Wisconsin Agribusiness Classic

 

2023 Speakers

2023 Speakers

Randy Romanski

Randy Romanski

Thursday
Agribusiness Workforce Development

Randy Romanski was announced secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection by Governor Tony Evers and was subsequently confirmed by the Wisconsin State Senate. Prior to this appointment, Romanski served as DATCP deputy secretary and interim secretary. He brings decades of experience in government administration and policy development to the department. Romanski has held leadership roles at multiple state agencies including DOT, DNR, and DOJ. Originally from Wisconsin Rapids, Romanski earned his bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and his master's degree in Public Policy and Administration from the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Romanski resides in Monona, Wisconsin.

Bio
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Matt Ruark

Wednesday; Thursday
Soil & Water Management; Nutrient Management

Matt Ruark is a Professor of Soil Science/State Extension Specialist at UW-Madison. His research and extension activities are related to soil fertility and nutrient cycling in field, vegetable, and biofuel cropping systems. He is currently the co-director of the Wis. Agribusiness Classic and faculty advisor the Discovery Farms Program. Matt received his BS and MS from the Univ. of Minnesota, and his PhD from Purdue.

Bio
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Tatiane Severo

Wednesday
Weed Management

Tatiane is a visiting Weed Science PhD graduate student at UW-Madison. She is originally from Pernambuco, Brazil and received her BS in Agronomy from Maranhao State University and MS in Agronomy from the Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid. In her PhD project, she is investigating the soil residual activity of PRE-emergence corn herbicides and their impact on the establishment of multiple cover crop species.

Bio
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Kevin Shelley

Thursday
Nutrient Management

Kevin is an Educational Outreach Specialist with the University of Wisconsin Nutrient and Pest Management Program. He provides educational programs and collaborative research in crop production practices to optimize farm profitability and environmental enhancement.

Kevin has experience in farming and agribusiness and has served UW-CALS and UW Extension since 1991. He holds Bachelor of Science-Agriculture Economics and Master of Science-Land Resources degrees from UW Madison. He is a Certified Crop Advisor (CCA) with the American Society of Agronomy.

Bio
Erin Silva

Erin Silva

Thursday
Economics & Special Topics

Dr. Silva is an Associate Professor in the Plant Pathology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Director of the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. She holds the Clif Bar Endowed Chair in Organic Agriculture and Outreach within the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Her research and extension program focuses on sustainable and organic cropping systems, including cover crops and cover crop-based no-till production, variety selection in organic environments, and the impact of organic management on soil biological and physical properties. Erin has launched a comprehensive organic grain training program for farmers in the upper Midwest, “OGRAIN”. Erin works closely with organic farmers and industry members both in Wisconsin and throughout the upper Midwest and serves on the Wisconsin Organic Advisory Council. Dr. Silva can be reached by email at emsilva@wisc.edu.

Bio
Daniel Smith

Dan Smith

Wednesday
Special Sessions

Daniel Smith is the southwest outreach specialist for the Nutrient and Pest Management Program. Daniel received BS degrees in Soil and Crop Science and Agribusiness from UW–Platteville and a MS in Agroecology (weed science emphasis) from UW-Madison. Daniel’s key programming includes nutrient and pest management in the southwest region while also assisting with statewide research and outreach on cover crops, particularly interseeding, herbicide resistance, and waterhemp management.

Bio
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Damon Smith

Thursday
Disease Management

Damon Smith is a Professor and Extension Plant Pathologist at UW-Madison. Damon is also the director of the Nutrient and Pest Management Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Damon’s responsibilities include research and extension efforts that focus on improving our understanding of the epidemiology of plant pathogens in order to develop better control recom-mendations for the sustainable management of field and forage crop diseases. Damon is a native of Western New York State. He earned his BS in Biological Sciences at the State University of New York, College at Geneseo, and his MS and PhD degrees from North Carolina State University. Prior to Damon’s appointment at UW he was an assistant professor and extension specialist at Oklahoma State University.

Bio
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Rachel Steiner

Thursday
Disease Management

Rachel Steiner is a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying and working as a research assistant under Dr. Brian Luck. Her research involves managing sclerotinia stem rot in soybeans using various precision agriculture techniques. She completed her BS in Biological Systems Engineering at UW-Madison in May 2021, and she will receive her Masters degree in the same area in August 2023.

Rachel is a Wisconsin native; her parents, two sisters, brother, and dog all live nearby in Middleton, WI. Outside of work, she enjoys swimming, cooking, and gardening.

Bio
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Albert Tenuta

Thursday
Disease Management

Albert Tenuta graduated from the University of Toronto in Plant Pathology and since 1991 has been the Field Crop Extension Plant Pathologist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) based at the University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus in Ridgetown, Ontario, Canada. Albert's responsibilities with OMAFRA include applied research and development of leading-edge packaged information and resource materials for educating and training producers, agri-business, students, extension personnel, and other specialists on field-crop diseases and nematodes. He is actively involved in many large North American regional disease management research projects and extension initiatives such as the Crop Protection Network and the SCN Coalition. Albert’s contribution to extension, communication and applied research has been recognized by the Ontario Agricultural College (University of Guelph)– “T.R Hillard Distinguished Extension Award”; inaugural recipient Canadian Phytopathological Society –“Achievements in Plant Disease Management (Extension) Award”, American Phytopathological Society North Central Division – “Distinguished Service Award” and other individual and collaborative awards.

