Nicolas Lirio (00:00.108) I know I don't I don't like opening with bad news, but my I had a conversation yesterday that which was Labor Day, that basically I was like close to ending my career, honestly. It was it was not good. Yeah, yeah, it was honestly it was pretty tough. My just so just to keep everyone listening up to date, my little sister goes to college in Chicago. Riley Rozendaal (00:15.97) Heavy stuff. Nicolas Lirio (00:27.638) And she was back for the weekend and she gave me a hug right before she left. And then she said, Hmm, you smell like a fish. And then walked away. And that was the last thing that she said to me before she tranced off to college. yes you do. See Riley Rozendaal (00:35.8) Ha ha Riley Rozendaal (00:43.714) You hate to hear it. You hate to hear it. For for everyone who's not familiar, we are very far from the ocean, so for Nicholas to smell like a fish. Not It was not good, dude. Maybe maybe you picked up some of that Lake Red Rock smell when you drove by. Nicolas Lirio (01:01.014) I well, no matter what, it was bad for morale. And I literally thought about it for like Two hours after like how could I smell like fish? I started looking up like what makes people smell bad? What causes all these smells? and one of the big ones, of course, is I've been thinking about like rinsing out my tonsils, you know. I guess that's like if your breath smells, that's like the obviously brushing your teeth, but I brush my teeth every day, you know. So and yeah. Riley Rozendaal (01:31.528) So rinsing your tonsils, you were rinsing your tonsils a little bit and you got a little fishy smell, you think? Nicolas Lirio (01:35.534) No, I no, I ha I haven't rent so I've been like thinking about like what can I do to fix my smell. and I was thinking about showering more than twice a week. I don't know, whatever it takes. Riley Rozendaal (01:46.442) Whatever it takes to not have one more live person tell you you smell like a fish. I understand that. I've I've never been called told I smell like a fish, so I don't I Nicolas Lirio (01:58.326) Not like, you smell like fish, like you've been cooking fish. No, you smell like a fish. I mean, and sh sh she here's the sad part. Yeah. She doesn't roast people. She's not mean. She doesn't even tease people. That's not like she just says what's on her mind. It was it was it was truly the truth. She's got an engineer's mind, and that engineer mind said, Mm, fish smell. Last time I caught a fish and held it, I smelled the smell. Riley Rozendaal (02:04.101) thing. Riley Rozendaal (02:20.3) Man smells like bitch. Riley Rozendaal (02:25.036) Interesting. Interesting. Yeah, that's that's a new one. I've been told I stink, but smelling like a fish. Nicolas Lirio (02:31.022) Career ending. Genuinely career ending. Riley Rozendaal (02:33.622) Makes you makes you ponder some things, I'm sure. Nicolas Lirio (02:36.096) No joke, I sat in front of a fire for hours after that and then showered and like washed every part of my body twice. I'm not even kidding. I was so insecure about it. Riley Rozendaal (02:49.006) We need to see if we can get sponsor for the podcast for Nicholas, like speed stick or something. Old spy Nicolas Lirio (02:54.378) Well yeah, what's the old where he like catches a fish? He like there's like an old commercial where there was this big black guy that would just say ridiculous things and it was like an old spice. That's what I'm saying. It was old spice. Yeah, yeah. That's so fix the fish smell, old spice. That would be a good great slogan. Riley Rozendaal (03:04.278) That was old spice. I feel like Riley Rozendaal (03:12.438) Yeah, do you think they'll put you on the deodorant bar? Nicolas Lirio (03:14.562) You know what we should do? We should make that is not where I wanna be it's like it's like it's like the guy who signed up to be a model and the only gig he got was like depends. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody stood in front of that camera. Riley Rozendaal (03:24.782) Yeah, that's true, that's true. Somebody somebody made some money on that. Nicolas Lirio (03:30.154) smiled like they did. but you know what? If they're not proud of it but they live in a big house from what they managed, you props so props to them. Riley Rozendaal (03:39.214) For a billion dollars, I gotta channel my inner camp here. for a billion dollars would you appear on every stick of speed stick at Walmart for fifteen years? That's long enough that you're known as the speed stick guy. Like they've got a portrait of you on the stick. Every individual stick. Nicolas Lirio (03:41.166) Ha ha. Nicolas Lirio (03:59.15) Yeah, not only that, I I'd appear on every dandruff bottle, on every depends package. In fact, where I I'd do it where it's like if they had the package and there's a flap that opens and it says, Hi, I'm Nicholas. I'm the sponsor of DePens. I need them, you know, or something like that. A billion what would you do that for a billion dollars? Riley Rozendaal (04:19.03) I don't know. That long. See, for like a year or two you could you know, you'd kind of fade out of people's memory. Fifteen years. yeah. You're talking generations, okay? Yeah. Generations of people knowing you as the stinky guy. Nicolas Lirio (04:32.898) Wait way look, when you show up at those billionaire parties, whatever they're doing there and they go, Hey, the depends