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2022 Conference Speakers |
Keynote Speakers
Dale Strickler Green Cover Seed Agronomist
Dale Strickler is an agronomist for Green Cover Seed, the nation’s leading cover crop specific seed company and a leader in the soil health movement, based out of Bladen, NE. He grew up on a diversified farm near Colony, KS, then attended Kansas State university, achieving both B.S. and M.S. degrees in Agronomy. Dale also has his own cattle operation near Jamestown, KS, where he puts into practice his theories about creating better soil. He planted his first cover crop in 1988 and has been experimenting with them ever since with increasingly impressive results.
Marlon Winger NRCS Regional Soil Health Agronomist
Marlon earned a BS and MS degrees at Utah State University in Plant Science. He grew up on a family owned dairy farm in Dayton, Idaho, where he found his professional passion for life (Agriculture). Worked as a County Agricultural Agent for Utah State University Extension service for 9 years in Price, Utah. Has been working for the USDA - Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) for 17 years, as Area Agronomist in Northern Utah and State Agronomist in Idaho, currently works as the Regional Soil Health Specialist for MT, WY, UT, and Idaho. Marlon and his family lives on a ranchette in Casper, WY where the family raises, pasture, sheep, hogs, a few calves and a large garden.
Breakout Session Speakers:
Dr. David Johnson Molecular Biologist
David is a molecular biologist conducting research as Research Scientist at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM and the Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems at California State University, Chico, CA https://www.csuchico.edu/regenerativeagriculture/ . He works with growers, and researchers from: Arizona State University, Texas A&M, California State University, Chico; University of North Texas, Colorado State University, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Globetrotter Foundation, the Thornburg Foundation ,The Howard Buffett Foundation and the Mighty-Arrow Family Foundation exploring paths to improve food security, reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and increase farm and rangeland productivity and profitability through the development of beneficial soil microbial communities.
Bob Hurford Division Engineer, Colorado Div. of Water Res.
Bob Hurford is the Division Engineer for Division 4, the Gunnison River Basin. The main office is located right here in Montrose and there is one field office in Cedaredge. Bob manages twenty-eight employees in the administration of water rights and implementation of the Hydrography and Dam Safety Programs, as well as working directly with the water court and the general public. Bob received his civil engineering degree from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California and has been with the Division of Water Resources since 2007.
Dave Dearstyne Soil Scientist, Retired
Dave worked for SCS/NRCS for over 30 years as a soil scientist, project leader in Florida, Maine, and Colorado. Dave’s final 23 years with NRCS were spent on the western slope of Colorado, working out of Craig and Montrose. During his NRCS career he mapped about 1 million acres of land and worked on eight different soil surveys. Dave has spent the past seven years of his retirement working on the NRCS National Resources Inventory in Colorado, New Mexico, and thankfully only a short stint in Nebraska in July of 2017. He has also served as Soil Health Technical provider for the Shavano Conservation District. For the past 4 summers he has also provided soils training to BLM resource inventory crews in the region. He has also served on the National BAER (Burn Area Emergency Response) team as soil scientist for after fire evaluation and recommendations. His duties included the Pine Gulch Fire north of Grand Jct. and the East Troublesome Fire in Rocky Mountain National Park. Dave also has been actively involved in soil health the past 13 years, forming and serving as moderator of the Western Slope Soil Health Team. He has also been actively involved with the Western Colorado Soil Health
Conference since its inception. Dave presently continues his efforts on these fronts while also acting as a soil/soil health consultant. Dave is also blessed daily to love his wife Kathleen. He even manages the occasional fishing trip in his retirement.
Conference since its inception. Dave presently continues his efforts on these fronts while also acting as a soil/soil health consultant. Dave is also blessed daily to love his wife Kathleen. He even manages the occasional fishing trip in his retirement.
Erik Wardle Director, CSU Ag Water Quality Program
Erik is the manager of the CSU Water Quality Program in the Soil and Crop Science Department. In this position he does extensive research, writing and Extension work related to agricultural water quality issues including; pesticide use, nutrient management, soil moisture monitoring, groundwater/surface water interactions, conservation tillage, and irrigation water management. He supports the development, validation, and promotion of agricultural Best Management Practices that allow chemical users to use these products appropriately while preventing the contamination of surface and groundwater in Colorado. He works closely with the agricultural community to ensure that research and outreach efforts provide practical, real world solutions to water quality issues in agriculture.
