Webinars by Topic: (click a title to see the list of speakers for each topic covered)
| Managing in the Face of Uncertain Credit | Managing in the Face of Uncertain Markets | Families Facing Uncertainty in Agriculture | Operating in Risky Environments | Managing Enterprises in Uncertain times |

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Operating in the face of uncertain credit

| David Kohl | Jay Penick | Curt Covington | Chris Beyerhelm | Cori Price | Robert Syron | Joel Lorenzen | Duane Griffith | Dale Nordquist | Emcee – Jon Newkirk |
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Operating in the face of uncertain credit
David Kohl – June 9th, 2009

David Kohl received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. For 25 years, Kohl was Professor of Agricultural Finance and Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia. He was on special leave with the Royal Bank of Canada working on advanced initiatives for two years, and also assisted in the launch of the successful entrepreneurship program at Cornell University. Kohl retired from teaching in 2003 and is Professor Emeritus in the AAEC Department at Virginia Tech.

Kohl has traveled over 7 million miles throughout his professional career! He has conducted more than 5,000 workshops and seminars for agricultural groups such as bankers, Farm Credit, FSA, and regulators, as well as producer and agribusiness groups. He has published four books and over 1,000 articles on financial and business-related topics in journals, extension, and other popular publications. Kohl regularly writes for Ag Lender and Soybean Digest.

He has received 11 major teaching awards while teaching over 10,000 students, and 15 major Extension and Public Service awards from Virginia Tech, Cornell University, and state and national organizations. Kohl is a two-time recipient of the prestigious American Agricultural Economics Association’s Outstanding Teaching Award. Kohl is only one of five professors in the 90-year plus history of the Association to receive the award twice. He received the Governor’s award for his distinguished service to Virginia agriculture, the youngest recipient to receive this award.

Kohl has addressed the American Bankers Agricultural Conference for over 30 consecutive years, and has appeared before numerous state bankers’ schools and conferences throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the world. He has also been one of the top rated instructors at the LSU and Colorado Graduate Schools of Banking, and is Chancellor of Farm Credit University, which has trained over 700 lenders using an online and face-to-face educational approach.

As facilitator of the United States Farm Financial Standards Task Force and member of the Canadian Agricultural Financial Standards Task Force, Dr. Kohl was one of the leaders in establishing guidelines for the standardized reporting and analysis of agricultural producers’ financial information on a national and international basis. Recently, a $2 million endowed Chair of Agribusiness Management and Finance was established at Virginia Tech in the name of Dr. Kohl. This was in honor of his long-term commitment to teaching, research, and extension, and is one of only four such Chairs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech.

If you would like to keep up with Kohl’s information and perspectives, you can find his weekly columns on the following websites:

Ag Globe Trotter: www.farm-credit.com

Road Warrior of Agriculture: www.cornandsoybeandigest.com

Kohl is currently President of AgriVisions, LLC, a knowledge-based consulting business providing cutting-edge programs to leading agricultural organizations worldwide. He is also business coach and part owner of Homestead Creamery, a value added dairy business in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

On a more personal note, Dave enjoys playing basketball and likes most sports, farms, dogs, and covered bridges; he dislikes lazy students, administrative bureaucracies, and paperwork!

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Operating in the face of uncertain credit
Jay Penick – June 10th, 2009

Jay Penick was raised on a cattle and grain farm near Hebron, Ohio. He graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in agricultural economics.

Jay’s Farm Credit career began in 1977 in the Louisville Farm Credit district. Since September 1989, Jay has been President and Chief Executive Officer for Northwest Farm Credit Services, an Agricultural Credit Association. In this position, he is responsible for approximately a $9 billion loan portfolio of loans to farmers, ranchers, commercial fishermen, timber producers, agribusinesses, and rural home owners in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. He supervises the operations of over 550 employees in 47 offices and the association headquarters office in Spokane, Washington.

Jay is past chairman of the Farm Credit System President’s Planning Committee and trustee and former member of the Executive Committee for the Spokane Regional Chamber. He is a past president of the Farm Financial Standards Council and is a graduate and former advisor to the Farm Credit Executive Institute and a member of the Board for Financial Partners, Inc.

Jay and his wife, Pam, have three children and six grandchildren.
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Operating in the face of uncertain credit
Curt Covington – June 10th, 2009

Curt Covington is a Senior Vice President and Credit Risk Manager for the Ag and Rural Banking Division – Bank of the West in Fresno, California. Curt has 28 years of agricultural banking experience and is responsible for managing the risk of a $3.2 billion agriculture/agribusiness loan portfolio.

Curt was born and raised in Selma, California. He earned his undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Southern California and his Masters in Agribusiness from Santa Clara University.

Since 1984, Curt has served as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Agricultural Economics at California State University, Fresno, teaching managerial accounting and finance classes.

Prior to coming to Bank of the West, Curt spent a good part of his early banking career in the Farm Credit system followed by a period as a credit administrator with Rabobank. Curt serves as Vice Chairman of the American Bankers Association Ag and Rural Bankers Executive Committee and Co-Chairman of the Agricultural Lending Institute.
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Operating in the face of uncertain credit
Chris Beyerhelm – June 10th, 2009

Chris Beyerhelm is the Assistant Deputy Administrator for Farm Loan Programs with the Farm Service Agency (FSA) located in Washington D.C. Chris grew up in rural Iowa. After graduating from Simpson College in 1980 with a BS in business administration he began work for the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) working as a loan officer.

