Bill Nelson is a Chief economist with Doane Advisory Services with 40 years of experience in in commodity crop research, analysis and forecasting. Bill has specialized in grains, oil seeds and cotton and is a frequent advisor on weather and climate issues that impact global crop production. Bill’s has a BS in Meteorology from Iowa State University and a MS in Agronomy from Purdue University. Bill grew up on a corn, soybean, cattle and hogs farm in central Iowa where the family farm is still active in agricultural production.

Rob Hatchett is a senior economist with Doane Advisory Services, where he has over 10 years of experience in various aspects of the ag industry, with previous positions at Stratas Foods, Informa Economics and Gavilon Grain. For Doane, he is currently the vegetable oil and wheat analyst. Rob has a BA in agribusiness from the University of Arkansas and an MS in agricultural economics from Oklahoma State University. He is currently a resident of Memphis, TN.

Located Washington, D.C., Jim Wiesemeyer provides latest information on agricultural policy and trade developments. Jim is a regular speaker for farm groups, agribusiness conferences and client consultations. Since 1978, he has frequently reported on and interviewed senior government officials, including Presidents Reagan and Carter, as well as several USDA Secretaries. Jim contributes daily analysis and commentary on policy and trade to Doane's sister property Pro Farmer.

Brian Grete is Editor of Pro Farmer and a regular contributor to Doane Advisory Services. An expert on risk management and commodity analysis, Brian’s regular appearances on AgDay TV, and U.S. Farm Report have made him well known and respected throughout the industry. Brian is a frequent presenter at ag seminars and conferences, and is the Director for the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour.

Mr. Higby is the Vice President of Revenue at Doane Advisory Services. Mr.Higby has over a decade of professional experience in consulting, commodity research, and agribusiness sales. Riley’s career incudes time with AgStar Financial Services and Informa Economics where he has worked with more than 150 clients on a variety of strategic and consulting endeavors. Mr. Higby grew up on a commercial cattle operation in western Idaho and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Agricultural Economics from the University of Idaho.

Margo Dill Balinski is Doane’s Managing Editor and Client Services Manager with 15 years of experience in writing and editing. Since joining Doane in 2015, her responsibilities include creating and editing publications, fulfilling reports, collecting data, writing articles, managing digital and social media, working with the Doane portal and providing personal support to clients. Margo has a BS in English and an MAE in elementary education from Truman State University in Kirksville, MO. She lives in St. Louis.

Jim Wyckoff is a consultant for Doane Advisory Services, often contributing his expertise in technical analysis and market psychology. He has spent over 30 years involved full-time with the stock, financial, currency and commodity markets. For 17 of these years, he was a financial journalist with the FWN newswire service. Jim received his undergraduate degree from Iowa State University. He studied journalism and economics and currently resides at Lake Panorama, Iowa.

Alan Barrett is Doane’s Director of Consulting and is an accomplished commodity economist with more than 25 years of experience in futures and cash markets with a focus on cotton, commodity projects, non-traditional agricultural products, transportation and supply chain studies. Alan spent six years as a commodity futures broker.  His expertise encompasses feasibility studies of oilseed crushing plants (soybean, canola, and cottonseed), grain elevators, export elevators, shuttle elevators, grain container operations, flourmills and other processing facilities.  Alan also has conducted transportation supply chain studies for grains, oilseeds, fertilizer, coal, natural gas, crude oil, and petroleum products.  Alan has considerable experience in non-traditional agricultural products such as coal, coke, natural gas, chemicals, hydraulic fracturing fluid, hydraulic fracturing proppants, glycerin, fertilizer, micronutrients, salt, limestone, cement, iron ore, pig iron, and steel, especially feed ingredients.   Mr. Barrett has a BS and MS in agricultural economics from the University of Tennessee.

Grey Montgomery is President of Farm Journal’s Data and Research Division, which provides agricultural commodities market research, data and consulting and where Doane lives. Before that, he was chief content and innovation officer at Winsight, where he led development of Technomic's transaction data platform for restaurants, which provides near-real-time sales and traffic data from the top 200 chains. He also led an effort that tripled Winsight’s media page views, doubled time on site and increased digital media revenue by 60 percent over 18 months. Grey also has served as head of mobile for McClatchy, the strategy adviser to the Chairman/CEO of Gannett, worked at Google and has an MBA from Wharton, with honors.

Jeff Wilson joined Pro Farmer as Senior Market Analyst in June 2018 after nearly 15 years as an agricultural markets and company reporter at Bloomberg News. He has covered the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour more than 20 times as a reporter and market analyst and now leads the western leg of the tour. During his 37 years of following the news behind the markets for three different wire services, a national grain marketing firm and as a farm broadcaster, Jeff is well-versed in commodity analysis and international economic developments that affect U.S. agriculture. He uses both fundamental and technical perspectives to help construct risk management strategies for Pro Farmer members. 

Previous to working with Doane Advisory, Mike served as a VP at Informa Economics (formerly Sparks Companies) for a number of years, heading the economic research and analysis program in the cattle and beef area.  In addition, Mike coordinated a multi-commodity livestock and meat research team of professionals to service a broad spectrum of clients to develop tailored marketing, merchandising and risk management plans for livestock and livestock products with particular emphasis on cattle and beef procurement and sales. Before joining Informa Economics, Mike served as the director of the Livestock Marketing Information Center (LMIC) in Lakewood, CO, where he had leadership and budget responsibilities for the research staff while maintaining research responsibilities in the areas of livestock and meat price analysis, trade, strategic marketing management and database development. Mike Sands grew up on a dairy farm in central Wisconsin and received his B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois, all in agricultural economics.