Bio
Kayla Tobias

Kayla Tobias

Thursday
Agribusiness Workforce Development

Kayla Tobias joined GROWMARK, Inc. in February 2015 as the Talent Acquisition Coordinator within the Talent Acquisition department. She has held many roles in student and member recruiting leading to her current position as Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition & Member employment. In her role, Kayla manages and leads GROWMARK & Member Company Talent Acquisition strategies and processes, and oversees the Talent Acquisition, Member Employment and Student Recruiting Teams. She helps the System with recruitment strategies to attract, pipeline, and hire top talent. She also serves as GROWMARK’s Affirmative Action Program officer. Kayla has her bachelor’s degree in marketing from Illinois State University and is a SHRM Certified Professional in Human resources. She is active in community and GROWMARK- sponsored event, a graduate of Leadership McLean County in Illinois, serves on various community college agriculture advisory boards, and serves as the current board chair for the National Professional Agriculture Students organization.

Bio
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Peter Tomlinson

Wednesday
Soil & Water Management

Peter Tomlinson is an Associate Professor/Extension Specialist of Environmental Quality in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State Univ. His areas of research specialization are microbial ecology & soil biology in agricultural systems. He received his BS in Animal Science/Agronomy, Univ. of Connecticut in 2000; MS and PhD in Crop in Soil & Environmental Sciences, Univ. of Arkansas in 2006 and 2011, respectively.

Bio
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Andrea Topper

Wednesday
Special Sessions

Andrea Topper is a nutrient management specialists in Wis. Dept. of Ag, Trade and Consumer Protection Planning and Training Div. She focuses primarily on outreach, training, and SnapPlus support.

Bio
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Bill Tracy

Wednesday
Vegetables

Bill Tracy is a professor in the Department of Agronomy at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison. His program focuses on improving sweet corn by breeding and the discovery of genetic information that will be useful for sweet corn improvement. He directs a sweet corn breeding program that generates commercially useful inbreds and hybrids. In the breeding program tropical and other non-sweet germplasm are extensively used.

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Jason Troendle

Wednesday
Fertilizer & Manure

Bio
Zaim Ugljic

Zaim Ugljic

Wednesday
Weed Management

Zaim is a Weed Science PhD graduate student in the Department of Agronomy, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, working with Rodrigo Werle’s lab. He is originally from Pancevo, Serbia and received his BS from the University of Belgrade and MS from Mississippi State, focusing on novel smart-spraying application technologies.

Bio
Dan Undersander

Dan Undersander

Wednesday
Animal Health & Nutrition

Forage Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin
Dr. Dan Undersander has worked as a forage specialist for 47 years and recently retired after 29 years with the University of Wisconsin. His areas of specialty include forage production, forage harvesting (hay, haylage and baleage), forage analysis, and grazing. He is a fellow of both the American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society of America. He has more than 1,800 publications in forage production and utilization. Dan has traveled the world (working in 58 countries) helping farmers improve the quality and yields of their forages in Asia, Europe, North America and South America.

Bio
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Ashley Waggoner

Thursday
Nutrient Management

Ashley Waggoner is currently a postdoctoral research specialist with Matt Ruark in the Department of Soil Science at UW-Madison. Before coming to UW-Madison, she completed her bachelors in anthropology and masters in biological and environmental science at the University of Rhode Island and her PhD in Soil Science at Oregon State University. Her research has centered on carbon and nitrogen cycling, greenhouse gas emissions, and soil microbiology.

Bio
John Wallace

John Wallace

Wednesday
Weed Management

John Wallace is an Assistant Professor of Weed Science in the Department of Plant Science, Pennsylvania State Univ. He received his BS from Penn State Univ., MS and PhD from the Univ. of Idaho. His areas of expertise include Weed ecology, Herbicide-based weed control, Organic weed management, Sustainable cropping systems.

Bio
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Laura Ward Good

Wednesday
Special Sessions

Laura Ward Good is a soil scientist and leads the development of the SnapPlus nutrient management planning software at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has been working with the SnapPlus project since it began in 2005.

Bio
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Mark Waschek

Thursday
Agribusiness Workforce Development

Currently President of Ag1Source; Resides in Apple Valley MN
Mark Waschek joined Ag 1 Source in 2006. Since that time, he has been responsible for leading the Agronomy, Seed, and Grain activities of the organization. He became a partner in the firm in 2007 and assumed the role of President in 2022. Mark has continued to be a leader in the industry while working with job seekers and organizations throughout the US and Canada. Mark has partnered with employers and job seekers to place everything from salespeople to CEO and has successfully improved hiring practices in companies ranging from small agronomy operations to Fortune 100 companies. In addition to recruiting and consulting, Mark has been writing Human Resource based articles for CropLife Magazine since 2008 and has assisted several regional and national ag organizations develop programs and resources to improve hiring and employee retention practices for their members.

Bio
Rodrigo Werle

Rodrigo Werle

Wednesday
Weed Management

Rodrigo Werle is an Assistant Professor and Extension Cropping Systems Weed Scientist. His research and Extension activities are related to weed management in corn, soybeans and small grains. Rodrigo received his BS in Agronomy at São Paulo State University, Brazil, and MS and PhD in Agronomy with Specialization in Weed Science from the Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln. Prior to joining UW-Madison, Rodrigo served for 2 years as an Assistant Professor and Cropping Systems Specialist at the Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln West Central Research and Extension Center.

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