In 1983 he became the Farm Loan Manager in Lucas County Iowa moving on to become a credit specialist in the FmHA state office in 1985. In 1991 he became the Farm Loan Program Chief responsible for a $650 M loan portfolio.

In 2006 he accepted the position of Assistant Deputy Administrator for Farm Loan Programs in Washington D.C. In this position he is charged with assisting in the administration of a $16 Billion agricultural credit portfolio delivered throughout the United States.

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Operating in the face of uncertain credit
Cori Price – June 17th, 2009

Cori Price is a Vice President, Senior Commercial Loan Officer with South Valley Bank & Trust. She has twelve years of experience in commercial and agricultural lending.

Cori has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an accounting focus from Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon. She has pursued specialized training in agricultural lending by graduating from Western Agricultural Banking School at Washington State University.

Cori serves on the American Bankers Association’s Agricultural and Rural Bankers Committee. She is involved in her local community serving on numerous boards.

Cori and her husband along with their six year old son own a small hay and cattle ranch in Lakeview, Oregon.
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Operating in the face of uncertain credit
Robert Syron – June 17th, 2009

Robert was raised and worked on a dryland small grains farm on the Palouse prairie in North Central Idaho Graduated from University of Idaho, BS in Ag Econ.

He worked on family farm until joining Farm Credit System in 1978. He started in Southern Idaho and eventually moved to Spokane Washington where the headquarters of Northwest Farm Credit Services is located. He held several positions in Farm Credit beginning at the loan officer level and eventually promoted to Vice President. During the last few years in Farm Credit he worked with large customers and also selling third party grower financing programs to agricultural supply companies such as Wilbur-Ellis Company.

He left Farm Credit in 2000 to join Wilbur-Ellis Company as a credit manager in the Pacific Northwest. Since 2000 he has been promoted with increased responsibilities to his present position as Director of Credit for Wilbur-Ellis Company. Wilbur-Ellis Company is a privately owned company and is the third largest agricultural fertilizer, chemical and seed supplier in the US. They also have a Feed Division in Canada and Western US, and an Import/Export Division with offices in the Pacific Rim. Wilbur-Ellis Company is a $2.5 Billion sales company that has been profitable since its beginning in 1921. The credit department consists of 21 employees located in the US. Its function is to be a resource to the sales team, determining credit worthiness of their customers and collection of delinquent accounts receivable.

The success of the credit function in Wilbur-Ellis Company has been the close partnering of the sales and credit departments. Albeit, there is a division of duties and responsibilities, the partnership has actually resulted in an improved quality of the customer base and the accounts receivable. Wilbur-Ellis Company has taken a proactive and forward thinking approach to credit by picking the right customers and completing an appropriate level of due diligence of their customers in advance. This approached has resulted in a more efficient credit function and less losses compared to previously considering any sale a good sale and experiencing more collection costs and ultimately an increase in bad debt expense.
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Operating in the face of uncertain credit
Joel Lorenzen – June 17th, 2009

Joel Lorenzen grew up in Oregon where his parents owned a part time farm. After graduating from Oregon State University with a BS in business administration he worked in the grain business. At 25 he became a general manager of a grain and farm supply company in Washington State.

In 1980 he began work in the Farm Credit System as a loan officer in Spokane, Washington. After serving in various management capacities he moved to Arizona in 1998 to become Chief Credit Officer of Farm Credit Services Southwest. He has since added to his roll as both Chief Credit Officer and Chief Operations Officer. Farm Credit Services Southwest manages assets in excess of $1 Billion in Arizona and Southern California.

Joel is also active in other community and professional organizations and is an occasional guest lecturer at Arizona State University Morrison School of Management. He is a life long swimmer and occasionally competes in Masters Swimming. He is married to Debra and they have a daughter who lives with her husband in San Diego
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Operating in the face of uncertain credit
Duane Griffith – June 24th, 2009

Duane Griffith is an Extension Farm Management Specialist with Montana State University. His interests include production economics and financial analysis covering all aspects of farm and ranch business performance.

His educational curriculum includes crop and livestock enterprise analysis, machinery management, marketing of agricultural commodities, complete farm and ranch financial analysis and emerging risk management issues for agricultural operations.

Griffith also develops on-farm decision aids for farmers and ranchers to analyze their operations. These decision aids are typically in the form of Excel spreadsheets and are available for download from the Web address listed below. Web address:
http://www.montana.edu/softwaredownloads/
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Operating in the face of uncertain credit
Dale Nordquist – June 24th, 2009

Dale Nordquist is an Extension Economist and Associate Director of the Center for Farm Financial Management in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota.

Dale’s special interests include farm business analysis, farm planning, and software development. He has over 28 years of experience in teaching farm management and developing software tools for farm financial planning and analysis. Dale has also been a major contributor to the design and development of the FINPACK farm financial planning and analysis software as well as many other software tools developed and distributed through the Center For Farm Financial Management.
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Operating in the face of uncertain markets

| Matt Roberts | Jim Robb | Ed Usset | Russ Tronstad | Rod Sharp | Dawn Thilmany | Raleigh Curtis | Emcee – Jon Newkirk |
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Operating in the face of uncertain markets
Matt Roberts – September 9th, 2009

Matt Roberts is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics and OSU Extension State Specialist at The Ohio State University.

He has published articles in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and the Journal of Futures Markets, among others. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, Associated Press, and Forbes, and has been interviewed on CNBC.

Prior to graduate school Roberts worked as a commodity and energy derivatives broker in Vienna, Austria and as a market research consultant to the pharmaceutical industry in North Carolina.

