Kyle Achord

Kyle Achord, vice president of team sales, Marucci Sports.

Dr. Joseph Bender, DVM, MS

Dr. Joseph Bender, DVM, MS is an Associate Professor of Clinical Dairy Production Medicine at the Center for Animal Health and Productivity at the University of Pennsylvania School Of Veterinary Medicine – New Bolton Center. Dr. Bender received his Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Findlay (2003) and his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Master’s Degree (Preventive Medicine) from Iowa State University (2010). Since arriving at PennVet in 2013, Dr. Bender’s area of concentration is providing on farm consultation to dairy farmers throughout Pennsylvania to improve production, profitability, and well-being for both dairy cattle and producers. Dr. Bender lectures in several courses focusing on production medicine, animal health economics, and dairy nutrition. Primary interests and research areas include evaluating dairy economic decisions, crop yields/strategies, dairy nutrition and reproduction, cash flow analysis, and cost of production economics.

Robb Bender, PhD, PAS

Robb Bender, PhD, PAS is managing partner and a consultant in GPS Dairy Consulting LLC. GPS works across the Midwest and beyond to provide independent nutrition and whole-farm management consulting to dairies by fulfilling their brand promise to Inspire Change and Grow Leaders. Robb received his degrees from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, with a focus in dairy cattle reproduction and nutrition. Robb and his wife, Christine, reside in Watertown, WI with their two children, Annabelle and Charlotte, where they are partners in the family dairy farm.

Guillermo Martinez Boggio

Guillermo Martinez Boggio is originally from Uruguay, where he earned his BS (2016) in Veterinary Science and his MS (2020) in Animal Science, all from Universidad de la República. He continued his graduate studies at Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse and INRAE (Toulouse, France) where he earned his Ph.D. (2023) in Animal Science. Before his Ph.D., Guillermo was a faculty member (2016-2019) in the Department of Animal Genetics at Universidad de la República. His research interests are in quantitative genomics. His research focuses on the development and application of methods to incorporate omics traits in livestock. His research involves gene mapping, genomic prediction, and multi-omics data integration.

Dr. Andy Bohnhoff, DVM

Dr. Andy Bohnhoff, DVM, has been in the dairy industry his entire life. He grew up on a family farm in Plymouth WI where his family milked 100 cows in a stall barn. He attended the University of Wisconsin Madison where he graduated with honors with a degree in Animal Science. He then attended University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine where he focused on production medicine and surgery. After graduation, he furthered his schooling by attended the Colorado State University School of Veterinary Medicine where he completed an internship in Integrated Livestock Management/Food Animal Medicine and Surgery. He practiced veterinary medicine in Colorado for 3 years before returning to the Land of Beer and Cheese (Wisconsin) where he started focusing his efforts on Dairy Nutrition and Health Management. He currently works for Prairie Estates Genetics providing technical support for dairy farms and also provides nutrition consulting for dairies in Wisconsin and Colorado.

Dr. Ryan Breuer, DVM

Dr. Ryan Breuer, DVM, clinical assistant professor, large animal internal medicine, UW-Madison.

Mitch Breunig

Mitch Breunig is a third-generation dairy farmer and owner of Mystic Valley Dairy, Sauk City, Wis. Instrumental in the formation of the Dairy Innovation Hub, he serves on its advisory council and has also served as president of PDP.

Dr. Luciano Caixeta, DVM, PhD

Dr. Luciano Caixeta, DVM, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Dairy Production Medicine at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota. Luciano was born and raised in Brazil where he was involved in beef cattle production from a young age. He obtained his DVM degree from the College of Veterinary Medicine at the Universidade Federal de Goiás in his home town of Goiânia, Brazil. Upon completing his DVM training, he moved to Cornell University where he completed a residency in production medicine and a clinical fellowship at the Cornell University Hospital for Animals. He also obtained his PhD degree in animal sciences from Cornell University. Before joining the U of M in 2017, Luciano was a clinical instructor in Dairy Population Health Management at the Colorado State University for 2 years.

Dr. Caixeta’s research program focuses on investigations about metabolic and infectious diseases during the transition period, the development and utilization of immunotherapeutics, and in the use of holistic approaches to understand the networks that form the complex biological systems of living animals (dairy systems biology).

