The Moos Room™

00;00;11;03 - 00;00;23;10
Emily
And welcome everybody to The Moos Room. Emily and Bradley here today for our last episode of 2025. We have made it through another year somehow. Bradley.

00;00;23;15 - 00;00;44;08
Brad
That is crazy. I know to get another year. And I was thinking about that the other day. This is we started doing these kind of in fall of 2019 is when we started recording our first one. So here we are, 2025 like five full years later and we are still going.

00;00;44;10 - 00;01;16;09
Emily
Over 300 episodes. Yeah it is, it is very cool. Like and it does sometimes still feel like, oh, we just started this like a year or two ago. I know, but no, over five years. Right. We're we're in a long term relationship with this podcast. And it's it's always a lot of fun to do. You know, just before we started recording today, we were talking plans for 20, 26 guests, topics, some things we want to do.

00;01;16;12 - 00;01;37;00
Emily
So, yeah, I think this is a good time to kind of, talk back about 2025 a little bit, and maybe talk a little bit about 2026 and what we're looking forward to. And of course, we want to hear from you always. What do you want to hear us talk about next year? What guests do you want to hear from?

00;01;37;00 - 00;01;55;13
Emily
You know, we we love getting suggestions from you and those of you that have sent suggestions, we'll know we take them, when we can, as much as possible. So we would love to know from you what what you want to hear about. But before we get to 2026, we probably got to talk about 2025 a little bit, right?

00;01;55;13 - 00;01;56;16
Emily
Bradley?

00;01;56;18 - 00;02;30;01
Brad
Correct. And Emily knows, but I am it is the festival holiday season and I am sitting here in my cow sweater, cow ugly sweater and it is a Holstein. The incorrect answer on most of the. The cow things. So anyways yes, that's always the fun part about getting guests and I hope that we'll be able to do that and or maybe, you know, cheat a little bit and see if I can find some people who will give me the correct answer and make those numbers come up right.

00;02;30;01 - 00;02;34;26
Emily
Get ready for a bunch of people from the Jersey Association to be on folks.

00;02;34;28 - 00;02;36;19
Brad
That's right, that's right.

00;02;36;21 - 00;02;39;09
Emily
So 2025 Bradley.

00;02;39;11 - 00;02;40;03
Brad
Yes.

00;02;40;06 - 00;02;49;09
Emily
What is your highlight or a big thing you think about in terms of what we covered or talked about on the podcast in 2025?

00;02;49;12 - 00;03;12;02
Brad
Oh, well, it's range. So many things that have come up. You know, I always love sharing about what's going on here for research. And I think people enjoy that. Some of the things that I found interesting are what I like to talk about are kind of daily what's happening on our farm. You know, we just because we're, research farm doesn't mean that nothing goes wrong.

00;03;12;02 - 00;03;36;16
Brad
You know, we've had lots of abortions and our cows, we've had some calf scours, calf death early in the spring. And so trying to go through some of those wonderful case studies is always a learning experience for me. And I think for the audience, because, you know, I've talked to other people. I was at a meeting once, and of course, I'm the guy that goes, oh, you know, I got a dead calf in my car.

00;03;36;16 - 00;03;59;20
Brad
And people are like, what? Where are you going? And I was heading to Iowa State to take a calf and some samples there. And, and most people are like, oh yeah. Well, we, we, you know, under their breath going, yeah, we've had some issues and this and that and, but I'm willing to share them because I think it helps other people, you know, maybe not make the same mistakes that we do or go, oh, yes, they're living in the real world.

00;03;59;20 - 00;04;19;27
Brad
And I wonder how they fix that. And maybe I can use that from a standpoint to help my operation. So that's what I like to do. And I'm sure there will be lots of more things. I know, I've shared about our nutrition woes within the last month and got some good developments coming after the first of the year on that.

00;04;19;27 - 00;04;34;24
Brad
So maybe I'll kind of give an updated case study after the first of the year. Some of the things that we found and some of the things that we're changing and how the cows are doing. But yeah, I also like, you know, Emily knows Brad likes to travel a lot, maybe too much.