He is an active speaker, appearing approximately 50 times per year around the nation on grain, petroleum, and biofuels markets, and is also an active consultant to the commodity industry. He has been at The Ohio State University since 2001.
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Operating in the face of uncertain markets
Jim Robb – September 9th, 2009

Jim Robb is an Agricultural Economist with the Livestock Marketing Information Center (LMIC) and since 1993 has been the Center Director. He has written several hundred articles and newsletters on livestock marketing topics and is a widely traveled speaker.

Prior to joining the LMIC in 1991, Jim was an Agricultural Economist at the University of Nebraska. Jim received degrees in Agricultural Economics from the University of California-Davis and from Michigan State University.

The LMIC began over 50 years ago and is a unique cooperative effort that supports livestock marketing education and research. Currently Center partners are, 28 U.S. Land Grant Universities; several U.S.D.A. agencies; and associate organizations.
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Operating in the face of uncertain markets
Ed Usset – September 16th, 2009

Edward Usset serves as a Grain Marketing Specialist for the Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota, the developers of FINPACK software and a variety of educational programs.

Working with his colleagues at CFFM and in extension, Ed developed the award winning “Winning the Game” series of workshops. He also helped develop “Tool Time,” a new series of workshops dedicated to understanding and using grain pricing tools. He teaches “Futures and Options Markets” at the University.

His first book, “Grain Marketing is Simple (it’s just not easy)” was released in September, 2007. You can reach him at usset001@umn.edu.
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Operating in the face of uncertain markets
Dillon Feuz – September 16th, 2009

Dillon Feuz is an agricultural economics professor at the Utah State. His primary focus areas are in Livestock Marketing, and Farm & Ranch Management. He received his B.S. in Agribusiness in 1984 and his M.S. in Agricultural Economics in 1986 from the University of Wyoming and he received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics in 1990 from Colorado State University.

He spent six years at South Dakota State University teaching marketing and conducting research on livestock production and marketing issues. He then worked for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for ten years analyzing various cattle management and marketing strategies and evaluating consumer’s willingness-to-pay for flavor preferences for beef steaks.

Dr. Feuz has been the recipient of over $700,000 in grants, has published 35 refereed journal articles, and has made hundreds of extension presentations. He has received the Outstanding Extension Program award from the Western Agricultural Economics Association and from the American Agricultural Economics Association. He also received the Prime Promoter award from the Nebraska Beef Council.
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Operating in the face of uncertain markets
Russ Tronstad – September 17th, 2009

Russell Tronstad received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Montana State University in Agribusiness and Applied Economics, and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in Agricultural Economics. He is Distinguished Outreach Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, The University of Arizona.

He was raised on a ranch in rural Montana that produced cattle and grain crops on both irrigated and dryland acreage.

Dr. Tronstad’s work and interests include direct farm marketing and tourism, tools for managing production and market risks, livestock pricing issues, and policy issues related to Arizona’s agriculture. He delivers risk management education to producer audiences that are comprised of both commercial commodity and small-scale specialty producers. He has received recognition from the American and Western Agricultural Economics Associations for Outstanding Extension Project Awards (1997, 1998, 2005, 2006).

He led the development of the award winning curriculums of Western Profiles of Innovative Agricultural Marketing: Examples from Direct Farm Marketing and Agri-Tourism Enterprises and Certification and Labeling Considerations for Agricultural Producers, both of which are available at www.valueaddedag.org.

In 2005 he received the Cooperative Extension Faculty of the Year Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Arizona and in 2008 he was honored with the University Distinguished Outreach Professor award and title from the University of Arizona.
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Operating in the face of uncertain markets
Rod Sharp – September 17th, 2009

Rod Sharp is an agricultural and business management economist with Colorado State University Extension and the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. He is responsible for educational efforts on the topics and issues of farm and ranch management. His professional interests are in farm and family financial management, business and enterprise analysis, risk management, and feasibility analysis of alternative enterprises.

Rod has been asked to participate in many state, regional, and national projects. He chaired a multi-state effort to study entrepreneurial agriculture and forestry enterprises in the west. He is co-coordinator of the award winning Agricultural and Business Management Team at Colorado State University. Other projects include Risk and Resilience in Agriculture, RightRisk, New Gates Through Old Fences, and Standardized Performance Analysis for Sheep and Cattle Producers.

Rod has been recognized with numerous individual and team awards during his career. He participates on several multi-state committees and workgroups. Mr. Sharp has authored or co-authored numerous resource manuals, fact sheets, spreadsheet templates, articles, web courses, and newsletters.

Rod was raised on a cattle and sheep ranch in northeastern Colorado. He earned Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Business and a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from Colorado State University.
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Operating in the face of uncertain markets
Dawn Thilmany – September 23rd, 2009

Dawn Thilmany McFadden graduated from Iowa State with a B.S. in Public Service and Administration in Agriculture, and from UC-Davis with a M.S. and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics. She is a Professor of Agribusiness and Agribusiness Extension Economist with Colorado State University. She also serves on the Markets Advisory Board with the Colorado Department of Agriculture and frequently works with them on marketing research and outreach projects. She has served as the Interim Program leader for Organics with USDA-CSREES and was a Farm Foundation Fellow for Rural Community Vitality.

Dawn’s research and extension focuses on two distinct areas of inquiry: small agribusiness management and local food entrepreneurs as a part of rural development. The projects she has provided research and technical assistance on are diverse and include: a farmer to chef distribution, Colorado Crop to Cuisine, Value Added and marketing programs for natural meat and bison, the economic impact of the wine industry and agritourism enterprises.

