Eric Hanson

Land O Lakes

Eric Hanson spent the first 9 years of his career as a Crop Consultant in SW Kansas before moving to Michigan to become a retail agronomist for a large Cooperative for 3 years.  He was hired by Land O’Lakes in 2008 as a first a partnered Croplan Genetics DSM, before moving back to Kansas as part of their Agronomy Production Specialist program.  From there he progressed to a role as a WinField Seed and Agronomy Advisor before being selected to his current role in 2013.  Eric covers the western 2/3 of Kansas and Colorado as the Regional Agronomist.

Rodrigo Onofre

Kansas State Plant Pathology

Dr. Onofre is a K-State Research and Extension post-doctoral fellow working on diseases of summer crops.

Jeff Pio

Farmobile

Jeff Pio serves as director of customer success + support at Farmobile, an independent data company, which is now a part of the AGI (Ag Growth International) family of brands. Jeff is a data technology guru. His priority focus is to help growers, ag retailers and other trusted advisors adopt and use Farmobile’s real-time data technology to deliver field-and-fleet-level data visibility and ROI results. Jeff has a 15-year career in technology and production agriculture and is a tireless advocate for agtech that is beneficial-not-burdensome to farmers.

Bruce Steward

FMC

Bruce Steward – Technical Service Manager – FMC

• Technical Service Manager – Choctaw, Oklahoma
• B.S. – Oklahoma State University, Entomology
• M.S. – University of Arkansas, Entomology
• Ph.D. – University of Arkansas, Entomology

Katie Strathman

BASF

Katie Strathman is the Technical Service Representative in eastern and central Kansas for BASF. Prior to her current role, Katie worked for BASF at the BASF Midwest research farm in Seymour, IL where she oversaw the technical marketing research trials. Katie holds two degrees: a Bachelor of Science in Agronomy-Farm Business Management with a minor in entomology and a Master of Science in Agronomy-Crop Production & Physiology, both from Iowa State University. Having grown up on a corn and soybean farm in northwest Iowa, Katie has roots in agriculture. She currently resides in northeast Kansas where, when her schedule permits, she is also a stand-in farmhand for her husband and his family.

Jeff Whitworth

Kansas State Entomology

Dr. Whitworth is a professor and Extension specialist for Entomology. He has 40+ years of experience in identifying and managing insect pests.

Brian Ganske

John Deere

Brian Ganske has been involved in agriculture his entire life starting on his grandparents farm.  Brian earned a Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy from Kansas State University.  He started his career as a precision ag agronomist and later the precision ag manager for ADM-Collingwood grain in southwest Kansas.  After a year as a farm agronomist in central Kansas, Brian accepted a position as a precision ag specialist with Agronomic Solutions, Inc.  in Marshalltown, Iowa.  In 2008, Brian joined John Deere as a Crop System Specialist and later a Solution Specialist.  Currently, he is the Product and System Specialist for Small Grains covering Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and Iowa.  Brian achieved his Certified Crop Advisor license in 2002 and is the immediate past chair of the Kansas Board of Directors.  Brian lives in Hays, Kansas and spends his free time helping a local producer.

Lee Olsen

ProValue Insurance

Attended Fort Hays State received BS in Agriculture, Worked as an agronomist for a Coop for 2 years, Returned to the farm, retired from farming and became a federal crop adjuster for 3 years and have been a safety and compliance consultant the last 9 years.

Kevin Donnelly

Kansas State Agronomy

Kevin Donnelly is professor of crop science in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State.  He earned his BS and MS at Kansas State in 1972 and 1974.  He then taught at Hutchinson Community College for three years. From 1978-1983, he was an instructor while he completed his PhD in agronomy at Colorado State University. For the next 15 years he taught in the Agronomy Department at Oklahoma State University.  Donnelly then served as assistant dean of the College of Agriculture for 10 years before returning to teaching agronomy at K-State in 2008.  He teaches courses in crop science, crop quality and plant and seed identification.  Along with his classes, Donnelly is co-adviser of the Wheat State Agronomy Club and coach of the Crops Team.  His extension work involves working with youth programs in agronomy and conducting weed identification programs.