A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in agricultural economics and dairy science, Geiger has been a member of the Hoard’s Dairyman editorial team since 1995, where he has been the lead editor for over a decade. In 2018, Geiger spearheaded the effort that brought Hoard’s Dairyman China to the marketplace, joining its English, Japanese, and Spanish editions. Geiger’s award-winning book, On a Wisconsin Family Farm, Historic Tales of Character, Community, and Culture, garnered finalist honors in the 2022 National Indie Excellence Awards Competition. The book is in its third press run.

Geiger was elected the 65th president of the Holstein Association USA and served a combined 11 years on the board of directors and a three-year term on the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding. He also serves on the board of directors for the World Dairy Expo, where he chairs the Education Committee. Geiger served as fundraising co-chair of the Farm Wisconsin Discovery Center, a $13.5 million educational facility dubbed “the Fair Oaks of Wisconsin.” He is the sixth generation to manage his family’s 376-acre dairy farm, founded in 1867.

Geiger hosts the DairyLivestream webcast and has spoken in Canada, China, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and 22 US states.

Leluo Guan is professor and associate dean of graduate studies in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life, and Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Guan is one of the pioneer researchers in the cattle gut microbiome.

Guan’s research program focuses on (1) elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of host-microbial interactions by characterization of bovine gut microbial ecology and its functions using metagenomics/metatranscriptomics approaches, and host gene expression using a functional genomics approach; (2) association between gut microbial ecology and feed efficiency, methane emission, and gut immunity development in beef and dairy cattle; and (3) study of the bovine transcriptome, proteome, and non-coding microRNAs, and their roles in economically important traits.

Guan is the author or coauthor of 242 peer-reviewed publications and eight book chapters with H-index of 61.0. She has secured >$33.9 M research funding (>$10.5 as PI and >$23.4 M as Co-I) and has trained a total of 38 grad students and 21 postdocs. 

For her contributions, Guan has received multiple prestigious awards, including Technical Innovation in Enhancing Production of Safe Affordable Food Award from Canadian Society of Animal Science in 2013, Killam Professorship in 2017, and the ADSA Zoetis Physiology Award and Canadian Society of Animal Science Fellowship in 2021.

Karen Launchbaugh is a professor of rangeland ecology at the University of Idaho. Launchbaugh’s research and teaching focus on applying principles of grazing management and targeted grazing to manage invasive plants, wildland fuels, and livestock-wildlife interactions. Karen grew up on a sheep and cattle ranch in western North Dakota and has degrees in rangeland science and management from North Dakota State University, Texas A&M University, and Utah State University. Launchbaugh serves as the current president of the international Society for Range Management. She is also director of the Rangeland Center at the University of Idaho, which is a unique organization of 37 university scientists and educators who work closely with ranchers and land managers to bring science to address management issues on rangelands.

Katie M. Wood is an associate professor in ruminant nutrition and physiology (beef and small ruminants) in the Department of Animal Biosciences at the University of Guelph. Her research program integrates both basic and applied scientific approaches with the goal of improving feed efficiency in feedlot and cow/calf operations. Some of these approaches include understanding molecular mechanisms influencing metabolism and costs of maintenance, novel feeding strategies and feed additives, improving gut health, and using management practices such as developmental programming to improve animal growth, health, and feed efficiency.

Wood has over 25 peer-reviewed publications and over 50 conference abstracts. In addition to a robust research program, Wood has a large teaching commitment, teaching ~400 undergraduate students per year, with excellent teaching reviews.

In addition to research and teaching activities, Wood is active on numerous industry advisory groups and boards and continues to keep one foot in the livestock industry, raising purebred Simmental cattle and Polled Dorset sheep.

Alison Van Eenennaam has been a professor of cooperative extension in the field of animal genomics and biotechnology in the Department of Animal Science at the University of California, Davis, for 20 years. She received a BS in agricultural science from the University of Melbourne in Australia, and both an MS in animal science and a PhD in genetics from UC Davis.

Her current research projects include the development of genome editing approaches for cattle. She has given over 750 invited presentations to audiences globally, and uses a variety of media to inform general public audiences about science and technology.

A passionate advocate of science, Van Eenennaam was the recipient of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) 2014 Borlaug Communication Award and the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) 2019 Rockefeller Prentice Award in Animal Breeding and Genetics. Twitter: @BioBeef.

Amy Skibiel joined the faculty in the Animal, Veterinary, and Food Sciences Department at the University of Idaho in 2018. She came to U of I from a postdoctoral fellowship in animal sciences at the University of Florida.

