The Pennsylvania Center for Dairy Excellence’s 11th annual Dairy Financial and Risk Management Conference, titled “Navigating the Numbers,” will now be held as a virtual event. The conference is scheduled for Tuesday, September 15 and Wednesday, September 16 from 9 to 11:30 a.m. each day. To accompany the virtual event, reduced registration costs are available to dairy lenders, financial consultants, and dairy farmers who sign up for the conference. Registration is $80 per person and discounted to $60 for representatives of organizations listed as the Center’s Allies for Advancement.

“While we had hoped to come together in person for this conference, we are happy to be able to offer the same high-quality content, with expert speakers, in a digital format that you can access from anywhere,” said Zach Myers, Risk Education Program Manager at the Center for Dairy Excellence. “We are all navigating new terrain and managing unexpected changes in the marketplace this year. The Dairy Financial and Risk Management Conference is an excellent way to come together and discuss specific ways we can manage risk and make data-driven decisions during this time.”

This year’s event will provide dairy farmers and financial consultants with practical takeaways about market dynamics, risk management, insurance, and change management. Dairy professionals who have experience in strategic management, dairy economics, agricultural insurance, benchmarking and business planning will speak in two sessions during the virtual event:

Session 1: Tuesday, September 15, 9-11:30 a.m.

• “Understanding Insurance Options” with Mark Goodhart, Risk Consultant and Corporate Vice President at Strickler Agency, Inc.
• “Dairy Producer Panel” with Mike Hosterman, AgChoice Farm Credit, and Glenn Kline (Y-Run Farms LLC), Rodney Hissong (Mercer-Vu Farms Inc.), and Mark Mosemann (Misty Mountain Dairy LLC)

Session 2: Wednesday, September 16, 9-11:30 a.m.

• “Market Dynamics” with Matthew Gould, President of Dairy and Food Market Analyst, Inc.
• “Change Management” with Dr. Jennifer Garrett, President and Founder, JG Consulting Services, LLC

Learn more about the featured speakers:

• Matthew Gould – “Market Dynamics.” Matt Gould is a well-known and well-connected analyst and consultant in the dairy industry. He is the author of The Dairy Market Analyst, a widely followed industry newsletter and serves as the Chief Market Analyst at Rice Dairy, LLC, a dairy futures brokerage. His insights on industry subjects are regularly requested including recent citations in
  Bloomberg, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Matt also writes for Progressive Dairy. Matt earned a B.S. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and grew up on a dairy farm in Western New York that is in its third generation of ownership.
• Mark Goodhart – “Understanding Insurance Options.” Mark Goodhart began his career with the nation’s largest crop insurance carrier as marketing director when he completed his degree from Penn State University in the spring of 2002. In December 2004, he joined the Strickler Agency as a farm service agent to help farmers with their agricultural insurance needs. Mark is now the Ag Department Manager and Corporate Vice President. Mark and his father operate a small cash grain farm in Shippensburg, Pa., primarily growing corn and soybeans. He is a member of the PA Farm Bureau and Crop Insurance Agents Association of PA.
• Dr. Jennifer Garrett – “Change Management and Looking to the Future.” Dr. Jennifer Garrett has over 30 years of leadership and business experience in agriculture, food and nutrition. She started her career on faculty in Animal and Dairy Sciences at the University of Missouri after receiving her PhD in Nutrition at Virginia Tech and her MS and BS in Animal Sciences at the University of Kentucky. Her desire to be more actively involved in agribusiness led to various US and global leadership roles in the Monsanto Dairy and Monsanto Corporate Engagement businesses. For the next 10 years, she held
  senior positions in nutrition communications and policy with the Kellogg Company and with McCain Foods. In 2015, she founded JG Consulting Services, LLC, a strategic management consulting firm dedicated to sustainable food and agricultural systems.
• Mike Hosterman – Leading the Dairy Producer Panel Discussion with Glenn Kline (Y-Run Farms LLC), Rodney Hissong (Mercer-Vu Farms Inc.), and Mark Mosemann (Misty Mountain Dairy LLC). Mike has been with AgChoice Farm Credit and its predecessor organizations for 30 years, giving him much
  knowledge and experience in the agricultural industry. In his role as an executive ag business consultant, Mike works with farm operations to conduct all types of strategic planning, business planning, transition/ succession planning, budgeting and benchmarking. During his 30 years at Farm Credit, Mike has primarily worked with dairy clients to benchmark their operations and make profitable business decisions. Mike continues to work with some of Pennsylvania’s more progressive operations. Mike grew up on a farm in central Pennsylvania and his background is in swine, beef and dairy.

Links to access the virtual conference will be provided after registration. To register for the virtual event, sign up online or email hzimmerman1@centerfordairyexcellence.org.