William Slater

William Slater

Farmer

William “BHI” Slater is farming today the land he grew up on. He began crop farming when he began FFA in the late 1960’s. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy and his Master’s in Ag Education from Kansas State University, while still operating his farm.

He began teaching at Southeast Community College at Beatrice, NE in 1984 and spent 27 years teaching courses in Agronomy and Ag Mechanics while operating the school’s land lab.

He was first introduced to precision agriculture in 1991 and adopted this practice on his farm in 2007. He continues to incorporate precision practices on all his acres and for all crops.

Joel Erickson

Joel Erickson

Co-Owner
MJ Erickson

Joel Erickson is a 1979 graduate of Langford High School in Langford, SD. In 1981, Joel received his Associates Degree in Ag Business from North Dakota State College of Science. Upon graduation, Joel returned to the family farm, working alongside his brother, Mark. Mark manages the Erickson cow/calf/feedlot operation while Joel concentrates on crop production. They raise corn, soybeans, spring wheat, alfalfa and have also been incorporating cover crops into their operation. Joel was an early adopter of MZB and did a majority of his own variable rate fertilizer application. They also variable rate seed populations and recently have started variable rating their hybrids and varieties as well.

Conservation has always been front and center in the Erickson operation. They started no-tilling in 1992 and were the first adopters of 22” rows at that time. In 1996 they incorporated strip-tilling into their farming practices and have now moved to a 15” on center banded minimal disturbance application of P and K, followed by a spring application of ESN.

Joel has served on the Agtegra Board of Directors since 2001, is a South Dakota Agricultural Rural Leaders graduate, and the 2009 Marshall County Conservation Farm of the Year award winner. In 2015, he was the recipient of the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Award by The Fertilizer Institute.

The Erickson operation has always been family focused. Joel and his wife Karen, are proud to say that both their daughter and son are now involved in the family farm operation.

Dustin Christofferson

Dustin Christofferson

Precision Ag Specialist
Agtegra Cooperative

Dustin Christofferson is a Precision Ag Specialist with Agtegra Cooperative’s Innovation Center division. In five years with the Cooperative he has seen the transformation of the Precision Ag industry first hand. Evolving from the days of AutoSteer and row clutch installations to today’s hydraulic downforce, multi-genetic seed meters, and a multitude of sensing equipment; all designed to help his growers perform at their absolute best. During that time he has seen the collaboration of Agronomy and Precision Ag continually reach new heights thanks to many highly regarded companies such as Precision Planting, Ag Leader Technologies, and 360 Yield Center. Being a member of the Innovation Center team means that he has adopted the silent motto of making the impossible, possible on a daily basis. “We pride ourselves on being color blind when it comes to equipment brands and being able to work together under one roof allows us to best serve our growers.”

“We are constantly looking for the next opportunity to bring more profitability to a growers operation and the team approach of Agronomy and Precision Ag has an immense amount of potential both now and in the years to come.

Andrew Kappes

Andrew Kappes

Sales Agronomist
Agtegra Cooperative

 Andrew Kappes graduated from SDSU in 2013 with a major in Agronomy. Since graduation, he has worked for Agtegra Cooperative out of the Langford location.  Andrew continually pushes his producers to test the limits of Ag Technology on their farming operations, which has developed from not only variable rate crop nutrition, but also VR plant population.  He started writing variable hybrid seeding prescriptions in the spring of 2015.  From there he and his producers have fine-tuned the varieties/Hybrids and rates on each field.  Andrew currently has four producers running VR/VH setups on their farms and he is proud to be the agronomist working with Joel Erickson whom, with Andrews agronomy guidance, won a 4R Advocacy Award in 2105 given out by The Fertilizer Institute for on-farm stewardship and following the principles of the 4R’s.  Andrew resides in Groton SD with his wife Emily and lab Piper.

At Agtegra Cooperative, our commitment to superior service, relentless innovation and member success is at the forefront of everything we do. Agtegra Cooperative is an innovative, farmer-owned grain and agronomy cooperative serving more than 6,700 active member-owners from 62 locations and 50 communities in eastern North and South Dakota. Dedicated to providing the safest workplace possible for our employees and member-owners, we have received numerous awards for workplace safety. We also give members access to the best products, services and in-field assistance to maximize their production. As a marketer of nearly 240 million bushels annually, we not only offer our member-owners grain and agronomy services, but also aerial application services, fuel, feed, and precision ag hardware and software products and services – all aimed at helping our member-owners improve their bottom line.

Paul Schrimpf

Paul Schrimpf

Group Editor
AgriBusiness Global, Meister Media Worldwide, Inc.


Paul Schrimpf has been a professional trade journalist for more than 20 years, and has worked in the agriculture market since 1998. As group editor at Meister Media Worldwide, Paul heads up an editorial team covering the ag retail distribution channel under the CropLife® brand, and the ag technology sector through its PrecisionAg brand. Founded in 1994 and acquired by Meister in 2000, the PrecisionAg brand includes a website at PrecisionAg.com, a bi-monthly magazine (PrecisionAg® Professional), a weekly e-newsletter, a variety of in-person events, and the PrecisionAg Institute. The Institute is a consortium of agriculture companies that is dedicated to facilitating the adoption of precision agriculture products and practices, and promoting the benefits of precision agriculture for improving profitability, sustainability, and efficiency in the farming operation.

