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Dr. William W. Wilson

William W. Wilson is a Professor of Applied Economics and Agribusiness at North Dakota State University. His focus of study is on risk and strategy in agriculture and agribusiness with a particular emphasis on the development of agtechnology for commercialization, procurement, transportation and logistics, international marketing, and competition. He frequently consults with major agribusiness firms on these topics and more.

Dr. Wilson is recognized as one of the top 10 Agricultural Economists in 1995 and more recently as one of the top 1% of agricultural economists by Research Papers in Economics. Additionally, he is credited with creating the NDSU Commodity Trading Room, a state of the art facility for teaching and research in commodity marketing, logistics, and trading.

Dr. Anna Cates

Anna Cates is Minnesota's first State Soil Health Specialist in the MN Office for Soil Health (MOSH). She is dedicated to improving soil health in Minnesota by working with farmers and conservation professionals. Anna's research focuses on soil organic matter cycling and soil structure in a variety of cropping systems.

She received a PhD in Agronomy and an MS in Soil Science and Agroecology from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

John Foley

John Foley is a Nuffield Scholar and Senior Seed Production Agronomist at PGG Wrightson Seeds (PGW Seeds) in New Zealand. There, he oversees 171-hectare research farms and researches seed production and precision agriculture. His research helps the company produce seeds for domestic and international markets.

He views the arable sector as a prime example of innovation and collaboration, working to advance it. At PGW Seeds, he has done extensive work in Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil to assist in the development of seed production capabilities in these countries.

Philip Johan Odendaal

Born and raised in Zimbabwe, "PJ" grew up on a cattle and tobacco farm. Determined to stay in Zimbabwe, he started his career with a focus on conservation through safari hunting. This endeavour lasted a few years before he discovered his passion for farming and working with livestock - returning to the agriculture industry. After attempting to farm potato and tomato in an unstable economic environment, PJ has successfully managed a dairy farm and oversees 4,660 sows and a feed-mill producing 780 tonnes of finished feed per month at Triple C Pigs.

He has also authored two self-published novels, gaining local recognition for his book, "The Rise of the Vaesons" - a futuristic fantasy that centers around the possibility of man's survival being in the hands of wildlife and their internal struggle after enduring 1000's of years of horrors.

Andrew Wherrett

Andrew oversees the Crop Protection portfolio at Living Farm, which is a commercial research and development firm based in York, Western Australia. Amongst a larger team of approximately 25 people, Andrew manages a group of 5 research agronomists providing contract research for private crop protection companies looking commercialise new herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides in the Australian market. Although Andrew spent several years working as a soil scientist with the University of WA and Department of Primary Industries, his first passion was in plant pathology while completing a PhD researching blackleg of canola at UWA. This experience has come full circle and Andrew now contributes to Australia-wide research projects helping to better understand blackleg management in response to changes in canola agronomy. This research focuses on monitoring the status of genetic resistance to blackleg and understanding the agronomic impacts of upper canopy blackleg infections.

Badruun Chadraabal

Badruun grew up working at the family farm “Arvin Khur” in the Selenge Province of Mongolia before moving to Canada to study agronomy. In 2020, he graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a Bachelor of Science in Agronomy, which he quickly followed up with assisting with the harvesting season at the Groenenboom farm in Lethbridge, Alberta. Afterwards, Badruun returned to Arvin Khur where he has been working as an agronomist for the last three years. 

Arvin Khur has 4000 hectares of farmland with 1000 of them under irrigation. In 2020, they kicked off their Smart Farming initiative which researched information technology in the agricultural sector. Through this, they plan to develop a cloud-based system for real-time identification, prediction, and risk protection methodology based on satellite data to be used in the field. Additionally, they won the Champion Farmer of the Country award that same year.