Date/Time
Date(s) - October 6, 2022
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Categories


The last competitive event training webinar will take place Thursday, Oct. 6 at 8 p.m.

This training will take a deep dive into Discussion Meet questions #3 and #4 with subject matter experts. Joining us to discuss question #3 will be Matt Dixon, senior meteorologist at the University of Kentucky Ag Weather Center, and Andrew Walmsley, senior director, government affairs at American Farm Bureau Federation. Discussing question #4 will be Jon Iverson, farmer and YF&R member from Oregon.

On the call, experts will share their knowledge on the following questions:

  • Climate has become a major topic among business leaders, policymakers and consumers. As an industry that depends on the weather, what role do we as farmers and ranchers play in shaping climate initiatives to benefit society overall as well as our own farms and ranches?
  • Advancements in autonomous equipment and drone technology offer solutions to challenges farmers and ranchers have faced for years. How can Farm Bureau improve access to, and help farmers and ranchers deploy, these emerging technologies on their operations?

Experts

Matt Dixon is a senior meteorologist at the University of Kentucky Ag Weather Center, housed within the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. Working within the Cooperative Extension Service, the main goal of the Ag Weather Center is to minimize weather and climate-related surprise for Kentucky residents by providing tools, models and climatological information for agricultural production and management-related decisions. Before starting at UK in 2012, Matt obtained his bachelor’s degree in Atmospheric Sciences from Purdue University. He then went on to Mississippi State University, where he obtained a master’s degree in Geosciences with concentration in Applied Meteorology.

Andrew Walmsley  joined the American Farm Bureau Federation in 2011 as director, Congressional Relations. In addition to leading the farm policy team, Andrew is charged with managing energy, climate, transportation, and biotechnology issues for Farm Bureau. Andrew has held multiple leadership roles around Washington, D.C. He helped establish and serve as chairman of the Farmers for a Sustainable Future Coalition, co-chairs the Agricultural Transportation Working Group, and is a founding member of the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance. Prior to joining the American Farm Bureau Federation, he worked for the Florida Farm Bureau Federation managing energy, environmental, and commodity-specific issues.

Jon Iverson is a third-generation family farmer from Woodburn, Oregon. Iverson Family Farms includes about 1,100 acres of grass seed, cover crops seeds, tulips, grapes and hemp. Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, a branch of the farm, hosts an annual tulip festival which has over 180,000 visitors every spring. Jon graduated from Oregon State University in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in Crop and Soil Science and a minor in Ag Business. Jon was National YF&R Chair in 2021. He competed in the Discussion Meet in 2012 when the AFBF Annual Convention was in Honolulu, Hawaii. He and his wife, Katie, have four daughters.

Paul Welbig is the director of business development for Raven, now a brand of CNH Industrial. For over 25 years, Welbig has been actively involved in the field of precision agriculture and enjoys finding ways to utilize technology to help improve farming operations. He received a bachelor’s degree in agronomy from South Dakota State University while working as an agronomist at a local ag retailer, then served many roles within Raven to help it become a global leader in the precision agriculture market. Paul has been named as one of the Most Influential Precision Farming Advocates and regularly speaks at several events, seminars, and conferences about applying precision ag practices to improve productivity on the farm.