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John Dillard grew up on a beef cattle farm in Amelia, Va., which is still operated by his parents. John’s work on farms and ranches in Virginia, South Dakota and Wyoming provided him with an appreciation for the unique challenges faced by agricultural producers across the United States. He earned bachelor’s degrees in Animal Science and Agricultural Economics at Virginia Tech. John also earned a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. Prior to attending law school, he worked for a consulting firm that advised agribusiness clients (seed, renewable fuels, cooperatives, equipment) in marketing and business strategy development. Additionally, Mr. Dillard was an economist for USDA’s Economic Research Service, where his work focused on preparing farm income reports and reports examining the financial health of the agricultural sector. Now an attorney practicing with OFW Law in Washington, D.C., John concentrates his practice on litigation, with an emphasis on environmental and agriculture-related litigation. Mr. Dillard has represented clients in complex matters involving Clean Water Act disputes, livestock odor nuisance tort actions, and government contract regulations. He also advises clients in the food and agricultural industries regarding the impacts of litigation, government regulations and legislation on their businesses.

Tanner Ehmke is the content manager for AgWeb.com. He is orignially from western Kansas where his family farms wheat, rye, triticale and milo. Prior to joining AgWeb, he was a news reporter for Dow Jones at the Chicago Board of Trade and a commodities analyst with AgResource Company in Chicago.

Bob Utterback has more than 26 years of experience and offers producers a disciplined approach to marketing and preparing for the future. Utterback Marketing Services, Inc. is a commodities brokerage firm based in the small farming community of New Richmond [West Central] Indiana, serving clients throughout the U.S. who trade agricultural and related commodities. Trades are cleared by a family owned futures commission merchant based in Chicago since 1914. Utterback Marketing Services, Inc. and its staff are registered with the National Futures Association.

Mike Adams was raised in a small farming community in central Illinois and grew up working on a grain and livestock farm. He served west-central Illinois on WLDS radio in Jacksonville, for 27 years. Adams served in several capacities as Disc Jockey, Sports Announcer and Farm Director. Mike has covered state and national agricultural events in 11 countries, met Pope John Paul II and five U.S. presidents. Mike took over as host of the nationally syndicated talk show, AgriTalk, in July of 2001. He facilitates a discussion about issues and ideas important to rural America, traveling over 100 days a year for remote broadcasts across the country. Adams is a voting member and past-president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB). Adams has received numerous awards from agriculture and civic organizations. Adams served 20 years as a certified lay speaker including 16 years as a lay pastor for a rural Illinois United Methodist church. Mike and his wife Patty have two grown children and currently reside in Jacksonville, Ill.

Every day, CHS gathers, produces, refines and processes essential resources that enrich millions of lives. As a leader in energy, grain-based foods and food ingredients, and agronomic inputs, CHS touches consumers around the globe.What really sets us apart is our way of doing business. We’'ve earned a reputation as an honest, hardworking and ethical partner. Originally formed to supply producers with energy and crop inputs, and to market their grain, we’'ve expanded to offer diverse consumer products and essential business solutions like insurance, risk management, transportation and enterprise consulting.We’'re proud of our growth. And we’'re proud of the many ways we enrich millions of lives around the world every day.

Jamie Wasemiller is a senior market analyst for Gulke Group and has been with the firm since 2005. In addition to his work with the Gulke Group he also assists Jerry Gulke on his Illinois farmland. In addition to market analysis, one of Jamie’s focuses within Gulke Group is the combination of risk management with crop insurance. As a licensed crop insurance agent and owner of Wasemiller Insurance Company, he works closely with farmers to ensure that they fully understand and correctly implement the right crop insurance policy and risk management tools to create effective grain marketing plans. Jamie provides both marketing and insurance insight to the industry and routinely speaks throughout the country. In 2010 he worked with the University of Delaware and Farm Journal to create the 21st Century Grain Marketing Primer.

Chris B. Barron is the Director of Operations and President of Carson and Barron Farms, Inc. which is located in Rowley, Iowa, the northeast area of the state. Chris graduated from the University of Dubuque in 1992 with a degree in Communications. In 1992, Chris, along with his brother-in-law took over their Pioneer Sales agency which had been run by his father for the past 22 years. Today the Pioneer agency is still an integral part of their operation. Chris has over 18 years of experience working with and understanding customer needs while at the same time steadily growing their own farming operations. During the last 20 years, Chris has developed many decision tools to help producers improve the profitability of their operation. Most notably, he developed “Profit Manager” which is a tool used by hundreds of corn and soybean producers across the Corn Belt. Most recently, Chris has developed a new business model to assist producers with multi-generational growth. Chris has implemented this plan into their own operation with the mission of improving quality of life and maximizing profit opportunities.