Farmer panel members

Ron Heck is a Perry, Iowa, farmer who raises corn and soybeans. He has served as president of the American Soybean Association and held several offices before that. He has served on ASA public affairs; strategic planning, finance, administration services and finance committees. As ASA president, he stressed the importance of U.S. farmers to be able to compete in the global marketplace. He also has served on the Chicago Reserve Board Advisory Committee for Agriculture, Labor and Small Business and the USDA and Department of Energy's Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee.

Marc Curtis is a Leland, Mississippi farmer who raises soybeans, corn, rice and wheat. He has served as president of the Mississippi Association of Conservation Districts and been a national officer for the American Soybean Association. He currently serves as a director for the United Soybean Board and serves on USB's production committee.

Chuck Myers is a Lyons, Nebraska, farmer, who currently serves as a United Soybean Board director and serves on USB's domestic marketing committee. He also serves on the National Biodiesel Board. Always eager to learn more about agriculture, he keeps up on technologies like precision agriculture and field mapping.

Expert panel members

Mark Bernard has owned Agro-Economics, a New Richland, Minnesota crop consultanting firm, since 1990. The firm offers soil testing, crop scouting, assistance with hybrid and variety selection, manure management and other agronomic services. Mark grew up on a Spring Valley, Minnesota, farm that raised corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and sheep. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a double major in agronomy and soil science. He worked as a crop consultant in north central North Dakota for three years and also as a sales agronomist for a local elevator before coming to AgroEconomics. In his spare time, he and his wife Jo raise registered Border Cheviot sheep.

Jim Beuerlein is an Extension agronomist at Ohio State University. His major emphasis is on reducing production costs and increasing yields through the use of balanced management systems. His duties include supervising the Ohio soybean performance trails, Ohio soybean inoculation trials, and conducting researching soybean and small grain production systems.

He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Tennessee and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. He has been in his present position since 1981.

Larry Heatherly recently retired as research agronomist at the USDA-ARS soybean research unit near Stoneville, Mississippi. He started at the farm in 1975 and spent his entire professional career there. One of his achievements included developing an Early Soybean Production System that stresses the importance of early planting in April. Typically, farmers in the mid-South planted in May and June. However, ESPS has been adopted on about one-third of the 8 million soybean acres in the lower Mississippi River Valley. In the past five years, use of ESPS has increased income more than $75 million per year in a six-state area.

Heatherly, a U.S. Army veteran, received his bachelor's degree in general agriculture at the University of Tennessee-Martin; his master's degree in agronomy at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and his Ph.D. in agronomy from the University of Missouri.

Palle Pedersen is soybean Extension agronomist at Iowa State University. He directs an Extension program that develops information to address the needs of soybean farmer sin Iowa that is economically and environmentally sustainable.

Palle grew up planting crops and doing field work on a family farm near Koge, Denmark. He received his bachelor's degree form the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Denmark; his master's degree in agricultural economics from Wye College, University of London, England; his master's degree in agricultural science from The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark; and his PhD in agronomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He began his current post in 2003. Besides farming, he has a large passion for fishing and hunting.

Wayne Pedersen has been a plant pathologist at the University of Illinois since 1980. He retired in Jan. 2005, but continues to maintain an active research program on resistance to several soybean diseases, the effect of reduced tillage and no-till on plant diseases, and use of foliar fungicides and seed treatments on soybeans and corn.

Wayne is a native of Grandin, North Dakota (30 miles north of Fargo), where his father operated a family farm. He received his bachelor's degree and Ph.D. from North Dakota State University in plant pathology and did post-graduate work at the University of Nebraska and Pennsylvania State University. Wayne enjoys college sports and is an avid (hacker) golfer.

Ray Rawson farms near Farwell, Michigan, with his wife, Helen, and their two sons, Steve and Dave. He also is an agribusinessman, marketing coulters bearing his name and a vertical tillage system. He has been instrumental in raising the level of soybean yields and is a noted speaker at field days and farm meetings. Being in the northern area of the Corn Belt has been an advantage in that it has given him the impetus to develop creative production systems.

Jim Specht is a University of Nebraska soybean geneticist. Plant genetics and plant physiology has been his long-term research interests. He is a member of a national research team that developed the first soybean genetic map of 20 linkage groups. He also serves as a scientific expert and liaison for soybean producers and their organizations at the state and national level.

He received his bachelor's degree in agronomy from the University of Nebraska; his master's degree in agronomy from the University of Illinois; and his Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Nebraska.