About this episode

David and Nicki Yanak share their journey from Air Force veterans to farmers, discussing the challenges and rewards of building a farm from scratch.

Today's guests are David and Nicki Yanak from DNA Acres — two Air Force veterans who left the service with no farming background, a piece of land in rural Missouri, and absolutely no idea what they were getting into. David spent his career in security forces before a series of back surgeries brought his military path to an abrupt end. Nicki served in communications and later became a nurse. Neither of them grew up farming, nor had they planned to, but when a neighbor knocked on David's door and said "good — you have no bad habits I have to break," something clicked. What started with a backfield, a craftsman lawn mower, and a favor for a sick neighbor has grown into a direct-to-market operation raising cattle, chickens, and turkeys — built on non-GMO feed, regenerative grazing, and a stubborn commitment to doing things differently. As David puts it, "The farming community, regardless — big AG, regenerative, whatever — just seems to be a community that reminds me of the military. You need help, they show up. You got a question, you call, you ask, you get their perspective." In this episode, we talk about what it actually looks like to build a farm from scratch — the financial…

People in this episode

Guests: David Yanak, Nicki Yanak

Topics covered

• farming
• veterans
• entrepreneurship
• direct-to-market
• regenerative agriculture

Keywords

• farming
• veterans
• direct-to-market
• regenerative grazing
• non-GMO feed

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: DNA Acres, US Air Force

Places: rural Missouri

More episodes of Vets In Ag Podcast

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• #87 – Ag View Solutions, Monier Seed, Ag View Pitch Podcast – Shay Foulk (US Army) · April 1, 2026 · 1h 12m
• #85 – Arizona State University & Carbon Cowboys – Peter Byck · January 31, 2026 · 1h 18m
• #84 – Arizona State University – Alicia Ellis (US Air Force) · January 16, 2026 · 1h 16m
• #83 – 1840 Farm Foundation – Matt Adler (US Air Force) · December 31, 2025 · 1h 24m
• #82 – Nate Hankes (US Army) – Apogee Instruments · December 16, 2025 · 1h 14m

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