00;04;34;24 - 00;04;36;02
Emily
And,

00;04;36;05 - 00;04;54;23
Brad
I always, you know, going to Germany and the Netherlands was sort of my highlight. And to learn about what other farmers are doing and in their operations and what are some of the things that we can come back with. People hate when Brad travels because he dreams up of too many ideas and new things that are going to happen.

00;04;54;23 - 00;05;37;06
Brad
So yeah, that's those are my highlights of the year. And, I got lots of things coming up for 2026, from virtual fencing to more pull genetics to heifer feed efficiency, we're implanting embryos into, actually, we're implanting pure Angus embryos into our dairy cows today. And doing some studies, trying to add ideas. Can I raise a purebred Angus calf like a dairy animal and we don't really know how a purebred beef calf operates in an environment that we feed like a dairy calf.

00;05;37;06 - 00;05;57;15
Brad
So it's kind of my control group. And because most, you know, frankly, I couldn't find any farmers to give me their Angus calves when they are born because they didn't want to take them right away off the cow. So I have to be able to generate those myself. So we're hoping to have 50 purebred Angus calves come out of our cows, and we're going to raise them like dairy cabs and see what happens.

00;05;57;18 - 00;06;00;14
Brad
I don't know, crazy ideas. Crazy ideas.

00;06;00;17 - 00;06;15;06
Emily
Okay, well, lots to look forward to in 2026. And thinking out loud, I wonder if maybe just once a month we need to do the visit to the Morris Dairy case study update. So well, maybe think about that.

00;06;15;10 - 00;06;20;05
Brad
There is lots of stuff going on. Maybe. Maybe too much. I should learn to slow down.

00;06;20;08 - 00;06;45;06
Emily
Yeah, well, and and I will share to to our listeners out there if you are interested in having your farm be a case study, let us know. Reach out. We, of course, can protect your anonymity and all of that. And, and Morris certainly makes a great case study, but we are always happy to kind of help you work through stuff, on the air as well.

00;06;45;06 - 00;07;07;25
Emily
If you have something you want to send us. So be thinking about that as well. And yes, I, I agree, Bradley, you know, there's always something going on at Morris and I always appreciate your openness, openness to share about that. Right. And that yeah, it is not all perfect. And yeah, researchers and universities are learning just like all of us.

00;07;07;25 - 00;07;23;07
Emily
Right. And we don't always knock it out of the park every time. And I'm very interested to see what happens with these purebred Angus cats. So that is something I'm definitely looking forward to in 2026.

00;07;23;10 - 00;07;46;00
Brad
Yes, that is probably the exciting study that me and my colleague in Saint Paul are, are starting now. So I'm sure we'll hear all about it. And maybe I'll give a slight update once we know pregnancies and how many we get. So yes, fun times. Fun times. What about you, Emily? What, what is your 2025 memory or highlight?

00;07;46;07 - 00;07;48;06
Brad
In in your work?

00;07;48;08 - 00;08;06;27
Emily
Yeah. So my highlights. And this is something I feel like I say about the podcast and I say about my work in general, a lot is how much I learned this year. Right? We we got to dive into some, some new things, some stuff that we've talked about in the past but learned about it in a new way.

00;08;07;00 - 00;08;38;19
Emily
So so some of my highlights on that vein are the virtual fencing. Absolutely. That was really cool to learn about. It's exciting to see what's going to be happening with you, Bradley and Morris with that. So I look forward to more virtual fencing discussion in 2026. That, yeah, was a real highlight for me. And of course, in and outside of the podcast, Bradley's work in Gravel voltaic has really been big this year.

00;08;38;22 - 00;09;06;14
Emily
There are a lot of conversations in agriculture, right, about renewable energy, about solar panels, about agricultural land use, all of these things. And, you know, for me, agro voltaic almost seems like the almost only solution to some of these problems. And so, of course, we've talked about it prior to 2025, but I feel like this was the year, at least for me, that it really was like clicked.

00;09;06;16 - 00;09;26;22
Emily
And I really started to get super excited about it. And, and of course, seeing Bradley be featured in a lot of media for his work in this and see others people excitement for the project has been very cool. So so learning about that. And yes, a little bit of celebrating Bradley along the way, has been pretty, pretty neat.

