2011 Conference Presenters
- Michael Boehlje
- Carl Chaney
- Evan Conrad
- Vance Cook
- Rick Costin
- Tim Dodd
- Robert Eckman
- Doug Hileman
- Craig Infanger
- Adam Kestner
- William Klump
- Kenny Mattingly
- Jim McCabe
- Jeff Nalley
- Joe Nichols
- Dale Nordquist
- Hal Pepper
- Laura Powers
- Maggie Reaville
- Lynn W. Robbins
- Lee Robey
- Lisa Shaffer
- Jordan Shockley
- Tim Stombaugh
Maggie Reaville
Maggie Reaville is a Senior Convention Sales Manager with the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau. She has been with the Nashville CVB for over 12 years. She handles mostly government groups, mixed in with groups from a variety of industries.
Maggie has been in the hospitality industry for 17 years, mostly in sales. She has a degree in Hospitality Management from The University of Alabama. She is a member of such industry organizations as the Tennessee Society of Association Executives and the Society of Government Meeting Professionals.
Maggie is a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but has lived in Nashville for 15 years. She has two daughters: Isabel (5) and Susanna (3) and is active in their schools’ parent organizations.
Maggie passionately loves Music City!
Lisa Shaffer
Lisa Shaffer is a country music singer and songwriter originally from Crittenden, Kentucky. She was signed to a major label record deal with Disney's Lyric Street Records and has had many compositions licensed and recorded by other artists.
Her first number one on the "Music Roots Charts" is a song that was recorded by Darin and Brooke Aldridge called “I Thought I’d Seen It All”. This song has been nominated for a SPBGMA Award. Darin and Brooke recorded another song entitled “Corn” which was included on the same album.
Rhonda Vincent cut a song of Lisa's and released it as both a single and video. The song was entitled “I’ve Gotta Start Somewhere”. It was the first time she got to see a song of hers turned into a video that was played on CMT and GAC. Australian country artist Kristy Cox cut a song of hers called “It’s Hard To Stop A Heart (When It Starts Breaking)”, which climbed to #4 on the "Country Tracks Top 30" Chart. The music video was released to the Country Music Channel (CMC) in Australia and spent 13 weeks as a top 30 video.
Colt Ford cut and released a song called “Hip Hop In A Honky Tonk”. This is his current single and has been released on video to CMT and GAC! It’s on Colt’s new album "Chicken & Biscuits", which debuted on Billboard’s Top Country Albums Chart at #8 and has sold over 140,000 units to date. GMA Dove Award winners Jeff & Sheri Easter recently recorded another song of Lisa's entitled “I Know I Love You”. It is on their "Expecting Good Things" album. This record has been nominated for a Grammy! This same record has been nominated for a Dove Award as well.
Lisa also has a song, "Mt. View Missionary Baptist Church", recorded on Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver's latest record that has been nominated for a Dove Award also! She has also had cuts with Rounder Records recording artists Bradley Walker, Daily & Vincent, and New Found Road.
Lynn W.Robbins
Lynn was born and raised on a Michigan dairy farm. He has degrees in Dairy Science, Management, Economics and Agricultural Economics. He was at University of Kentucky from 1975 to 1986 doing teaching and research in agribusiness marketing and management.
In 1986, Lynn went to New Mexico State University to Chair Agricultural Economics Department, and also acted as Chair of Hospitality and Tourism Services, as well as Home Economics and was Associate Dean for Academic Programs the last eight years he was in New Mexico. He returned to chair the University of Kentucky’s Agricultural Economics Department in August, 1996. After 15 years as chair and 25 years in administration, he returns to the faculty July 1, 2011, to do research and teaching in the areas of agribusiness management and marketing.
Lynn and his wife Mary have two sons: Tim (31 years) and Chris (34 years), and two Grandchildren: Benjamin (7 months) and Dean (3 months)
Rick Costin
Rick is a native of Indiana where he obtained a BS degree from Purdue University. He completed his MS degree at the University of Kentucky and is also an accredited Farm Manager for the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers.
Rick joined the University of Kentucky as a County Extension Agent in 1977. He worked as a 4-H and Agriculture Agent until 1990 when he joined the Agricultural Economics Department as an Area Farm Management Specialist. He worked in the Lincoln Trail Farm Business Management position until January, 2009, upon which time he retired from the position. He is currently on his third and final year of a post retirement assignment with the University.
Rick has been in the private consulting business since 1996 providing expertise to banks, farmers, legal counsel, international companies and governments. For each of the past two years he has logged over 50,000 air miles with his consultant work. He is also owner/operator of a farming operation with land in Kentucky and Indiana.
Rick has authored several publications and articles dealing with farm management topics, as well as given presentations on the local, state, national, and international level.
