Explore Inspiring Episodes
Farming on Purpose celebrates the stories, challenges,
and innovations shaping agriculture today.
Discover stories of resilience and innovation in agriculture. Each episode brings you insights into topics like entrepreneurship, sustainability, mental health, and family farming. Whether you’re navigating challenges or building a legacy, our conversations with farmers and industry leaders are here to guide and inspire.
#102: Special Christmas Eve Episode "Christmas Eve Puppies: A Bedtime Story"
A Note to Parents
Dear listeners,
Tonight's episode is something special - a departure from our usual conversations. As Christmas Eve approaches, I wanted to create something a little different.
#101: From Conventional to Regenerative: One Family's Journey to Building a Sustainable Farm
“ So yeah the balance of the family and the business and the farming and all that, just trying to get more systematic and efficient so that we can balance it all.”
Growing up on a farm shapes who you become. For Abby Bowser, it planted the seeds for a future she couldn't have predicted. Today, she and her husband Brooks run Bowser Family Farms, a regenerative cattle operation in Southern Michigan, where they've found their own path in agriculture.
#100 - Celebrating 100 Episodes: Finding Purpose in Agriculture
“I think the most important thing is focusing on what our priorities are, because those priorities give us a purpose even when goals become unattainable or the course shifts or something happens in life that changes our trajectory. If we know what our priorities are. We can choose to focus on those every single day.”
#99: Working Full Time While Building Her Farm Dream with Brenna Beard
“Some years you're going to make more money than other years and I think as long as you don't outpace your budget, then you'll end up being just fine.”
Starting to farm isn't easy, especially when you're juggling a full-time job. But for Brenna Beard, a beginning farmer from central Indiana, the pull of continuing her family's 200-year farming legacy was too strong to ignore.
#98: From City Life to Farm Life: How Jessica Lewis Built Back to Roots Farm
“Teaching classes and being able to plant the seed itself for other people to get excited for things that have been lost in our generation has also just been something that has brought tons of happiness and joy.”
City girl turned farmer Jessica Lewis shares how she built Back to Roots Farm in Thomasville, Georgia, starting with bottle baby goats and growing into a thriving business teaching homesteading skills. With her seven-year-old daughter already sharing her passion for farming, Jessica shows how starting small and being willing to pivot when markets change can lead to success in agriculture, even without prior experience.
#97: Finding Joy in Farm Life with Heather Nienhueser
“My life does revolve around farming but I also think we have good boundaries where I’m not resentful of that.”
Growing up on a farm, Heather Nienhueser always knew she wanted to marry a farmer. While some people couldn't wait to leave farm life behind, she put "must be a farmer" at the top of her list of requirements for a future spouse. Today, she's living that dream as a farm wife and mom in South Central Nebraska, where she balances raising three kids, running multiple businesses from home, and renovating an 1890s farmhouse.
#96: From The Archive- Beginning Farming and Resetting Your Farm Practices with DL Lautenbach
“The opportunity is out there, you’re just going to have to do a better job than trying to compete with Walmart on price and volume.”
When I first met DL on TikTok, we were chatting about bottle calves. But as I got to know his story, I knew there was so much more to share. His journey from running a 400-head operation to starting over with just five borrowed calf hutches speaks to the heart of what farming is really about - family, resilience, and finding your own path to success.
#95 - Sisters, Mothers, Ranchers: How Three Women Are Building a Legacy at Giles Ranch Beef
“And it's very important that you're thinking about what's best for the whole family and the whole ranch. Instead of just what's best for you or your individual family.”
#94 - Finding Your Voice in Agriculture with Ashlynn Jones
“And at the end of the day, the best thing you can do is, as long as you have good intentions, is to put some piece of your story out there because I promise you somebody will find a connection.”
Every family farm has a story worth telling. When I sat down with Ashlynn Jones, a third-generation cattle woman from Southeast Iowa, we talked about something that hits close to home for many of us - how to share our farming story with the world.
#93 - Finding Your Path to Homesteading: Lessons from Ryan Mitchell's Journey
“This is what I describe simple living as, it’s figuring out what you want to focus on and doing more of that while figuring out what you want to focus less on or there’s a distraction and eliminating those things.”
Creating a life that aligns with your values is important. That's why I was thrilled to chat with Ryan Mitchell on the Farming on Purpose podcast. Ryan's journey from city living to homesteading offers valuable insights for anyone dreaming of a simpler, more fulfilling life on the land.
#92: Balancing Family, Farm, and Future in Southern Minnesota
“If you trust the process, the process will reward you back.”
As a sixth-generation cattle farmer in Southern Minnesota, Haley Ammann-Ekstrom knows a thing or two about juggling responsibilities. She farms alongside her husband and father, manages a cow-calf herd, and has recently ventured into selling beef directly to consumers. But what makes Haley's story truly inspiring is her passion for educating the younger generation about agriculture and her determination to keep her family's farming legacy alive.
#91: From City Girl to Farm Entrepreneur: Lindsay Graham's Journey
“What is so understood to you is not understood to the average person. And I know that sounds really silly as especially multiple generations. Like it's just. It's so ingrained in everything, that outside perspective, like you're missing it. And that's one of the things that I will say as coming in from a total outside perspective, what I didn't know, I realized somebody else didn't know too. So I had to figure out how to communicate it.”
