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2010 DIRECT SEED CROPPING SYSTEMS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

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Registration Form (pdf)

Conference Agenda

Speaker List

Concurrent Sessions
ONE
TWO

How to Register

Conference Fees

Where to Stay

Conference Exhibitors

2010 Sponsors

The 2010 conference opens with
4 views on the future of farming from ...

Russ Zenner Grower, Genesee, ID
The Importance of Research in My Direct Seed System

Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy Dean of College of Agriculture Sciences, Oregon State University
Dean's View: Agriculture Research

Carl Casale Executive VP and CFO, Monsanto, St. Louis, MO
Industry View: The Future of Wheat Genetics and Pest Control Product Research

Theodor Friedrich Senior Officer, FAO Crop Production Systems Intensification, Rome, Italy
Global View: Conservation Agriculture - The Future of Farming

Start Day 2 with a Direct Seed Breakfast
and then learn more ....

Dick Wittman Grower, Culdesac, ID
Reconciling Conflicting Views on Climate Change & Carbon Markets…from the Brazilian Rainforest Dwellers to Washington DC

Dr. Don Reicosky Retired Soil Scientist, USDA-ARS, Morris, MN
Carbon and Agro Economic Services

Dr. Betty Klepper Retired USDA-ARS Research Scientist, Pendleton, OR
Wheat Plant Growth: From Physiology to Production

It all wraps up with what we need to hear about agriculture...

Karl Kupers
Shepherd's Grain, Grower, Harrington, WA
Agricultural Policy and the Need to Hear About Agriculture

Thomas Hager, Author, Eugene, OR
"The Alchemy of Air" Nominated for the National Academies Communications Award (Science, Engineering and Medicine) for books.

David R. Montgomery
Author, Professor of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington
"Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations"

Plus 6 concurrent session topics to choose from click here.

Thank you to the 2010 Direct Seed Sponsors

	Registration Package
Keynote Speaker	Official Publication	Keynote Speaker
Keynote Speaker	Keynote Speaker	Two Concurrent Session Rooms
Keynote Speaker	Direct Seed Breakfast Speakers	Keynote Speaker

January 20 Evening Buffet Sponsors

A Unit of Monsanto

Jan 20 Afternoon Refreshement	Jan 21 Morning Coffee	Jan 21 Direct Seed Breakfast HORSCH ANDERSON
January 21 Lunch	Jan 21 Dessert & Coffee	Research Poster Session

