Founders & Farmer Trial Members Gathering

Join us for the Founders & Farmer Trial Members Gathering on March 26th at Prime N Wine in Mason City, Iowa. We're excited to bring together visionary founders and farmers for networking, exchanging insights, and tackling challenges. Dinner will be served!

At Ag Ventures, our commitment to your success knows no bounds. That's why we're dedicated to bringing together all of our visionary founders under one roof, offering an opportunity to network, exchange insights, and tackle challenges together. We'll also be hosting the AgLaunch Farmer Trial Members, providing you with ample opportunities to connect and engage with over dinner and social activities.

 

We are privileged to announce that Jerrod Westfahl, a Founder and Investor, will be facilitating the Founder:Founder networking session. With an impressive track record that includes successfully steering AgriSync to an acquisition by John Deere®, Jerrod currently serves as the Vice President of Investment at Innovative Livestock Services, bringing a wealth of expertise and insights to our gathering. We are also proud to announce that Bob Recker, Cedar Valley Innovations, and Alex Shaffer, Iowa Soybean Association will be facilitating the Farmer:Farmer networking session. Since his retirement from Deere & Company, Bob Recker has devoted his time to leveraging his industrial experience and tools to improve the profitability and global competitiveness of the American Farmer. Alex Schaffer, Research Agronomist at Iowa Soybean Association, coordinates with farmers to implement on-farm research and acts as a conduit between farmers and ISA to further develop the on-farm research program to deliver meaningful results to farmers across Iowa.

 

Stay tuned as we will be unveiling more details in the coming weeks about the Founder & Farmer Trial Networking event and the Ag Ventures Annual Meeting. We sincerely hope you can mark your calendars and join us on March 26th and 27th for what promises to be an enriching and impactful experience.

Agenda

Agenda


5:00 - 5:30 pm - Meet up


5:30 - 6:30 pm - Dinner


6:45 - 8:00 pm - Program

Two groups meet separately


Farmer Trial Speakers

Bob Recker, Cedar Valley Innovation

Alex Schafer, Iowa Soybean Association 

Founder Speaker

Jerrod Westfahl, Innovative Livestock Services


8:00 - 8:30 pm - Networking

Two groups reconvene 

Guest Speakers

  • Bob Recker (Founder of Cedar Valley Innovation)

    Bob Recker

    Founder of Cedar Valley Innovation

    Bob Recker is a 41-year veteran of John Deere Product Engineering and the founder of Cedar Valley Innovation LLC. Since his retirement from Deere & Company in 2008, Bob Recker has devoted his time to leveraging his industrial experience and tools to improve the profitability and global competitiveness of the American farmer.

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  • Alex Schaffer (Research Agronomist at Iowa Soybean Association)

    Alex Schaffer

    Research Agronomist at Iowa Soybean Association

    https://iasoybeans.com

    Alex is the Research Agronomist covering northeast Iowa. He is responsible for coordinating with farmers to implement on-farm research north of Highway 30 and east of Interstate 35. As a member of the RCFI research agronomy team, he also acts as a conduit between farmers and ISA to further develop the on-farm research program to deliver meaningful results to farmers across Iowa.

    In his free time, Alex enjoys being at home with his wife and three children and working outside in rural Dallas county.

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  • Jerrod Westfahl (Chief Strategy Officer at Innovative Livestock Services)

    Jerrod Westfahl

    Chief Strategy Officer at Innovative Livestock Services

    https://www.ilsbeef.com/

    Jerrod Westfahl is Chief Strategy Officer for Innovative Livestock Services, a cattle finishing and crop farming enterprise with operations in Kansas and Nebraska. After several years as a commercial litigator with Shook, Hardy and Bacon, he served as CEO of Purple Wave Auction and then co-founded AgriSync, a software startup purchased by John Deere Company in 2021. Ag Ventures Alliance was an early investor in AgriSync.

    Jerrod’s ILS responsibilities include identifying and structuring venture investment opportunities for the firm as well as operationally overseeing several ILS subsidiaries.

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Venue

Prime N Wine

3000 4th St SW
Mason City, Iowa

If you have any questions please contact Cathy Kaune

Contact Organizer

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Hotel Reservations

We have reserved a block of rooms (under Ag Ventures Alliance) for your stay on Tuesday, March 26th at the Hampton Inn & Suites (2111 4th St SW, Mason City, Iowa) for the rate of $129.00 plus tax if you book your room by March 1st. 


When calling to make reservations please reference "Ag Ventures Alliance Annual Meeting". Guests may call the 800# for Hilton or our hotel locally at 641.435.7500 (Option 1 will take them to central reservations, Option 2 will ring our hotel's front desk). 

 

Guests may also make reservations online by visiting www.hamptonmasoncity.hamptonbyhilton.com then update dates of stay (we are holding rooms on 3/26) then select SPECIAL RATES and under the group rate tab note AVA.  Then select CHECK ROOMS AND RATES. That will pull the room types and rates we are holding (see 2nd picture below). To reserve, the guest would select the room type and complete the guest information.