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Chris Clayton DTN Ag Policy Editor

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Biography

DTN Ag Policy Editor Chris Clayton joined DTN in October 2005 after working more than seven years for the Omaha World-Herald, where his agricultural coverage included being part of the 2001 reporting team that uncovered a fraud case the FBI called the largest cattle scam in U.S. history.

Chris' work has been recognized on a state and national level. He has won story of the year and writer of the year from the American Agricultural Editors Association for a series published by DTN on recovery efforts in rural Louisiana a year after the hurricanes. He also has won the Glenn Cunningham Agricultural Journalist of the Year Award from the North American Agricultural Journalists for a series of articles following a steer's life and production practices of the beef industry. The National Farmers Union named Chris as the organization's agricultural communicator of the year in 2009.

Born in Woodland, Calif., Chris was raised in Dearborn, Mo. After serving in the U.S. Army, he graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1993 with a degree in journalism. Chris has worked for news organizations in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois and Nebraska. He lives in Glenwood, Iowa, with his wife and three children.

News Stories

Energy, Jobs and Sequestration Problems 2/8 9:04AM

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Obama Administration Says Insurers Receive Windfall Profits 2/3 3:54PM

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NCGA Cites Study Showing More Costs Than Gains 1/20 5:44PM

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Former Texas Congressman Says Farmers Should Brace for Change 1/11 5:19PM

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Farmers Must Defeat Climate Legislation, Animal-Rights Activism 1/11 8:33AM

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Energy Legislation, Banking Reforms Top Ag Policy Agenda 1/5 11:16AM

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Biofuel Tax Incentives Become Black Liquor Boondoggle 12/18 6:23AM

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Forest-Products Companies Could Harvest Biggest Cut of Biomass Subsidy 12/18 6:21AM

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Beyond Offsets, Carbon Capture Improves Production 12/14 11:45AM

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Farmers Still Have Loan Choices, But Options Dwindling 12/14 11:43AM

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Farm Organizations Should Push for More Global Food Aid, Buffet Says 12/14 11:41AM

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Farmers Need to Understand Costs of Inputs, Impact on Bottom Line 12/14 11:40AM

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Deere Executive Highlights Future Farmer Challenges 12/14 11:38AM

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New Program Will Cost Hundreds of Millions More Than Projected 12/2 12:20PM

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Senators Lament Time Delay for SURE Payments 11/24 2:50PM

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Shifts in Direct Payments 11/18 8:48AM

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ACRE, AGI, Crop Insurance Questions Abound 11/18 8:48AM

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Why Should City People Care? 11/18 8:48AM

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DTN's Chris Clayton Answers Your Farm Bill Questions 11/18 8:43AM

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Farm Bill Primer 11/18 8:43AM

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Energy Bill Highlights Ethanol Rift 11/28 6:13PM

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Family Farm Advocate Rips Payment Proposal 7/19 6:33PM

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Little Guys and Fraud Convicts Whacked From Farm Bill 7/18 12:00PM

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First Salvos Fired as Committee Marks Up Farm Bill 7/17 6:22AM

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Making Change on Payment Limits 7/13 9:52AM

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Settling on a Workable Farm Bill 7/12 8:14AM

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Kim Adrian has worked for DTN since 1992.

Cheryl Warren, a DTN reporter and editor, grew up on a farm near Fremont, Nebraska.

Bryce Anderson has been DTN's ag meteorologist and fill-in market analyst since 1991. He combines his expertise in weather forecasting with a south-central Nebraska farm background to bring in-depth, focused commentary on the top weather developments affecting agriculture each day.

Bob Bailey is DTN's basis and feedstuffs analyst. He is from Festus, Mo., where his family owned a feed and farm-supply business.

Andy Biebl, is a well-known agricultural tax authority, CPA and principal in LarsonAllen, one of the nation's largest accounting firms.

Alan Brugler, a DTN consulting analyst, is president of Brugler Marketing and Management LLC, a marketing-advisory, education and consulting service. From 1992-2002 he was senior analyst and then director of analysis for DTN AgDaily. Before that he was director of market information services for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. Alan grew up on a grain and dairy farm in northeast Ohio that his family still operates.

Joel Burgio is a senior agricultural meteorologist for DTN Weather, working out of DTN's Woburn, Mass., office. Joel graduated with a bachelor of science degree in meteorology from the University of Lowell in Massachusetts.

Daniel Davidson is DTN's staff agronomist. Davidson writes articles on agronomy and crop production for growers across the Corn Belt and dispenses timely advice on production practices and decisions. He specializes in clarifying scientifically complex issues so average farmers can understand them.

Dennis Dornfeld, an ag financial consultant, writes the biweekly "By the Numbers" column for DTN.

Adam Erwin is a real Midwest grower and former banker who writes under a pen name to protect his identity. He raises more than 9,000 acres of corn and soybeans.

David M. Fiala has been a DTN contributing author since 2001. President, chief analyst and commodity trading adviser with FuturesOne, David is a former agricultural marketing instructor for the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

Mike Fontaine is an agricultural meteorologist in DTN's Woburn, Mass., office, with a prominent role in computer operations.