Concurrent Session Rooms

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
PLENARY ONE The Futue of Farming: Four Viewpoints		1:05 p.m. Grand Ballroom January 20, 2010
Grower View: The Importance of Research in My Direct Seed Cropping System Russ Zenner Grower, Genesee, ID
	As a founding member and Past President of the Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association, Russ Zenner has, throughout his farming career, provided direction to both public and private research to help resolve direct seed production issues. He is a leader when it comes to applying current research results and new technologies on his farm; pursuing an ongoing commitment to advancing the practical adaptability of new direct seed tools and systems. As the opening conference speaker, Russ will share his views on how research has kept his farm competitive and set the stage for the conference speakers that follow with his insights into future local, regional, national, public and private research that is needed to keep PNW agriculture on the leading edge.
	BIO: Russ is a 3rd generation farmer at Genesee, ID and was the founding President of PNDSA. A Shepherd's Grain producer and have the first farm in the state of Idaho to become Food Alliance certified. Past activities have included 9 years as a STEEP research advisory committee member and also chairman of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil council research committee. Currently chairman of the board of Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative.
Dean's View: Agriculture Research		Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy Dean of College of Agriculture Sciences Oregon State University
	Dr. Ramaswamy is the latest addition to the PNW Dean’s list arriving at OSU in early October 2009. He brings with him an impressive background of accomplishments. His last stop was as Director of Agriculture Research Programs and Associate Dean of the College of Agriculture at Purdue University. Trained as an entomologist he has also lead research efforts at Kansas State and Mississippi State Universities. Being new to the region Dr. Ramaswamy will provide a broad overview of the need to continue to push the frontiers of agriculture research and how this applies to the PNW research institutions.
	BIO: Sonny Ramaswamy became the dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and director of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station on August 1, 2009. He previously served as the director of the Agricultural Research Programs and associate dean for research in the College of Agriculture at Purdue University. He is an entomologist having received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University. Dr. Ramaswamy provides overall leadership for the College’s programs at the Corvallis Campus, at the OSU Cascades Campus in Bend, and OSU programs at Eastern Oregon University in LaGrande. He is a member of the senior leadership team of the University, participating in institutional strategic planning, goal-setting, and resource allocation.
Industry View: The Future of Wheat Genetics and Pest Control Product Research		Carl Casale Executive VP and CFO, Monsanto, St. Louis, MO
	While Carl Casale provides leadership to one of the largest crop protection companies, he continues to maintain the roots he established growing up on the family farm in Oregon. We have asked Carl to express what he regards as the future needs of the agriculture industry and discuss the role that Monsanto has mapped out for its wheat breeding program and other parts of its crop protection products related to dryland agriculture in the PNW.
	BIO: Carl M. Casale is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer with responsibilities for all of Monsanto’s Finance, Information Technology, and Strategy Groups. After receiving a B.S. degree in agricultural economics from Oregon State, Carl joined Monsanto in 1984 as a sales representative for The Agricultural Group in Walla Walla, Washington. This was followed by five years of product management assignments at the World Headquarters. While receiving his M.B.A. from Washington University, Carl worked as part of a team to develop new business concepts which resulted in the creation of two new agricultural businesses. He has held a number of progressively senior positions including Sales Director, Managing Director of the US agriculture business, Vice President, North American Ag, Executive Vice President, North America and Latin America North, and, most recently, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Operations. Carl lives with his wife, Kim, and three children, Libby, Haley and Alex in St. Charles, MO.