#90 - Current State of Farming: A Tale of Two Scales
“This idea of how all the different sizes of farms co-exist in agriculture today is one of the biggest problems that we have the opportunity to solve.”
I often find myself thinking about the future of agriculture and where family farms fit into the bigger picture. With fewer small farms and more large operations, it's a topic that's close to my heart and crucial for our industry.
#89 - Make Marketing Part of Your Routine
“If you don’t send it out, if you don’t publish it, it doesn’t happen. You can’t learn from it. You have to push “go” to learn from it.”
As a farmer's wife, mother, and business owner, I understand the challenges of juggling multiple responsibilities while trying to grow your farm or ranch. Marketing often falls to the bottom of our to-do lists, but it's crucial for our success. Today, I want to share some practical tips on how to make marketing a manageable part of your routine.
#88: Navigating the Changing Landscape of Agriculture: Insights from Economist Ben Brown
“I continuously am impressed with young producers and beginning producers alike of their determination and their resiliency. If they want to be a part of this industry and they want to live in rural America, and they want to find a way to help be on the farm, they have to come up with very innovative things.”
As a farmer and podcast host, I'm always eager to learn from experts in our field. Recently, I had the pleasure of catching up with my college friend Ben Brown, now an agricultural economist at the University of Missouri. Our chat was filled with valuable insights about the current state of farming and what the future might hold for us.
#87: Farm Succession Planning: Securing Your Family's Legacy
“I think that a lot of landowners really want someone who's willing to learn and being very open and wanting to learn, being inquisitive, being curious.”
As a farmer or rancher, you know the importance of planning for the future. But when it comes to passing down your farm or ranch to the next generation, it can be a challenging and emotional process. That's why I invited Ashlee Westerhold, Director of the Office of Farm and Ranch Transition at Kansas State University, to share her insights on the Farming on Purpose podcast.
Growing up with family farms in Nebraska and Illinois, Ashlee understood the value of agriculture from a young age. Her passion for helping farm families led her to specialize in farm succession planning. Now, she's dedicated to assisting farmers and ranchers in Kansas with this crucial process.
#86 Farm Time Machine - What a Beginning Farmer and Farm Wife Wishes She Knew Sooner
“Having a spouse that you are on the same page with when it comes to growing your business makes a huge difference. If you guys are both running in the same direction for your dream, you get so much farther, so much faster versus if only one of you has that dream or if you are going in different directions with that dream.”
As I sit in my hammock on a beautiful day, surrounded by the sounds of our farm, I can't help but reflect on how far we've come. From our humble beginnings seven years ago with a few cows, goats, and chickens, we've grown into a thriving operation with crops, more livestock, and even a dairy cow (my pet project).
#85 Resiliency: The Secret to Success in Farming and Ranching
As I sit here on my farm on August 7, 2024, I can't help but think about the challenges we're facing in agriculture. We've been hearing a lot of tough news lately, and it's got me thinking about how we can stay strong and keep our farms going, even when things look bleak.
First off, let's talk about what's happening. Big companies are laying off workers, cattle markets are down, and grain prices aren't looking great. Here are some of the numbers we're seeing:
Kinze is laying off 193 people from their plant in Williamsburg, Iowa.
John Deere in Moline is cutting 134 jobs in their seeding and cylinder sectors. This is on top of 489 job cuts they made to salaried employees earlier this year.
Agco saw a 6% reduction and reported net sales of $3.2 billion in quarter two this year, which is a 15% drop from the same time last year.
It's enough to make anyone worry. But here's the thing – we've been through tough times before, and we'll get through this too. We never know when the markets will change, but we can rely on a resilient mindset no matter what the economists are predicting.
#84 From Dairy Farm Dreams to Self-Made Farmer: Derek Penrod's Journey
“Buying the farm is probably the best not only personal but financial decision. Best decision for my family. It’s really opened up a quality of life that we wouldn't have had otherwise.”
Growing up on his family's dairy farm in Utah, Derek Penrod always knew he wanted to be a farmer. But with no clear path to take over the family operation, he had to forge his own way. Now, Derek runs a first-generation farm in Idaho, growing alfalfa and raising Scottish Highlander cattle.
In this week’s episode of the Farming on Purpose podcast, Derek shared his inspiring journey of becoming a self-made farmer while balancing family life and a full-time job.
From the Archive: Episode 4: The Power of Courage in Farm Management Discussions with Elaine Froese
“Legacy to me is the culture that you leave for your family so that the next generation has great stories to tell and is grateful for the opportunities they’ve been given. That’s what legacy means to me.”
As a farmer or rancher, you know that your work is more than just a job - it's a way of life that's deeply connected to family, legacy, and the land. But sometimes, the very things that make farming special can also create challenges, especially when it comes to family communication and farm transitions.
That's where Elaine Froese, known as Canada's Farm Whisperer, comes in. With over 30 years of experience coaching farm families, Elaine has a wealth of wisdom to share about building strong relationships and successful farm transitions.