AgCulture Podcast

When farmers think about improving performance, they typically focus on genetics, nutrition, reproduction, or ventilation. Lighting rarely makes the list.
But what if one of the most overlooked management tools on a farm is also one of the most influential?
In this episode of the AgCulture Podcast, Paul sits down with Pieter Hanssen, Global Head of Dairy & Business Development at HATO Lighting, to explore how lighting affects animal behavior, welfare, and performance across livestock systems. Drawing from decades of experience in poultry and livestock facilities around the world, Pieter explains why light should be viewed as a critical part of the animal's environment—not simply a tool that helps people see.
The conversation explores circadian rhythms, animal behavior, environmental management, and lessons learned from over 50,000 livestock lighting installations globally. Pieter shares how HATO built its reputation in the poultry industry and why those lessons are now being applied to dairy, swine, and other livestock sectors.
If you've never thought of lighting as a management tool, this episode may completely change how you look at your barns.

MEET THE GUEST
Pieter Hanssen
Pieter Hanssen serves as Global Head of Dairy & Business Development for Europe, the United States, and Canada at HATO Lighting, one of the world's leading livestock lighting companies.
Originally from the Netherlands, Pieter began his career as an electrician before entering the livestock industry in 2018. His experience spans poultry, dairy, swine, and other livestock sectors across Europe, North America, South Africa, and beyond.
At HATO, Pieter works directly with producers, nutritionists, veterinarians, researchers, and industry leaders to better understand how lighting influences animal welfare, behavior, and performance. His work focuses on helping producers leverage lighting as a management tool rather than simply an infrastructure component.
Drawing on decades of poultry industry experience and more than 50,000 livestock lighting installations worldwide, Pieter is helping bring precision lighting concepts into new sectors such as dairy and swine production.
ABOUT THE PODCAST
Discover the world of agriculture with the "Ag Culture Podcast".This podcast will be a gateway for those passionate about agriculture to explore its global perspectives and innovative practices.
Join Paul as he shares his experiences in the agricultural industry, his travels, and encounters with important figures around the world.
Available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.Subscribe at http://www.agculturepodcast.com and keep an eye out for future episodes, bringing insights and stories from the vibrant world of agriculture.

Agriculture is surrounded by technology.
We have sensors, software, robots, satellites, AI, genetics, automation systems, sustainability platforms, traceability tools, and more data than ever before. Yet across every conference, farm visit, boardroom discussion, and industry conversation, the same challenges continue to surface.
In this solo episode, Paul shares observations from dozens of conversations across the agricultural value chain—from farmers and processors to technology companies, researchers, co-ops, and industry leaders. The conclusion may be surprising: agriculture’s biggest challenge isn’t a lack of technology.
The real challenge is coordination.
Why are farms drowning in data but struggling to find actionable insights? Why do so many promising technologies fail to gain adoption? Why is trust becoming one of the most important forms of infrastructure in agriculture? And why do so many sustainability and technology initiatives struggle to create value for the people actually producing food?
This episode explores eight themes that are emerging across global agriculture and argues that the future will belong not to those with the most technology, but to those who can simplify complexity, build trust, align incentives, and create systems that actually work for farmers.
Listen to the episode now!

MEET THE HOST
Paul Windemuller is a dairy farmer, entrepreneur, Nuffield International Farming Scholar, and host of the AgCulture Podcast. His work focuses on the intersection of agriculture, technology, artificial intelligence, and farm business strategy.Over the past several years, Paul has traveled extensively throughout North America, South America, Europe, Oceania, and beyond studying how technology is reshaping livestock agriculture. Through his Nuffield research on artificial intelligence in the global dairy industry, he has interviewed farmers, researchers, processors, technology developers, and industry leaders to better understand where agriculture is headed next.His mission is to help agriculture adopt innovation in ways that create real value for farmers while strengthening the connection between technology, people, animals, and the land.
ABOUT THE PODCAST
Discover the world of agriculture with the "Ag Culture Podcast".This podcast will be a gateway for those passionate about agriculture to explore its global perspectives and innovative practices.
Join Paul as he shares his experiences in the agricultural industry, his travels, and encounters with important figures around the world.
Available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.Subscribe at http://www.agculturepodcast.com and keep an eye out for future episodes, bringing insights and stories from the vibrant world of agriculture.

Most farmers spend their time focused on production. Plant the crop, raise the yield, deliver it to the local elevator, and move on to the next task. But what happens after that may have just as much impact on profitability as anything done in the field.
In this episode of the AgCulture Podcast, Paul sits down with Mike Steenhoek, Executive Director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, for a fascinating look at the transportation system that moves American agriculture. From trucks and railroads to barges, ports, and ocean vessels, Mike explains how commodities travel from rural America to customers around the world—and why transportation costs can have a direct impact on every farmer's bottom line.
The conversation explores aging infrastructure, rural bridges, Mississippi River bottlenecks, rail transportation, global trade disruptions, and why events happening thousands of miles away can affect grain prices in your local community.
If you've ever wondered how a soybean grown in Iowa ends up feeding livestock in China—or why transportation matters more than most farmers realize—this episode is for you.

