Bottom Line Conference

08/20/2026

08/18/2026

Meet the Presenters!

Mike Coleman is a wildlife biologist with Ducks Unlimited. His passion for land stewardship can be traced back to his family ranch in NW Kansas where he learned that cattle and wildlife can not only coexist but thrive within the same pasturelands. After earning a degree in ecology, he became a wildland firefighter for the US Forest Service. His summers were spent fighting wildfires and implementing prescribed fires in the West; while his winters were spent back on the ranch utilizing his education to improve the land. Today, his promotion of rangeland ecology and fire ecology supports healthy grassland and wetland habitats. Based in Pratt, Kansas, Mike works with landowners, producers, and partnering organizations to address the threat of quality habitat loss occurring across the Great Plains.

08/15/2026

Meet the Presenters!

Kassidy Koehn is a Fisheries and Wildlife Biologist with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. A graduate of Fort Hays State University, she previously served as a Playa and Water Conservation Outreach Specialist with Tomorrow’s Water through KACD, where she promoted playa conservation and public education. At the Bottom Line Conference, Kassidy will discuss the importance of playa lakes and their critical role in recharging groundwater, supporting Kansas communities, and sustaining Kansas’s water resources.

08/15/2026

Workforce reductions and hiring restrictions at USDA's Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service are leaving local offices understaffed, reducing services and stretching remaining employees thin.

08/14/2026

Upper Arkansas Watershed Group at the Bottom Line Conference

08/12/2026

Meet the Presenters!

Dr. Cassandra Olds is the veterinary entomologist in the Department of Entomology at Kansas State University where she has a research, teaching and extension appointment. She works closely with producers and veterinarians to evaluate the impact of arthropod pests on livestock with the goal of developing sustainable pest control strategies. Her current research projects include studying Theileria orientalis transmission and impacts on cattle herds, as well as the economic impact of stable flies in feedlot cattle production systems.

08/10/2026

Meet the presenters!!

Colby Stegman and Zach Powers bring together two complementary backgrounds in regenerative agriculture. For the past four years, Colby has implemented CCAT, specialized carbon sources, compost extracts, and other biological inputs across his 4,000-acre wheat and milo operation, eliminating the use of synthetic fertilizers. Zach brings nearly a decade of experience developing intensive regenerative systems at smaller scale, with a focus on soil biology, composting, fermentation, KNF, and biologically derived inputs. Together, they are combining these approaches to take biology-first agriculture to a new level—producing premium compost, compost extract, and fermented plant extracts (FPE) for growers while continuing to prove the system at commercial scale. Their work with Dr. Stephan van Vliet has also included nutrient-density analysis, with their wheat outperforming conventional and regenerative benchmarks and exhibiting an unusually diverse phytochemical profile.

08/09/2026

Meet the Presenters!

Grant Harder grew up on a diversified family farm/ranch at El Dorado, KS. Left the ranch the first time in 2013, returned one year later, left the second time in 2015. At that time, I was introduced to Gordon Hazard, which led me to Ranching for Profit and Sell/Buy Marketing through Allan Nations books. Currently operate a ranch in Butler County, Kansas, with investment cattle in other locations as well. Running both cows and stocker, and have an ownership % in a sheep flock.

08/06/2026

Meet the Presenters!

Kit Pharo started out in 1985 by leasing grassland and buying cows. In the beginning, he strived to build a herd that would wean bigger calves. He quickly learned that increasing weaning weights did not increase profit. Therefore, Kit changed his management style to be profit-driven instead of production-driven. He implemented management practices that reduced and eliminated expenses while implementing ways to increase beef production per acre.
During the last 40 years, Kit has grown his ranch into a very profitable operation. Pharo Cattle Company ® produces and markets over 1000 forage-developed bulls every year. Over the years, Kit has come up with many no-nonsense ways to put profitability back into ranching. He is internationally known as a successful rancher and businessman. He publishes a quarterly
newsletter that is sent out to over 16,000 people. He also sends out weekly emails. To subscribe to his free newsletters and emails, call 800-311-0995 or send your request to [email protected] .

08/02/2026

Meet the presenters!