The Prairie Farm Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 344 How and When To Burn Your Prairie Fields From The Man Who Has Burned 100,000 Acres Mar 27, 2026

Show notes

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!)

Chapters:

0:00:00 Welcome

Ep. 343 (Coffee Time) How People Use Auctions To Steal Machinery and How Awns Can Kill Bird Dogs Mar 25, 2026

Show notes

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)

Chapters:

0:00 Welcome

3:04 Online Auction Machinery Theft

6:04 Lost Chains and Scrambled Plans

9:08 Temper Rising While He Watches From the Truck

15:09 Friction When the Scam Meets Resistance

21:14 114 Hunt Days and a Thousand Miles

24:15 Emergency Vet — Heart and Lungs Fine

27:19 Updates Every Three Hours

33:24 Arctic Brome, Sedges, and Expensive Replacements

36:00 Awns That Can Kill Bird Dogs

42:00 Checking Dogs After the Hunt

48:00 Preventing Awn Injuries Next Season

Ep. 342 Gubernatorial Candidate Eddie Andrews Mar 20, 2026

Show notes

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)

Chapters:

0:00:00 Welcome

0:03:06 Politics as Choosing Long-Term Results

0:06:13 Outperforming Trump in a Tough District

Ep. 341 (Coffee Time) A Quick Farm Bill Update and Raising Tax Rates for Out of State Land Owners Mar 18, 2026

Show notes

Kent, Riley, and Nicolas talk about what's going on with the Farm Bill today, and what status it has in the legislative pipeline. They also discuss what would need to happen for Iowa to have a higher tax bracket for out of state land owners.
There's a lot of uncertainty for the rural United States, especially with farming. What can we do to enhance it? What needs to change?
hokseynativeseeds.com (for backyard prairie mixes, habitat mixes, CRP mixes, EQIP mixes, and a lot more)

Chapters:

0:00 Welcome

Ep. 340 How and When to Plant a Prairie So It ACTUALLY Shows Up w/Justin Meissen Mar 13, 2026

Show notes

Justin Meissen, Research and Restoration Program Manager at the Tallgrass Prairie Center, joins the Prairie Farm Podcast to talk prairie establishment from the ground up — literally. Why native annual weeds aren't always your enemy. What months to plant and which ones to avoid at all costs. How seed size predicts establishment success. And what "coefficient of conservatism" actually means. This one's packed.

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

Iowa Cover Crop (for all your cover crop needs)

Ep. 339 (Coffee Time) Are You As Tough As A Pioneer Woman? And Using Fire To Eliminate Brome Mar 11, 2026

Show notes

Kent's very own father, Alan Boucher, joined us to discuss a journal entry from a woman in the 1800's. We also discuss whether or not someone should burn a prairie field now or in May to eliminate brome.
hokseynativeseeds.com (for CRP, Backyard Prairie, and Hunting Mixes)

Iowa Cover Crop (for all your cover crop needs)

Bird Hunter Supply (for all your bird hunting supplies)

Chapters:

0:00 Welcome

6:11 Long-Term Damage on Contaminated Land

9:12 Iowa Whitetail Herd in Decline

12:16 Obliterating a Population That Cost Money

15:20 Pioneer Women Delivered of a Son

18:24 Endless Community Service Lists

21:28 Death Certificates Until the 1950s

24:29 Boulder Dislodged in the Gap

27:34 Discipline From Simulated Strain

30:36 Ice Fishing When You Can't Get Warm

33:37 Using Fire to Eliminate Brome

Ep. 338 Are Small Dairy Farms Actually Viable?? Mar 06, 2026

Show notes

Derek Orth, a fourth general dairy farmer, joins us to discuss if small dairy farms could have a spot in the US market in the future. Dairy farmers do a lot of work for very little pay, and we get into the nitty gritty on the podcast.

hokseynativeseeds.com (for backyard prairie, pollinator, native pasture mixes, and more)

birdhuntersupply.com (for all your bird hunting gear and to give back to conservation)