guy but also you a billion dollars, you know. Riley Rozendaal (04:43.198) I suppose, yeah, yeah. Well Nicolas Lirio (04:45.75) I you the truth is, Riley, you couldn't convince me that you wouldn't without pr literally proving it, getting offered a billion dollars. Riley Rozendaal (04:52.302) I would I would have to think on it and it might not be long, but I would have to think on it. I'd have to consider the consequences. Yeah. The consequences of these actions. Nicolas Lirio (04:58.318) Yeah. Yeah. You know, you can cover up a lot of mistakes with having a little money. I guess. Let alone a lot of money. Riley Rozendaal (05:06.05) That's true. You could run your own ad campaign to get people to forget you were the underwear guy. a speed stick guy, whatever you want to call it. Nicolas Lirio (05:10.37) Yeah. You run I'm just imagining you run all these ads to like be the new face of a sp let we'll call it like Happywater and and then it turns out ten years later Happy Water's like killing people and giving you cancer. It's like you go from V Yeah, yeah. Or I mean it could be worse than that, you could be running for politics. Uh-huh. so you know. Riley Rozendaal (05:26.398) That's true. It'd be worse. Riley Rozendaal (05:33.63) I don't envy that that kind of publicity. Nicolas Lirio (05:36.096) You can definitely worse things you can do. That's true. But nothing worse than getting called smelling like a fish. So Riley Rozendaal (05:44.014) Yeah, it might be a new low. All right. It's only rock bottom till you find a new rock. Nicolas Lirio (05:45.814) Ro rock bottom, genuinely. Nicolas Lirio (05:50.55) Okay, I have a question for you. It's pretty vulnerable. Okay. Yeah. I'll answer if you answer it. How many times a week do you brush your teeth? Twice a week? Riley Rozendaal (05:57.422) Twice a day. Today every day. Yeah. Yeah, it's just a routine for Nicolas Lirio (06:02.04) So you're you're hitting fourteen? I'm I'm I'm hitting like ten to twelve. There there's a couple times a week where I don't do it before I go to bed and I fall asleep on the couch a lot. So yeah. Then I drag my butt to bed. I Riley Rozendaal (06:13.068) I I was one of those people who saw the the Timmy the Tooth TV show. You know, Blast from the Past. There was a T V show when I was a kid called Timmy the Tooth and it had a pretty scary looking tooth mannequin in it and I don't know. I guess I just decided to brush my teeth from that point on. Nicolas Lirio (06:31.534) The reason I ask is I found out like some of my friends brush their teeth like five times a week. That's not even a joke. It's like less than once a day. I I couldn't I couldn't leave the house without brushing my teeth. It would like dis Riley Rozendaal (06:41.65) Get one set of permanent teeth until somebody has figured out how to grow new teeth, which I mean they talk about every two years. Seems like a pipe dream at this point. Nicolas Lirio (06:50.574) I don't understand peptides at all, but I feel like peptides could die. I feel like everyone's like, you know, peptides could do that. You know, they can start growing. Riley Rozendaal (06:56.526) I feel like growing new teeth is like nuclear fission. They talk about it, it's it's always two years away and then twenty years passes. So yeah, brush your teeth, folks. It's it's good for you. Nicolas Lirio (07:10.008) Did you see maybe I only sent it to Kent. It's like this crazy guy who makes a lot of sense when he talks and he made like nuclear fusion in his garage or something like that. And he lives in like a commune. And he's only got like seven teeth. But when you hear him talk, you're like, you're not a cr you're very intelligent. You're like a super intelligent guy. Okay, well I'm gonna Riley Rozendaal (07:23.66) I feel like you get put on a list for that. Riley Rozendaal (07:32.11) I don't know if I've seen that guy. I feel like you can't make nuclear materials without some clearance, but who knows? I I could be Nicolas Lirio (07:39.266) That's above my brain grade. you guys should all look that guy up. He's hilarious. Can't remember what he's called. But also, you should all be looking up Charlie Morris's movie. It's dropping soon. It he's been making the Iowa Prairie documentary project. You could Google that, Iowa Prairie Documentary Project. But it's called Iowa and the Broken Circle, or maybe just Iowa the Broken Circle. And he interviewed me and then sent me the loveliest email letting me know that my interview didn't make it into the film. but regardless of whether I'm in it or not, you you all should go see it. I I think you know, it's a very small documentary, which is how documentaries are being made these days. but he asked really great questions, was bringing up great topics. And anyone who follows the Iowa Prairie Network conversations on Facebook, he's been in on those. It's just he's an interesting guy, super kind guy. Very thoughtful and and I'm excited to see it. I haven't seen any of it. I'm excited to see it. Riley Rozendaal (08:35.422) People can probably find where to actually see it on his website, correct? Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (08:39.092) Yeah, I think it's Iowa Prairie Iowa Prairie Documentary Project dot com. But if you just Google Iowa Prairie documentary, you'll find it. we're excited for that. And no, he didn't pay us to say that. I'm just excited to see it come out. But well, we should get started. Coffee time Wednesdays with the Prairie Farm podcast. Can't hit us with the jingle. Doo doo. Nicolas Lirio (09:14.102) Wanna tell you a little story about my wife and I. Several years ago, we found out that our insurance company was literally spending millions of dollars lobbying against conservation in our state and our federal level. And when we found this out, we said, uh-uh. And we decided right then we are gonna get a new insurance company. And that brought us to McKay Insurance. Now, if you know me, you know that I'm pretty thorough when I make some of these decisions. And I look for through a bunch of different agencies and they seemed great. But McKay Insurance stood out because of the people that I met there. They were wonderful. One of their agents actually went through the whole rigmarole to set us up with insurance that she and the agency didn't get a cut of. They just wanted to make sure that we were insured. Whether you're needing life insurance, health insurance, car, home, and auto, reach out to McKay Insurance. They will get you taken care of. If you are tired of your insurance company lobbying against you, go to McKayNsagency.com. Welcome back to the Prairie Farm Podcast. Coffee Time Wednesday. I'm your favorite host, Nicholas Lirio, with your favorite co host, well, Riley Rosendah. Riley Rozendaal (10:22.606) Promoted. Promoted. Kent from this point on has to be referred to as the co host to the co host. For two weeks to is as repentance. And Nicolas Lirio (10:28.076) Yes he should. Yes he should. No, it's here's here's the deal. Riley and I set up for the we set up the cameras, we set up the computer, we print off the the notes, and Kent doesn't do any of that. So that's Riley Rozendaal (10:42.202) Kent's reclining time. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. The man the man after after working on broken down machinery, he needs he needs some time to stretch his legs. Nicolas Lirio (10:51.554) Man, that poor guy. Every f I I we're averaging like a combine breakdown per field that he that he harvests. Yeah. With hundreds of acres to harvest and the average field being two or three acres, you can you can imagine how sad that is for him. It's Riley Rozendaal (10:58.605) Yeah. Riley Rozendaal (11:07.727) he's persistent. I'll give him that. yeah. That's process. Nicolas Lirio (11:11.158) Right now we've been working on Wild Berg, which is a staple and it's a gateway drug because people see it from the roadside. It's very purple and pretty and people go, that's what I want. So we love putting Wild Berg in mixes. You actually in C R P you probably won't catch us dead making a mix that doesn't have Wild Berg unless they ask us not to. and it smells great. It's what we should be making deodorant out of. Riley Rozendaal (11:32.258) But it smells kinda like toothpaste to me. Yeah. No, I like it. I I like toothpaste. That's Nicolas Lirio (11:34.904) Really? You you don't like it? Nicolas Lirio (11:39.79) I like that. I like rattlesnake master smell. I like Golden Alexander smell. there's some some of the grasses specifically I like if I smell I have an allergic reaction, which is a bummer. I never used to have that. So I you know, I've spent several times trying to find an allergy expert and they're always food allergy experts. Riley Rozendaal (11:58.102) Yeah. So I feel like that's way more common than I feel like people treat allergies like well, you're just allergic or you're not. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (12:06.094) I have a allergy response called Pomphilix, I believe it's called Pomphilix. and it's where I get these little bubbles on my hands that are just like they fill the my body pushes them filled with like a white blood cells. And it can be caused by food and stress, but it's actually known to be caused by metal. and so like Riley Rozendaal (12:32.854) Like an allergic reaction to like metals like in necklaces or rings. Nicolas Lirio (12:36.044) Yes. So if you have strong responses, when I was a kid, I'd have these strong responses to nickel on watches. Or belts. And and so I I'd I'd had those response. So I I stopped wearing nickel. And then in high school or college, I started wearing watches again. I wore watches for years. Yeah. And I never got the r allergic reaction anymore, but I would get these little bubbles on all over my hands. And yeah. And so I also think from like having a lot of metals from Certain foods. yeah. So like a lot of lintels, if you eat a lot of lintels or beans, you can get those metals and I get allergic reactions from eating those. And I couldn't figure out what it was coming from. And I've just recently been figuring out tracking it down. But you got any allergies? Riley Rozendaal (13:21.358) nothing significant. Some tree pollen for like a small portion of the year. I was really thankful because allergies are really prominent in my family and I had bad allergies when I a kid. Really? But kinda phased out of I don't know. I always told people that after scooping scooping out the the cow stalls and stuff like that, my body decided that I was just gonna have to live with it and that was the way it was and I don't know. Nicolas Lirio (13:46.462) Interesting. Riley Rozendaal (13:47.832) I think they s what do they say? Your allergies are baked in by the time you're