2026 Midwest Grazing & Soil Health Summit Sessions & Presenters
Wednesday, March 4
Room 1
7:30am - Breakfast, Exhibits, Networking Time
8:30am - Dr. Temple Grandin, Great Minds are Not all The Same
9:30am - Break and Exhibits
10:00am - Breakout Sessions
Room 1
Jared Luhman, Lessons Learned from 250+ Interviews with Successful Ranchers
Room 2
Jason Cavadini, Intentional Grazing: Enterprise Selection & Budgeting to Fit Your Farm & Life
Room 3
Keith Berns, Soil Health Makes Sense - But Does It Make Dollars?
11:00am Break, Exhibits
11:30am - Breakout Sessions
Room 1
Jordan Meyer, Scaling Regeneration: Grazing, Genetics, and People
Room 2
Todd Churchill, Next-Generation Farm Transition: Governance, Decisions, and Estate Planning
Room 3
Troy Salzer, Profit Drain: Addressing the Missing Liver Fluke Solution in MN Livestock
12:30pm - Lunch, Discussion Tables, Exhibitors
1:45pm - Breakouts
Room 1
Caitlin Word, Rooted in Profit: The Business Case for Better Grazing
Room 2
Jason Cavadini, Practical Forage Chains: Annual Forages & Cover Crops That Fit Your Grazing Operation
Room 3
Josh Gaskamp, Grazing that Promotes Wildlife and Boosts Profitability
2:45pm - Break, Exhibitors
Room 1
3:00pm - Dr. Temple Grandin, The Importance of Good Stockmanship
4:00pm - Summit ends
See the Presenter Bios HERE.
Wednesday, March 4
7:30am Breakfast, Exhibitors - Room 3
8:30am Keynote Dr. Temple Grandin, Great Minds are Not all The Same
Temple Grandin explores how people think in fundamentally different ways—and why those differences matter in agriculture, business, and problem-solving. She describes three primary types of thinkers: visual or photo thinkers, who excel at seeing details and patterns and often are excellent at livestock husbandry; mathematical or linear thinkers, who thrive on logic, systems, and sequential problem-solving; and verbal thinkers, who process the world through words and language. Understanding these thinking styles helps teams work better together, improves communication, and allows individuals to recognize and build on their own strengths. This session will help participants appreciate cognitive diversity and learn how different kinds of minds contribute to innovation, animal care, and practical decision-making on the farm and beyond.
9:30am Break & Exhibitors
10:00am Breakout Sessions
Room 1
Jared Luhman
Lessons Learned from 250+ Interviews with Successful Ranchers
Through the Ranching Returns podcast, Jared has had the opportunity to sit down with more than 250 successful ranchers, farmers, and graziers from across the United States—and many from around the world. These conversations span a wide range of operations, environments, and management styles, yet clear patterns consistently emerge. In this session, Jared will share the key trends, common principles, and recurring themes he has observed across these interviews. From mindset and management decisions to grazing strategies and business structure, he’ll highlight what successful operators tend to do differently—and what they avoid. Attendees will leave with practical insights and actionable ideas they can apply within their own operations, regardless of size or location, to improve profitability, resilience, and long-term success.
Room 2
Jason Cavadini
Intentional Grazing: Enterprise Selection & Budgeting to Fit Your Farm & Life
There are many ways for a grazing operation to generate income, and there is no shortage of successful examples across the land. But not every enterprise makes sense for every farm. The allure and intrigue of "diversification" causes many farms to employ multiple enterprises, which often includes at least one that isn't a good fit for their farm or life. This often happens when farms fail to be intentional about identifying the right enterprises and is perpetuated when farms fail to maintain an enterprise budget. This presentation will emphasize the importance of identifying enterprises that fit for the operation and will walk the audience through the process. The presentation will then lead the audience through the basics of developing an enterprise budget and will conclude with a real-life example of how the enterprise budget can be used to make critical business decisions. The presentation is entry-level finances but is applicable to new farmers and experienced farmers.
Room 3
Keith Berns
Soil Health Makes Sense - But Does It Make Dollars?