Katie Catron

Katie Catron is an ag projects manager with Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC). She provides client support and helps the SEC team share the necessary data to improve sustainable practices that impact soil health, water quality and biodiversity.

Jason Cavadini

Jason Cavadini, grazing specialist and certified professional agronomist, UW-Madison Extension.

Dr. Mike DeGroot, PhD

Dr. Mike DeGroot, PhD, owner, EDGE Dairy Consulting.

Morgan Ekovich

Morgan Ekovich is the founder of Get Fit with ME, she specializes in working with busy professionals who are consistently on the go and struggle to find the time for themselves. This year she will be leading two sessions for you on creating a balanced nutrition that fuels you and another on the importance of movement to reduce aches and pains. During both of these sessions, she will be teaching you how to create and build micro-habits that take you from learning to implementing. Micro-habits are one of Morgan's secrets to success!

Kathryn Elliott

Kathryn Elliott studied at the University of Florida and UW Madison, completing her Master’s degree researching the influence of vitamin D on the innate immune system in the dairy cow. Her work focuses on integrating ration design with farm data and observations, tailoring nutrition strategy to the team, the crops and the cows. Kathryn is a dairy consultant and technical support specialist with ProAGtive Dairy Nutrition, a group of independent dairy nutritionists focused on cow factors and coaching farm employees in addition to formulating effective rations.

Dr. Cainan Florentino, DVM

Dr. Cainan Florentino, DVM, is a PhD student in Animal Science at the University of Minnesota. Cainan was born in Brazil where he obtained his DVM degree in 2018 at Londrina State University (UEL-BRA). During the vet school he was involved with dairy production medicine (clinical service, milk quality, and theriogenology). From 2015 to 2016 he worked as an intern on a calf raising facility in Wisconsin and then as herdsperson in an 800-cow dairy in Minnesota. In November of 2019, he joined Caixeta's lab at U of M as a Senior Laboratory Technician and since then he has assisted with numerous projects, both past and ongoing. His interests include transition period in dairy cows (how to minimize the challenge for the animals) and reproduction management.

The focus of his research is how rumination and activity behavior in dairy cows could be applied to help in management decisions.

Dr. Blake Foraker, PhD

Dr. Blake Foraker, PhD is an assistant professor in meat science at Washington State University (WSU). He holds a B.S. in animal science from Kansas State, a M.S. in meat science from Colorado State, and a Ph.D. in meat science from Texas Tech. His expertise pertains to meat animal growth, carcass composition, and eating quality. He has extensively studied the growth, carcass yield and performance, and eating satisfaction of beef products of beef x dairy crossbreds. He currently holds a teaching and Extension position at WSU, where he also serves as the coach of the meat judging and meat animal evaluation teams.

Brent Gleeson

Brent Gleeson is a Navy SEAL combat veteran with multiple combat deployments to Iraq and Africa. Brent is now founder and CEO of TakingPoint Leadership, a progressive leadership and organizational development consulting firm with a focus on business transformation and building high-performance cultures. Brent was named a Top 10 CEO by Entrepreneur Magazine in 2013.

Upon leaving SEAL Team 5, he has become an award-winning entrepreneur, bestselling author, and acclaimed speaker on topics ranging from resilience, mental toughness, leadership, and building high-performance teams to culture, and organizational transformation.

Brent holds degrees in finance and economics from Southern Methodist University, certificates in English and History from Oxford University in England, and a graduate business degree from the University of San Diego. He is the bestselling author of TakingPoint: A Navy SEAL’s 10 Fail-Safe Principles for Leading Through Change, which was a #1 New Release on Amazon in Organizational Change and Business Structural Adjustment. Brent’s latest book, Embrace the Suck: The Navy SEAL Way to an Extraordinary Life was #1 on Amazon in the self-help, self-esteem, and military leadership categories.

Renea Heinrich

Renea Heinrich, senior counselor, MorganMyers.

Andrew Hillman

Andrew Hillman, graduate student, biological systems engineering, UW-Madison.

Tanner Judd

Tanner Judd is a PhD student (Soil Science) in the Ruark Lab. He earned his B.S. at West Virginia University in Agroecology in 2020 and MS in plant and soil sciences at Oklahoma State University in May 2022 before coming to UW-Madison. Tanner’s current research evaluates the use of 15N-nitrogen isotope tracers to describe manure nitrogen movement into cover crops.