In her Extension role, she serves on the Sustainable Community Development and Sustainable Agriculture Work teams and she recently took the lead on a local food systems initiative for CSU Extension. Her future work will focus on developing curriculum and short courses for beginning farmers in the Western region in cooperation with the Western Center for Risk Management Education at Washington State University.
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Operating in the face of uncertain markets
Raleigh Curtis – September 23rd, 2009

Raleigh Curtis is the past General Manager of Mid Columbia Producers, Inc. (MCP) a farmer owned cooperative with headquarters in Moro, Oregon. MCP has 17 grain elevators including three barge loading terminals, a seed grains division, fuel distribution and retail locations.

The last 40 years Mr. Curtis’ career in agribusiness has rewarded him with many opportunities to learn and share within the arenas of Farming, Marketing and Risk Management, Agribusiness Development, and Management in the South, Central and Western regions of the United States.

As a producer, Raleigh received the Potato Grower of the Year award from both Ore Ida Foods and the J.R. Simplot Company. He received the Sugar Beet Grower of the Year award from Utah Idaho Sugar Company.

One of Mr. Curtis’ primary passions is the development and sharing of economic and marketing tools for the benefit agriculture producer.

Over the years he has become very aware that having the right tools may be useful but for those tools to be successful requires the user to develop and maintain a disciplined execution process as they set risk and price objectives.
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Families Facing Uncertainty in Agriculture

| Dave Goeller | Jay Gordon | Elaine Froese | Michael Rosmann | Jeff Tranel | Norm Dalsted | Kenneth Copple | Ruth Hambleton | Bob Fetsch | Emcees – Jon Newkirk & John Hewlett |
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Families Facing Uncertainty in Agriculture
Dave Goeller – October 7th, 2009

Dave Goeller is the Deputy Director of the North Central Risk Management Education Center located at the University of Nebraska. His duties include administering Risk Management Education grants through out the 12 state North Central Region. Prior to his appointment as Deputy Director in 2007, Dave was a member of the Department of Agricultural Economics, where he focused his extension and educational efforts on three main areas: 1. Assisting beginning farmers and ranchers develop a plan to enter the field of production agriculture. 2. Providing business succession and estate planning alternatives and transfer strategies for the “Ownership” generation. 3. Assisting agricultural producers experiencing “financial difficulties” work through their problems and evaluate their options.

Dave began his career at UNL in 1984 and has been involved with the development, planning, coordinating, delivery and/or curriculum design, of many of the University of Nebraska’s Farm Management Educational programs such as: Managing for Tomorrow, Women in Ag, Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers and Fisherman, Planning for Business Success, Farm and Ranch Legal and Financial Clinics, Winning the Game, Annie’s Project, Nebraska Farm Mediation and Conflict Resolution program, Farm Business Succession and Estate Planning Seminars, and Returning to the Farm.

The author of numerous articles and publications, Goeller has provided training and presented at various seminars and conferences in the U.S. and Canada. As a practicing farmer, he’s able to address issues such as “Fair vs. Equal”, “Expectations of each Generation” and “Contribution and Compensation” from a unique perspective. Dave has been quoted as saying, “Developing a successful farm business succession plan is a process, not an event. It involves a mixture of practical, financial, tax, legal and especially human communication components that need to combine in a mutually compatible way.”

Dave received a Bachelors degree in Agricultural Economics, a Bachelors degree in Agronomy and a Masters degree in Adult Education from the University of Nebraska. Dave and his high-school sweet heart, Cindy, are involved in their family farming operation with Dave’s brother, father and mother in Northeast Nebraska, where they raise corn, soybeans and kids.
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Families Facing Uncertainty in Agriculture
Jay Gordon – October 7th, 2009

Jay Gordon may be best known as the executive director of the Washington State Dairy Federation, the legislative watchdog for most of Washington’s dairy producers. But Gordon also operates a 130-cow dairy near Elma, Wash. The 600-acre dairy has been in his family for 135 years. It is transitioning to organic production and will market its first organic milk this fall. Gordon’s two roles have sharpened his industry perspective and given him a broader view of the organic dairy business.
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Families Facing Uncertainty in Agriculture
Elaine Froese – October 14th, 2009

Elaine’s specialty is leading agricultural families who are transferring their multi-million dollar farms to the next generation, or not! She coaches farm families to “Discuss the Undiscussabull ™ and answers “Who gets the farm and when ?” Elaine also mediates for the Farm Debt Mediation Service.

She has used traditional media via a regular column in Grainews for over 14 years, national TV (www.agvisionTV.com) and an award winning book to spread her message. Elaine was a keynote speaker at the NWEDA conference in Oklahoma City in 2008.

Elaine is known for her common sense and practical applications honed from a lifetime on the farm. She holds a degree from the University of Manitoba, a certificate in conflict resolution and is a certified coach from the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara. Elaine is a member of the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors and the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. Elaine and her husband Wes produce certified seed grain in southwestern Manitoba. Learn more at www.elainefroese.com
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Families Facing Uncertainty in Agriculture
Jeff Tranel – October 14th, 2009

Jeffrey E. Tranel is an Agricultural and Business Management Economist with Colorado State University Extension and Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. His professional interests focus primarily in farm and family financial management, risk management, accounting and record keeping, income taxes, and water management. He also serves as leader of CSU Extension’s Competitive and Sustainable Agricultural Systems Core Competency Area, co-coordinator of the award winning Agricultural and Business Management Team, and serves as on the Colorado Water Availability Task Force.

