1. What is your role at AGPROfessionals?
I am the senior agronomist and certified crop advisor (CCA). I focus on nutrient management, permitting, and compliance assistance at Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and medium Animal Feeding Operations.
I am the senior agronomist and certified crop advisor (CCA). I focus on nutrient management, permitting, and compliance assistance at Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and medium Animal Feeding Operations.
After working on some special projects, I started full time in January 2001 as the company’s second employee. With a small staff, I was the agronomist, field tech, permitting and compliance specialist, assisted with drainage engineering, and AutoCAD, so I am well versed in many aspects of AGPROfessionals’ services. I develop creative solutions for compliance problems and represent clients in the rare event that a waste discharge occurs. For a time, I was a certified wastewater operator for a permitted waste treatment facility until I was able to eliminate their permit requirement. As our regulatory department grew, I assisted with environmental services, particularly as they pertain to nutrient management. These projects helped me grow professionally as I was introduced to a new level of regulatory oversight common in departments outside of the Agriculture Program.
We recently worked with a CAFO in Hawaii with a climate very different from Colorado. Our challenge was to create pond management and nutrient management plans suitable to their unique environmental concerns, terrain, climate, waste management system, and cropping system.
Our company is expanding into new states and I am excited to guide our current staff in new roles, as well as new people brought on board during this expansion. We want to provide the same client-based services and solutions and hold fast to our mission of achieving client’s goals and advocating their success.
Every facility is unique in terms of its physical, personnel, and financial resources as well as management and communication styles. While we tend to see common issues, each solution must be specifically crafted to meet the needs of the facility. We must resist the temptation to take the easy path of implementing solutions that we are familiar with and always challenge ourselves to think of new and creative solutions.