like thirty or something like that? Nicolas Lirio (13:52.27) Man, I got mine at I think I literally got mine at age twenty five. Riley Rozendaal (13:55.682) I I always I feel like somebody told me and this is complete hogwash potentially, swatch out, but I was always under the impression until you turned like twenty five or thirty you weren't like set in stone on your allergies, you know. Wow. Yeah, well I got other I got other issues. I don't I don't smell like a fish or have bad allergies, but you know how it is, we all got our quirks. Nicolas Lirio (14:09.166) Well, lucky you, man. Nicolas Lirio (14:19.29) well, you all saw the title this week. I was fat I just I was thinking about this on the drive. And so I definitely wasn't Googling while I was driving, but I was somehow mysteriously figuring out information on this topic. I want to know what weeds we give to other countries that other countries can't stand. You know, it it's kind of interesting. And and actually a lot of them overlap with. The native things that we consider weeds here. so the reason we get so many Eurasian weeds is because our soil matches up in the Midwest really well with Eurasia, you know, that Ukraine area where they've got great soil, they've got one of the only mollusks in the world. And so we like without the competition that they have, those plants get here and they spread all over the place. but It's actually not as bad. Like we don't give our weeds to other countries nearly as much as they have given it to us. And I I don't know for sure. My guess is that's a settlers thing 'cause they came with all sorts of seeds, barrels of seed. Riley Rozendaal (15:24.312) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well there's not many people hopping on a flight, a Delta flight to Ukraine bringing bringing seeds with them. No. Nicolas Lirio (15:34.91) No, no, not it was it's not like COVID. You know, we're talking about well, I guess we should talk about the first one milkweed. banned in 2017 as plants in the EU, yeah, European Union. and in Eastern Europe, it's considered highly invasive and just a huge issue, but it came in because beekeepers planted it for honey. In the late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds. Yeah. And now it's just all over Eastern Europe. Yeah, I know. That's like Riley Rozendaal (16:09.3) Interesting. Yeah. seeing seeing a common milkweed. Nicolas Lirio (16:15.436) I used to hoe out common milkweed. Like as a kid, we'd hoed we hoeed all out. Yeah. And now you know it's exciting. But this year isn't as good of a year for as last year. Riley Rozendaal (16:23.254) Yeah, not nearly. I haven't seen it's been way better for Marestail than anything else. Nicolas Lirio (16:28.622) Man, yeah, mare's tail. And mare's tail's tough because it is the very first species in the world that was Roundup resistant. And so it's had Roundup resistance for a lot longer. It's just tough to get rid of. and then you gotta ratchet up the chemicals to get rid of it. Yeah. It's not a Kent was telling me, cause he you know, Kent's kind of the impression, I I'm kind of with him. Like if the weed's not hurting anything, like why are we gonna spend energy or chemicals or health or money ripping it out? That doesn't make sense to do. Riley Rozendaal (16:43.565) No good. Nicolas Lirio (16:58.498) But we had a field that was very heavy in mare's tail, very, very heavy, a wildflower field. And he said he was going through there and he realized a lot higher percentage of the plants were blanks and he believes that the mare's tail became such a growth issue that it literally kept pollinators out. Yeah. Because it became kind of a jungle. Riley Rozendaal (17:20.142) believe it. I mean, it likes that disturbance, right? That disturbance in open soil. So Yeah. And this year's just been it's it's been a great year for it. Hopefully we'll won't have to deal with it nearly as much next year. Nicolas Lirio (17:34.656) And it's kind of like cicadas, you cicadas come out and really strong every 17 years or whatever. I think Marestail's kind of every other year, you know, it just comes out like very strong. the next one is ragweed. It the issue is that it shuts down nitrogen fixation. so in Eurasia, it has an issue there, but the bigger problem is that a According to I believe it's a Shaffner something, something study, Nature Communications of Europe, they estimated that seven point four billion Euros every year are spent mitigating ragweed allergies. Riley Rozendaal (18:24.607) okay. Yeah, allergies themselves at the plant. Nicolas Lirio (18:27.02) Yeah, just like you know, all all sorts of whatever they're buying medicinally or do you know? So you don't get ragweed issues. man. Really? It kicks kicks my body. Not as not as bad as Brome. Brome in May, it's so bad. I'm like my eyes are leaking the whole time, my nose is itchy all the time. I'm itching my eyes. I'm yeah, it's not good. But ragweed right around now is not fun. Yeah. Either. Riley Rozendaal (18:54.06) Got lucky. Dodged a bullet there. Nicolas Lirio (18:56.224) Man, R Riley over here winning the genetic lottery. Riley Rozendaal (18:59.022) yeah. Like I said, we all got our makes and models. everybody's got their quirks. Nicolas Lirio (19:04.042) broom sedge blue stem, which is a cousin to the big blue stem, of course, is illegal in the EU. Can't buy it, can't