Jeff has been involved with many state, regional, and national educational and research projects since “cutting his Extension teeth” helping farm and ranch families in Nebraska during the farm financial crisis of the 1980s. Such projects include: Managing For Tomorrow, Risk and Resilience in Agriculture, RightRisk, Ag Help Wanted, Rural Family Ventures, Ag In Uncertain Times, and Ag Transitions.

Mr. Tranel has conducted workshops and addressed audiences across the United States, Washington, DC, and the countries of Canada, Ireland, and Belarus. He has authored or co-authored numerous resource manuals, fact sheets, spreadsheet templates, articles, newsletters, and a book on human resource management. He has co-authored five self study courses on different aspects of risk management. Much of Jeff’s work involves the complex interaction between people and their farm and ranch businesses.

Jeff was raised on a commercial and purebred cattle ranch in south central Wyoming and northwestern Colorado. He earned Bachelor and Master’s degrees from the University of Wyoming. Jeff lives in Pueblo with his wife, an Extension 4-H/Youth Development Agent.
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Families Facing Uncertainty in Agriculture
Michael Rosmann – October 14th, 2009

Michael Rosmann Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and the executive director of AgriWellness, Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides behavioral health supports to the agricultural population in seven upper Midwestern states.

Dr. Rosmann will address the topic of how to manage our behavior during stressful times on October 14. He lives on his farm at Harlan, Iowa in the western part of his state.
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Families Facing Uncertainty in Agriculture
Norm Dalsted – October 20th, 2009

Norm Dalsted is a professor and extension specialist at Colorado State University. The primary areas of research in which he has been involved include costs of production related to crops, vegetables, fruit, and livestock throughout Colorado. He has been involved in developing actual crop enterprise budgets for various crops to include wheat, corn, alfalfa, sugar beets, barley, dry beans, and corn silage on an annual basis since the 1983 crop year. Livestock budgets including cow calf, sheep, and stocker/yearling budgets which are prepared less frequently but usually every 3-5 years. Dairy analysis has also become an important industry in Colorado and as such research related to annual operating costs and investment requirements of a dairy are developed periodically as the need arises.

Crop insurance as a tool to protect today’s producers against market and weather risks has become an important topic in production agriculture. The various insurance products being offered such as revenue assurance, multi-peril, and adjusted gross revenue create researchable questions as to what product an individual producer should select to best meet their needs yet be affordable to the business. Efforts between Kansas State University, University of Nebraska, and Colorado State University are on-going to develop educational and training materials for crop insurance agents in these states as well as surrounding states of New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Much of the effort is related to the risk management applications of crop insurance products.

Two additional areas of interest include estate planning and financial analyses to include bankruptcy, particularly Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 reorganizations. Very little research has been done related to the successful application of these reorganization tools that are available to agricultural producers. Estate planning is another topic that is overlooked by many of today’s agriculturalists. Development of the educational materials to assist individuals and families is necessary to provide guidance and direction in the transfer process. Estate tax is for many agricultural operations an important consideration, however, in many situations how to transfer the business to heirs is even a bigger hurdle.
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Families Facing Uncertainty in Agriculture
Kenneth Copple – October 20th, 2009

Kenneth Copple of Kenneth Copple and Associates practices in Ft. Collins, CO where he represents ranchers, dairies and family farms in all areas of agricultural law, including water disputes, agribusiness litigation and bankruptcy reorganization.

Mr. Copple has been representing clients in Chapter 11 and 12 bankruptcies since 1987. He also is a frequent guest lecturer at Colorado State University in the areas of agricultural law, and has, in the past, taught the classes in water law and agricultural law at CSU.

Mr. Copple received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Nebraska College of Las in 1980 and a Masters of Agricultural from Colorado State University in 1987.
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Families Facing Uncertainty in Agriculture
Ruth Hambleton – October 21st, 2009

Ruth Fleck Hambleton, Founder of Annie’s Project and president of Annie’s Project—Education for Farm Women, Not-For-Profit retired after 30 plus years with University of Illinois Extension.

She is a farmer’s daughter and married a farmer. Ruth and her husband of 31 years raised three children on a 40 acre hog, beef and hay farm.

Ruth is a graduate of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale with a bachelors in Animal Industries and a masters in Agricultural Economics. She is working with her sister and two brothers to help their father manage his 320 acres of farmland in north central Illinois.
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Families Facing Uncertainty in Agriculture
Bob Fetsch – October 21st, 2009

Bob Fetsch is an Extension professor with Colorado
State University and is nationally recognized for research and
outreach in mental health issues for farmers. Dr. Fetsch has a family dairy background.

In his position at CSU he focuses mainly on stress, coping, risk and resiliency with farm/ranch families, educational program evaluation, suicide prevention, and anger management/child abuse prevention.
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Operating in Risky Environments

| Gary Brester | John Hewlett | Duane Griffith | John Hewlett | Jay Parsons | Emcee – Jon Newkirk |
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Operating in Risky Environments
Gary Brester – November 4th, 2009

Gary Brester is a Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University. He was raised on an irrigated sugarbeet and malting barley farm near Laurel, Montana. He has two degrees from Montana State University — a B.S. in Agricultural Business and an M.S. in Applied Economics. His received his Ph.D. degree in Economics from North Carolina State University.

Dr. Brester was an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University from 1990-1997. Since 1997, he has been an Associate Professor and Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University.

His teaching responsibilities include farm and ranch management, agribusiness management, finance, and agricultural marketing. Brester’s applied research program includes livestock and grain, risk management, international trade, agribusiness, and farm management issues. He currently serves as the Managing Editor of the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
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Operating in Risky Environments
John Hewlett – November 4th, 2009

John Hewlett is a Farm/ranch Management Specialist at the University of Wyoming and member of the regional RightRisk and Risk Navigator teams. He also coordinated past efforts of the regional WIRE program.