Dr. Margaret Kalcic, PhD

Dr. Margaret Kalcic, PhD, associate professor, biological systems engineering, UW-Madison.

Dr. Sylvia Kehoe, PhD

Dr. Sylvia Kehoe, PhD, professor of dairy science, UW-River Falls.

Ryan Levendoski

Kwik Trip District Leader in the Tomah/Mauston/WI Dells Markets overseeing a total of 16 stores and 650 co-workers
Career with Kwik Trip
Co-worker 2009- 3rd Shift
Co-worker 2010
Assistant Store Leader in Sparta, WI 2011-2014
Certified Assistant Store Leader 2014-15
Certified Training Store Leader in Sparta WI 2015-17
Interim Food Service District Leader in Milwaukee Market 2017
Certified Training Store Leader in La Crosse, WI 2017-19
Food Service District Leader 2019-2022
District Leaders 2022-Present
Graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 2004 with a BA in Social Sciences
Graduate of the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse in 2008 with Master in Sports Administration
Grew up on a Dairy Farm in Stoddard, WI
Member of FFA and 4-H throughout high school.

Jessica Mlsna

Jessica Mlsna serves as the Energy Advisor with Focus on Energy for agriculture customers in Southeast and Central Wisconsin. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Animal Science from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in 2009 and a Master's Degree in Agricultural Education from Iowa State University in 2012. Jessica has been in the energy efficiency field for over six years and is a Certified Energy Manager through the Association of Energy Engineers.

John Mueller

John Mueller, owner, Spring Hope Dairy, Clifton Springs, NY.

Marissa Nehlsen

Marissa Nehlsen is a money and business strategist. Since 1993 she has helped thousands of business owners and entrepreneurs worldwide, learn the systems, structures and strategies that teach, not just the "what and why", but the "how to", to minimize their taxes and maximize their profits.

She specializes in helping agriculture families and business' master 5 key areas. Tax, Legal, Risk, Wealth and Communication. As a certified speaker and coach she teaches how to build a plan and execute that plan for the results they want. As a money and business strategist, Marissa has been recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on building wealth, minimizing taxes and repositioning profits.

She has built multiple multi-million dollar companies for herself and thousands of her clients.

As an active philanthropist, when she isn't helping business owners around the world future proof their businesses, she can be found on her fruit and coffee farm on her mountain in Costa Rica changing lives in Costa Rica through the Foundation of Latin America.

Dr. Michael Overton, DVM, MPVM

Dr. Michael Overton, DVM, MPVM, global precision dairy data lead at Zoetis Inc.

JJ Pagel

JJ Pagel owns and operates Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy with his sister Jamie and brother Bryan. The dairy milks just over 10,000 cows at five sites and farms 15,000 acres. They have on-site processing for farmstead cheeses sold at a nearby retail store.

Dr. Francisco Peñagaricano

Dr. Francisco Peñagaricano is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research program focuses on developing and applying methods to dissect the genetic basis of economically relevant traits in dairy cattle. His research involves gene mapping, genomic prediction, multi-omics data integration, and network modeling.

More info: http://fpenagaricano-lab.org

Bill Reyes

Bill Reyes is a Nutrition and Management Consultant who lives with his wife Lindsay and son Winston in the Texas Panhandle. Originally from central California, he attended College at South Dakota State University. After college he went to work for a large feed Company in the Northeastern US and then moved to the southwestern US. In 2010 Bill started Royal Ag Services with his business partner Mike Vander Pol out of Idaho, building their business on a new model of honesty and transparency with no hidden fees. His main focuses outside of nutrition are feed software integration, feeding area efficiency, labor engagement, employee training and records analysis. After almost 2 decades as a consultant Bill has fed a lot of different ingredients, while in the southwest the area has suffered 2 prolonged droughts which has forced his clients to use “nontraditional ingredients” and push the presumed limits on pounds of usage.

Joel Roltgen

Joel Roltgen is an Energy Advisor for Wisconsin's Focus on Energy Program, serving agricultural customers in northeastern and southeastern Wisconsin. He joined Focus on Energy in 2019, providing operational efficiency strategies and financial incentives to agriculture operations and industry partners. Joel brings many years of engineering experience, having worked with employees at all levels in various industries. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is affiliated with the Association of Energy Engineers.

