December 12, 2024
Lincoln, Neb. —The 40th Nebraska Women in Agriculture Conference will be held Feb. 20-21, 2025, in Kearney, at the Holiday Inn Convention Center, 110 Second Ave.
Attendees can look forward to hearing from keynote speakers Elaine Froese, Emily Reuschel, Leah Peterson, and Jena Oschner.
In addition to the keynote speakers, participants will select from over 20 workshop options that cover the five areas of agricultural risk management: production, market, financial, human and legal. Selected workshops will offer Continuing Education Credits for Certified Crop Advisors.
The photography exhibition, “Legacy of Leadership: Faces of Nebraska Women in Agriculture,” will be on display at the event to help celebrate 40 years of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Nebraska Women in Agriculture program.
“We are thrilled to present such a diverse and inspiring lineup of speakers at this year's conference,” said Jessica Groskopf, director of the Nebraska Women in Agriculture program. “The experts, innovators, and leaders joining us are truly exceptional, and their insights will provide invaluable knowledge for everyone involved in agriculture. This is an opportunity you won’t want to miss.”
Registration opens on Jan. 1, 2025. The cost for a two-day registration is $150 for participants who register on or before Feb. 7. The two-day registration fee increases to $175 on Feb. 8. A one-day registration is available for $90.
The Nebraska Women in Agriculture program and the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition are offering scholarships for students and producers to attend this year’s conference. The deadline for these applications is Feb. 1.
To learn more, visit the Nebraska Women in Agriculture website at https://wia.unl.edu.
A special thank you to the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition for their partnership on this year’s conference. Additional sponsorship opportunities are still available. To learn more about how your company or organization can be a part of this exceptional event, please visit the Nebraska Women in Agriculture website.
This material is based upon work supported by USDA/NIFA under Award Number 2023-70027-40444.
About the speakers
Elaine Froese has coached over 1,000 families helping decrease their anxiety over the uncertainty of their future. She has authored five books and written a Grainews column for 30 years. Froese Family Farms, a certified seed farm near Boissevain in southwestern Manitoba is her home base, where she farms with her husband, son, and daughter-in-law. Elaine understands the culture of agriculture and is gifted at helping folks see great outcomes and workable paths for their family farms. Her mission is to help families find harmony through understanding.
Emily Reuschel is a champion for the leaders, thinkers, doers, and dreamers of rural communities and beyond. Her thoughtful leadership defies expectations, busts limiting beliefs, and asks better questions to understand this big, beautiful world and the people in it. Whether from the stage, behind the Gather in Growth podcast mic, or within her signature virtual communities, she fosters conversations to help women heal, grow, evolve, and build empathy bridges to transform them from the inside out.
Jena Ochsner is a dedicated fifth-generation farm wife and entrepreneur. She and her family raise cattle and grow commercial row crops with a commitment to faith, stewardship, and sustainability. Known for her relatable, educational content, Jena connects her audience to the realities of farm life through social media, where she shares insights into rural life, modern farming practices, and her love for the land. With deep roots in her community and an unwavering Christian faith, Jena encourages others to embrace the values of hard work, family, and legacy. She also speaks passionately about diversifying farm income, using technology on the farm, healthy living, and all things relatable to being a woman in agriculture. Jena also ships their premium dry aged beef nationwide and is cohost of Beyond the Crops Podcast.
Leah Peterson, started her social media account, Clear Creek Ranch Mom, in the midst of the 2019 Bomb Cyclone as it rolled across Nebraska. What began as a landing page where people could share help and resources for those affected, became a community of people engaged in supporting one another through the ups and downs of farm and ranch life. In the years since, Clear Creek Ranch Mom has become a page where people can come to learn about modern agriculture, with doses of reality, nostalgia, and humor.
The exhibition, “Legacy of Leadership: Faces of Nebraska Women in Agriculture,” aims to highlight the vital role of women in Nebraska’s agricultural landscape with a collection of over 70 portraits captured at the 2024 Nebraska Women in Agriculture Conference by renowned photographer John Noltner. Each portrait is accompanied by the subject’s short answer to the question, “what has called you to this work?”
“Legacy of Leadership: Faces of Nebraska Women in Agriculture” is funded in part by a grant from Humanities Nebraska.
Humanities Nebraska is a private nonprofit with a mission to help people explore what connects us and makes us human. Humanities Nebraska is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, an appropriation from the Nebraska Legislature, private donations and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, a public-private partnership with state dollars matching private dollars to benefit the arts and humanities in Nebraska.