He grew up in Washington State, where he worked eight years (four as foreman) on a large stocker-cattle/crop operation. John holds a BS degree in Agricultural Business from Montana State University and a M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics from Oregon State University.

He came to the University of Wyoming, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in 1987. Since then he has been involved in a number of state and regional extension programs, receiving four Western Agricultural Economics Association awards for outstanding extension programs, two UW Cooperative Extension awards for creative excellence, one American Agricultural Economics Association award for professional excellence, the Jim DeBree Excellence in Cooperative Extension award, and six other regional or national awards.

John’s current extension interests include risk management, integrated management, enterprise assessment, financial analysis, recordkeeping, and applications of technology in agricultural.

He and his family operate a small farm/ranch 20 miles outside of Laramie, Wyoming where they have several commercial small animal enterprises.
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Operating in Risky Environments
Duane Griffith – November 18th, 2009

Duane Griffith is an Extension Farm Management Specialist with Montana State University. His interests include production economics and financial analysis covering all aspects of farm and ranch business performance.

His educational curriculum includes crop and livestock enterprise analysis, machinery management, marketing of agricultural commodities, complete farm and ranch financial analysis and emerging risk management issues for agricultural operations.

Griffith also develops on-farm decision aids for farmers and ranchers to analyze their operations. These decision aids are typically in the form of Excel spreadsheets and are available for download from the Web address listed below.

Web address:

http://www.montana.edu/softwaredownloads/

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Operating in Risky Environments
John Hewlett – November 18th, 2009

John Hewlett is a Farm/ranch Management Specialist at the University of Wyoming and member of the regional RightRisk and Risk Navigator teams. He also coordinated past efforts of the regional WIRE program.

He grew up in Washington State, where he worked eight years (four as foreman) on a large stocker-cattle/crop operation. John holds a BS degree in Agricultural Business from Montana State University and a M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics from Oregon State University.

He came to the University of Wyoming, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in 1987. Since then he has been involved in a number of state and regional extension programs, receiving four Western Agricultural Economics Association awards for outstanding extension programs, two UW Cooperative Extension awards for creative excellence, one American Agricultural Economics Association award for professional excellence, the Jim DeBree Excellence in Cooperative Extension award, and six other regional or national awards.

John’s current extension interests include risk management, integrated management, enterprise assessment, financial analysis, recordkeeping, and applications of technology in agricultural.

He and his family operate a small farm/ranch 20 miles outside of Laramie, Wyoming where they have several commercial small animal enterprises.
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Operating in Risky Environments
Jay Parsons – November 18th, 2009

Jay Parsons grew up on a diversified crop and livestock farm in the panhandle of Nebraska. While remaining active in the family farming operation, he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Hastings College and worked the early part of his career in mathematics education as a teacher and a coach. Along the way, he earned a master’s degree in mathematics and served six years as an Assistant Professor and the Associate Director of the Individualized Mathematics Program at Colorado State University. In 2003, he completed his goal of applying mathematics to his farming roots and earned a Ph.D. in agricultural economics.

Jay is the founder and President of Optimal Ag Consulting, Inc. in Fort Collins, CO. He and his wife Geri also formed a subsidiary company called Optimal Livestock Services to further carry out the mission of serving agricultural producers. Jay is active in several organizations including the Colorado Wool Growers Association and the Decision Analysis Society of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science. Jay’s research program spans the fields of production economics, operations research, risk management, and decision analysis with a focus on production agriculture.

Jay’s projects include continued development of Ag Survivor simulation software for RightRisk, an innovative risk management educational program designed to provide experiential learning opportunities for farmers and ranchers. He is also involved in research in the areas of livestock identification systems, livestock production and disease management, risk and uncertainty in livestock production, integrated systems modeling for ranches, and the development of multi-criteria decision support systems for agricultural land use decisions and wheat variety selection decisions.

Jay has given hundreds workshops and informative presentations throughout the country on managing and understanding risk. He has authored or co-authored numerous pieces of software, fact sheets, articles, and book chapters and currently serves as an educator in the Western Center for Integrated Resource Management at Colorado State University.

Jay remains very active as a stake holder in the family farming operation in Nebraska. He and his wife Geri live in Fort Collins with their two children, Tyrel and Maddie.
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Pulling it all together: Managing Ag Enterprises in Uncertain times

| Jason Henderson | Bob Craven | HL Goodwin | Doug Jose | Jon Newkirk | Don Tilmon | Emcees – Jon Newkirk & Ramio Lobo |
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Managing Ag Enterprises in Uncertain times
Jason Henderson – December 2nd, 2009

Jason Henderson joined the Omaha Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in August 2006 as Branch Executive. In this role, he serves as the Bank’s regional economist and representative in the state of Nebraska, recruits and works closely with the branch’s board of directors and is responsible for briefing the Kansas City Fed’s president – a member of the Federal Open Market Committee – on economic and business activity in the state.

Prior to being promoted into this position, he served as Senior Economist with the Center for the Study of Rural America at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Jason began his second stint at the Bank in 2001 after completing his Ph.D. degree from Purdue University. He has a M.S. degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Central College in Pella, Iowa.

Jason’s research interests focus on regional economic issues, including the rural economy. Jason has published research on innovation, entrepreneurship, land values, the growth of knowledge-based activity in rural America, and the use of electronic commerce in agricultural industries. He is responsible for publication of the Tenth Federal Reserve District’s quarterly survey of agricultural credit conditions.