Preventing erosion, breaking compaction, increasing infiltration, increasing nutrient cycling and availability, nitrogen fixation and supplemental grazing are all well documented cover crop benefits. It makes good agronomic sense to use cover crops to address any of these issues, but does it make financial sense to use them? Keith Berns, one of the cover crop pioneers over the past 15 years, will lay out the case and show the research on how cover crops affect the bottom line profitability of a farming operation. Short-term and long-term benefits will be considered and both direct and indirect financial impacts will be presented. Come find out if cover crops make both dollars and sense!
11:00am Break, Exhibitors
11:30am Breakouts
Room 1
Jordan Meyer, Scaling Regeneration: Grazing, Genetics, and People
In this session, Jordan shares their journey from starting with zero infrastructure and a handful of animals to building a diversified, regenerative grazing operation. We’ll break down the key phases that made growth possible, from grazing management and soil health to selecting genetics that thrive in low-input systems. The session also explores how adding people—through hired grazers and partnerships—allowed us to scale without burnout or excessive equipment. Attendees will leave with a practical framework they can adapt to grow resilient, profitable regenerative farms of their own.
Room 2
Todd Churchill, Next-Generation Farm Transition: Governance, Decisions, and Estate Planning
Our farms are our heritage and our legacy. And if, as Joel Salatin suggests, we “create a farm so wonderful our children never want to leave,” then what comes next? Bringing the next generation into the operation requires more than good intentions—it takes new enterprises, new revenue streams, and strong skills in collaboration and decision-making. Join Todd Churchill as he shares stories from his work as a Farm Family Facilitator, helping multi-generational families navigate operating and non-operating owners, governance and decision-making structures, legal ownership transitions, funding new enterprises, retirement, and estate planning.
Room 3
Troy Salzer, Profit Drain: Addressing the Missing Liver Fluke Solution in MN Livestock
Liver flukes, particularly the Giant Liver Fluke (Fascioloides magna), are a significant and often silent killer of livestock in the northern half of Minnesota, where the fluke’s life cycle thrives in wet, marshy areas and is carried by white-tailed deer. Unlike other parasites, they often provide no warning until sudden death occurs, especially in sheep and goats, but can also impact beef and dairy animals. Join us as we discuss some of these details and how to best address these potential risks in the light of not having one of the most commonly used tools available.
12:30pm Lunch & Discussion Tables
1:45pm Breakouts
Room 1
Caitlin Word
Rooted in Profit: The Business Case for Better Grazing
Caitlin Word of Noble Research Institute makes the case that regeneration and profitability are not opposing forces but rather work synergistically to create whole business resilience. This session connects soil health, grazing management and ranch profitability through a practical, systems-based lens. Learn how regenerative principles translate into real economic outcomes, and connect the dots between better stewardship and better business.
Room 2
Jason Cavadini
Practical Forage Chains: Annual Forages & Cover Crops That Fit Your Grazing Operation
Cover crops and annual forages provide the perfect opportunity for the synergistic integration of crops and livestock, reducing feed and fertility costs while providing the positive impact of forage crops and livestock grazing on soil health. Grazing of these forages makes sense where farms are already growing them and also have livestock. But what about farms that dont already have livestock? And what about grazing operations with all their acres under perennial forage? Are there opportunities for annual forages and cover crops that make sense? This presentation will go through the process of identifying opportunities for annual forages and cover crops for every farm and will then walk the audience through selecting planting methods, species, planting rates, and grazing goals. An Extension publication was developed for this process in 2025, and this presentation will follow the template of that publication and will demonstrate to the audience how to use the resource.
Room 3
Josh Gaskamp
Grazing that Promotes Wildlife and Boosts Profitability
This presentation will teach the importance of adopting a grazing mindset over a grazing system; a mindset that is adaptive and focused on outcomes for wildlife and rancher profitability rather than a recipe designed solely to allocate forage to livestock. We will highlight real ranchers that are implementing an adaptive grazing mindset today. We will discuss these ranchers’ results as well as other ecological and economic outcomes of using one of Nature’s most powerful disturbances.
2:45pm Break, Exhibitors
Room 3
3:00pm Dr. Temple Grandin, The Importance of Good Stockmanship
In this session, Temple Grandin will share key principles of low-stress livestock handling based on decades of research and field experience. Topics will include livestock behavior during handling, facility design that supports natural animal movement, and the importance of good stockmanship in reducing stress. The session will highlight how thoughtful handling and well-designed facilities improve animal welfare, handler safety, and livestock performance.