sell it, can't chip seed over, can't be on, can't be like it's a noxious weed for them, so you you're not supposed to sell seed if it has it in there. that was a big one. I and I didn't even I didn't even really broom. Riley Rozendaal (19:29.55) Is pretty universally hated by a lot of people. Interesting. Even even here in the States. Just 'cause it grows where everything's so the soil it's one of those things that will grow where the soil is bad, you know, just where it's completely depleted in nutrients. Nicolas Lirio (19:47.054) Is that the one where in Texas they were saying they fight it really bad there? There's one in Texas that I we had an interview and he was saying that they had Riley Rozendaal (19:54.118) I don't Riley Rozendaal (19:57.934) specifically the one, but it does it does really well in depleted like depleted hay fields. I was on a remnant that was hayed extensively for I don't know, I would guess probably at least thirty years from what I heard. And there was there was quite a bit of broom sedge in there. And I would just imagine that's 'cause the nutrient n well it's palatable time is limited. Nicolas Lirio (20:21.9) don't like it. Riley Rozendaal (20:27.372) okay. and when it you know how like big blue stem in March, you know, it's just crackly and dry and you know, you can imagine eating a pile of that where you would need about ten gallons of water to wash it down. That's what broom said just like most of the time. It just it doesn't get super tall, it's not super desirable. I mean, it will you can get livestock to eat it, I think. I've heard of guys doing like high enough density of animals and they'll eat it, but because of the competition, but it's very, very low on the list of appreciated forages. Nicolas Lirio (21:09.096) You know how like humans get in a better mood when they have ice cream? Yeah. D do cows are they in a better mood if they have like big blue stem at the right, you know, at the perfect time or they've got their alfalfa or Riley Rozendaal (21:20.402) Yeah, animals animals in general I I feel are in a better mood just when they have access to good forage, you know. Yeah. Just like I ice cream's not a good example 'cause after you eat a bowl of ice cream you might get a little sleepy. But but good good forage, you know, like a good meal, you know, it can be a pick me up, you know. Nicolas Lirio (21:32.606) Yeah, cranky thirty minutes later. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (21:42.326) Interesting, like so does broccoli taste good to cattle? Like whatever their version of broccoli is, you know how kids, even though it's really great for them, they hate it. Like the thing that's really good for cattle, is that what tastes the best to them? I Riley Rozendaal (21:56.29) I don't know. I think there's some I would punt on that for a nutritionist, an actual livestock nutritionist. What I would say from my experience is that livestock and animals like what they're used to and what they've habituated to. Like if you have cow calf pears, a cow is gonna teach her calf to eat. The calf is gonna learn what the mother eats. Right. Yeah. Based on your context, based on your operation. And so, what they might be happy eating from operation to operation could completely change, you know, just based on available forage. You know. Nicolas Lirio (22:38.71) Interesting. Hmm. Okay, so this one this is the last one I got for ya. and this one actually interla I'm gonna see if you can guess it. I'm I'm sure you can. International law was written about this weed because of a CRP problem in twenty sixteen. Riley Rozendaal (22:47.458) Weeds we Nicolas Lirio (23:06.167) In Iowa. Riley Rozendaal (23:10.806) The problem is I'm biased towards what I know here. Nicolas Lirio (23:14.872) So it happened here in Iowa in twenty sixteen. Riley Rozendaal (23:17.366) I bet I I bet I is it amaranth? Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (23:20.066) Yeah. It was it was so it was such a terrible thing and so scary, even to like chemical companies who are like we don't know how to kill it, you know, that it was written into international law and added to a bunch of noxious weed lists of of countries that never even had it, never even seen it. They like put it Riley Rozendaal (23:37.656) Ha they might not have had a really extensive noxious weed list, but Amaranth made its way to the top. Nicolas Lirio (23:42.358) Man. but you know what's kind of interesting is that I specifically asked about switchgrass, big blue stem, and Indian grass. Yeah. And they in large quantities aren't invasive elsewhere. You know, they're not going to it's not like pompous grass is here. It could be inv it's not going to South America and just decimating their ecosystems. Riley Rozendaal (24:07.618) I I wonder if that has more to do with the fact that they've got a lot of the cool season forages that we consider non native that hold that in check. I kinda think of all the orchard grass and and things that we brought over here that we, you know, we control for, but really on the inverse side it actually probably kind of protects them from invasion of big blue stem and stuff like that. Nicolas Lirio (24:35.758) Friends, the prairie's getting tall. It's getting time. The birds are a whistling and a chirpin. And that means it is almost hunting season. So if you enjoy walking through the tall