Jason presents frequently to a wide range of business, financial and policy audiences. His research has been widely cited by policy officials, other researchers, and leading media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, and USA Today. He has also provided expert testimony to a Congressional subcommittee on agricultural credit conditions.

Jason is a native of Arlington, Iowa, where he was raised on a small dairy farm. He is married and has three children.
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Managing Ag Enterprises in Uncertain times
Bob Craven – December 9th, 2009

Robert Craven is an Extension Economist and Director of the Center for Farm Financial Management, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota. Areas of specialty include business management, credit analysis and grain marketing. His work for the Center has focused on development of FINPACK, nationally recognized ag credit analysis software. He is also on the development team for the Winning the Game grain marketing education programs. He has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences and seminars including the National ABA Ag Bankers Conference and the USDA Ag Outlook Forum. He has also taught over 300 workshops on farm management and marketing.

Mr. Craven is also actively involved in a 1300 acre family farming operation in southwestern Minnesota. He has a B.S. degree in Animal Science and an M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Minnesota. Bob’s e-mail address is: rcraven@umn.edu
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Managing Ag Enterprises in Uncertain times
HL Goodwin – December 9th, 2009

H.L. Goodwin is Professor and Poultry Economist at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and Co-Director of the Southern Risk Management Education Center at the University of Arkansas’ Cooperative Extenison Service. He joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas’ Center of Excellence for Poultry Science in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness in December, 1997. Prior to 1997 he was the Agricultural and Food Systems Policy Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture in Slovakia (1996-1998) and a Fulbright Scholar in Czechoslovakia (1991-92). Goodwin was on faculty of the Texas A&M University Department of Agricultural Economics from 1982 – 1995 and served as the Associate Director of the Texas Agriculture Market Research Center from 1989 through 1995. He received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Oklahoma State University in 1982.

His current research and extension responsibilities are in economic and business issues related to the poultry industry, specifically poultry litter management, animal waste systems, grower profitability and grower relations. Other areas of his program include international trade, food safety linkages and comparative analysis of the industry with other food and non-food industry segments. Dr. Goodwin’s teaching duties are in the area of agribusiness and market structures, marketing management and integrated poultry systems.

His most recent significant professional contributions include serving on the American Soybean Association Task Force on Assisting U.S. Animal Agriculture and serving as Chair of the Food Safety and Animal Health Workgroup for the 2006 Farm Foundation effort “The Future of Animal Agriculture in North America in the 21st Century” and is the coordinator of a North American symposium “Zoonoses: Connecting Global Animal Agriculture and Human Health”. He is also at the forefront of establishing unique and sustainable solutions to surplus nutrients in poultry production areas.
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Managing Ag Enterprises in Uncertain times
Doug Jose – December 9th, 2009

Doug grew up in Ontario on a dairy and fruit farm. He got his BS in General Agricultural Sciences from McGill University, MS in Ag Economics from the University of Massachusetts and Ph.D. in Ag Economics from Oklahoma State University and has been with the University of Nebraska since 1980. Among his professional accomplishments are the Winning the Game program (one of three originators) and Market Journal, http://marketjournal.unl.edu, which focuses on practical risk management strategies for ag producers. He is a director of the International Farm Management Association and is currently president of the Extension Section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

Doug and his wife Doreen live near Bennett, NE at Trillium Grove Farms and continue to farm. Their daughter, Darrell lives in Toronto and works with the HGTV and FOOD channels in Canada.
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Managing Ag Enterprises in Uncertain times
Jon Newkirk – December 9th, 2009

Jon Newkirk, a Washington State University Extension Economist, has program experience in ag and rural transportation, grain marketing, community building, and farm and risk management. Jon serves as Director of the WSU Western Center for Risk Management Education. The Western Center serves the 13 Western States and the US Pacific Islands with a results/outcome focused regional grant program designed to help farm and ranch families succeed.

In addition to his work as an economist, Jon’s professional career includes a wide range of experiences: refugee relief in SE Asia; self employed auto mechanic; registered public interest lobbyist; and Extension educator at the county level. His organizational leadership roles include positions with the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, Director of the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center, as well as serving as County Chair for the WSU Extension Spokane and Adams County Extension Offices.
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Managing Ag Enterprises in Uncertain times
Don Tilmon – December 9th, 2009

Education:
Ph.D. in Marketing, Purdue University, 1971.
M.S. in Management, University of Delaware, 1967.
B.S. in Animal Science, University of Missouri, 1965.

Employment:
Professor, Farm Management , Delaware Cooperative Extension,
University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 1978 to present.
Assoc. Professor & Dept. Chair, Business Admin Dept, Lynchburg
College, Lynchburg, VA, 1971-78.

RME Experience:
* Director, Northeast Center for RME, University of DE, ’99 to present (Funding of approximately $10 M received from CSREES during this period.)
* Shared Faculty appointment as National Program Leader for Farm Business Management, CSREES/USDA, 1/03-10/03.
* Chaired and coordinated activities associated with National Extension RME Workshop in St. Louis, MO, 6/00.
* Co-Authored five (5) teaching case studies for use with the Adjusted Gross Revenue Insurance Policy, fall 2000.
Served as Northeast RME Extension Coordinator, 10/97-9/99.
* Served as National Program Leader for Risk Management
Education to set up current RME program, CSREES/USDA, 5/97-9/99.
* Served on National RME Work Group, RMA/USDA, 5/97-9/98.
* Chaired and coordinated Northeast Farm Management Committee’s presentation of 5 Horticultural RME Workshops in NE Region, 6/99.
* Conducted research as basis for 6 new vegetable crop insurance policies on Delmarva during 1980’s and directed the educational program for those insurance policies in late 1980’s.
* National Extension Crop Insurance Advisory Committee, 1982 to 1997.
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Managing Ag Enterprises in Uncertain times
John Nelson – December 16th, 2009

John Nelson serves as a Risk Management Education Specialist and Program Coordinator for Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers at Washington State University’s Western Center for Risk Management Education.