Bruce Erickson

Bruce Erickson

Lead Instructor
Purdue University

Bruce Erickson is the lead instructor for Purdue’s introductory agronomy course, and online courses Agronomy Essentials, Precision Agriculture, and Nutrient Management. His research centers on precision farming economics and adoption, where he is the lead author for the CropLife/Purdue Precision Dealer Survey. Erickson started his career as an agronomist with DuPont Pioneer in Iowa, served as Senior Technical Designer at Agri Business Group in Indianapolis, then was the Agronomic Education Manager for the American Society of Agronomy. At ASA he taught several online courses, and was responsible for the Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) Exam.

Purdue University is Indiana’s land grant institution with research, teaching, and Extension at its core. Its engineering, aviation, and agricultural programs are highly ranked and recognized worldwide. The West Lafayette campus is home to about 30,000 undergraduate students, 10,000 graduate students, and 3,000 faculty and staff. The College of Agriculture is ranked ninth in the world by QS World University Rankings, and has about 2700 undergraduate students in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Agricultural Economics, Agronomy, Animal Sciences, Biochemistry, Botany & Plant Pathology, Entomology, Food Science, Forestry, and Horticulture & Landscape Architecture.

Phil Ramsel

Phil Ramsel

CEO
P&C Ramsel Enterprises, LLC

Phil Ramsel is a twenty + year veteran in the agronomy industry. Born and raised in Nebraska, Phil holds degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Iowa State University, and the University of Iowa. Phil’s career is unique in that he has experienced the very beginning of seed traits and precision agriculture to where they are today. He has worked in most areas of the seed and agronomy industry including managing a CropLife Top 50 agronomy division. Phil has a refined executive presence in his own approach and in identifying other’s potential through their executive presence.

P & C Ramsel Enterprises offers consulting in the agronomy industry markets, business approach, field agronomy, teaching, and mentoring. Our company also has interests in production agriculture and real estate.

Douglas Prairie

Douglas Prairie

Instructor
South Dakota State University

Douglas Prairie has been an instructor with the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering department at South Dakota State University since August of 2016. Douglas is heavily involved in developing and maintaining curriculum to meet the ever-increasing demands of today’s precision agriculture professionals. The SDSU curriculum could be something as basic as proper equipment operation or as complex as systems engineering and failure diagnostics. Prior to SDSU Douglas was employed within industry for close to 20 years in roles ranging from design engineering to product and sales management. Courses lead by Douglas include: Senior Design for Ag and Biosystems Engineering, Ag Power and Machinery, Monitoring and Control of Ag Systems, Farm Machinery Management along with Hydraulic and Fluid Power Systems.

Founded in 1881, South Dakota State University is South Dakota’s Morrill Act land-grant university and is the largest higher-education institution in the state, with a 2016 fall enrollment of 12,613 students from 49 states and 85 countries. The Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering Department offers degrees in Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering (ABE), which prepares students to work with the development and design of systems that impact food sources, and in Ag Systems Technology (AST), which teaches students the practical application of new innovations in the agricultural market. We have also partnered with the Department of Agronomy, Horticulture, and Plant Science and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics to jointly offer the nation’s first Precision Agriculture (PRAG) major.

Michael Boehlje

Michael Boehlje

Distinguished Professor
Purdue University
Department of Agricultural Economics

Mike Boehlje is a distinguished professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue University. He previously held faculty and administrative positions at Iowa State University, University of Minnesota and Oklahoma State University. Mike has devoted his career to helping farm and agribusiness managers and policymakers understand the pragmatic economic and financial consequences of their decisions.

The fundamental focus of his work has been to integrate concepts of economics, finance and strategy to solve problems of farm and agribusiness managers. A major theme of Mike’s research, writing and lecturing for the past 10 years has been the importance of strategic planning and thinking, and positioning the firm for long- term viability and success. His work has attempted to extend and apply modern management concepts of systems analysis, process control, transactions cost, strategic positioning, real options and supply/value chain management to the food production, processing and distribution system.

Mike is the author or co-author of four books and more than 500 articles and publications. He is also a senior associate of Centrec Consulting. He is a fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association and the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association. Mike is also the 2011 recipient of the Frederick L. Hovde Award, which honors excellence in education service to the rural people of Indiana.

Nicholas Uilk

Nicholas Uilk

Precision Ag Instructor
South Dakota State University

Nic has been an instructor with the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering department since January of 2009, with significant involvement in developing and maintaining curriculum to meet the demands of today’s precision agriculture professional. The curriculum is designed to cover agronomy, data management, agriculture electronics, and farm machinery, and Nic heads up course instruction in several classes, including Introduction to Precision Agriculture, Farm Machinery Systems Management, Computer Applications in Agriculture, Ag Industrial and Outdoor Power, and Introduction to Ag Systems Technology.

Founded in 1881, South Dakota State University is South Dakota’s Morrill Act land-grant university and is the largest higher-education institution in the state, with a 2016 fall enrollment of 12,613 students from 49 states and 85 countries. The Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering Department offers degrees in Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering (ABE), which prepares students to work with the development and design of systems that impact food sources, and in Ag Systems Technology (AST), which teaches students the practical application of new innovations in the agricultural market. We have also partnered with the Department of Agronomy, Horticulture, and Plant Science and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics to jointly offer the nation’s first Precision Agriculture (PRAG) major.