Global View: Conservation Agriculture - the Future for Farming		Theodor Friedrich Senior Officer, FAO Crop Production Systems Intensification, Rome, Italy
	Traveling the globe to promote the adoption of conservation agriculture cropping systems, on behalf of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Association, Theodor Friedrich knows how important conservation agriculture is to our global community. This is a rare opportunity to listen to an industry leader who has first hand experience in developing programs to resolve production problems and issues in some of the most challenging agricultural environments around the world.
	BIO: Theodor Friedrich is an expert in conservation agriculture with more than fifteen years practical work experience in this area. Since 1994, he serves as the Senior Officer of FAO/Rome in the areas of agricultural mechanization and crop production systems, particularly promoting Conservation Agriculture. Born in El Tigre, Venezuela, Friedrich has traveled the world and worked since 1982 for different organizations with an agricultural and development focus in more than 60 countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania. He earned his Ph.D. in 1988 from Göttingen University in agricultural engineering, and he specializes in work with agriculture, agricultural engineering and mechanization, agricultural extension, technical co-operation with developing countries, conservation agriculture and integrated pest management.
Evening Buffet Guest Speaker		6:45 pm Grand Ballroom January 20, 2010
Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations		David R. Montgomery Author, Professor of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
	As a geologist, David Montgomery takes the long view to the events that have shaped our world. In his book ‘Dirt’, Montgomery doesn’t hold back in his description of the global consequences of intensive, plow based tillage which continually removes soil cover and organic matter in an effort to meet the human need for an adequate diet. Continual erosion of the productive topsoil around ancient civilizations, in an effort to maximize yield, has been a root cause of the collapse and relocation of civilizations right up to the last expansion of Europeans into North America. Montgomery recognizes that we have new tools and technologies, including direct seed cropping systems, that will slow the processes in action but significantly more action is required if the trend is to be reversed.
	BIO: Macarthur Fellow David R. Montgomery studies geomorphology, the evolution of landscapes. He graduated from Stanford University in 1984 with a B.S. in geology and from U.C. Berkeley in 1991 with a Ph.D. in geomorphology. He is a professor in the Department of Earth & Space Sciences at the University of Washington. His research interests range from the co-evolution of the Pacific salmon and the topography of the Pacific Northwest to the environmental history of Puget Sound rivers, interactions among climate, tectonics, and erosion in shaping mountain ranges, and giant glacial floods in eastern Tibet. He is the author of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations and King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon.
PNW Direct Seed Breakfast		7:00 am Grand Ballroom January 21, 2010
Grower View: Reconciling Conflicting Views on Climate Change & Carbon Markets		Dick Wittman Grower/Consultant, Culdesac, ID
	…from the Brazilian Rainforest Dwellers to Washington DC
	BIO: Dick Wittman manages an Idaho family farm partnership and provides consulting services in family farm business and financial management in the US and abroad. He’s served on numerous commodity and financial institution boards; is a director and past president of the Farm Financial Standards Council and past president of the Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association. He is an adjunct faculty member of Texas A&M University and serves on the national Ag Carbon Markets Working Group which provides policy development leadership in climate change legislation impacting agriculture.

