Pheasants Forever and its partners have expanded the organization’s
Precision Agriculture Business Planning Initiative to Minnesota and North Dakota with the recent hiring of Precision Ag and Conservation Specialists, Jennifer Hahn and Melissa Shockman. The new hires offer business, agronomic, and conservation planning services for Midwest producers with the goal of increasing farm income by integrating conservation practices on less profitable crop acres.
“We have to make sure we are managing our fields like businesses, allocating our working capital within and across our fields while staying focused on return-on-investment,” said Dave Muth, co-founder and Senior Vice President of AgSolver and a close partner in precision agriculture with Pheasants Forever. “We’re pleased to partner with Pheasants Forever to expand this service to growers and ag retailers in Minnesota and North Dakota.”
Hahn and Shockman will collaborate with ag producers to conduct precision business planning in their respective Minnesota and North Dakota locations. Additionally, each will work closely with participating ag retailers such as grain cooperatives, certified crop advisers, ag lenders and others, to help producers be both profitable and successful in their operations. As the foundation for the partnership, Hahn and Shockman will utilize AgSolver’s Profit Zone Manager
TM platform technology – focusing on return-of-investment (ROI) at a sub-field scale – to define areas where conservation practices are more profitable for producers than row crops, while diversifying farm income and providing environmental benefits over the long-term. By focusing on return-of-investment (ROI), acre by acre, Pheasants Forever’s new specialists will identify areas for producers where conservation actually increases whole field profitability, shifting a longtime perception that profitability and environmental performance are competitive.
Jennifer Hahn – Minnesota Precision Ag & Conservation Specialist
Receiving her B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Minnesota in 2006 with a minor in Soil and Water Sciences, Hahn will be responsible for landowner agronomic and conservation planning services in Minnesota. Prior to joining Pheasants Forever, Hahn worked for the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) for over a decade in different capacities, providing valuable knowledge and assistance to landowners interested in voluntary conservation programs while growing relationships within the agricultural community.
“Having grown up on a farm in southern Minnesota, I’m passionate about my new position and look forward to helping producers implement natural resource management practices within their cropping systems,” stated Hahn. For more information regarding precision agriculture and creating more profit across entire fields in Minnesota, contact Jennifer Hahn at (651) 485-7848 or
JHahn@PheasantsForever.Org.
The Minnesota Precision Ag & Conservation Specialist position with Pheasants Forever was made possible by a recommendation from the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) and funding through the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.
Melissa Shockman – North Dakota Precision Ag & Conservation Specialist
Born and raised in southern Minnesota on 40 acres of land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, Melissa Shockman is no stranger to agriculture, dairy farming, and the outdoor lifestyle. Graduating from North Dakota State University in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology, she quickly followed her passion for natural resources management straight out of college by working for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as a wildlife refuge specialist at Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge, followed by her most recent employment as a Prairie Coteau conservation technician with the Nature Conservancy in Waubay, South Dakota. Shockman’s communication and work experience with a wide variety of agricultural and wildlife conservation groups provide a strong foundation for her new employment as Pheasants Forever’s Precision Ag & Conservation Specialist in southeast North Dakota.
“As an avid outdoors woman in North Dakota and an active individual in the farming and ranching community, I hope to make an immediate impact for wildlife and bottom lines for producers in this incredible state,” commented Shockman. For more information regarding precision agriculture and creating more profit across entire fields in southeastern North Dakota, contact Melissa Shockman at (701) 709-0963 or
MShockman@PheasantsForever.Org.
The North Dakota Precision Ag & Conservation Specialist position with Pheasants Forever was made possible by contributions from the North Dakota Department of Health, North Dakota Game & Fish Department, local Soil Conservation Districts and chapters of Pheasants Forever.
About AgSolver
AgSolver is an agronomic data and simulation/analytics company located in Ames, Iowa. AgSolver was founded by engineers and data scientists that live and breathe Midwest agriculture. The AgSolver team uses that combination of proven technical expertise and practical in-field management experience to deliver impactful decision services to farmers, land managers, land owners, retail agriculture, financial service providers, and conservation professionals. AgSolver focuses on a management process called Precision Business Planning. Precision Business Planning transitions land management decision making from the current nearly—exclusive focus on “maximum yield and revenue” to “business focused” decision making. This maximizes financial return on investment for each acre and each dollar of committed working capital. Precision Business Planning simultaneously delivers improved financial and environmental performance through our land management practices.
About Pheasants Forever
Pheasants Forever, including its quail conservation division,
Quail Forever, is the nation's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to upland habitat conservation. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have more than 145,000 members and 700 local chapters across the United States and Canada. Chapters are empowered to determine how 100 percent of their locally raised conservation funds are spent; the only national conservation organization that operates through this truly grassroots structure. Since creation in 1982, Pheasants Forever has spent $708 million on 517,000 habitat projects benefiting 15.8 million acres nationwide.
Media Contact
Jared Wiklund
(651) 209-4953
jwiklund@pheasantsforever.org