Speakers

Dean Sponheim is a fourth generation Mitchell County farmer, located southwest of Osage, Iowa. He owns and operates the family’s Century Farm with his wife, Cindy, and his son, Josh. He began strip tilling in 1999 and in 2004 started a custom strip till business. He began strip cropping in 2011. Dean started aerial applying cover crops in the fall of 2012 and in 2014 started a cover crop seed business, Sponheim Sales and Services. In 2019, Dean began no-tilling all his acres of corn and soybeans. He is a member of the Rock Creek Watershed Advisory Board. In 2014 the board, with the assistance from Iowa Soybean Association, developed the first watershed project plan in the state of Iowa based on the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy Goals. Since 2014, Dean has shared his story to many groups. His real passion is helping producers work through the psychological challenges when implementing “Change.”

Joe Breker has been using no-till farming practices for over 40 years and running a cow/calf herd on his operation near Havana, ND. He also uses cover crops and rotational grazing practices.

Conservation practices have always been important to him, and he was a founding board member and the first US Chairman of the Manitoba-North Dakota Zero Till Farmers Association. He was also a founder and chairman of the Conservation Cropping Systems Project (CCSP) located in Forman, ND.

Keith Berns combines over 25 years of no-till farming experience with 10 years of teaching agriculture and computers. In addition to no-tilling 2,000 acres of irrigated and dryland corn, soybeans, rye, triticale, peas, sunflowers, and buckwheat in southcentral Nebraska, he also co-owns and operates Green Cover Seed, one of the major cover crop seed providers and educators in the United States. Through Green Cover Seed, Keith has experimented with over 100 different cover crop types and hundreds of mixes planted into various situations and has learned a great deal about cover crop growth, nitrogen fixation, moisture usage, and grazing utilization of cover crops. Keith was honored by the White House as a 2016 Champion of Change for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Agriculture. Keith also developed the SmartMix Calculator, one of the most widely used cover crop selection tools on the internet. Keith has a masters degree in agricultural education from the University of Nebraska and teaches on cover crops and soil health more than 40 times per year to various groups and audiences. Keith was also appointed by Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts to be part of the Nebraska Healthy Soils Task Force and had the privilege of serving as the chairman.

Tim Meagher serves as chief operating officer of Sioux Falls-based Vanguard Hospitality, overseeing all facets of operational management for its properties Grille 26, Minervas in downtown Sioux Falls and Morrie’s Steakhouse.

An Aberdeen native, Tim began his restaurant career in the mid-1990s as a 16-year-old doing whatever needed to be done in a local pizzeria. He began his management career at a Pizza Hut in Aberdeen and joined WR Hospitality in 2002. He worked first at Minervas in Aberdeen and then as a regional manager up until 2016, when he and business partners formed Vanguard Hospitality.

Tim is happiest in the thick of restaurant operations, thriving on managing the busiest of days while always making time to make each guest feel appreciated. He prides himself on visionary leadership for his 200 person team and the broader restaurant operation, bringing people together to solve common challenges and excelling in difficult situations.

With a passion for the natural environment, sustainability and all things locally produced, Tim is the driving force behind a growing number of partnerships between Vanguard Hospitality and environmentally-conscious farming and ranching operations. Working with producers who use regenerative practices that benefit the environment, his restaurants are supporting the long-term viability of these operations by providing them reliable end markets that help connect their locally produced foods directly with diners.

A current board member for Friends of the Big Sioux River, Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce and co-chair for branding committee for SD Local Foods Coalition. Also, a member of Dakota Rural Action and Northern Plains Sustainable Ag which includes a focus on Farm to School. Curated a program to teach kids how to cook with the Boys and Girls Club to empower independence through knowledge and skill.

Tim enjoys being outdoors in his spare time, hiking, immersing himself in art and music and traveling to gain inspiration for his next dining innovation.

Tim attended Northern State University. He and his wife, Megan, have three children.

Paul Jasa serves as an Extension Engineer, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he develops and conducts educational programs related to crop production that improve profitability, build soil health and reduce risks to the environment.

He has worked with with planting equipment and tillage system evaluation at the University since 1978, gaining valuable information about the “dos and don’ts” of no-till along the way in a number of crop rotations and soil types. He is happy to share information about the systems approach to long-term benefits of continuous no-till.

Anthony Bly serves the citizens and producers of South Dakota as a South Dakota State University Extension soils field specialist. He is involved with many applied research projects, including the nutrient requirements of major agronomic crops and cover crop nutrient cycling in South Dakota. He works closely with conservation partners to educate others about the benefits of soil health and sustainable agriculture practices. Anthony also manages the Every Acre Counts program which aims to improve the profitability, diversity, and ecosystem benefits of agriculture by using precision technologies and focuses on marginal lands impacted by wet conditions, saline or sodic soils and eroded areas.

Tom Krawiec published ‘Ranching Like A 12 Year Old’ in 2022 which details his ideas on grass management, animal handling, and ranching as a business. Tom is also the author of numerous articles published in On Pasture, Stockman Grass Farmer magazines and various ag related publications in Alberta. He has been featured on several podcast discussing his ideas about grazing, ranching, and labour allocation.

In his previous life, Tom grew up and then worked in the oilpatch in various capacities from water hauler to driller on the oil rigs. In January 2000 Tom attended a week long Holistic Management course and began his journey into ranching. In 2003 he took his first Ranching For Profit course and went on to join the Executive Link program for several years.

Tom has strived to figure out how to simplify daily ranch duties so a 12 year old or an 80 year old can handle them easily. He went from grazing 40 cow/calf pairs and 70 hogs in 2000 on 373 acres to renting 5500 ac and grazing 3000 yearlings by 2007. By keeping things simple and easy, there was more daily labour required in 2000 with only a few animals than there was in 2007 with a lot of animals! His other goal in life has been to learn how to build topsoil rapidly using grazing animals and he feels he has done this via grazing in the ‘sweet spot’.

When Tom is not ranching or writing, he enjoys scuba diving and studying the ecology of the coral reef. It his life goal to ranch in the summer and dive all winter. We wish him the best of luck on that endeavour!

Wyatt Johnson works with the SD Soil Health Coalition as a soil health technician specializing in small scale agriculture and urban agriculture soil health practices.

He grew up on his family’s farm and ranch located north of Midland, SD, where he is still involved with the cow/calf operation and producing small grains and forage crops. He attended SDSU in Brookings and graduated with a degree in agricultural leadership with minors in rangeland science and animal science.

After college his passion for agriculture led him to become a middle and high school agriculture instructor and FFA advisor in Stanley County for eight years.

He also has several poultry projects, including breeding and raising large fowl and bantam chickens, waterfowl, and pigeons for exhibition.