grass, pulling ticks off of yourself, and hanging out with your dogs, we highly recommend going to birdhuntersupply.com. Now I understand if you want to be out on the landscape, you don't necessarily want to just hang out on a website, but Dr. Russ Benedict was correct when he said the prairie was actually a very adverse place, and we need to be prepared. So prepare yourself for your hunting season, your trail walking season, and your bird dog hunting season at birdhuntersupply.com. They've got everything you need for yourself on the bird hunting and everything you need for your bird dog. We highly recommend the assortment of equipment that they provide on there is extensive and far above my head. But They have exactly what you need. Not only will they take care of you in that, but they actually help take care of the land as well. When I was talking to the owners, they said we actually donate a certain amount of money to conservation every single year. And I asked them, do you have a donation button at the end where people can donate when they check out, which is really common? And he said, No, we actually donate from our profits. So they literally take their earned profits and donate that to conservation efforts because they care. They want to see the landscape have habitat and stay healthy for future generations. Highly, highly recommend birdhunter supply dot com. Per acre, our prairie, the tall grass prairie, is more diverse or was more diverse than the Eurasian prairies or the South American prairies. Yeah. And I think that deep health of diversity. promoted plants that weren't meant to dominate. So we're used to talking about big blue so it dominates our ecosystem, blah blah. But I think it was so well balanced here compared to everywhere else that it went other places and the dominant species just stayed dominant. Riley Rozendaal (26:35.423) Yeah. It it had an advantage over some species, but it wasn't like you said, it wasn't this overwhelming force. Yeah. You know, like a ragweed or Nicolas Lirio (26:45.272) And I wonder what like you know, the Native Americans here were using fire regularly. I wonder if people of the two other great prairies of the world or four other great prairies of the world I wonder how many how much fire they were introducing. I feel Riley Rozendaal (27:00.686) I feel pretty strongly that fire was probably worked in. shooting off the hip. I mean there was a lot of nomadic hunting in in Asia and what you would consider, I guess, Central Europe, you know, before you get to Western Europe. that I'm sure that there was plenty of burning in there. If not human caused then through the old lightning strike method. Nicolas Lirio (27:25.506) Man, I the the weed thing, it's so interesting. I just had a gentleman today who we were talking and he was explaining he was very worried that Prairie doesn't come up on the first year. I mean he was he was very concerned. Yeah. I told him I like, those weeds are not your issue. Like you he he sprayed four times. wow. You know, so yeah, I was like, y the stuff you're worried about is not what you need to be worried about. Just keep it mowed. And I wonder how much of our like noxious weeds are like we're so crutched by chemicals. We're like almost lazy, you know, at this point. It's like unthinkable for us to not have the remote to our T V to like get up every day and actually change the channel. And similarly with weeds, it's like unthinkable for us to walk rows and cut out, you know? Riley Rozendaal (28:14.996) Yeah, I think I understand the want to have a perfectly square, you know, perfectly sprayed, you know, like when people till up for their garden, you know, you have this, I have this is my thing. I have prepped it, it is ready for me, and and I completely control everything that happens within it. But Nature is not like that. If you expose bare soil, something will attempt to grow. And if there was something there and you take out what was there, something else will attempt to grow. Because that's just the way nature is. I mean, I was always told there was an old farmer I talked to who said, Mother Nature's modest. She likes to cover the soil. You know? And if you take a thermometer or you take a I like those point thermometers with like a laser pointer that you like shoot onto a surface to see how hot it is. Go outside in July and You know what? Take take a spot of bare soil at four o'clock in the afternoon in July and then walk somewhere where there's twelve inches of standing vegetation and shoot the ground on both of if you can. And the difference is astronomical. I mean, we're talking like seventy degrees. Yeah. You know, you could have a pe a patch of ground. Think of how hot the hood on your car gets. Yeah. That's about how hot the bare dirt that's dry and hot gets. You know, and soil life can't really live in that. So when you plant, th something is gonna come up. It might not be exactly what you want at first, but that's kind of the fun of it. Yeah. Management. Nicolas Lirio (30:03.362) So speaking of change of temperature, Pierce Nels, we'll give that guy a plug. He is the host of the Wisconsin Sportsman. Yeah. great podcast host, great dude. we met him at Doug Durin's a little while ago and and he texted me a few days ago because we were chatting about prairie and he texted me and said, you know, just i in in honor of of our