00;09;26;22 - 00;09;54;07
Emily
I think. And another big highlight for me in 2025, of course, is getting to have our health and safety conversations. You know, one of my favorite episodes of the year. And it's an episode we do every year. That's the summer and sun safety. I love getting the yellow Bradley about not wearing sunscreen. And this is your friendly reminder that even in the winter, UV rays from the sun can reach your skin.

00;09;54;11 - 00;10;14;13
Emily
So if you are working outside in sunlight for a long time in the winter, you should still be wearing sunscreen because you can get sunburned in the winter. Bradley is rolling his eyes so hard I'm surprised they're not in the back of his skull right now. But I just had to take a moment to insert that in here as well, because that is always a highlight for me.

00;10;14;13 - 00;10;36;01
Emily
Is reminding you all to wear your sunscreen. So yeah, lots, lots of stuff in 2025. And of course, like, we didn't even talk about H5n1 and some of the other discussions we've been having. Beef prices like so much has happened to this year. Bradley, I you know, we're just scratching the surface. It feels like.

00;10;36;03 - 00;11;05;07
Brad
Yeah, the industry changes so fast, from prices and diseases. And, you know, H5n1 has, I shouldn't say, disappeared. It's still here, but it's not in the news as much. But now it's making making a resurgence with, dairy in Wisconsin finding it, within the last week year. So I think a lot of these things and we have not talked about New World screw worm yet on the podcast.

00;11;05;10 - 00;11;23;22
Brad
I think we've been kind of waiting to see what's going to happen. But, you know, I was having a conversation with a Mexican dairy farmer the other day, and, so, yeah, it's it's on the top of minds of, you know, maybe it's not affecting us, but it's in the minds of other people just south of the border, farmers that are south of the border.

00;11;23;22 - 00;11;48;07
Brad
So maybe we'll talk about some of that and some other new things coming up. But there's always that's what you know, our job doesn't change. Well, I know I, let me start over there or our job does never get dull. It's always changing. There's always something happening or some new thing or some new technology or new, you know, whatever.

00;11;48;14 - 00;12;00;17
Brad
Whatever's going on in the world, for us in agriculture. And it's always fun to stay on the forefront. Even though sometimes we don't know what's going on or what's going to happen. So that's always, an important factor.

00;12;00;18 - 00;12;26;13
Emily
So. Yeah. And I really hope that, yeah, we're able to talk about some more global topics as well this year. You know, certainly we are based in Minnesota. We're with the University of Minnesota. A lot of our listeners are in Minnesota, but we have listeners all over the United States and listeners in over 90 countries. So especially for some of you, that are based in Minnesota or the Midwest.

00;12;26;16 - 00;12;47;22
Emily
Yeah. We just want you to know people from all over the world listen. And we are so grateful for both our local and global listeners. But yeah, I would love to hopefully explore some more global type topics or things that are happening, and dairy and beef and other parts of the world. So again, there this is really a solicitation episode.

00;12;47;25 - 00;13;09;25
Emily
If you have ideas of of a global perspective topic, you'd love to see us cover, or kind of learn about on air, as it were, let us know. Let us know. We again, we're building and planning for 2026, and we want all of our listeners to be a part of that. Brad is kind of braggy today. You guys.

00;13;09;28 - 00;13;10;21
Brad
It's one of those days.

00;13;10;27 - 00;13;12;21
Emily
You really want to talk about how great he.

00;13;12;21 - 00;13;20;16
Brad
Is. No, not not today. Not today. Well, you started it. You started it. You said, oh, Brad's so great. He's talking about agricole tax.

00;13;20;19 - 00;13;25;00
Emily
Yeah. And you know, compliment me on anything. Oh well what.

00;13;25;00 - 00;13;31;02
Brad
Did you win Emily. What what did you win lately?

00;13;31;04 - 00;13;32;15
Emily
The Cultivator of Change award.

00;13;32;22 - 00;13;34;22
Brad
I think we did. We talked about that. Yeah.

00;13;34;24 - 00;13;35;18
Emily
Yes.

00;13;35;20 - 00;13;50;06
Brad
I think so. That. Yeah, I'm very humble about the agro voltaic stuff. I think it's been in the news lately. I think the University of Minnesota extension just put a bunch of stuff out in the university, did on our agro politics work. So it's we're kind of the agro voltaic Mecca here. And, it's always fun to do that.

