Headwinds & the Future
of Agriculture

Ryan Dierking was raised on a Red Angus cattle operation in East Central Missouri in the Northern Ozarks and still manages the operation with his family. He received his B.S. M.S. And Ph.D. from the University of Missouri where he studied agronomy with a focus on pasturelands. He did a combined project for his Ph.D. dissertation with the Noble Foundation in Ardmore, OK. After that he did post-doctoral work at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. Ryan has worked in research and development for several companies including Indigo Ag. While at Indigo Ag he was the Staff Scientist where he managed the sustainability research program working with growers and ranchers to better understand the impacts of different practice changes like no-till, cover crops, reduced nitrogen application and managed rotational grazing to the soil and other aspects of the plants and economics. He held that position for five years helping to develop the data around carbon markets and their development. Currently, Ryan is the Director of Northern Rangelands at Earth Optics. Here, Ryan works directly with ranchers and cattlemen, project developers, non-profit organizations and companies looking to participate in sustainability/carbon markets as off-sets or in-sets both domestically and internationally. Earth Optics works with these entities to baseline and remeasure grassland grazing projects and provides the metrics to all parties of each project.

Johnson provides regenerative ranching consultation and course facilitation alongside his role as product delivery manager at Noble Research Institute, where he has worked since 1999. Between 2000 and 2020, Jim consulted with over 2,000 producers, consistently adding 100 additional producers yearly. In 2011, Johnson also taught a class in Iraq for the USDA on crop production and management with a focus on conservation. Before his work at Noble, he spent two years working for a large, diverse vegetable farm that sold directly to consumers and restaurants. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in soil science from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in agronomy from Oklahoma State University, Jim worked in various plant breeding programs in Nebraska, Texas, and Oklahoma. His interests are helping ranchers use soil health principles and ecosystem processes to improve their land. Johnson owns and operates a cattle ranch with his family in central Oklahoma, where he has raised beef cattle, horses, goats, chickens, and pecans. At Noble, Jim focuses on soil health, cover crops, and no-till. Noble Research Institute is the nation’s largest nonprofit dedicated to farm and ranch management and has been a leading, trusted resource in agriculture since 1945. The organization serves agricultural producers with education, research, and consultation on regenerating soil health to improve their land, livestock, and livelihood. Demonstrating its ongoing commitment to restoring U.S. grazing lands, Noble actively manages 13,500 acres of working ranchlands to provide real-world insights and applications for farmers and ranchers.

Dr. Jeff Goodwin is the Thomas M. O’Connor Endowed Director of Rangeland and Wildlife Management and Director of the Center for Grazinglands and Ranch Management at Texas A&M University. He also holds a faculty appointment as Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management and Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension. He also currently serves as the 2025 President of the Society for Range Management. With over 25 years of experience in rangeland management, Dr. Goodwin specializes in applied research and education to enhance the ecological and economic resilience of grazinglands and ranching operations. Before joining Texas A&M, he served as Conservation Stewardship Lead and Senior Rangeland Consultant at the Noble Research Institute. He also spent 14 years with the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, culminating as Texas' State Rangeland Management Specialist. Dr. Goodwin is dedicated to advancing stewardship-based management practices and providing innovative solutions for sustainable grazingland management.

As Impact Ag Partners’ founder, and CEO of our US operations, Bert leads the firm’s investment in agriculture as a nature and climate solution across North America. A pioneer of nature-positive investment, agricultural management, and asset development, Bert has secured and deployed $1 billion in global capital to transform agricultural ecosystems at scale.