Michael Boehlje
Mike Boehlje is a distinguished professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue University. He previously held faculty and administrative positions at Iowa State University, University of Minnesota and Oklahoma State University. Mike has devoted his career to helping farm and agribusiness managers and policymakers understand the pragmatic economic and financial consequences of their decisions.
The fundamental focus of his work has been to integrate concepts of economics, finance and strategy to solve problems of farm and agribusiness managers. A major theme of Mike’s research, writing and lecturing for the past 10 years has been the importance of strategic planning and thinking, and positioning the firm for long-term viability and success. His work has attempted to extend and apply modern management concepts of systems analysis, process control, transactions cost, strategic positioning, real options and supply/value chain management to the food production, processing and distribution system.
Mike is the author or co-author of four books and more than 500 articles and publications. He is also senior associate of Centrec Consulting. He is a fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association and the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association.
Tim Dodd
Tim Dodd is the Comptroller for the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation and serves as the Director of Operations for Farmers Service, Inc.
He is a native of Rutherford County, Tennessee where he grew up on the family livestock farm. He received his BS degree in Agribusiness from Middle Tennessee State University in 1979. He achieved his Enrolled Agent designation in 1988, allowing him to practice before the Internal Revenue Service.
He began his career with the Farm Bureau in 1980 through the affiliate company Farmers Service, Inc. as a field analyst providing tax and business services to Tennessee farmers. In 1987 he moved to the Farm Bureau State Office where he worked in the training and development of the Farm Bureau member services provided through Farmers Service, Inc., the Farm Business Service and the Income Tax Service. In 1992 he became the Operations Manager of Farmers Service, Inc. The company is currently preparing over 35,000 tax returns for Farm Bureau members. He was named to his current position of Comptroller for the Tennessee Farm Bureau in 1999.
He and his wife Glenda have two sons and live in Columbia, Tennessee.
Vance Cook
Vance W. Cook is an attorney with his office in Princeton, Kentucky. His practice is concentrated in the areas of estate planning and administration, taxation and business planning, real estate and 1031 Exchanges, Medicaid and elder law, and agricultural law.
Mr. Cook received a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Western Kentucky University in 1988, graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1992, and received his LLM in Taxation from the University of Florida in 1992. Prior to beginning the practice of law, Mr. Cook was a partner in Cook Brothers Farms from 1980 through 1992.
Vance has been personally involved in agriculture since childhood and has continued to be involved with agriculture since he began practicing law in 1992. Over the past nineteen years, Vance has worked with a significant number of farm families throughout western Kentucky in the areas of estate and business planning, tax issues, elder law, real estate exchanges and USDA related matters.
Mr. Cook practiced law in Bowling Green, Kentucky with the firm English, Lucas Priest & Owsley for six years before opening his own practice in Princeton, Kentucky in 1998.
William Klump
William R. Klump is a certified public accountant and is president of William R. Klump, PSC, a certified public accounting firm located in Louisville, Kentucky.
A graduate of the University of Louisville, Bill has worked in corporate as well as public accounting over the past thirty-seven years. In recent years, Bill’s public accounting practice has been devoted primarily to federal and state income taxes. In addition, he has been an instructor for fourteen years in the University of Kentucky Department of Agricultural Economics Income Tax Seminar Program which is held annually each Fall. Furthermore, Bill has been an instructor for income tax seminars in Pennsylvania and Louisiana.
Bill is a member of the Board of Directors of the Land Grant University Tax Education Foundation, Inc. which has published the National Income Tax Workbook each year since 2002. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Kentucky Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Bill is married with five children and is an ordained deacon for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville.
Dr. Tim Stombaugh
Dr. Tim Stombaugh, associate professor, has been with the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department at the University of Kentucky since 2000. His extension, research, and teaching activities have been focused in applications of GPS, GIS, remote sensing, electronic controls, sensor development, and machine automation in agriculture.
A native of Pennsylvania, Tim completed his B.S. and M.S. at Penn State University and his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois.
Dr. Stombaugh’s current research and outreach interests include GPS performance testing, field efficiency and path planning using GPS and GIS, autosteer performance, and adoption of technology. He has developed a unique facility for testing the dynamic performance of GPS receivers, and is one of the international leaders of an ISO group that is developing standards for evaluating and reporting the performance of GPS and autosteer technology.
Robert Eckman
Robert Eckman works in Field Marketing for Capstan Ag Systems. Capstan Ag Systems works in agriculture technology development, and specializes in application technology.
Prior to working with Capstan Ag Systems, Mr. Eckman specialized in on-farm technology integration. Mr. Eckman graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelors degree in Agriculture Economics and Business Management.
Dr. Jordan Shockley
Jordan has been part of the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky since 2005 and is currently a post doctoral scholar in the department.
