Nebraska Extension recently welcomed two cropping systems educators, who began this summer: Katherine Caswell in McCook and Michael Sindelar in Clay Center.

Katherine Caswell
Caswell will be in Red Willow County and cover Hayes, Frontier and Hitchcock counties. A native of southern New York, she was active in 4H, showing rabbits and dogs. She says her interest in crops and livestock was sparked through her experience in 4-H.

Caswell received her degrees from Penn State. Her bachelor’s degree was in agriculture science with minors in agronomy, animal science, and poultry and avian science. Her master’s degree was in agronomy, focusing on weed science and integrated weed management.

Most recently she worked at Colorado State University with an interdisciplinary group on a grazed cover crop study for dryland systems. She focused her data collection on weed management, forage quality and cattle performance.

“My main interests are in improving and diversifying our cropping systems, while supporting producers with research-backed solutions. I’m also interested in developing producer-driven, on-farm research in my area,” Caswell says.

“I’m excited to be a part of the UNL Extension team, even if I’ll always be a Nittany Lion at heart!” she says.

Caswell, who goes by Kat, can be reached at the Extension office in McCook at 308-345-3390 or by email at [email protected].

Michael Sindelar
Lincoln native Michael Sindelar will be covering cropping systems responsibilities in Clay, Fillmore, Nuckolls and Thayer counties.

He was exposed to agriculture at a young age when his father would take him to the family farm near Richland in Colfax County to “help” with the farm work.

He joined the Navy in 2005, working in military intelligence until 2010. He was stationed out of Hawaii and spent a year in Afghanistan where he collected intelligence and conducted combat operations.

“After having fun for a couple of years, I got my act together and earned a bachelor’s degree in agronomy from the University of Nebraska. This spring I completed my master’s degree in agronomy, with a specialization in soil and water science from the University of Nebraska. I spent most of my master’s degree studying how changes in soil management affect soil water storage, recharge, and heat storage [and] transfer through the soil.”

He notes he still signs “most of his emails using V/R, which is a carryover from the military meaning ‘Very respectfully.’”

Sindelar can be reached at the Extension office in Clay County at 402-762-3600 or 402-762-3644, or by email at [email protected].

This report comes from UNL CropWatch.