00;13;50;06 - 00;13;55;29
Brad
And there's we're we're going full steam ahead and new Agro Volt stuff in.

00;13;56;01 - 00;14;04;29
Emily
Yeah. So what's on the horizon for agro voltaic in 2026? Because we're virtual fencing and agro voltaic.

00;14;05;01 - 00;14;05;29
Emily
Bradley we are.

00;14;05;29 - 00;14;08;20
Brad
Trying to do virtual fencing with agro techs as well.

00;14;08;20 - 00;14;09;29
Emily
That's,

00;14;10;02 - 00;14;29;27
Brad
This summer we're going to put up a new solar installation as well. So I, I got some, funding here, environmental trust fund funding to put up a new solar installation at our research center. A vertical one, vertical bifacial. It's, you see it more on the East Coast and some other places. Not necessarily here in the Midwest.

00;14;29;27 - 00;15;01;09
Brad
So we're going to try some different designs and see what happens. Get some. I got a wonderful German intern coming to spend time with me this summer to help me with some agro voltaic stuff. Is an engineering student, is interested in agro tech, so we're going to see what happens there too. So it's, it's there's a lot looking forward to in 2026 and, yeah, it might everybody might seem like I'm just going steam ahead, but I'm going to take a few days off, maybe here and there.

00;15;01;12 - 00;15;03;25
Emily
Bradley might take a break occasionally.

00;15;04;01 - 00;15;06;06
Brad
Yeah. Definitely not wear sunscreen, I'll tell you that.

00;15;06;08 - 00;15;10;21
Emily
Yeah.

00;15;10;23 - 00;15;18;17
Emily
Bradley will wear his sunscreen. I'll try to do the travel with the spray so I can just, like, spray it on you whenever I see you.

00;15;18;20 - 00;15;19;20
Brad
Yes, I do.

00;15;19;25 - 00;15;21;17
Emily
Do what I can to protect you.

00;15;21;20 - 00;15;23;06
Brad
Exactly.

00;15;23;08 - 00;15;36;04
Emily
So what else are you looking forward to in 2026? Lots of research stuff. But, you know, anything else with work? Whatever. You know what's what's 2026 about for Brad?

00;15;36;10 - 00;16;01;09
Brad
Actually, I'm kind of excited. Every four years there is a World Congress of genetics. So geneticists from all over the world get together. And this is, livestock genetics. So it's dairy and beef and goats and swine and, you know, different even. There's some aquaculture genetics, that happen there. And actually, it's happening in Madison, Wisconsin in July.

00;16;01;11 - 00;16;02;21
Emily
Wow. Very cool.

00;16;02;21 - 00;16;22;11
Brad
I've been to this. You know, I've I've gone to this conference for a long time, even when I was a graduate student, you know, I went to Brazil and I've been to Europe with it. And, so I'm excited to go see people that I know I probably haven't seen in a long time. You know, geneticists from around the world and, right here in Madison.

00;16;22;11 - 00;16;40;03
Brad
So, yeah, I'm looking forward to actually the World Congress. It's kind of one of those things where I get excited about it and, yeah, I think that's what I'm more mostly looking forward to again. Is, is the World Congress of Genetics okay.

00;16;40;03 - 00;16;43;06
Emily
Every four years. So every four years.

00;16;43;08 - 00;17;01;19
Brad
That's right. Every four years we all get crazy. And for a whole week it's a whole it's a whole week to, you know, a, I have I submitted some abstracts so I could present there and then. Well, they kind of take a conference break. So it go Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, they take a break on Wednesday, have some social program and tours.

00;17;01;19 - 00;17;21;19
Brad
And so we're going to there's some tours around Wisconsin learning about some different livestock stuff. And then it goes Thursday, Friday, Friday night they have like a big gala dinner. So everybody gets dressed up, you know, fancy suits and fancy clothes and has a big old, fun time. So it's it's wild and crazy. It's a long time.

00;17;21;19 - 00;17;24;01
Brad
But, yeah, it's always fun.

00;17;24;04 - 00;17;31;22
Emily
Yeah, that sounds very cool. And, like you, maybe I need to come so we can, do some podcast interviews.