Skibiel is a lactation and environmental physiologist studying the metabolic adaptations to lactation and impacts of various environmental stresses on dairy cattle health and production from systemic, cellular, and molecular perspectives.

For the past two years, Skibiel has been investigating the effects of particulates in wildfire smoke on cattle health and performance. This work has been featured in both regional and national news outlets.

Skibiel serves on the Lactation Biology Section Committee for the American Dairy Science Association and is the incoming secretary/treasurer for the ADSA Production Division Council.

Skibiel was recently a guest editor for a special issue on new insights into dairy cow lactation in the journal Animals.

Gerard Cramer has been an associate professor of dairy production medicine at the University of Minnesota since 2013. Prior to coming to Minnesota, he got his DVM, did graduate work, and owned a dairy farm and a lameness-focused veterinary practice in Ontario.

Cramer likes to teach, train, consult, and do research on cows’ feet and the associated data. Outside of work, he enjoys his family and running on trails, with the order of preference of all the above depending on the day.

Jillian Bainard is a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. As a forage ecophysiologist, Bainard’s research involves studying forage crops and the interface between plants and their environment. She works with forage breeders, ecologists, and animal scientists to develop forages and grazing practices that are beneficial nutritionally, environmentally, and economically. Bainard’s recent research has focused on the use of diverse annual cover crops for forage and integrated crop-livestock systems.

Barry L. Perryman is chair of the Department of Agriculture, Veterinary, and Rangeland Sciences at the University of Nevada-Reno, and professor of rangeland ecology and management. He has appeared on the front page of the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, Fox News, National Geographic, and national television of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as a natural resource specialist, and has received both gubernatorial and White House appointments, including the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board and the White House Council on Wildlife Policy. He is currently serving as the first vice president of the International Society for Range Management.

His teaching and research represent a broad spectrum of interest, including sage grouse health and habitat, invasive species mitigation, sagebrush demography, wildfire rehabilitation, mined-land reclamation, and plant community dynamics.

Perryman has organized several international meetings and continues to work on research projects in central Asia and western China. Perryman is also an award-winning columnist for Range Magazine, and a novelist, most recently receiving the Will Rogers Gold Medallion for Western humor and the New Image Indie Author Finalist Award for his novel Katydids and Trains.

Perryman is mixed-blood Cherokee and was raised on a small Texas ranch. With time spent as an oilfield roughneck, an administrator for a Fortune 100 oilfield service company, and an academician, Perryman brings a unique and interesting perspective to natural resource management issues of the West.

Bill Weiss is a professor emeritus at The Ohio State University. His main research areas were (1) effects of minerals and vitamins on cow health, (2) energy nutrition, and (3) incorporating variability into ration formulation.

Weiss has published more than 140 journal articles and 450 proceedings and extension articles. He has won several ADSA awards and was named a Fellow of the American Dairy Science Association in 2015. He was a member of the 2001 NRC Dairy Committee and served as co-chair on the 2021 NRC Dairy Committee.

Weiss earned his BS and MS at Purdue University and his PhD at The Ohio State University.

Mary Beth Hall is a research scientist working in dairy cattle nutrition for the USDA-Agricultural Research Service at the US Dairy Forage Research Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Her degrees in animal science are from Cornell University and Virginia Tech.

Hall’s research focuses on nonfiber carbohydrates in dairy cattle diets, specifically their chemical analysis for diet formulation, as well as their digestion, passage, and use by dairy cattle and rumen microbes. She promotes taking an integrative approach to describing complex systems, with an eye to practical application of research findings. She served on the NASEM committee that revised the Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and a varied pack of rescued dogs.

Jeffery O. Hall, DVM, PhD, Diplomat ABVT, is a tech services veterinarian for Huvepharma. He was a professor at Utah State University in the Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences Department and held an appointment in the Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, as the head of diagnostic toxicology. Hall has BS in agriculture economics—farm and ranch management, and a doctorate of veterinary medicine from Oklahoma State University. He completed an internship, residency, and a PhD in investigational and forensic veterinary toxicology from the University of Illinois. He is a licensed veterinarian and is board certified in veterinary toxicology.

His past research interests have included natural toxins, nutrition, and mineral toxicology and deficiency. In his role as the toxicologist at the Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, for 25 years, he investigated poisoning cases, as well as analyzing thousands of forage, diet, tissue, and bodily fluid samples for mineral contents in order to delineate deficiencies and poisonings.

Hall came from a cow-calf operation in Cement, Oklahoma. He coached the Utah State University Rodeo Team for 25 years and was a past professional competitor in bareback riding (7 years), saddle bronc riding (5 years), and bull riding (19 years).