George Rosenbaum Winddrift Farms LLC
Dr. Jim Ippolito Professor, Soil and Crop Sciences, CSU
Jim Ippolito received his BS in Plant Sciences with a concentration in Agronomy from the University of Delaware (1989), and a MS (1992) and PhD (2001) in Environmental Soil Chemistry/Quality from Colorado State University. He worked for CSU from 1989 to 2007, focusing on beneficial reuse of organic-based materials in production agricultural settings. He then worked for the USDA-ARS in Kimberly, ID (2007 to 2016) as a research soil scientist, focusing on water and soil contamination issues, and soil health. Jim currently works for CSU as a professor of soil fertility/soil health in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences. His research focuses attention on quantifying soil health in dryland and irrigated agroecosystems, grazed rangelands/pasture/grassland settings, organic agroecosystems, CRP, and mine reclamation sites in the central and western US.
Katie Alexander, Tri River Area CSU Extension
Katie Alexander, has over 13 years experience in conservation planning, soils, and irrigation systems from the NRCS. Currently she is working in Extension helping improve small Acreages in the Tri River Area. Along with her husband they also raise commercial cow calve and hay operation in Montrose County.
Ken Holsinger, Ecologist, Bureau of Land Management
Ken is an Ecologist with Bureau of Land Management in Montrose, Colorado. He has 21 years of experience working for the BLM in fire ecology, botany, rangeland ecology, and wildlife biology. Projects he is most frequently involved in are threatened and endangered species recovery, post fire stabilization and restoration, rangeland health evaluations, rangeland restoration, Assessment Inventory and Monitoring implementation and analysis.
Lowell King Grand Valley Farmer - cover crops, no-till, & livestock integration
Lowell King, Regenerative Ag Farmer. Lowell farms 800 acres of hay, small grain, non GMO corn, and cover crops along with his brother Mark and brother in law Ed Weaver. He grew up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania and moved to Western CO in 2005 . After dealing with the frustration that goes along with tillage, he ditched the plow in 2016. Today every acre of farm ground has living roots year around and the farm is full no till under furrow irrigation. In addition to farming, Lowell sells cover crop seed, Esch no till drills, and Furrow Runner no till creaser attachments. He is passionate about Soil Health after seeing how it has transformed the soil on his farm. Offering on farm consulting and field tours are just a few of the ways Lowell is using to further soil health across Western CO .
Dr. Ray Ward Founder, Ward Laboratories
Dr. Ray Ward is president and co-owner of Ward Laboratories, Inc. He is a certified Professional Agronomist (CPAg), certified Soil Scientist (CPSS), and certified crop advisor (CCA) with a PhD in Soil Fertility, South Dakota State University 1972.
Before founding Ward Laboratories, Inc in Kearney he served as lab division manager of Servi-Tech, Inc in Dodge City, KS; Associate Professor at Oklahoma State University; and Assistant Professor and Instructor at South Dakota State University.
Ray has received many awards including the Soil Science Industry Award and Soil Science Professional Service Award from Soil Science Society of America in 2005 and 2007, respectively. He received the J. Benton Jones, Jr. Award that was presented to him at the 12th International Symposium on Soil and Plant Analysis, Chania, Greece, June 9, 2011. He received the Henry Beachell Distinguished Alumni Award from the Nebraska Ag Alumni 2016. He received the 2019 No-Till Innovator Award from No-Till Farmer.
His goals for agriculture and agronomy are to help production agriculture use its resources as efficiently as possible, to provide information and data for developing soil health for the best use of soil and water resources while maintaining environmental quality, to be involved in “value-added” agriculture and to provide accurate laboratory data for managing productions enterprises.
Before founding Ward Laboratories, Inc in Kearney he served as lab division manager of Servi-Tech, Inc in Dodge City, KS; Associate Professor at Oklahoma State University; and Assistant Professor and Instructor at South Dakota State University.
Ray has received many awards including the Soil Science Industry Award and Soil Science Professional Service Award from Soil Science Society of America in 2005 and 2007, respectively. He received the J. Benton Jones, Jr. Award that was presented to him at the 12th International Symposium on Soil and Plant Analysis, Chania, Greece, June 9, 2011. He received the Henry Beachell Distinguished Alumni Award from the Nebraska Ag Alumni 2016. He received the 2019 No-Till Innovator Award from No-Till Farmer.