00;17;31;29 - 00;17;33;19
Brad
Right? Exactly.

00;17;33;22 - 00;17;36;22
Emily
That's what it's sounding like to me.

00;17;36;24 - 00;17;54;28
Brad
Yes. We should. I should bring the podcast mic and hit up some people there that I know. And it was like, because it was fun. When I was in the Netherlands, at this farm show, I talked to a geneticist there and I hadn't seen and we just talked for a good 20 minutes or more about stuff. So it was kind of interesting to catch up with people.

00;17;54;28 - 00;18;32;18
Emily
So yeah, kind of not the same as genetics like related. I had the opportunity recently to speak at the Joint convention for the American American Embryo Transfer Association and the Canadian Embryo Transfer Association, and I was visiting the booths there and was talking to one of the vendors about their IVF work and camels, you know, and so as you're talking broadly about, like, you know, these are genetics for all sorts of species and, you know, and, you know, we think about how big camels are and how important they are to agriculture in other parts of the world.

00;18;32;18 - 00;18;50;21
Emily
And so that was really fascinating. And now thinking back to these global topics for 2026, maybe camel IVF. Right. That might be a little bit interesting. I'm curious how they select. Right. Like what do they genetically check for on camels. Camels. Right.

00;18;50;26 - 00;19;14;13
Brad
So correct. You, you know, people are milking camels in the Middle East. So, you know, they don't give much milk, but it's really high fat and, you know, an essential dairy product for, for those people. So, yes, we might not everybody thinks that, oh it's cows. Cows is is the milk provider. Nope. You can milk. There's a lot of people milk, water buffaloes and camels and donkeys.

00;19;14;13 - 00;19;15;16
Brad
And that's kind.

00;19;15;16 - 00;19;17;16
Emily
Of. And then goats as well, of course.

00;19;17;18 - 00;19;39;14
Brad
Sheep and goats. Yeah. So it's I, you know, I brought manchego cheese to our holiday party today. So and that's sheep cheese. And I love it I love manchego so it's very good sheep milk cheese. So it's yeah. Everybody thinks that milk is, is all about cows, which of course it's the most popular and they give most.

00;19;39;15 - 00;19;41;27
Emily
I mean cows are the best. Right, right.

00;19;42;02 - 00;19;46;14
Brad
Right, right. But there's a lot of other good, products, food.

00;19;46;14 - 00;19;50;10
Emily
That we can't we can't discount our other mammals.

00;19;50;13 - 00;20;02;13
Brad
Right? Right. Exactly. So what, what are you looking forward to in 2026? Emily, where you got any fun travels to go? I know you been your embryo transfer. That was in Nevada.

00;20;02;16 - 00;20;35;23
Emily
Reno or with Reno or. Yeah. Yeah. So I, you know, still putting some pieces in place for 2026, but yeah, some, some travel lined up. You know, of course I work both on the safety and the mental health side. So we're kind of kicking off the new year with a bunch of mental health trainings. I'm going to get the opportunity to go down to Ames to do some training for our Iowa State, extension colleagues, which I'm looking forward to.

00;20;35;26 - 00;20;59;17
Emily
We'll get to travel to Denver for a conference in the summer, which I am also looking forward to. Also lots of stuff going on with our programing that I'm really excited about. We are working on putting together a tractor safety class for adults. Of course people know we do our youth one, but we have had a lot of people ask for one, for adults, right?

00;20;59;17 - 00;21;28;28
Emily
People who maybe didn't grow up on a farm or, you know, haven't been on a farm in a while, want to relearn. So that's something I'm really excited about. We are working on adapting our ambiguous loss program for native food producers, so. Right. And, and I'm learning a lot about that, like, a lot of our native and tribal communities in the western United States run cattle ranches on their reservation.

00;21;28;28 - 00;21;57;23
Emily
So much more traditional agriculture for some of those tribes. Whereas like in Minnesota, a lot of native food production is gathering, foraging, hunting, fishing. Right. Netting those types of things. So I'm really learning a lot about that, which is really exciting to me. And yeah, I had no idea that, like Navajo and some of those tribes are very big into cattle ranching.