conversation about prairie, I measured the water temperature when because he's a big trout fisher. Sorry, I should have said that. He's big into trout fishing. He he his business, he guides trout fishes, trout fishing trips. And he dipped his thermometer in the water, where it was all pasture land. and he said that it was just under sixty degrees. and like like fifty nine point nine degrees. Yeah. And then he went just a quarter mile down the stream. And to where it was surrounded by prairie and it was fifty-seven degrees, which I don't understand this. He says it makes way better trout fishing for that that temperature. They like the colder water. And that is also like the the deep earth temperature. You know, like you you dig down 12 feet and you get to 57 degrees everywhere across the whole earth. but that it was only a quarter mile down the down the stream. I couldn't believe the temperature difference. Riley Rozendaal (31:30.474) Well, you've got to think of I mean, here in Iowa, let's take the example. Let's say every drop of rainfall that falls on the ground falls on ninety degree soil, you know, even if it reaches your creek at, you know, eighty, seventy, whatever, you know, it just It adds up. And if you think that temperature isn't important for soil, then I would say you should volunteer to sit in your car for about two hours on a hundred degree day and see how comfortable you are. You know? It's uncomfortable for you, it's uncomfortable for the soil microbes. Yeah. We can't expect soil microbes to live in a hundred and forty degree topsoil. We were just doesn't make sense. Nicolas Lirio (32:18.274) I was at a friend's house yesterday and they have a homemade built sauna outside. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. And we were at we had a bonfire. Yeah. And in their sauna, a bunch of wasps had gotten in there. It was like four or five wasps. And he just turned the sauna on and it got up to like 150 degrees and the wasps all died. Yep. and you know the the heat the Earth keeps her herself cool with vegetation. I I think that's something we our lifestyles don't always jive with, you know, it's easier to like get all that stuff ripped out of there and, you know, but the longstanding issues of heating up a surface that doesn't have a s that we've ripped out its self-cooling mechanism, you know, is is we don't talk about because we don't fully understand geological thermodynamics, you know, that's be interesting. But the Before we go, Riley, you should tell people what we've been up to on the farm. Riley Rozendaal (33:23.56) Ooh, what have we been up to on the farm? I've been working on Golden Alexander. Yeah, that's true. Kent harvested it and Nicolas Lirio (33:30.796) An old field and a new field. Yeah. Which it it's interesting. The the fields are a hundred feet away from each other and dramatically different. Riley Rozendaal (33:38.818) Yeah, yeah. Dramatically different yields. It's interesting to see how that was something I didn't consider before I started working here is the maturity of like a stand of something, you know, on year one what it produces versus year three. You know, it makes sense that it would kinda peter out a little bit, but it's really interesting to see side by side what what kind of attributes appear over time and pressures and Nicolas Lirio (34:03.926) It makes financial reporting for the bank very difficult. That is like terrible. Riley Rozendaal (34:08.474) Yeah, try telling your banker, Well, it's year three, this feels probably gonna peter a little bit. But this one's good. Nicolas Lirio (34:14.348) Yeah. Are you just going off a gut feeling or well I would have data, but you know, you gotta track it over twenty years to have any sort of good numbers. Yeah, it's tough. Riley Rozendaal (34:22.973) What about you? What have you been doing? Nicolas Lirio (34:24.631) What have I been doing? Ooh, good questions. Okay. Judd's been gone. So my life's been hard. My life's so much harder now that Judd's gone. And I don't realize how much I use him as a crutch when I'm sitting at home in my office and I'm lonely. I'll just call Judd and chat with him. but we've been I've been chatting with some people about some really cool prairie projects. So Judd will be back next week. But like today it was like a like all clay gravel. And he's like, I don't even know. I don't know how well that's gonna go, but We're gonna try. Yeah. You know, and so we're, you know, even though it's in it's in Minnesota, we're looking at designing, you know, a mix that would be more for like western Nebraska. You know, obviously the species are still native to Minnesota, but it's like we're gonna cause this is more of that landscape, we gotta mimic what's over there where the landscape's more common. So you're talking about, you know, prairie sit or white Prairie sage, white sage, whatever. you're talking about blue groma, yeah, sand drop seed. I don't know how well prairie drop seed does in like the clay. We also I I just designed a mix recently called the clay buster because I get this a lot. Like, yeah, I got clay in in my s and and my brother and sist my sister and brother in law were telling me about this because you know, all the topsoil was pulled off of their their they had of a new build house in a in a suburb and all the topsoil and then they just slapped this sod on top. And so