Meet Nicolas Lirio of Hoksey Native Seeds

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicolas Lirio

Hi Nicolas, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Well, my story doesn’t start with me. It starts with my dad. In the mid 80’s when no one could make a dollar off of cattle, corn, renting, he started to look around and thought some prairie would be good for the landscape. It took a few tries, but he was able to establish his first field of Indiangrass that he sold wholesale to a big company out west. Fast forward 20 years, and our family farm is growing dozens of native grasses and wild flowers, and I’m 13 and learning to handle an Allis Chalmers 185. I spent my growing up years hoeing weeds in our fields and helping dad custom plant prairie in our customers’ CRP fields.
After starting college in Dallas and finishing in California, I came back to the farm in 2020 to help dad transition into retirement (a fairytale term farmers use). He spends his days growing the native plants and harvesting them, along with our production manager, Kent. I spend my days moving/selling the seed since there is no commodity market for the specialty crops. We also run a podcast, The Prairie Farm Podcast, in efforts to bring grassland conservation to the forefront of people’s minds.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest struggles have been the following:

1. The learning how to grow things that no one else is growing is really hard. Dad has since becoming someone that even educational institutions call if they have questions.

2. Financially this has been a tough battle. In conventional farming you make your money from volume. In specialty crops, we have to figure out other ways to build the balance sheet. We also are much more prone to lose a crop. We lose about 5 of our 50 species each year. Plus, we need A LOT of ground dedicated just for pathways to get to the individual fields.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
At Hoksey Native Seeds, we raise native prairie grass and native wild flowers. Though we are a for-profit, our goal is not to grow the accounts as large as we can. Our goal is to get as much native prairie on the midwest landscape as we can.
We spend a lot of time creating very high-quality, diverse mixes for all native prairie fields, whether it’s CRP or a backyard Pollinator. We also spend a lot of money and effort on our podcast to help listeners be educated on the topic of conservation, hunting, farming, and the country’s food sources- The Prairie Farm Podcast.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
We work with all sorts of parties in the native seed industry, whether a government entity or a CRP farmer or a yard owner.

The best way to connect with us is our email or phone.

[email protected]
641.594.3305

They can also follow us on Instagram or Facebook at both “Hoksey Native Seeds” and “The Prairie Farm”.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hokseynativeseeds.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hokseynativeseeds/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558277339767
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HokseysPrairieFarm