In his role at the Western Center, he has worked with Farm Specialists across the U.S. on several programs, including an 18 state expansion of Adjusted Gross Revenue-Lite, an all farm insurance product, and most recently on Ag In Uncertain Times, a webinar series to help educators respond to the financial management needs of farm and ranch families.

Prior to working for the Western Center, John served as a Director for Farm Credit and Farmer Mac ; he has been a state trooper; a farm insurance agent; and, he owns a grain farm in Reardan, Washington.

John was born in Nebraska and grew up in New Mexico and southern Oregon. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon and a Masters Degree from Gonzaga University. John and his wife met while working for Country Companies (Farm Bureau) Insurance and they currently reside on their farm in Reardan, Washington where they have a small herd of registered angus.
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Managing Ag Enterprises in Uncertain times
Trent Teegerstrom – December 16th, 2009

Trent is an associate Specialist with the Department of Ag and Resource Economics at the University of Arizona. Trent has been involved in production agriculture all his life. He has worked with a variety of agricultural enterprises including dry-land farming in the mid-west; irrigated agriculture in the southwest; and livestock production in the northeast, mountain west, and southwest. He has also worked with fruit and vegetable producers in the northeast and southwest.

He joined the University of Arizona’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics in 1997 after spending the previous two years as a Farm Business Management Specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension working in farm finance and risk management areas. His main area of concentration is production economics, Tribal agriculture, risk management and agricultural labor issues.
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Managing Ag Enterprises in Uncertain times
Jon Newkirk – December 16th, 2009

Jon Newkirk, a Washington State University Extension Economist, has program experience in ag and rural transportation, grain marketing, community building, and farm and risk management. Jon serves as Director of the WSU Western Center for Risk Management Education. The Western Center serves the 13 Western States and the US Pacific Islands with a results/outcome focused regional grant program designed to help farm and ranch families succeed.

In addition to his work as an economist, Jon’s professional career includes a wide range of experiences: refugee relief in SE Asia; self employed auto mechanic; registered public interest lobbyist; and Extension educator at the county level. His organizational leadership roles include positions with the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, Director of the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center, as well as serving as County Chair for the WSU Extension Spokane and Adams County Extension Offices.
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Emcees – Jon Newkirk, John Hewlett & Ramiro Lobo

Jon Newkirk, a Washington State University Extension Economist, has program experience in ag and rural transportation, grain marketing, community building, and farm and risk management. Jon serves as Director of the WSU Western Center for Risk Management Education. The Western Center serves the 13 Western States and the US Pacific Islands with a results/outcome focused regional grant program designed to help farm and ranch families succeed.

In addition to his work as an economist, Jon’s professional career includes a wide range of experiences: refugee relief in SE Asia; self employed auto mechanic; registered public interest lobbyist; and Extension educator at the county level. His organizational leadership roles include positions with the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, Director of the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center, as well as serving as County Chair for the WSU Extension Spokane and Adams County Extension Offices.

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John Hewlett is a Farm/ranch Management Specialist at the University of Wyoming and member of the regional RightRisk and Risk Navigator teams. He also coordinated past efforts of the regional WIRE program.

He grew up in Washington State, where he worked eight years (four as foreman) on a large stocker-cattle/crop operation. John holds a BS degree in Agricultural Business from Montana State University and a M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics from Oregon State University.

He came to the University of Wyoming, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in 1987. Since then he has been involved in a number of state and regional extension programs, receiving four Western Agricultural Economics Association awards for outstanding extension programs, two UW Cooperative Extension awards for creative excellence, one American Agricultural Economics Association award for professional excellence, the Jim DeBree Excellence in Cooperative Extension award, and six other regional or national awards.

John’s current extension interests include risk management, integrated management, enterprise assessment, financial analysis, recordkeeping, and applications of technology in agricultural.

He and his family operate a small farm/ranch 20 miles outside of Laramie, Wyoming where they have several commercial small animal enterprises.

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Ramiro Lobo has been a Small Farm and Agricultural Economics Advisor with the University of California Cooperative Extension in San Diego County since 1997. His primary responsibility is to conduct research and educational activities to support small-scale agricultural producers in San Diego County.

Ramiro’s work has focused primarily on educating small scale producers on topics related to agricultural business and risk management, new crop development and evaluation, new entry grower and startup information, market development through agricultural tourism and direct marketing efforts, and farm and pesticide safety education.

His current research efforts has focused on evaluating several cultivars of pitahaya or dragon fruit for adaptation to Southern California climate and as a commercially viable crop alternative for small scale farmers in California. These efforts have resulted in increased acreage dedicated to pitahaya or dragon fruit production, increased awareness among consumers, and increased availability of the fruit at local farmers markets and retail outets in Southern California.

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Webinars by Topic: (click a title to see the list of speakers for each topic covered)
| Managing in the Face of Uncertain Credit | Managing in the Face of Uncertain Markets | Families Facing Uncertainty in Agriculture | Operating in Risky Environments | Managing Enterprises in Uncertain times |
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