Kieran Gartlan is South America Correspondent for DTN, focusing on the soybean sector.

Anthony Greder, DTN wire editor, was born and raised on a farm in north-central Nebraska near Johnstown.

Gerald (Jerry) Gulke, whose column appears Fridays on DTN, was born and raised on a small grains and livestock farm near Ellendale, N.D. He has an electrical/electronic engineering degree from North Dakota State University and an MBA from Northern Illinois University in Dekalb. He has worked for Sundstrand Corporation, an engineering company, where he honed his skills in financial analysis, project management, marketing and contract administration.

Walt Hackney, who writes DTN's "Talkin' Livestock" column, is a partner in a national feeder cattle company that supplies replacement cattle to numerous commercial feedlots, as well as to independent cattle feeders throughout the Midwest. In addition to his DTN writing, Walt serves as a livestock market analyst for Iowa Public Television's Market to Market broadcast.

Jerry Hagstrom, DTN's political correspondent, is a prize-winning agricultural journalist, author and commentator. He writes for National Journal's Congress Daily, among other publications. The American Journalism Review named him one of its "unsung heroes" for his agricultural coverage. He has won numerous awards from the North American Agricultural Journalists, of which he is currently president.

John Harrington has been DTN's Livestock Analyst since 1985 and has been actively involved in the livestock business for nearly 30 years.

Pat Hill is DTN's Markets Editor. She grew up in Casper, Wyo., and graduated from the University of Wyoming, earning a bachelor's degree and a master's degree, both in history. After teaching for several years in schools in Wyoming and Omaha, she came to DTN in 1989, first calling elevators for their daily grain bids.

Talking to merchandisers and farmers sparked an interest in agriculture, which she developed though other jobs in the newsroom -- covering livestock auctions, cash hog markets and USDA reports. As DTN expanded its news coverage, Pat worked as a reporter, attending industry conventions and other ag-related events. The job in the newsroom has provided her the on-going opportunity to study the markets and learn about issues of importance to American farmers.

Pat now spearheads our markets coverage in the news segment and writes our daily Market Matters blog.

As executive editor of The Progressive Farmer, Gregg Hillyer lives in Lake St. Louis, Mo. Before coming to The Progressive Farmer, you may remember him as the editor of Soybean Digest. He edited that publication for nearly 12 years.

Greg Horstmeier joined DTN as Production Editor in August 2007.

Duane Howell of Lubbock, a native of the Texas High Plains and free-lance cotton writer, has written cotton articles for DTN since the 1980s.

Ken Johnson is DTN's fertilizer columnist. Johnson has published the newsletter Midwest Fertilizer Insight for 19 years. The newsletter is published on Monday, 50 weeks out of the year.

Joel Karlin, whose charts appear in DTN Grains, is commodity manager/market analyst for Western Milling. His specialties include supply-demand analysis, price forecasting, and relative value nutritional analysis.

DTN Photo Editor Scott R Kemper has farming in his family. Both sets of grandparents farmed in Iowa, and Scott lived on a farm for several years as a child.

Danny Klinefelter is a professor and Extension economist at Texas A&M.

Rick Kment is DTN's ethanol and dairy analyst. Rick joined DTN in March 2005. He has more than 15 years of experience in the agribusiness and dairy industries, including five years managing his own farm and nine years working with agricultural producers and agribusinesses throughout the Midwest on animal nutrition and farm management.

Urban C. Lehner joined DTN as editor-in-chief in July 2003. He is currently president of the North American Agricultural Journalists and in August 2009 was named "Writer of the Year" by the American Agricultural Editors' Association.

Katie Micik, DTN's wire editor, grew up near the Illinois-Wisconsin border in Rockton, Ill. She graduated from the University of Missouri in spring of 2009 with a bachelor's of journalism in news/editorial writing and minors in history and sociology. During her time at Mizzou, she instructed two introductory journalism classes, reported for the student newspaper and worked on two internet content innovation projects. She interned with the Rockford Register Star's business desk during the summer of 2007 and with DTN's Agriculture Policy editor for six weeks before becoming DTN's wire editor.

Dan Miller came to be Farmstead Editor after 15 years in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he was Progressive Farmer's Midwest Editor. Moving to the South and to headquarters in Birmingham, he now coordinates editorial for the Idea House and Farmstead and the Ultimate Workspaces programs. He also leads the farmstead editorial planning team.

Brian L. Milne has been involved in the energy markets for nearly 12 years as an analyst, journalist and editor, beginning his focus with natural gas in 1996. Milne quickly expanded his coverage to include the electricity industry during the move to deregulated markets in the late 1990s. By 2001, Milne had expanded his focus to include the downstream petroleum industry, adding ethanol to his coverage in 2003. Milne graduated magna cum laude from Monmouth University in New Jersey with a B.A. in History and an Interdisciplinary in Political Science.

