397 (Coffee Time) Should Cover Crops Be Subsidized? A Review of the National Cover Crop Survey Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

Coffee Time Wednesday with Kent and Riley. We dig into the National Cover Crop Survey: who's planting covers, what it costs, why so many farmers quit after one year, and whether Iowa can pay its way to cleaner water. Plus a combine door that tried to end harvest.

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

iowacovercrop.com (for all your cover crop mixes, waterway mixes, forage mixes, small grains, and more)

MckayInsAgency.com (for all your financial planning and insurance needs)

Chapters:

0:00 Pre-Show: Mom or Dad

2:00 Fixing the Combine Chain

4:00 Metal Through the Combine Cylinder

6:00 Machines Used Three Weeks a Year

10:00 Family Thanksgivings

12:00 Coffee Time Intro

16:00 The National Cover Crop Survey

18:00 How to Lie with Statistics

20:00 Equipment Access for Cover Crops

22:00 Cover Crops After Harvest

28:00 Sponsor

30:00 EQIP, CRP and Land Value

34:00 Tying Insurance to Conservation Practices

36:00 What Iowa Would Pay for Cover Crops

38:00 State Budget Deficit

40:00 Crop Insurance and Food Security

42:00 Getting Young People Interested

44:00 Who Pays More at the Grocery Store

48:00 Diverse Systems and Margins

50:00 No One Is Coming to Save Us

52:00 Change Takes Generations

54:00 Wrap Up

Ep. 396 How We Run Our Prairie Farm and What It Takes To Start One Sep 25, 2026

Show notes

Kent Boucher turns the mic on Nicolas Lirio for a look back at Hoksey Native Seeds' first year after Carroll. They cover an auction gone sideways, a lost recording, stubborn spiderwort, and big wins like Judd and backyard prairies, plus native pasture, faith, and why the Prairie Farm Forum matters.

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

MckayInsAgency.com (for all your financial planning and insurance needs)

BirdHunterSupply.com (for all your bird hunting supplies and dog hunting supplies)

Chapters:

0:00:00 Intro

0:02:00 Ground Beef and Culver's

0:04:00 Falling Asleep on the Podcast

0:10:00 Where Trash Ends Up

0:12:00 Fundraisers and Giving to Charity

0:18:00 Meteorologists vs Climate Scientists

0:22:00 2025 in Review

0:24:00 Hoksey Losses, Stalemates and Wins

0:26:00 The Auction

0:30:00 Meeting of the Minds

0:32:00 Combine Troubles and Breaking Even

0:36:00 Jud Joins the Team

0:38:00 Not Claiming to Be Experts

0:40:00 Introverts and Extroverts

0:44:00 Lessons from Carol

0:50:00 Self-Reflection and Journaling

0:56:00 Hiring and Applicants

0:58:00 Control, Fear and Faith

1:00:00 What If They Don't Buy Seed

1:02:00 Land Left for Prairie

1:06:00 Young Farmers and Opportunity

1:08:00 Government Spending and Regulation

1:16:00 Betting on Entrepreneurs

1:18:00 Faith and Discipline

1:24:00 Favorite Podcasts

1:28:00 Favorite Guests

1:32:00 Facebook Forums and AI

1:34:00 Comment Sections

1:36:00 Wrap Up

Ep. 395 (Coffee Time) Do Prairie Fires Keep Flies and Ticks Away And Wendell Berry Tribute Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

Fire may be the cheapest pest control tool on the prairie. Nicolas, Kent, and Riley break down research showing burned pastures cut horn flies on cattle by 41% and slash tick counts. Then they honor conservation legend Wendell Berry and ask what it takes to keep young people on the land.

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

iowacovercrop.com (for all your cover crop mixes, waterway mixes, forage mixes, small grains, and more)
Alex's Youtube Channel (Churched Up Garage)

Chapters:

0:00 Pre-Show Banter

4:00 Fixing Up the Farm Hog Cart

8:00 Imported Beef from China

12:00 Hoksey Native Seeds Sponsor

14:00 Wendell Berry Goes Back to the Farm

18:00 Doing the Hard Thing for Conservation

22:00 Wendell Berry on Work and Community

24:00 Prairie Burns Cut Horn Flies

28:00 Patch-Burn Grazing and Cattle

32:00 Burns and Tick Larvae

34:00 Tick Stories

36:00 Burning and Grazing in Moderation

42:00 Wrap Up

Ep. 394 How Big Meat Packer and Giant Grocery Stores Are Ruining Agriculture Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

Barons author Austin Frerick joins Nicolas and Kent to unpack why American butter turned white, how JBS and Cargill captured the food system, what a chicken contract actually costs the farmer who signs it, and how ethanol quietly erased the pastures Iowa used to graze. Plus Costco, Sysco, and GLP-1s.

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

iowacovercrop.com (for all your cover crop mixes, waterway mixes, forage mixes, small grains, and more)

MckayInsAgency.com (for all your financial planning and insurance needs)

Chapters:

0:00:00 Intro and Guest Austin Frerick

0:02:00 Butter in Coffee

0:06:00 Kerrygold and Pasture Butter

0:08:00 Corn and Farm Subsidies

0:14:00 Year-Round E15 and Iowa Corn Growers

0:16:00 Ethanol and Farm Margins

0:18:00 Farm Labor and Visas

0:22:00 People Losing Connection to Animals

0:24:00 Solar vs Corn per Acre

0:26:00 Global Agribusiness Dominance

0:28:00 Sam Walton and Public Narrative

0:30:00 Growing Regional, Not Biggest

0:32:00 Meat Recalls and Sysco

0:34:00 Farmers Who Can't Feed Themselves

0:36:00 Fast Food Prices

0:38:00 Costco

0:40:00 Iowa Grocery Stores

0:42:00 Malls and the Built Environment

0:44:00 Walmart Supercenters and Hypermarket USA

0:46:00 Bentonville

0:50:00 Philip Morris, Kraft and Processed Food

0:52:00 GLP-1s

0:54:00 Ending the Laissez-Faire Era

0:58:00 Industrial vs Pasture Bacon

1:02:00 Outrage and Community

1:04:00 Industrial Chicken History

1:10:00 Iowa's Packer Ban and Smithfield

1:14:00 Vertical Integration Trade-Offs

1:16:00 SNAP and Processed Food

1:20:00 Politics and Timing

1:24:00 Distributor Consolidation and Subsidies

1:26:00 Wrap Up

Ep. 393 (Coffee Time) TRIVIA!! How much have you learned the past 100 episodes?? Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

Riley takes the host chair for a Prairie Farm Podcast trivia showdown. Nicolas and Kent face 20 questions pulled from past guest episodes, covering prairie food plants, planting dates, grazing, Iowa water quality, and the Black Hawk War.
Can you beat Nicolas and Kent's score?

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

BirdHunterSupply.com (for all your bird hunting supplies and dog hunting supplies)

Chapters:

0:00:00 Intro and Audio File Corrupted

0:02:00 Sponsor

0:04:00 Field Trips and Fall on the Farm

0:06:00 Trivia Begins

0:10:00 Kelly Kindscher Episode Questions

0:12:00 Lincoln and the Black Hawk War

0:14:00 Memorizing Psalm 103

0:18:00 Who Has Worked Here

0:20:00 Nutrient Load and Water Questions