PORTAGEVILLE, Mo. – University of Missouri Extension field specialists have launched a podcast that explores topics of interest to Missouri row crop producers.

New episodes of “MO Crops” are released every other Thursday of the month on Amazon, Spotify, Apple, Libsyn and Audible. The podcast has been downloaded more than 600 times a month since it launched in early April.

“We've had an absolute blast putting this podcast together,” said Justin Calhoun, a soil and cropping systems specialist at the MU Fisher Delta Research, Extension and Education Center in the Missouri Bootheel. Calhoun created “MO Crops” with Delta Center colleagues Justin Chlapecka and Bradley Wilson.

“I think my favorite part about it has been the fact that I have learned something on every episode,” Calhoun said.

Topics have included Delta Center’s soybean breeding program, discussions with a Missouri row rice producer, ag journalism with a Delta Farm Press writer, crop weather with MU Extension state climatologist Pat Guinan and an in-season row rice update for Missouri and Arkansas. Episodes of “MO Crops” run 35-50 minutes.

“The knowledge in the agriculture community is immense,” Calhoun said. “With this podcast, we are hoping to connect the dots to allow those with that knowledge to share with us and with our audience.”

Calhoun said guests on future episodes will include commodity board members, crop experts from throughout the state. Christopher Daubert, dean of the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, will be the featured guest on the July 14 podcast.

“I look forward to doing it for a long time to come,” Calhoun said.