Chapters:

0:00:00 Welcome

0:02:00 Meet Derek Orth

0:03:04 Rural Facebook Rants and Raves

0:09:10 No More UW-Platteville Students Showing Up

0:12:11 Jersey Component Milk at $16 a Hundredweight

0:15:12 Five or Six Farmers Left — Main Street Decline

0:18:13 Get More Efficient or Market Direct

0:21:15 Limited Research on Native Dairy Pasture

0:24:16 PhDs Making More Milking Cows in America

0:27:19 Brain Drain From Iowa Families

0:30:21 Contour Strips and Conservation on the Farm

0:33:23 Recreational Tillage

Ep. 337 (Coffee Time) Tort Immunity for Bayer and CRP Grazing Might Be Headed Our Way Mar 04, 2026

Show notes

Join us for another riveting episode of Coffee Time Wednesday. Today we discuss Bayer's Tort Immunity at the federal level and the chance they have at succeeding. We also talk about Iowa Secretary of Ag Mike Naig's recent conversation about grazing CRP.

Hoksey Native Seeds (for Midwest CRP Mixes, Wildflower Patch Mixes, and More)
Iowa Cover Crop (For all your cover crop and small grain needs)
McKay Insurance (For a better insurance experience)

Chapters:

0:00 Welcome

12:09 Tort Immunity at the Supreme Court

15:11 Not Wanting a World of Endless Lawsuits

18:15 Fight Over EQIP Funding in the Farm Bill

21:18 Mike Naig Interview on CRP Grazing

24:22 Tools for Landowners on Grass Management

27:26 CRP for Me-Me-Me vs Taxpayer Benefit

30:29 Sharing Grazing Value Instead of Cutting $100

33:32 Self-Driving Bale Pickers and Rotational Grazing

Ep. 336 The Rise and Fall of "Chief" Black Hawk Feb 27, 2026

Show notes

Black Hawk is a mythological character at this point. But why is that? What did he do, or not do? Dr. Patrick Jung, author of The Black Hawk War of 1832, joins us to tell us the incredible story of the last Native American to resist in the Midwest.
To order his book
hokseynativeseeds.com (for native prairie and wildflower seeds and mixes)

Chapters:

0:00:00 Welcome

0:02:00 Meet Dr. Patrick J. Jung

0:03:03 Black Hawk's Autobiography via Patterson

0:06:04 Why Black Hawk Has So Much Notoriety

0:09:05 Summer Bison Hunts as Far as Kansas

0:12:09 Tecumseh and the Greatest Native Leader of His Age

0:15:10 Gregory Dow on Native Confederacy Attempts

0:18:14 Buying Land From a Loose Association of Leaders

0:21:15 Keokuk Made Primary Chief Without That Role

0:24:16 1829 — Time to Leave and Anti-Removal Factions

0:27:18 No Single Sock "Chief Chief"

0:30:19 Thunder Clan, Fox Clan, and Fish Clan Chiefs

Ep. 335 (Coffee Time) The New FARM BILL!! Feb 25, 2026

Show notes

It's finally here! Farm Bill Updates are coming.
Kent was home with the kids, so the one and only Judd McCullum joined Riley and Nicolas to talk about the new Farm Bill.
Our Hoksey Auction (filter with the keyword "Lynnville")

Hoksey Native Seeds (for prairie mixes, wildflowers, and more!)

Chapters:

0:00 Welcome

9:11 The Farm Bill Stack of Papers

12:13 Technology Knows Where You're Losing Money

15:16 Stopping One State Dictating Ag to Another

18:17 Person-to-Person Food Sales Without FDA in the Middle

21:18 Racing to the Bottom on Debt

24:23 No E15 Mention — Iowa Farm Bureau Still Pushing

27:26 Forestry Grants Getting More Robust

30:27 Two-Species Tree Plantings Failing at Year Ten

33:28 Trees vs Prairie Diversity Per Acre