Economic View: Direct Seed Mentor Project: Economic Reality Check		Dr. Kate Painter Agriculture Economics Analyst Univerisity of Idaho, Moscow, ID
	The Direct Seed Mentoring Project has matched farmers adopting direct seeding with successful direct seeders. This session uses results from the Mentoring Project (Kok, Roe, Meyer and Painter) to prepare an economic analysis and using this information will present side-by-side comparison of an intensive tillage system and a direct seed system.
	BIO: Kate Painter is an agricultural economist with the University of Idaho, where she develops crop and livestock budgets for the state of Idaho and continues her interests in biofuels, sustainable agriculture, and climate change. Kate received her PhD in Agricultural Economics from Washington State University in 1992. She and her husband live on a small farm near Colfax, WA, with their two daughters and too many animals.
		Ty Meyer Production Ag Program Manager, Spokane County Conservation District, Spokane, WA
	BIO: Ty has worked for the Spokane County Conservation District for the past six years as their Production Ag Manager primarily running the state revolving funds loan program for the purchase of direct seed and no-till equipment. Prior to coming to SCCD, he worked as the Assistant Manager for Johnson Union Warehouse and as a Project Manager for AT&T wireless. Ty has a degree in Agribusiness from WSU and grew up on a farm in Colton, WA.
PLENARY TWO		8:30 amGrand Ballroom January 21, 2010
Carbon and Agro Ecosystem Services: The Value of What We Do		Dr. Don Reicosky Retired Soil Scientist, USDA-ARS, Morris, MN
	Throughout his career as a soil scientist at the USDA – ARS, Morris, Minnesota Research Station, Don Reicosky has been a tireless advocate for the development of conservation agriculture, no-till, and direct seed cropping systems. Don is recognized for his expert knowledge on soil carbon and the issues that surround its value to growers and society. Just recently retired, Don continues to publish his work and travel extensively to promote the importance of putting a value on carbon as a key motivation for increasing soil carbon and the adoption of conservation agriculture systems. While there are many agro ecosystem services that growers can deliver, Don is clear that many of them are the direct result of increasing soil carbon.
	BIO: Donald C. Reicosky is a retired Soil Scientist for the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), North Central Soil Conservation Research Laboratory, Morris, MN, and Adjunct Professor in the Soil Science Department, University of Minnesota, St. Paul. He holds degrees from Ohio State University and the University of Illinois. His research dealt with soil-water-plant-atmosphere relationships, with emphasis on measuring soil gas exchange as related to tillage. Recent research focused on tillage and residue management with emphasis on measuring gaseous losses of soil carbon following intensive tillage with a portable chamber. The research has shown short-term tillage-induced carbon dioxide losses after moldboard plowing can help explain the long-term decline in soil carbon associated with intensive cropping. These results suggest need for improved low disturbance seeding methods for enhancement of the soil resource and environmental quality.
Wheat Plant Growth: From Physiology to Production		Dr. Betty Klepper Retired USDA-ARS Research Scientist, Pendleton, OR
	As a Plant Physiologist and Research Leader with the USDA–ARS Columbia Plateau Conservation Research Center, Dr. Betty Klepper delivered ground breaking research results that pushed the frontiers of wheat breeding in the PNW. Dr. Klepper has agreed to return to the speaking circuit to discuss the physiology of the wheat plant, from germination to harvest, and how her research can be used in current wheat breeding efforts to meet the needs of direct seed cropping systems.
	BIO: Betty Klepper was Research Leader at the USDA-ARS Columbia Plateau Conservation Research Center at Pendleton from 1985 until her retirement in 1996. She has advanced degrees in environmental physiology from Duke University and has taught in universities and done contract research at the Hanford Nuclear Site. At Pendleton, she studied wheat plant development and provided shoot and root information for models of crop development and growth still in use today. Her methods allow evaluation of crop stresses such as those found in Direct Seeded crops.
PLENARY THREE - Agriculture Policy: Society and the Environment		1:00 p.m. Grand Ballroom January 21, 2010
This will be a unique session for the direct seed conference; one that we hope pushes everyone a little beyond their comfort zone. The agriculture community is only a very small proportion of the population in North America and the perceptions that we hold of our industry and the perceptions of the rest of society are often different. These differences are, more often than not, due to a lack of dialogue between the practitioners and the observers. This session will be an opportunity to bring both sides of the fence a bit closer to the realities that exist.
Agriculture Policy and the Need to Hear About Agriculture		Karl Kupers Shepherd's Grain, Columbia Plateau Producers, Harrington, WA
	In telling the Shepherd’s Grain story, Karl Kupers doesn’t shy away from pointing out that achieving sustainable agriculture production systems is an objective that farmers need to continually strive toward. He keeps an open mind to how sustainable agriculture is defined but recognizes there are some ‘must haves’ that agriculture policy in this country has been missing. Sustainable agriculture is more than mitigating environmental degradation; it also includes economic and social impacts. Karl is a firm believer that we need to hear all sides of the story so that we can develop agriculture policy that will meet societal needs well into the future.
	BIO: Information to be updated.
The Alchemy of Air A Jewish genius, a doomed tycoon, and the scientific discovery that fed the world but fueled the rise of Hitler.		Thomas Hager Author, Eugene, OR
	The Alchemy of Air is the short biography of the lives of scientists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch who discovered and developed the process of converting atmospheric nitrogen (N2) into Anhydrous Ammonia (NH3) and Ammonium Nitrate (NH4NO3). Hager leads us on an interesting journey into these two lives and how this important industrial process was developed. This is valuable history into a product we have all come to rely heavily upon in our annual crop production systems. Hager however, goes a step further and points to some troubling consequences of this massive global experiment that Haber and Bosch unleashed on the global environment. The Alchemy of Air has been named a finalist (1 of 3) for the National Academies Communications Award (Science, Engineering and Medicine) for books.
	BIO: Thomas Hager, a lifelong Oregonian, grew up on ten acres outside of Portland. After earning graduate degrees in biology and journalism, he started writing science stories for magazines and newspapers, including the Wall St. Journal, The Journal of the American Medical Society, and Reader's Digest. After a stint as Director of Communications and Marketing for the University of Oregon, he decided to write books full-time. He has written six books on the history of science and technology, and is here today because of his latest -- "The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery that Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler" -- which tells the story of the development of synthetic fertilizers. "The Alchemy of Air" has received numerous honors, including being named a "Book of the Year" by Kirkus Reviews, and a finalist for the National Academies Communications Prize.
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