Dr. Matt Ruark

Dr. Matt Ruark is a Professor in the Department of Soil Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an Extension Specialist in UW-Madison’s Division of Extension, and the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Grower Association B-C-S Chair. His Nutrient Cycling and Agroecosystems Laboratory works to improve knowledge of nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon cycling in grain, dairy, and vegetable cropping systems in Wisconsin. He serves as Faculty Advisor to the UW-Discovery Farms program and the Wisconsin Agri-Business Association.

Jacob Shapiro

Jacob Shapiro is a partner and director of geopolitical analysis for Cognitive Investments (CI) in New Orleans where he oversees geopolitical analysis and works with the CI research team to integrate geopolitics into their investment strategies. He also authors the “Global Situation Report,” a weekly intelligence brief on the world’s most important developments. In addition, Jacob hosts CI’s podcast series, “Cognitive Dissidents,” which features interviews with an array of foreign policy, technology and global business experts.

Jamie St. Pierre

Jamie St. Pierre, dairy operations supervisor, Pleasant Valley Farm of Berkshire LLC, Berkshire.

Tim Swenson

Tim Swenson started Swenson Management Service LLC in 2022. He works with family businesses, providing dairy business planning and dairy profitability consulting services. Tim grew up in northwestern Wisconsin, working on a 120-cow registered Holstein farm. He received his B.S. in Animal Science from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls and his M.S. in Dairy Nutrition from the University of Kentucky. His master’s research included initial BST trials, evaluation of various DCAD lactation rations with Megalac, as well as trials involving Selenium/vitamin E/immune system interactions. Before starting Swenson Management Service, Tim spent 16 years providing consulting services across the upper Midwest. He also has served as general manager of a feed and agronomy company in northwestern Wisconsin, and 14 years in the feed industry in central Minnesota and western Wisconsin working with large herds and expanding operations.

Linda Swindling

Linda Swindling, global negotiation expert and bestselling author.

Mark Tegeler, M.Sc.

Mark Tegeler, M.Sc., Ruminant Field Technical Specialist, as a Ruminant Field Technical Specialist at Diamond V, Mark is responsible for providing technical and research assistance as well as sales support. Mark received his B.S. from the University of Illinois and his M.Sc. from Eastern Illinois University.

Prior to joining Diamond V in 2009, he was a dairy nutritionist in the Midwest, working with a variety of operations and herds of differing sizes. In addition to authoring a number of management and feed related articles, Mark has been a guest lecturer at many Midwestern Universities, speaking to dairy production and veterinarian classes. He also has worked internationally with dairy producers in Central America and Asia. In addition, Mark’s experience includes time spent managing a dairy, where he was able to increase cow numbers and the RHA by 8,000 energy correct pounds. He credits his success in the industry from the lessons learned growing up working with his extended family on a small registered dairy farm in Central Illinois. With expertise in ruminant nutrition, forage production, herd management, ingredient cost analysis, and labor flow, he has a breadth of industry knowledge to support Diamond V’s Dairy initiatives.

Tom Thibodeau

Tom Thibodeau, distinguished professor, servant leadership, Viterbo University.

Bruce Vincent

Bruce Vincent is a third-generation logger from Libby, Montana. During the past 25 years, he has given motivational speeches throughout the U.S. and the world, testified on natural-resource issues before Congress and has been named National Forest Activist of the Year. He’s also appeared on several news programs such as “60 Minutes.”

John Vosters

John Vosters is a partner in Milksource LLC. His role is VP and Livestock manager of the 35,000 cows, 28,000 heifers and 5000 steers at Tidy View, Omro, Rosendale, New Chester, LaBelle, Heifersource and Calfsource. In his role he is responsible for all animal care, production and employee development and performance. John is one of the founding partners of Milksource and his parents purchased the farm that is the first dairy of Milksource in 1965. He is an active member of the Outagamie County Holstein Breeders, Appleton Alliance Church and a committee member of Dairy Cares of WI. He is married to Keri and they have three daughters and sons-in-law and four grandchildren.

Dr. Dan Weigel, PhD

Dr. Dan Weigel, PhD, director of outcomes research, Zoetis.

Kurt Wierda

Kurt Wierda, general manager, Plymouth Dairy Farms, Le Mars, Iowa.