Keith Bolsen, FounderKeith was a Professor Emeritus of Cattle Nutrition in the Animal Sciences & Industry Department at Kansas State University in Manhattan. He was raised on his parent’s grain/livestock farm near the small town of Bement, Illinois. Keith received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Animal Science from the University of Illinois in 1966 and 1967, and he received a Ph.D. in Cattle Nutrition from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1971.
Keith began a 32-year teaching and research career at Kansas State University in 1971, where he focused on performance of growing cattle fed with silage-based rations, silage crop agronomics, silage fermentation and additives, storage losses, and applying a team approach to silage management. He taught two Principles of Livestock Feeding courses and a Silage Technology course, and he served as the major professor for 39 graduate students who earned 28 M.Sc. and 19 Ph.D. degrees at K-State.
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Keith conducted research on silage additives and the ensiling of tropical forages during Sabbatical leaves at the Grassland Research Institute in Hurley, England (1978), the Volcani Institute in Bet Dagan, Israel (1993), and the Dairy Training and Research Institute at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos (1994). Keith has lectured on silage technology in over 40 countries.
Most people knew Keith as The Silageman™. He probably hands-on evaluated more silage than anyone else since ‘ensilage’ was introduced into the Western Hemisphere in 1870's. Keith retired from K-State in June 2003. He actively shared his silage management expertise and philosophy in numerous national and international programs and conferences. Keith was an Emeritus Director on the Board of a Bible and agriculture college in Les Cayes, Haiti.
Most people knew Keith as The Silageman™. He probably hands-on evaluated more silage than anyone else since ‘ensilage’ was introduced into the Western Hemisphere in 1870's. Keith retired from K-State in June 2003. He actively shared his silage management expertise and philosophy in numerous national and international programs and conferences. Keith was an Emeritus Director on the Board of a Bible and agriculture college in Les Cayes, Haiti.
Keith passed away suddenly at his Spicewood, Texas home on May 29, 2020.
Ruthie Bolsen, FounderRuthie is a native of Silvis, Illinois. She has a degree in finance and retired after successful careers as a professional dancer and small business owner. Ruthie was active for 16 years in raising awareness at the farm level of the many opportunities for silage program injury or death. Ruthie and Keith produced a silage safety video and co-authored a Silage Safety Handbook, many conference papers and popular press articles.
Keith and Ruthie started Keith Bolsen Ph.D. & Associates LLC in 2003, a company providing science and technical support to the global silage industry. Keith and Ruthie also consulted with individual beef and dairy producers in the USA and internationally on ways to achieve safe, efficient, and profitable silage programs. Their number one passion was silage safety and preventing serious injuries and fatalities on the farm, dairy, or feedlot.
Ruthie has a daughter and son-in-law (Krista and John Corkill), five grandchildren, and eleven great grandchildren.
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Connie KuberPRESIDENT
Connie is the Vice President of Connor Agriscience in Clovis, CA, and oversees company educational and marketing pieces. Connor developed oxygen barrier film usage in the western US, with the assistance of Dr. Keith and Ruthie Bolsen. In addition to championing safe, efficient silage, Connor recently introduced their own silage film line: Sealpro®, offering farmers a variety of silage protection options. Connie grew up on Sapa Ska Farm, a registered Holstein family dairy, and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Agricultural Journalism in 1982. She moved to California and began promotions work with World-Wide Sires in Hanford. In 1988 she left that position and wrote freelance for a number of US and international dairy trade journals, and was a Contributing Editor for Dairy Today. In 1992, Connie and her husband, Ron, formed Connor Marketing, and later Connor Agriscience, with the goal of bringing new science to livestock farmers. Their focus has been on silage making and management for the past twenty-plus years. |
Justin WaggonerVICE PRESIDENT
Justin was raised on his family’s central Kansas farm. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science in 2000 and Master’s degree in equine nutrition and management in 2001 from Kansas State University. Justin completed his PhD in Ruminant Nutrition at New Mexico State University (NMSU) in 2007, while managing the NMSU ruminant nutrition laboratory and metabolism facility. Justin began his professional career as an Assistant Professor and Beef Systems Specialist at Kansas State University’s Southwest Research and Extension Center in Garden City in January 2008. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2013. |
Lance WhitlockVICE PRESIDENT
Lance grew up near Silver Lake, KS and always had the desire to be part of agriculture. This led him to Kansas State University where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science and a Master’s degree in Ruminant Nutrition under Dr. Keith Bolsen. His research focused on forage quality and silage management. Lance’s passion for knowledge led him to South Dakota State University where he earned a Ph.D. in Dairy Science under Dr. Dave Schingoethe. His focus was on modifying fat composition of milk through dietary manipulation. Lance is a dairy nutritionist for Progressive Dairy Solutions in Oakdale, CA. He brings a strong science as well as practical perspective to the teams he works with both on and off the farm. He is keenly aware of the complexity and has first-hand experience with herds ranging from 1,000 to 20,000 plus cows. He consults for progressive, intensively managed, highly productive dairies across the Southwest, West and overseas. |
Lance understands how dairy systems work on a day-to-day basis and can find opportunities to increase profits by paying close attention to details. He drives home the importance of dairy profitability through proper execution of fundamental principles, which ensures healthy transition cows that achieve good peak milk yields and early pregnancies. Lance believes that forage quality is the basis of all diets and strives to motivate dairy farmers to recognize the potential in those forages to save costs on purchased feeds.