Jordan’s research concentration has been in farm management, specifically in the area of machinery management. Jordan has focused his research on analyzing the profitability of various new opportunities/technologies for farmers, which includes various precision agriculture technologies. Jordan has participated in numerous conferences nationally and internationally involving precision agriculture and is also a co-instructor for the University of Kentucky’s class on precision agriculture.
Joe Nichols
Seven Springs Farms (SSF) was started from a repair business that Joe Nichols started after working as a mechanic at a local John Deere dealership.
Joe committed to farming full time in January 2000 after managing Hutson Ag Equipment in Princeton, Kentucky for five years. In 2000, SSF had 2,000 acres of crops. In 2011, they will have 9,000 acres corn, 4,900 acres of wheat, 7,900 acres of soybeans and 50 acres of Dark Tobacco for roughly 21,850 acres of total crop. SSF has 1,975,000 bushels of on-farm grain storage as well as drying capacity to dry 30,000 bushels per 24-hour period of 25% corn. On-farm state certified scales allow SSF to micro-manage grain. All wheat is sold to ADM or Seimer Milling, yellow corn to Hopkinsville Elevator, white corn and soybeans to ADM. No grain is delivered at harvest unless markets give an incentive to do so.
SSF crop land consists of 1,328 owned acres and 16,000 cash rented acres with 630 acres irrigated on 162 different farms from 113 different land owners. These farms are located in Trigg, Christian, Caldwell, Lyon and Crittenden counties of Kentucky stretching 60 miles.
SSF is owned by Joe and Kadonna Nichols, Michael Oliver, and Joe and Kadonna’s daughters, Kalynn and Jillian, who joined the operation in 2010. Michael joined the operation in March of 2008 coming from a Chevrolet Dealership where he was a general manager. Kalynn will graduate in December 2011 with a Ag Business degree from Western Kentucky University and Jillian will be a sophomore working towards a agronomy degree from Western Kentucky University.
SSF has a $1,350,000 payroll consisting of 28 full time employees, including the owners, with eight of them holding bachelor degrees (none of the owners) in accounting, finance, agronomy and business management, 10 part time employees, with two being co-op Ag students from the local school, and 12 migrant workers that help in the tobacco. A CCA certified agronomist and CPA help to complete the staff at SSF.
Jeff Nalley, Cromwell AG Radio Network
Jeff Nalley is a 28 year veteran of radio and farm broadcasting. He is a past president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting and has received numerous awards for excellence in broadcast media from within the NAFB as well as other farm organizations.
Jeff has received distinguished service awards from Purdue University, the United Soybean Board, Kentucky Soybean Association, Kentucky Pork Producers, and the Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation. In 2009, Jeff was recognized for excellence in broadcasting by both the Illinois Corn Growers Association and the Illinois Soybean Association. In November, Jeff was named the 2010 Farm Broadcaster of the Year by the National Association of Farm Broadcasting.
Each day farmers in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio listen to Jeff’s daily broadcasts. The Cromwell AG Network includes 30 radio stations across that geography.
Jeff and his wife Robin are members of Owensboro Christian Church. They have been married for 19 years and have four children.
Lee Robey
Robey Farms is located in Adairville, Kentucky, in Logan County. The farm consists of four generations of the Robey family: Lee and Denise and their three sons and wives, Chris and Jessica, Adam and Amanda, and Eli and LoraLee. They have five grandchildren, and number six is expected in July. Jane Robey, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother is the senior partner. The Robeys have been members of the Pennyroyal Farm Analysis Group since the mid 1970s.
The farm has a total of 13,200 acres with the crops consisting of 5600 acres of corn, 4200 acres of wheat, 500 acres of barley, 4700 acres of double-crop soybeans, 750 acres of alfalfa, 275 acres of tobacco, and 1800 acres of grass. They have a dairy that consists of 2000 Holstein cows, with 2500 head of young stock. Robey Farms also has a 150 head cow-calf beef herd.
Lee is a member of the Kentucky Agricultural Water Authority, Kentucky Milk Commission, and is the Secretary-Treasurer of the Logan Simpson Dairy Herd Improvement Association. He is also the Secretary-Treasurer of the Adairville Rural Fire Department.
Carl Chaney
Carl Chaney’s family in Warren County has been in the dairy business since the 1940s, but his family’s long lineage as farmers goes back to the 1800s. In 2003, Carl and his wife of 35 years, Debra, opened Chaney’s Dairy Barn, an agri-tourism operation that has averaged 200,000 visitors per year. They are passionate about people and telling the farmers’ story to all audiences.
Carl is a community-minded individual who is a great representative for the local agriculture industry. In addition to his busy schedule with the farm and his new business venture, he serves in various organizations. Carl is currently chairman of Kentucky Agri-tourism Advisory Council, Warren County District Extension Board; he also serves on the Board of Directors of Warren County Farm Bureau, the National Ice Cream Retailers Association, and is a member of Rockfield Methodist Church.