His goals for agriculture and agronomy are to help production agriculture use its resources as efficiently as possible, to provide information and data for developing soil health for the best use of soil and water resources while maintaining environmental quality, to be involved in “value-added” agriculture and to provide accurate laboratory data for managing productions enterprises.
Reed Irwin
Reed began gardening in the 1950s, selling his produce from a basket on his bike and working in a commercial greenhouse growing hothouse tomatoes and bedding plants. Gardening continued as he lived in Ohio, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Colorado. He applies what he learned in geology and soil & crop science graduate programs in different gardening situations. He especially enjoys growing different types of plants in unconventional ways that improve soil health and challenge conventional wisdom.
Ryan Taylor Soil Health Program Coordinator, Colo Dept. Ag
Ryan Taylor is the new Soil Health Specialist to lead CDA’s voluntary Soil Health Program. He is currently finishing his Ph.D. in biogeochemistry through the Department of Soil and Crop Science at CSU. A native resident of Fort Collins, he is passionate about educating people concerning the resource that is always right under their feet. He has managed the biogeochemistry lab for Dr. Eugene Kelly since 2012, taught introductory soil labs for the department since 2013, and is excited to put his academic experience to work in the field to support agricultural producers’ interests in improving soil function. His first work with the Soil Health Program has been as part of the team building the STAR questionnaires and scoresheets for local conservation district involvement, but as the finishing touches are being applied on that his duties have shifted to managing the program and helping the team create guiding documents and online instructional content for producers, conservation districts, and other qualifying entities. In his personal time, he is involved in industrial hemp production, brewing beer, and is dedicated family man. He loves every kind of fishing imaginable, as well as camping, hiking, hunting, basketball, AND COOKING. In his first iteration of adulthood, he ran his own log home construction business and built homes all over the western U.S. and he enjoys connecting with producers on that small business ownership level. Ryan looks forward to being part of the team building resilience into Colorado’s agricultural communities through the implementation of the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Soil Health program.
Seth Urbanowitz Agronomist, Agoro Carbon Alliance
Seth Urbanowitz is an agronomist with Agoro Carbon Alliance, focusing on carbon cropping and the carbon market. He works with growers in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Nevada. Seth has previously worked as a regional agronomy specialist with Colorado State University Extension, as an agronomist for a farmer’s cooperative in Oregon and an extension educator focusing on irrigation management, agronomy and produce safety in Nevada. He is the former chair of the White Pine County Soil Conservation District in Nevada. He has scientific and technical experience in a variety of crop production systems and is passionate about finding solutions in production agronomy settings. Seth received his B.S. in Agribusiness Economics from Southern Illinois University, M.S. in Agronomy from South Dakota State University and M.S. in Education from the University of Tennessee.
Steve Hale Business Development Specialist, Triton Environmental
Steve is a native of Montrose, CO. He operates his family’s 4th generation, Colorado Centennial farm and ranch, raising natural Grass-fed beef, and other farm enterprises. Steve graduated from CSU with a Bachelors in Agricultural Business. For past 11 years, Steve specialized in reclamation and surface management while working as an Environmental Specialist for oil and gas operations in Northwest Colorado and Utah. Currently, he is a Business Development Specialist for Triton Environmental, representing a wide range of environmental products for industry, agriculture, and construction. Steve served on Shavano Conservation District (Montrose area) from 1999-2008, and recently returned to the Board as a Supervisor. He also represented Gunnison and Colorado River Districts on the Colorado State Conservation Board from 2001 to 2005. Steve is a member of the Society for Range Management, serving on the Reclamation and Restoration Committee.
Steve Woodis Wildlife Biologist, Down To Earth Natural Resource Solutions, LLC
Steve worked for NRCS for most of his professional career as a wildlife biologist in the Montrose Colorado Field Office. He also worked for the US Fish & Wildlife Service. He received his bachelors in wildlife biology and masters in range science from Colorado State University. He operates a small farm with his wife Peg a few miles west of Montrose. After retirement, Steve started his own consulting business and now works with landowners to help them address natural resource issues of varied sorts.