SMART Farmer Leon Sheets

In this episode of the SMART Farmer podcast, we hear from America’s Pig Farmer of the Year, Leon Sheets, who raises 33,000 pigs a year in northeast Iowa along with his wife and son. SMART Farmer podcast listeners may remember that we interviewed last year’s Pig Farmer of the Year Brad Greenway from South Dakota, who also serves as chairman …

SMART Farmer and Food Evolution

In this episode of the SMART Farmer podcast, we hear from an Academy Award nominated director who produced a documentary film that explores the debate about genetically modified organisms – better known as GMOs. The film is called Food Evolution and Scott Hamilton Kennedy attended the recent Commodity Classic in California to talk about how he came to tell this …

SMART Farmer Podcast 2018

Welcome to the first SMART farmer podcast of 2018! In 2017, we interviewed 22 farmers and ranchers and other agriculture industry people from across the country for the SMART farmer podcast to learn how they use the latest technology in their production of food and fiber for the world, like poultry barns with environmental controls on smart phones, using GPS …

2017 SMART Farmers

In 2017, the very first SMART Farmer podcast was introduced. It has featured interviews with the people who use data and technology to be more sustainable and to help build a smarter version of the American farm and ranch. SMART Farmer Katie Brenny – Podcast debut featuring interviews with USFRA CEO Randy Krotz and Katie Brenny, a beef producer from …

SMART Farmer Jerry Flint

Jerry Flint may not technically be a farmer, but he did grow up on a farm in Ohio and his entire career has been focused on delivering new innovations to smart farmers. In addition to being vice president of regulatory affairs for Dow DuPont Agriculture Division, Flint is also first vice chair for the American Seed Trade Association, and his …

SMART Farmer Lauren Arbogast

Lauren Arbogast is a city girl who married into the farm and found it so interesting that she started a blog about it. On her blog “Paint The Town Ag”, which has also become her Facebook and Twitter platform, Lauren shares photos of musings of life on the farm with her husband and two “mini farmer” sons. She became a …

SMART Dairy Farmers

This episode of the SMART farmer podcast comes from the 2017 World Dairy Expo where Jamie Johansen sat down with Chris Galen of the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) to have him explain some of the many ways dairy producers are SMART farmers when it comes to efficiency and sustainability. NMPF was one of the founding members of the U.S. …

SMART Farmer Jeremy Brown

In this edition, we hear from a Texas farmer who grows both organic and traditional cotton and peanuts, as well as other crops. Jeremy Brown is one of the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) faces of farming, which has given him the opportunity to engage with the non-farm public on the highly emotional topic of biotechnology and GMO crops …

SMART Farmer Rochelle Krusemark

Rochelle Krusemark is a Minnesota grain and soybean farmer, a state and national soybean board and USFRA board member, wife, mother and grandmother – all at the same time! Obviously a busy lady, Rochelle squeezed in time as she was watching her two toddler grandsons to tell us what being a SMART farmer means to her, and why she is …

SMART Farmer Katie Roth

Katie Roth and her husband TJ farm with their partners John and Luann Shea in the southwest corner of America’s Dairyland in Wisconsin where they milk Holsteins and grow all of their feedstuffs on the farm including corn, soybeans, alfalfa and wheat. In addition, she serves as one of the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance’s (USFRA) Faces of Farming & …

SMART Farmer Emily Buck

Emily Buck farms with her husband and daughter near Columbus, Ohio where they raise soybeans, corn and wheat and also have a small sheep operation. Her main role on the farm, beyond helping with crops, is to manage the 40 ewes. Off the farm, Emily is a university researcher and professor of agricultural communication at Ohio State University, which gives …

SMART Farmer Robb Fraley

Robb Fraley isn’t our typical SMART Farmer, but after growing up on a small Illinois farm, his work has helped farmers around the world produce food more sustainably with science and technology that has helped increase yields by decreasing threats to crops. That technology is genetic modification of plants, creating GMO crops that are resistance to insects and disease, able …

SMART Farmer Phil Borgic

Meet the Illinois hog farmer whose family farm is the star of the 360 video the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance has been sharing around the country this year. You can watch the video without effects below – and if you have a VR viewer or headset take a look in 360. Phil Borgic has a family farm in Nokomis, …

SMART Farmer Jeanette Merritt

Jeannette Merritt is our SMART Farmer for this episode – an Indiana farm girl and former agricultural journalist who is raising crops, hogs and kids with her husband and serving the industry in many capacities. Jeanette is a 4th generation farmer, a Purdue University graduate, Director of Checkoff Programs for Indiana Pork and serves on the Indiana Soybean Alliance board …

SMART Farmer Carla Wardin

Our SMART Farmer in this episode comes from Michigan where she and her husband have a dairy operation that has been in her family for over a century. Carla Wardin is dedicated to telling the real story of dairy farming through her blog Truth or Dairy, and in 2014 was chosen to represent agriculture as one of the USFRA Faces …