Director - The Center for Farm Financial Management
Extension Economist - Farm Management

Phone: 612-625-6701
Fax: 612-625-3105
eMail: rcraven@umn.edu
(Publications by Robert Craven)

Robert Craven is an Extension Economist and Director of the Center for Farm Financial Management, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota. He has been Director since 1997 and has held a position in the Center for 23 years. Areas of specialty include business management for farmers and credit analysis for agricultural lenders with emphasis on financial planning and analysis. His work for the Center has focused on development of FINPACK, nationally recognized software for whole farm financial planning and analysis. In the past several years he has worked to develop the crop marketing programs at the Center. One of the successful programs in this area is the "Winning the Game" series of workshops. He also played a key role in the development of the National Risk Management Education Library, a nationally funded web site for risk management educational materials.

He has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences and seminars. He has also taught over 150 workshops on farm financial management and receives high marks for his teaching. Awards received include the USDA Group Award for Superior Service and the American Agricultural Economics Association Group Award for Distinguished Extension Programs.

Mr. Craven is also actively involved in a 1600 acre family farming operation in southwestern Minnesota, where he has been the primary manager for the past fifteen years. He has a B.S. degree in Animal Science and an M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Minnesota.

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Associate Director - The Center for Farm Financial Management
Extension Economist - Farm Management

Phone: 612-625-6760
Fax: 612-625-3105
eMail: dnord@umn.edu
(Publications by Dale Nordquist)

Dale Nordquist is an Extension Economist and Associate Director of the Center for Farm Financial Management in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota.

Dale's special interests include farm business analysis, farm planning, and software development. He has over 28 years of experience in teaching farm management and developing software tools for farm financial planning and analysis. Dale has also been a major contributor to the design and development of the FINPACK farm financial planning and analysis software as well as many other software tools developed and distributed through the Center For Farm Financial Management.

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Program Associate - The Center for Farm Financial Management

Phone: 612-624-8790
Fax: 612-625-3105
eMail: eliza@umn.edu

Eliza is a Program Associate for the Center for Farm Financial Management. She assists in the selling and distribution of the Center's software and helps coordinate many of the grain marketing workshops and other training sessions provided by the Center.

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Extension Economist - The Center for Farm Financial Management

Phone: 612-625-6237
Fax: 612-625-3105
eMail: kklair@umn.edu
(Publications by Kevin Klair)

Kevin Klair has been an Extension Economist at the Center for Farm Financial Management in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota since 1987. He has more than 20 years of experience in teaching farm business management and developing farm financial management software programs.

Kevin helped develop the FINPACK farm financial planning and analysis software, as well as Marketeer market planning software and the FINPACK Business Plan software programs. Kevin was involved in the development of the online National Ag Risk Education Library and serves as a national coordinator for Extension Risk Management Education.

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Software Developer - The Center for Farm Financial Management

Phone: 612-625-7040
Fax: 612-625-3105
eMail: rann@umn.edu
(Publications by Rann Loppnow)

Rann Loppnow has been a software developer for the Center for Farm Financial Management since 1990. His development work includes all areas of software life cycles, from initial design through the shipping of the final product. His major area of focus has been FINPACK and its satellite programs which include RankEm and FINBIN (the farm financial database reporting system).

Rann received a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota. He owns and operates a crop and livestock farm in southeast Minnesota.

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Software Developer - The Center for Farm Financial Management

Phone: 612-625-8765
Fax: 612-625-3105
eMail: mikes002@umn.edu
(Publications by Chris Mikesell)

Chris Mikesell has been a software developer for the Center for Farm Financial Management since 1998.

His major focus has been developing and maintaining the Center's many web applications including FINBIN, the Ag Risk Library and the grant management system.

Chris received both Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Agricultural Economics from Kansas State University. He grew up on grain farm in northcentral Kansas.

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Chief Technical Support - The Center for Farm Financial Management

Phone: 612-625-9222
Fax: 612-625-3105
eMail: nordq007@umn.edu
(Publications by Dave Nordquist)

Dave Nordquist provides user and technical support for the Center's software.

He has been with the Center for nearly 14 years. Prior to joining the Center, he operated a dairy farm in east central Minnesota. Dave and his brother still run a small corn/soybean operation on the home farm "just to get a little dirt under our fingernails."

If Dave were to list what he considers his major accomplishment, it is being a part of the friendly and
cooperative relationship between the Center and its many software users.

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Extension Economist - Farm Management
Software Developer - The Center for Farm Financial Management

Phone: 612-625-5283
Fax: 612-625-3105
eMail: wynn@umn.edu
(Publications by Wynn Richardson)

Wynn Richardson has been with the Center for Farm Financial Management since 1990. He works as an Extension Economist and a Software Developer.

Wynn received a B.S. in Agricultural Economics and Computer Science from Oklahoma State University. He has also received a M.S. in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota.

Wynn's family is the proud owner/operator of a century farm in Oklahoma.

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Executive Administrator - The Center for Farm Financial Management

Phone: 612-625-3112
Fax: 612-625-3105
eMail: jsandstr@umn.edu

Jane Sandstrom has been with the Center since its creation, over 20 years ago.

Her primary focus is in the the area of financial accounting and business operations associated with the Center's programs. She is involved with editing and some writing of promotional and grant materials.

Jane enjoys the camaraderie and working atmosphere of the Center.

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Grain Marketing Specialist - The Center for Farm Financial Management

Phone: 612-625-7014
Fax: 612-625-3105
eMail: usset001@umn.edu
(Publications by Ed Usset)

Edward Usset serves as a Grain Marketing Specialist for the Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota, and the coordinator of the Minnesota Master Marketer Program.

Working with his colleagues at CFFM and in Extension, Ed has helped develop the award winning "Winning the Game" series of workshops. In addition to the Minnesota Master Marketer Program, he has developed a number of one and two day workshops and presentations on the topics of market plan development and grain pricing tools. Ed has also taught several courses at the University including "Grain Marketing Economics" and "Futures and Options Markets".

Ed wrote and had his first book published, "Grain Marketing is Simple (it's just not easy)," in 2007.

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Web Communications Coordinator - The Center for Farm Financial Management

Phone: 612-624-4788
Fax: 612-625-3105
eMail: jreisdor@umn.edu
WebLog: JeffSays.com
(Publications by Jeff Reisdorfer)

Jeff's focus is management and coordination of the Center's websites and corresponding collateral. He is also responsible for advertising strategies and brand identity. He has received degrees in both Graphic Design and Advertising.

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Software Developer - The Center for Farm Financial Management

Phone: 612-625-4219
Fax: 612-625-3105
eMail: rrhode@umn.edu
(Publications by Russ Rhode)

With over 25 years of experience in software development involving many types of applications, Russ Rhode joined the Center for Farm Financial Management on the last day of May in 2005. Continuing his legacy as a Software Developer, Russ plays an integral role in the continued success of the Center's software applications.

Russ was born and raised in Clara City, Minnesota and went on to graduate from Hamline University many years ago.

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