Joleen Hadrich, PhD, is an Associate Dean at the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS). She is the deputy director of the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES), leads the 10 CFANS Research and Outreach Centers (ROCs) across the state, and is a professor in the Department of Applied Economics. 

She works with stakeholders across CFANS and the University to promote scholarly excellence by providing leadership and oversight for the ROCs, as well as shared research infrastructure which includes greenhouses, barns, and other assets that support the academic research mission of the College. Joleen grew up on a dairy farm in central Minnesota. She received her PhD and MS in agricultural economics from Michigan State University and her BA in management and Spanish from the University of Minnesota, Morris.

The Future of Ag

The kick-off session will delve into the transformative role of technology in modern farming practices. You’ll learn about the significance of public-private partnerships in driving innovation and implementing technological advancements in the agriculture sector, and hear about the pressing workforce issues in the industry, emphasizing the need for skilled professionals equipped to harness emerging technologies effectively. Our speaker, Joleen Hadrich, from the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences also will discuss the latest agricultural technologies tailored to empower farmers, enhancing productivity, sustainability, and resilience in the face of evolving challenges and opportunities.

Samantha VanHeuveln, Founder

Samantha grew up near Danvers, MN and attended Benson High School where she was a successful student-athlete that participated in everything from marching band to FFA to Business Professionals of America (BPA). She attended University of Jamestown where she ran cross country and track and obtained a degree in accounting. She began working at Christianson PLLP in 2016 and started a family shortly thereafter and have four children ages 7 to 2.  Her husband, Klinton, always loved having chickens and insisted that we needed to butcher themselves. This eventually turned into the full blown meat processing business where Klinton cuts the meat and Samantha handles the books. 

What was started in our garage to butcher their own chickens, blossomed into a full blown meat processing shop right on the farm where they have a fully functional butcher shop that Klinton built with his own two hands. K&S Poultry & Meats focuses on processing poultry in the summer months and fill the schedule with large animals the rest of the year. Their goal is to serve our community by providing top quality meat processing and products and to do our part to eliminate the bottleneck for meat processing in our state.

Preston Brown, Founder and President

Preston Brown is the President and Founder of Incite.ag a carbon intensity scoring platform for ag-processors and feedstock producers. He is a University of Illinois graduate and Central Illinois farm kid with over a decade of experience in producer-focused sales and consulting roles across the corn belt with companies like Beck's Hybrids and Syngenta. Preston led Syngenta's "Top Producer" efforts, delivering a diversified suite of services, ranging from H2A International work programs, to ag-tech startup investments, to government-affairs engagements, all for row crop operations farming over 10,000 acres. Over the last three years, he has been the leader behind tailoring a real-time carbon management platform to cater to the unique needs of the biofuel industry. 

Founded by farmers and exclusively based in the midwest, incite.ag is a technology based carbon intensity scoring platform focused on simplifying and streamlining the process for fuel and feedstock producers to share relevant data, calculate carbon intensity scores, and turn those scores into value-add low carbon revenue opportunities. Laser-focused on helping producers turn emissions into income, incite.ag's suite of customized digital solutions can be tailored to any biofuel plant's unique operations and supplier network, paving the way for selective sourcing of low-C feedstocks and operational optimizations around carbon intensity.