00;21;57;25 - 00;22;21;06
Emily
You know, Nevada, Oklahoma, those parts of the country. So I'm really looking forward to learning more about that and and getting to do that work. And hopefully seeing a different style of cattle production. So yeah, lots to look forward to. I feel like there's a million things I'm forgetting. Of course. I am the queen of conferences.

00;22;21;06 - 00;22;43;12
Emily
So, the Extension Women and Egg conference in February, the extension Egg for all conference in March, and the Women's Agricultural Leadership Conference in April. I am on the planning committee for all three of those, so that is always how my year starts, is with conferences. And I love being able to be a part of bringing people together to to all learn.

00;22;43;15 - 00;22;51;25
Emily
So yeah, it is going to be another busy year, for me, for you, for the podcast. Lots of stuff to look forward to.

00;22;51;27 - 00;23;05;14
Brad
You should give a time. Talk to the people of the Treasure Island community in Redwing. And I said, I talked to the herd manager lead. Did you know that they have a herd of buffalo that they maintain? And I think it's like 70 cows.

00;23;05;16 - 00;23;09;02
Emily
And so I knew they had some. I know they had that many.

00;23;09;02 - 00;23;30;01
Brad
Yes, I was, I was in a field day one day and the, herd manager was there, and I was talking to him about this fascinating, fascinating work that they're doing there. And trying to restore the buffalo and, and, you know, oh, and grazing lands and things like that. So maybe, maybe we need to we need to have the farm manager and talk a little bit about buffalo restoration.

00;23;30;01 - 00;23;45;17
Brad
It's it's a ruminant. Kind of an interesting topic. And you see a lot of that here in, in the upper Midwest, a lot of people trying to restore, buffalo herds and trying to get those going. They're doing it in the Dakotas. And. Yeah. So it's fun stuff, right?

00;23;45;24 - 00;23;51;02
Emily
And I know you have these tribes reestablishing the buffalo as a part of their land management plan.

00;23;51;08 - 00;23;51;19
Brad
Yes.

00;23;51;19 - 00;23;52;29
Emily
That's right. Yeah.

00;23;53;02 - 00;24;06;16
Brad
So yeah. Very good. Sounds like you have a crazy 2026 just like I do in that. Right. You may take some time off that not much. And we'll blink and then it'll be state fair time.

00;24;06;18 - 00;24;13;18
Emily
Oh, absolutely. That's the way it is every year it's like, yeah, it's Christmas. And then there's a month and then it's the state fair.

00;24;13;20 - 00;24;14;08
Brad
Right.

00;24;14;10 - 00;24;14;29
Emily
Basically.

00;24;15;03 - 00;24;22;17
Brad
So yes, I still have my Guernsey. So we're going to hopefully have a Guernsey, maybe a brown Swiss cow at the state Fair this year. So we're. Yeah.

00;24;22;19 - 00;24;23;15
Emily
Okay.

00;24;23;17 - 00;24;24;21
Brad
Yeah.

00;24;24;23 - 00;24;26;24
Emily
We just broadening his horizons.

00;24;26;26 - 00;24;33;13
Brad
I made a Christmas list and I put an airship on it, and I was told no. So Santa is not bringing me an air fryer, so. Oh.

00;24;33;16 - 00;24;37;17
Emily
Yeah. Well, maybe you should ask Santa for a Holstein instead. He might say, no.

00;24;37;20 - 00;24;58;28
Brad
No, I should downsize my herd. Anyways, I think Emily and I have. Yeah, enough to end this episode of 2025. And, it's been a good year. And we've had lots of fun, lots of good topics. We certainly will be looking forward to 2026 and where it might take us.

00;24;59;01 - 00;25;24;18
Emily
Yeah, it could take us anywhere. You never know. So we thank you, as always, for listening and for sticking through 2025 with us. We look forward to chatting with you more in 2026. And of course, as always, if you have questions, comments, scathing rebuttals, episode ideas, case studies, anything else, you can email those to the Moose Room at Umkc.

00;25;24;18 - 00;25;44;17
Emily
Edu. That's e mos rom at that edu and you can find us on the web extension that and that every. We wish you all a safe and happy holiday season, a happy New Year and we will catch you again in 2026. Goodbye.