Science

The Prairie Farm Podcast

by Nicolas Lirio & Kent Boucher

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Latest episodes

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

October 9, 2026 · 2 hr 56 min

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…
Ep. 399 (Coffee Time) Harvest Week is Stressful! And Noise Pollution for People and Animals

October 7, 2026 · 54 min

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

October 2, 2026 · 1 hr 27 min

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

September 30, 2026 · 55 min

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…
Ep. 396 How We Run Our Prairie Farm and What It Takes To Start One

September 25, 2026 · 1 hr 38 min

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…

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

September 23, 2026 · 44 min

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…
Ep. 394 How Big Meat Packer and Giant Grocery Stores Are Ruining Agriculture

September 18, 2026 · 1 hr 29 min

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…
Ep. 393 (Coffee Time) TRIVIA!! How much have you learned the past 100 episodes??

September 16, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

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…
Ep. 392 What This Weather Scientist's Studies Tell us of The Midwest's Climate Future

September 11, 2026 · 1 hr 32 min

Iowa State agronomy professor Dr. Brian Hornbuckle joins Nicolas and Kent to talk weather, water, and the Iowa landscape. We get into corn sweat, why rain is coming in bigger chunks, how trading prairie for row crops changed our summers…
Ep. 391 (Coffee Time) Which Prairie Species Are Invasive to The Rest of The World

September 9, 2026 · 41 min

Nicolas and Riley dig into milkweed banned in the EU, broomsedge, ragweed's 7.4 billion euro allergy bill, and the 2016 Palmer amaranth scare. Plus bare soil temperatures, cooler trout streams below prairie, and a mix built to bust…
Ep. 390 What Pesticide Companies Are Doing In Washington to Make Billions

September 4, 2026 · 1 hr 37 min

Sarah Starman of Friends of the Earth joins Nicolas and Kent to break down pesticide tort immunity: who is lobbying for it, how the EPA got captured, and why only 1.4% of likely-carcinogen pesticides carry a cancer warning. Then forever…
Ep. 389 (Coffee Time) Should We Use Farmland for Solar and Who Wins... A Bison or Bull?

September 2, 2026 · 50 min

Nicolas is back from three weeks off, and the crew digs into solar on farmland: how many acres each Midwest state would need, whether panels wreck the soil, and the hard question nobody asks. What grows under them? Plus a wild bison versus…