Carl and Debra have 3 children: Jessica, James and Elizabeth, and 5 grandchildren.
Kenny Mattingly
Kenny Mattingly and his family have been dairy farmers for over 30 years in Barren County, KY. For twelve of those years he has been perfecting recipes and aging-techniques resulting in 25 varieties of artisanal cheeses.
The Mattingly’s adhere to sustainable farming practices, the cows are raised without synthetic hormones, and every step of the cheese making process takes part on their family-owned and operated farm. Unpasteurized raw milk provides a unique depth of flavor and many health benefits you can feel great about.
Kenny Mattingly's vision for his farm has come a long way since a trip to Europe back in the early 1990's where he was impressed with the way small family farms in Western Europe were finding ways to add value to their products and market to their local communities. Little did he know that what he experienced on the small family farms where he stayed, would he himself be adding value to his products and marketing to his local communities.
Doug Hileman
Doug Hileman has worked as a fieldman for the Illinois FBFM program for 29 years, serving in the five southern counties of the state.
Doug received his Bachelors of Science degree from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in Agricultural Economics and Education.
Doug and his wife Beth have three children, Sarah Song who was married to Matt in July 2010, Jacob and Lucas.
Adam Kestner
Adam has served as a fieldman for the Western Association of the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management group located in Camp Point, Illinois since October 2008 specializing in tax planning and preparation along with accounting, analysis and business planning.
He received a Bachelor’s of Business degree from Western Illinois University in 2004. After graduating from college, he worked for four years as an inventory control specialist with United Agri Products in Pittsfield, IL, where he implemented monthly inventories and Sarbanes Oxley procedures for several fertilizer, chemical, and seed warehouses throughout the Midwest.
Adam was born and raised on a cattle and grain farm and resides in Camp Point with his wife, Kindel, and their son, Braxton, who was born on April 30, 2011.
Laura Powers
Laura is an Extension Specialist in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky. She has both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Kentucky.
Laura has also worked for the Kentucky Center for Agricultural and Rural Development as a Business Development Specialist for two and a half years and was a Credit Analyst with CoBank. She has been in her current position since April 2007. Her primary areas of focus are tobacco labor education and financial management, particularly working on cost of production issues with Kentucky burley tobacco growers.
Evan Conrad
Evan Conrad is an Area Extension Specialist has been with the University of Kentucky Farm Business Management Program (KFBM) since 2006.
A native of Kentucky, Evan received his education from University of Kentucky majoring in Agricultural Economics. While in his current role, he serves on the computer committee for the KFBM program.
Evan has several interests ranging from technology to automobiles and antique tractors. He currently runs several small businesses, including a auto detailing business and small farm partnership growing corn and soybeans.
Jim McCabe
Jim McCabe graduated from the University of Illinois in 1986. He worked in commercial farming for 2 years after college.
In October of 1988, Jim started working for Illinois Valley FBFM in the Ottawa office serving the south half of LaSalle County. Currently the work has switched slightly to specializing in larger farms and working with the vast array of farm technology, from GPS analysis to offsite access of equipment. The Ottawa office is also working on changing the approach to analysis and product delivery to the cooperator through a team approach with access from multiple offices.
Hal Pepper
Hal has worked the past 26 years with the Extension Service and 4 years with the Farm Credit System. In 1985 he helped start the Central Alabama Farm Analysis Association and continued to work with that association until he took an early retirement last year. In 2010 Hal started a new career as a financial analysis specialist with University of Tennessee Extension’s Center for Profitable Agriculture.
The Center for Profitable Agriculture’s mission is to help farm families improve income by identifying new ways to add value to food and fiber products through processing, packaging and marketing. The Center focuses on three areas: working with families and entrepreneurs to analyze value-added agricultural enterprises, implementing market development studies to determine the viability of new products and conducting educational programs for Tennessee farmers and agricultural leaders.
Dale Nordquist
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.
His areas of interest include farm business analysis, farm planning, and software development. He has over 30 years of experience in teaching farm management and developing software tools for farm financial planning and analysis. Dale is 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.
He is a board member of the Farm Financial Standards Council and is a past chair of the FFSC Technical Committee. Awards received include the USDA Unit Award for Superior Service and the American Agricultural Economics Association Group Award for Distinguished Extension Programs.
Dr. Craig Infanger
Dr. Infanger has been at the University of Kentucky his entire career, working on extension programs and teaching natural resource economics. He currently manages the UK Income Tax Seminar Program, in addition to economic outlook and policy education work.
He has taken leave from UK to work for a year in USDA, a year in the U.S. Senate during a Farm Bill, and on agricultural projects in Thailand, Russia, and Armenia. For a period of time he was State Coordinator for the Farm Business Analysis Program in Kentucky.