Vicki Myers never imagined that the trail of cotton lint lining the roads of her home town near Eudora, Miss., would be a trail she would follow across the country in her career. One thing was for sure -- she would write. In her senior year in high school she served as editor of the school newspaper. At Memphis State, where she graduated with a B.A. degree in journalism, she wrote for the university's office of Public Affairs, as well as a local newspaper called the Memphis Business Journal. After graduation, she accepted an internship at the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C., then later with Readers Digest's Washington Bureau. Ready to move back home, Vicki decided to be a freelance writer. It didn't take long to carve a niche for herself in agricultural writing, specifically cotton.

DTN staff reporter Todd Neeley is a lifelong resident of Lincoln, Nebraska, and a 1994 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he earned a bachelor's degree in news editorial.

Linda Nellson assists DTN's chief livestock analyst John Harrington in his daily analytical tasks, including collecting data, researching and compiling charts.

As DTN's senior analyst, Darin Newsom provides DTN customers with market insight, analysis and advice on an hourly, daily and weekly basis and oversees all of DTN's market commentary. He is also the creator and guiding force behind DTN's Six Factor Marketing Strategies.

Jack Odle grew up on a diversified farm in east-central Kansas. In fact, he still maintains a financial interest in the farm run by his father and brother. Jack also owns and rents pastureland, has a cow-calf and stocker operation, and helped develop J&AMPH Cattle Company, a stocker grazing operation for investors. Jack's successful career began with a B.S. degree in journalism with minors in Animal Science and Agricultural Economics from Kansas State University in 1974.

Mike Palmerino graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell with a bachelors of science degree in meteorology. He has been a consulting meteorologist to the grain and commodity futures industries and to news and information services for over 25 years.

Jim Patrico lives in Plattsburg, Mo., and his walls are lined with awards for writing and photography. He has won the American Agricultural Editors' Association Photographer of the Year award three times and the Oscar in Agriculture writing award twice. He has also been named a Master Writer by AAEA, which means he has won awards in nearly every writing category open to competition.

Russ Quinn is a DTN editor and reporter. He was born and raised in east central Nebraska on a cow-calf and row-crop farm near Elkhorn, which he still operates with his dad.

Mary Roth records and produces all DTN audio reports and talk shows.

John has worked in agriculture most of his life. He grew up on a grain and livestock farm in southwest Minnesota that his family still farms. He worked at local, full-farm supply co-ops in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. He was a DTN sales representative from 2005 to 2008, when he studied DTN's 6 Factor Market Strategy analysis method. He worked as a commodity broker before returning to DTN as an analyst in January 2009. He lives in Omaha with his wife Becky.

Robin Schmahl writes a weekly dairy column for DTN and provides other dairy information. His company, AgDairy LLC, is an introducing broker, and he previously worked from 1996 to 2001 for Allendale Inc. as a commodity broker and as manager of Allendale's Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, branch. In 2001 he worked with DTN on a dairy marketing program that is no longer offered.

Beth Schweitz is grainbid manager of DTN and also serves as a DTN editor.

Philip Shaw's "Under the Agridome" column is in its 23rd year of publication and has appeared on DTN for the past 15 years. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in agricultural economics and business from the University of Guelph in Ontario and farms 830 acres near Dresden, Ontario.

Elaine Shein, DTN's associate managing editor, is responsible for editing DTN feature articles and series as well as providing oversight on special projects.

Richard Smith, DTN's Tokyo-based Far East correspondent, has been reporting on Japanese and South Korean agriculture and food trade issues since 2003. He writes for Agri-Pulse, Capital Press and Livestock Weekly, as well as agribusiness publications in Australia, Canada, England, Ireland and New Zealand.

Susanne Stahl, grew up on a farm in the southeast corner of South Dakota that primarily grows corn and soybeans.

Mike Stevens writes weekly cotton commentary for DTN. He also writes for the New York Board of Trade and a well-known agricultural marketing advisory service.

Tan Lin, DTN's Beijing correspondent, was born and raised in a farming village in central China's Shanxi Province. (Tan is his family name, which comes first in Chinese.)

Marcia Zarley Taylor came to DTN as Executive Editor in February 2007 after a 25-year career at Farm Journal Media, first as Washington, D.C. editor and for 17 years as editor of Top Producer, the company's business magazine for executive farmers. In 1988, Taylor also took a brief sabbatical to teach agricultural journalism as a visiting professor at the University of Missouri.

Larry Weber writes on politics and pulse crops for DTN's new Northern Grains products. He's president of Weber Commodities Limited, a commodity brokerage, and Weber Communications Inc., an analysis company, both in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Doug Webster produces forecasts for several major DTN clients with interests in North and South America from DTN's Woburn, Mass., office.

Gary Wilhelmi, DTN's "Man on the Floor" of the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, is a nationally-recognized market analyst. He broadcasts on a radio network reaching from Ohio to Colorado and border to border and serving as Ag Day TV's prime analyst.

Elizabeth Williams lives in Indianola, Iowa, and has covered farm management, tax, land values, federal farm programs, conservation and ag marketing issues for over 25 years.

Lance Woodbury is an adviser to family-owned and closely held businesses, including farm businesses. He helps them plan for the future and implement ownership or management strategies that improve their effectiveness.

Cheri Zagurski, DTN's managing editor, graduated from Kearney State College in Nebraska (now the University of Nebraska-Kearney) with a major in journalism and a minor in business.