The 2025 97th Iowa State University Soil Management and Land Valuation conference will be held (in person at Scheman Building) on Wednesday May 21st, 2025. This will be a one-time conference and the following speakers are guest instructors. A short bio is provided for each of the confirmed speakers. See details of the speaker's topics on the program agenda.
Nate Kauffman is senior vice president and Omaha Branch executive with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and is the Kansas City Fed’s principal expert in agricultural economics. He is a leading voice on the agricultural economy throughout the seven states of the Tenth Federal Reserve District and the broader Federal Reserve System. Nate oversees several Bank and Federal Reserve efforts to track economic and financial conditions for agriculture and hosts the Kansas City Fed’s Agricultural Symposium. He also speaks regularly on the agricultural economy to industry audiences and the news media, including providing testimonies at both U.S. Senate and U.S. House Agriculture Committee hearings.
In his role as the Bank’s lead economist and representative in the state of Nebraska, Nate provides strategic direction and oversight for the Omaha Branch, regional research, and economic outreach throughout the state. He serves as a local connection to the nation’s central bank and is responsible for briefing the Kansas City Fed’s president – a member of the Federal Open Market Committee – on regional economic and business activity.
Nate joined the Federal Reserve in 2012. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Iowa State University. Prior to receiving his Ph.D., Nate spent three years in Bosnia and Herzegovina coordinating agricultural economic development projects.
Nate lives in Omaha with his wife and four children.
Doug Houser is the Digital Ag Extension Specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, with the focus on communicating digital tools and solutions that can solve problems and improve the lives of Iowans.
With digital agriculture, we’re solving old problems with new technology. We have drones that can apply fungicide, fertilizer, or plant cover crops, and the farming industry is moving forward with autonomous vehicles that can pull implements. It’s exciting to see the new things that our farmers will be able to leverage.
Key Details:
- Part of the Digital Ag Innovation Lab at Iowa State – a robust group of ag engineers and agronomists dedicated to researching and showcasing improvements in digital technology.
- FAA Part 107 remote pilot license, Part 137 Aerial Commercial Pesticide License, and is a seasoned veteran in Agriculture including over 30+ years with a major seed company.
- On-farm experience working for farmers and knows the importance of technology and precision farming for today’s agricultural industry.
Dennis Todey
I have been the Director of the USDA Midwest Climate Hub in Ames. IA since 2016. The hub delivers actionable climate information for agriculture across the Corn Belt. This information has included tools describing climate issues and impacts to agriculture. The hub is also in process of developing a web portal to share information on the capabilities of various Midwestern agricultural practices and systems to reduced GHG emissions and understand the resiliency/adaptation capability to changing climate conditions. We are developing state level summaries in the Midwest states and specialized crop assessments to understand changing climate impacts on various crops.
I have spent my career working on climate and ag issues throughout the Midwest and Northern Plains including climate change issues and agriculture and tool and data development for agricultural use working with numerous federal, regional and state partners. I was a co-author on the last 2 National Climate Assessments. I was previously the State Climatologist for South Dakota at South Dakota State University from 2003-2016.
My degrees are BS in Meteorology from Iowa State, an MS in Meteorology from the South Dakota School of Mines and PhD in Agricultural Meteorology from Iowa State. I was also former president of the American Association of State Climatologists.
My career has been built around developing information for agriculture working with partners from all sectors, including federal, state, academic and private industry. My goal for all work is how can it be used by an end-user. Who is that end-user and how can they use information to make better decisions.
Jeremy Gustafson
Jeremy Gustafson is a farmer from Boone, Iowa. As his Twitter page summarizes, Jeremy is a farmer that “likes to dabble in corn, beans, cover crops and hogs” and “likes to think outside of the box”. He is an outreach leader with the Practical Farmers of Iowa, has worked with Iowa Learning Farms, and has served as a commissioner for the Boone Soil and Water Conservation District. Jeremy has improved his soil and protected water quality on his farm (over 1,500 acres) via cover cropping and crop diversification for over 15 years.
Matt Russell
Matt Russell is a fifth-generation Iowa farmer who grew up on a commodity and livestock farm in Cass County. He now co-owns and operates Coyote Run Farm, near Lacona, Iowa with his spouse Patrick Standley. Russell is the former State Executive Director of the USDA Farm Service Agency in Iowa for the Biden Administration. In 2018, he became the Executive Director of Iowa Interfaith Power and Light, a statewide faith-based climate action organization. Prior to that, he spent 12 years on staff at the Drake University Agricultural Law Center. He’s been an active member of Iowa Farmers Union for over 20 years.
Russell earned a master's degree in rural sociology from Iowa State University and a bachelor's degree from Loras College. He has a passion for Iowa agriculture and rural America and has extensively written about rural policies, agriculture, and climate change for local, statewide, and national publications.
Jerry Hatfield
Jerry L. Hatfield retired as the Director of the USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in Ames, Iowa in 2020 after a 45-year research career. His PhD is from Iowa State University in Agricultural Climatology in 1975. His current activities focus on helping producers understand the dynamics of soil health and how it impacts production, profit, sustainability, and environmental quality. His research focuses on the interactions among the components of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum and their linkage to air, water, and soil quality. He utilizes the genetics x environment x management concept as a framework to work with producers to demonstrate how they can increase their production efficiency, increase soil health, add value to their land, and develop resilience to weather and climate variation as the foundation for food security.
Kristine Tidgren
Ms. Kristine Tidgren is the director for ISU’s Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation (CALT) and is an adjunct associate professor in the Agricultural Education & Studies Department at ISU. Kristine’s work focuses on studying and interpreting laws impacting the agricultural industry. Since joining CALT in 2013, Kristine has written hundreds of articles and blogposts to keep tax professionals, practicing attorneys, producers, and agribusiness professionals informed about legal developments impacting their business. Kristine teaches AgEds 451, an agricultural law class and regularly collaborates with other agricultural law and tax professionals throughout the country.
Dr. Jeff Kaisand
Dr. Jeff Kaisand serves as the State Veterinarian and Division Director for the Animal Industry Division within the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. He joined the department in 2013 and served as the Assistant State Veterinarian for six years before he was appointed the State Veterinarian. Dr. Kaisand works with federal, state, and industry partners to protect the health of Iowa’s livestock industry and develop foreign animal disease response plans. Dr. Kaisand earned his bachelor’s degree in Animal Science at Iowa State University in 1989 and graduated from the Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine in 1993.
Chad Hart was born and raised in southwest Missouri. His parents raised a few cattle and operated a small meat locker. He received a B.S. in economics with minors in mathematics, history, and astronomy from Southwest Missouri State University in 1991. He received a Ph.D. in economics and statistics in 1999 from Iowa State University. Chad became a faculty member at Iowa State in 2008. He is a professor in economics, extension economist, and the crop markets specialist for the university.