CropTalk
Welcome to CropTalk, Your favorite podcast for all things greenhouses, CEA, and AgTech! Whether you’ve been with us since day one or you’re a brand-new listener (hi, welcome, grab a seat!), we’re here to bring you insightful conversations with the people shaping the future of agriculture. Hosted by the endlessly curious Kyle Barnett, CropTalk dives into everything from growing tips and industry trends to personal stories and business advice. We talk with growers, greenhouse operators, AgTech innovators, and anyone with a good story to tell. It’s like chatting with your smartest friends over coffee, except about crops (and usually with fewer coffee spills). Now powered by IUNU, CropTalk has had a little glow-up. We’ve added more resources, expanded our guest list, and doubled down on making every episode better than ever. So whether you’re here for the wisdom, some entertainment, or both, you’re in the right place. New listeners, longtime fans, welcome to the CropTalk family. Let’s talk crops and grow together!
Episodes
Our host, Charlie McKenzie, shares his passion for connecting with other growers in this kickoff episode of the CropTalk podcast. Charlie talks about why podcasting is important to the modern agricultural business leader and how he sees the CropTalk podcast as a tool to influence and innovate across the industry.
Charlie's former mentor, Ian Patric, is the guest on our first full-length episode of the CropTalk Podcast. Ian is a master poinsettia grower from Smith Gardens in Aurora, Oregon, and shares with us the top three things he’s learned from this year’s season.
On this episode of the CropTalk podcast, our host, Charlie McKenzie, talks with John Morgan of Green Circle about the challenges he faces when growing long-term crops and his creative solutions to help nurture that process.
When it comes to GMO’s, there’s plenty of value to each side of the story. On this episode of the CropTalk podcast, Charlie chats with Joe Cunliffe, Assistant Grower at Smith Gardens in Aurora, OR. He shares the unseen value in GMO’s and just how they are changing the world for the better.
Are you a grower seeking a promotion? Start by understanding the ins and outs of the entire industry--not just your intersection with it.
Chris Vande-Stowe, COO at Leaf Express, joins Charlie on this episode of CropTalk to discuss why it’s important to understand the entirety of your business. He share's his three H's of su...
On this episode of the CropTalk podcast, our host, Charlie McKenzie, talks with Chandler Bennett of Parabug about the challenges of biocontrol and how the solution of a flying drone is making it efficient and economical.
On this episode of CropTalk, Charlie chats to David Gilmore about the revolutionary benefits of installing green roofs. From economic savings to vital environmental returns, even community betterment, David shares critical insights about why green roofs are worth their investment.
On this episode of CropTalk, Charlie talks with Aaron Fields about why crop scheduling is important, the risks and challenges associated with it, and how running an efficient schedule benefits your credibility and business.
Austin Kasso found his passion for agriculture when he was 16. Originally from New York, Austin worked with his cousins on a farm in North Carolina in the summertime, where they had hundreds of fruits, veggies and chickens, a few cows, seven goats, and a large pond of catfish.
Your pest control program is only as good as your worst scout.
Your scout is your eyes, your ears, your nose in relation to your crops, so why aren’t more growers more committed to hiring great ones?
On this special solo episode, host Charlie McKenzie talks through the 3 personality traits he’s found are common to every gre...
Results are what count.
On today’s episode of CropTalk we are joined by 4th generation farmer, Joe Swartz, whose growing techniques and outcomes prove his hydroponics expertise.
Agriculture education starts at the dinner plate and moves backwards.
Teaching the next generation what they're eating and where their food comes from is invaluable to creating better food consumers and, ultimately, a healthier community.
On this week's episode, Charlie talks with Tim Downing, farmer and agriculture educator about the need for connection between consumer and producer and what role our education system can play in ...
Your business is limited by your capacity.
Want exponential growth?
Give people a mission around your business that they can believe in. Develop leaders who feel that mission in their DNA and let them take over the day to day details of your business so you can focus on the bigger picture.
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Having a great team has more to do with you than you think.
If you’re not actively seeking to better yourself, you’re not only cheating yourself out of growing as a leader, your team is missing out on the opportunity to grow, too.
Leaders who seek to replicate themselves continually learning, while providing opportunity and...
Frances (Franny) Tacy is a hemp farmer, educator, speaker, product developer, and distributor of Franny's Farmarcy hemp products in Leicester, NC.
Tacy has a background in forestry, education, and pharma...
Start clean. Stay clean.
It’s more than a mantra; it’s the only way to grow.
Jon Vaught, PhD, the CEO of Front Range Biosciences, is on today’s episode of CropTalk. Dr. Vaught is using his expertise in org...
Agriculture is about inputs, yields, and profit margins--like any business, it is all about numbers.
Fortunately, because the numbers on agriculture are so granular, you can easily create powerful data analytics models using tools like Microsoft Excel’s pivot tables.
How do you recover an art and craft that has been lost to history?
After almost a century of laws prohibiting the propagation and use of all kinds of cannabis products, including hemp, generations of institutional knowledge have been lost.
Today’s producers are having to rediscover and relearn old techniques, or reinven...
Why are we still an extraction economy, pulling non-renewable resources, like gas and oil, from the ground?
Hemp can be grown quickly, with little water, using renewable energy.
Zev Paiss, director of Colorado operations for Universal Hemp ...
Farming is a gamble.
Scott Propheter, VP of agronomy and outreach at Criticality, and ex-Marine, above and beyond, believes in transparency in agricultural traceability as means to increase your odds of a great crop and happy customers.
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