there's like standing water everywhere. And they're like, how do you even start to build, you know, soil here? And I was like, you know what? There's some s really good species to do this. Like butterfly milkweed. It's very tuberous. I it's literally the its scientific name is Asclepius tuberosa tuberosa. Yeah. you know the echinacea Riley Rozendaal (35:53.727) sorrow. Nicolas Lirio (36:16.422) species we'll we'll bust it up. The Leatris aspera. of course, you know, switchgrass and big bluestone are growing a rock. But the idea is like, what can I put here that will literally bust up this clay? So I was working on that. And then of course just trying to help Kent, that poor guy, running him back and forth from fields. And he he had a combine breakdown in the wild bergamot. And so he was working on that the other day. and I was trying to help him with it. And then There was one other thing I've been spending a lot of time yeah, marketing manager interviews. how could I forget? Riley Rozendaal (36:51.918) It's a really important thing. I d I don't know what it is. I can't remember. Nicolas Lirio (36:56.172) Yeah. So the whole point of the marketing manager is like, right, one of our main goals is education. And so we're just spewing information out on the internet. I mean, we're just spewing with no targeting, no nothing. We're just spewing it out. And I'm like, we could get this information to people better. Like there's a better way. If like if deer hunters want high quality information about what's nutritionally beneficial for their deer and we should probably start targeting them instead of making people who just want something in their backyard watch things about deer. And so having a lot of conversations about that, back end SEO, stuff like that. And I'll tell you what, not exciting stuff. It is exciting when people call in and they say they want to bust up their clay in their yard. That's fun. Yeah. so I am enjoying Judd's job. I'm just not enjoying doing both jobs at once. Last week was Riley Rozendaal (37:45.922) Long. It's probably what that's kinda how I felt when you went on vacation. Really? Yeah. I was like, no Nicholas Nicholas is gone. Nicolas Lirio (37:54.722) Yeah, and you know what? So it traditionally we've always been really busy January, February, and then July, August into September. And we were not slow January, February. We were busy, thanks to you all and a bunch of other people. and then you guys are getting a little inside baseball today. Man, how exciting. but then I told Judd, well, a good time to go on vacation would be July, August. And Riley told me many times. Riley Rozendaal (38:14.498) Dug out a little bit here. Nicolas Lirio (38:23.348) I don't know, man. You know, January, February is really busy. You know, might be kind of a thing in August, September. And I was wrong, and Riley was right. And so in a really good way, we're getting lots of emails and phone calls. Yeah. and in a really bad way, Judd is kayaking and fishing in Canada with no signals. So I certainly am. but I I I I miss it. I miss talking to people about. Riley Rozendaal (38:44.866) So Nicholas is answering the phone. Nicolas Lirio (38:53.27) A problem they have on their yard and finding some sort of custom plan to get it working. Riley Rozendaal (38:59.182) Yeah, that's that's my favorite part of if you come and pick up seed, I generally like to volunteer one or two tidbits or you know, it's just it's it's fun getting to to hear, you know, it's neat, it's neat seeing all the species, it's neat. imagining what kind of projects it'll go to, but when someone picks up or emails in, you know, hey, I'm doing this project or I did this project with you guys' seed, and look at that, you know. Nicolas Lirio (39:26.542) Yeah, that is a fun one. I got a text on a year two or th I mean it was very early, year two or three prairie planting on ditch, and it looks fantastic. I think they texted me in July. and it was like a a ditch right along the road, so that it was the steep part. Man, it looks so good. And it's like the satisfaction's hard to describe because you just know how hard it is to grow that seed. Riley Rozendaal (39:28.024) Very gratifying. Riley Rozendaal (39:51.554) Yeah. Well, it's it's always good. you know, like any any job this day's ha or job has its good and bad days, but the bad days are way overwhelmed by stories like that, you know, hearing about projects and makes it all worth it. So Nicolas Lirio (40:06.968) Well, for everyone listening, sorry Kent's not here. Our swathers all broke down and we had three. So he went and is buying an emergency swather up in northeast Iowa with my cousin Alex. They're they're driving up there and gonna go pick it up. and so it's like old. and I texted four people last second to come and to come and and take care of it and and to record with us, and none of them could do it. But anyway Riley Rozendaal (40:24.828) Just the two of them. Nicolas Lirio (40:36.396) We've got to get going because we got a lot of orders to call, email, and mix up between the two of us. And Judd and Kent are both gone. Yep. Don't forget to check out the forum. We really appreciate you all. The questions on there have been amazing. It's a good place to have a conversation, and we will talk to you again next time. Riley Rozendaal (40:46.446) Running the skeleton crew, we'll get it on.