MEET THE GUEST
Mike Steenhoek serves as Executive Director of the Soy Transportation Coalition (STC), an organization established by the United Soybean Board, the American Soybean Association, and thirteen state soybean boards to promote a cost-effective, reliable, and competitive transportation system for agriculture.In his role, Mike works with farmers, industry leaders, transportation providers, and policymakers to improve the infrastructure that supports U.S. agriculture. His work spans trucking, railroads, inland waterways, ports, and global supply chains—all with the goal of helping farmers remain competitive in international markets.
Mike currently serves on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness and the Iowa Department of Transportation's Freight Advisory Council.Before joining the Soy Transportation Coalition, Mike spent eight years working for U.S. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, serving both in Washington, D.C. and Des Moines.
His roles included speechwriting, scheduling, and economic development, providing him with a unique perspective on policy, infrastructure, and economic growth.
Get to know more about Soy Transportation Coalition here: https://www.soytransportation.org/ABOUT THE PODCAST
Discover the world of agriculture with the "Ag Culture Podcast".This podcast will be a gateway for those passionate about agriculture to explore its global perspectives and innovative practices.
Join Paul as he shares his experiences in the agricultural industry, his travels, and encounters with important figures around the world.
Available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.Subscribe at http://www.agculturepodcast.com and keep an eye out for future episodes, bringing insights and stories from the vibrant world of agriculture.

Brazil is already an agricultural powerhouse in crops, beef, and sugarcane. But could dairy be next?
In this episode of the AgCulture Podcast, Paul sits down with Marcelo Pereira de Carvalho, CEO of MilkPoint Ventures and one of the most influential voices in Brazilian dairy. Marcelo shares the story of how he built MilkPoint from a simple dairy website into one of the largest dairy communities in the world, connecting farmers, processors, consultants, and agribusiness leaders across Brazil.
The conversation explores the rapid transformation taking place in Brazilian dairy, from farm consolidation and technology adoption to the opportunities and challenges that stand between Brazil and becoming a major dairy exporter. Marcelo also shares his perspective on artificial intelligence, innovation, investment, and why the country's most progressive dairy farms now rival the best operations anywhere in the world.
If you want to understand where one of the world's largest emerging dairy industries is headed—and what it means for global agriculture—this episode is for you.

MEET THE GUEST
Marcelo Pereira de Carvalho is the CEO of MilkPoint Ventures, one of the most influential agricultural media, market intelligence, and innovation companies in Latin America. Through MilkPoint, Marcelo has built a dairy-focused community of more than 160,000 members that includes farmers, processors, consultants, input suppliers, researchers, and agribusiness professionals.
Originally trained as an agronomist with a specialization in dairy nutrition, Marcelo spent years working as a dairy consultant before recognizing the power of information and digital communities. What began as a simple dairy website evolved into MilkPoint, a leading source of industry news, analysis, events, and market intelligence for the Brazilian dairy sector.
Marcelo is also Co-Founder of AgTech Garage, widely recognized as Brazil's leading innovation hub for agriculture, connecting startups, investors, corporations, and producers to accelerate technological advancement across the industry.
Today, he remains one of the most respected voices in Brazilian agriculture, helping shape conversations around dairy, innovation, technology adoption, and the future competitiveness of the sector.

ABOUT THE PODCAST
Discover the world of agriculture with the "Ag Culture Podcast".This podcast will be a gateway for those passionate about agriculture to explore its global perspectives and innovative practices.
Join Paul as he shares his experiences in the agricultural industry, his travels, and encounters with important figures around the world.
Available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.Subscribe at http://www.agculturepodcast.com and keep an eye out for future episodes, bringing insights and stories from the vibrant world of agriculture.

The dairy industry has made more genetic progress in the last 15 years than at any other point in history. But most people don’t fully understand what’s actually driving it.
In this episode of the AgCulture Podcast, Paul sits down with Nate Zwald — President of Progenco and former President & COO of ABS Global — for a deep dive into the data infrastructure, genomic revolution, and technological shifts transforming dairy genetics.
Nate shares stories from growing up on Bomaz Farms, explains how genomic testing changed the industry forever, and unpacks why the future of dairy genetics may depend less on semen companies… and more on who controls the data.
The conversation explores the growing importance of phenotypic data, the decline of traditional DHIA systems, the rise of robotic milking data, and how artificial intelligence could fundamentally reshape animal breeding over the next decade.
This is one of the most important conversations we’ve had yet about the intersection of genetics, AI, data ownership, and the future structure of livestock agriculture.

MEET THE GUEST
Nate Zwald is President of Progenco and one of the most experienced leaders in modern dairy genetics. Over the past 20+ years, Nate has played major roles in advancing genomic selection, reproductive technologies, and data-driven breeding systems across the global dairy industry.
Prior to Progenco, Nate served as President and COO of ABS Global and previously led U.S. operations at Alta Genetics. Throughout his career, he has helped drive adoption of technologies such as genomics, sexed semen, IVF, and advanced genetic evaluation systems that have fundamentally accelerated dairy genetic progress worldwide.
Nate also remains deeply connected to production agriculture through Bomaz Farms, his family’s 1,600-cow dairy operation in Wisconsin known internationally for elite Holstein genetics.
He holds advanced degrees in Genetics and Business from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and continues to work at the intersection of genetics, technology, and the future of livestock agriculture.

ABOUT THE PODCAST
Discover the world of agriculture with the "Ag Culture Podcast".This podcast will be a gateway for those passionate about agriculture to explore its global perspectives and innovative practices.
Join Paul as he shares his experiences in the agricultural industry, his travels, and encounters with important figures around the world.
Available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.Subscribe at http://www.agculturepodcast.com and keep an eye out for future episodes, bringing insights and stories from the vibrant world of agriculture.