Kansas Crop Insurance Workshop

Glynn Tonsor

Glynn is a Professor in the Dept. of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University (KSU).
Glynn grew up on a farrow-to-finish swine farm in Monroe City, Missouri. Tonsor obtained a B.S. from
Missouri State University and Ph.D. from KSU. He was a faculty member at Michigan State University
from May 2006 to March 2010 when he joined the KSU faculty.
Tonsor has broad interests and experiences which span many issues throughout the meat-livestock
supply chain. Through active research, engaged outreach with industry, and first-hand knowledge with
livestock production, Glynn has economic expertise in an array of topics of economic importance to
Kansas, U.S. and global stakeholders.

Collin Olsen
Collin is the current Topeka RMA Regional Office Director. Previously, he was Deputy Director from 2013-2019. Collin started his USDA career as a Risk Management Specialist in the Regional Office in 2006. Prior to that, Collin worked for the Kansas Department of Agriculture – Division of Water Resources in the floodplain program. Collin started his professional career as the precision agriculture division leader for large regional farmers’ cooperative in Northwest Iowa. Collin earned a BS from South Dakota State and an MS from K-State, both in agronomy with a focus on soil fertility.

Chip Redmond
Chip is a meteorologist at K-State and the Kansas Mesonet Manager. He works to ensure that the agricultural weather station network is operational 24/7 despite dynamic Kansas weather. He supports producers with data and intelligence to enhance operations and decision making. He evaluates current weather through measurements and provides climatological perspectives on past, current and future events.

Robin Reid
Robin is an Extension Farm Economist with K-State Agricultural Economics.  Robin works on a variety of economic topics including farm policy, farm financial management, land values, Women in Ag programming, and much more. Robin grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and earned a BS in Agricultural Business from UW-River Falls and an MS in Agricultural Economics from K-State.

Jenny Ifft
Jenny is a Professor & Extension Specialist in Agricultural  Policy, and the Flinchbaugh Agricultural Policy Chair. She has an integrated research and extension program covering policy and regulatory issues that affect the viability of U.S. and Kansas agriculture. Her research program focuses on agricultural policy, risk, and finance. Her extension program focuses on farm bill, crop insurance, and livestock and forage risk management education. Before coming to K-State, she worked in the Farm Economy Branch of USDA’s Economic Research Service, and later at Cornell University. She has a PhD from the University of California-Berkeley, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a BS from the University of Illinois. She grew up on her family’s farm in central Illinois.

Daniel O’Brien
Dan was raised on a grain and livestock farm in south central Nebraska. He received a BS & MS in Agricultural Economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Ph.D. at Iowa State. He worked as the Extension Agricultural Economist at the Northwest Research-Extension Center in Colby, and was Northwest Area Extension Director from 2003-2007 before returning to his former post. His ongoing research & extension efforts are in a) grain market supply-demand analysis, bioenergy impacts & risk management strategies, b) grain industry market structure, conduct & performance – focusing on grain handling & transportation issues, and c) economic analysis of irrigated & dryland cropping systems, & associated cropland leasing arrangements.

Rebecca McFarland
Rebecca brings 30 years of experience in Extension and currently serves as Director/Family & Community Wellness Agent for the Frontier Extension District (Anderson, Franklin, & Osage counties). She is a co-leader of the K-State Extension Stress & Resiliency Transdisciplinary Team and is a certified Q.P.R. (Question. Persuade. Refer.) Suicide Prevention Instructor. Raised on a livestock and row crop farm in north central Kansas, Rebecca draws on her personal experiences growing up during the 1980s farm crisis. Today, she and her husband farm approximately 4,000 acres of row crops—primarily soybeans, corn, and wheat—in Franklin County. They are the proud parents of five adult children and grandparents to 10.