Doug DeGroffTREASURER
Doug was raised in a large dairy community in Upstate New York. During his high school years, he worked on area dairy farms and had his own farrow-to-finish swine operation. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in Dairy Science in 1996. After graduation, Doug relocated to California where he entered the dairy industry in sales and marketing with both the Monsanto Company and Cargill Animal Nutrition. In 2001 he spent one year managing a large dairy near Green Bay, WI. In 2006, Doug started his own company, Diversified Dairy Solutions, a dairy nutrition and management-consulting firm. Doug keeps busy as a volunteer for his church, his children’s school, the California Ag Leadership Program, working as a Cornell Alumni Ambassador, and spending time with his family. Doug, his wife, Alison and their 3 children; Drew, Luke and Makenna live on an almond farm in Tulare, CA. |
Eric DorrBOARD MEMBER
Eric Dorr has worked in the US Beef and Dairy industry for over 20 years. Presently Eric is the Business Development Manager for Branded Silage Inoculants and Environmental Products for Chr-Hansen Animal Health and Nutrition. Previously, Eric served in Technical Services as the North American Silage Specialist for Chr-Hansen. As Silage Specialist, Eric had the opportunity to visit Canada, Mexico, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, and Russia as well as 17 different states across the US. Eric has spent much of the past 18 years focusing on silage inoculants and silage management. Previously he has held several sales and sales management rolls with various animal nutrition and livestock identification companies. In 2006, Eric founded Stillwater Animal Technologies, LLC in Meridian, Idaho and managed several companies including micro ingredient machines, individual animal identification, and silage management tools such as oxygen barrier plastics. |
Prior to focusing his career in animal nutrition industry, Eric worked as a Beef Extension Associate for The Ohio State University and as a Retail Specialist for the Certified Angus Beef Program. Eric holds a B.S. in Agriculture from Oklahoma State University and an MBA from the University of Nebraska-Kearney. Eric currently resides in Nampa, Idaho.
Glen FeichtnerBOARD MEMBER
Glen operates a grain farm raising corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, and milo. He is a farmer feeder, feeding 200-300 beef cattle per year. He has also fed cattle in custom lots and has run stocker cattle. Since 1984, he operates a commercial grain and livestock trucking business in Ohio and surrounding states. I do my own harvesting and have chopped corn silage, wheatlage, oatlage and alfalfa haylage. He currently serves on the Live Cattle Marketing Committee for both OCA and NCBA, and is secretary of the Crawford County Cattlemen's Association. Glen represents OCA on the Ohio Department of Agriculture's Livestock Environmental Permitting Program's Rules Advisory Committee. Glen is Past President of the Ohio Cattlemen's Association (OCA) in 2001, was on the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) Executive Committee. He is a past chairman of the Ohio Beef Council. Glen lives near New Washington, OH, 40 miles south of Lake Erie. |
Jacob FisherBOARD MEMBER
Jacob is a dairy farmer in Northern New York where his family has been farming since the 1800s. Jacob earned a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from Cornell University. During his time at Cornell, he interned with an agricultural technology firm in New York and a custom farming and harvesting operations in the Central Valley of California. As one of five family partners in Mapleview Dairy, Jacob’s primary focus in the business is to manage all crop and feed productions to ensure quality forage. Since returning from Cornell, Jacob and his brother have partnered to further expand the family’s business to include a heifer raising facility. |