Frank Mitloehner is a Professor and Air Quality Specialist in Cooperative Extension in the Department of Animal Science at the University of California, Davis. He received his MS degree in Animal Science and Agricultural Engineering from the University of Leipzig, Germany, and his PhD degree in Animal Science from Texas Technical University.

Dr. Mitloehner is an expert for agricultural air quality, livestock housing and husbandry. Overall, he conducts research that is directly relevant to understanding and mitigating of air emissions from livestock operations, as well as the implications of these emissions for the health and safety of farm workers and neighboring communities.

Since he joined the UC Davis faculty in 2002, he published 125 peer reviewed publications and obtained $15 million in extramural funds. Dr. Mitloehner has presented over 800 invited talks in front of national and international audiences.

Dr. Mitloehner has served as chairman of a global United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) partnership project to benchmark the environmental footprint of livestock production. He served as workgroup member on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and as member on the National Academies of Science Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee on “A Framework for Assessing the Health, Environmental, and Social Effects of the Food System”.

Originally from Wisconsin, Mark was raised the family’s dairy farm. After completing his bachelor’s degree in Animal Science at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, he worked as a breeding technician and as a dairy nutritionist before going back to work at an 800-cow farm in Wisconsin. While there, Mark started as a milker on the night shift and finished as Herd Health Manager, while working in just about every other position along the way. He learned first-hand how implementing technology could help his operation be more profitable.

In March of 2000, Mark got the opportunity to work for Valley Ag Software. At VAS, he provided technical support to on-farm users and input to product development for DairyComp 305, ParlorWatch and FeedWatch for over a decade. Because of Mark’s herd management experience and deep knowledge of VAS programs, he began working in sales and customer relations. Mark conducted countless training and user meetings in all parts of North America. In 2013, the first Sales and Marketing teams were organized by Mark to help ensure the future success of VAS. Mark was promoted to Vice President of Product Management in 2017 where he developed the strategy and roadmap to move their successful on-premise programs to a cloud-based, collaborative, SaaS platform. Using his deep dairy industry knowledge and relationship development skills, Mark also managed the business-to-business relationships with key industry partner companies.

In January of 2020, Mark was hired as the Vice President of Product Management at VES Environmental Solutions. In January 2021, VES merged with Artex Barn Solutions to form VES-Artex. At VES-Artex, Mark developed and implemented a roadmap to create a cloud-based platform that transitions VES-Artex from a “bent metal” company to a software solutions provider for the dairy industry. Mark also manages the key industry alliances with other service providers in the dairy industry.

Mark and his wife, Joanne, live in Wisconsin with their four children, Turner (25), Jaden (23), Keenan (21) and Tessa (18). In his spare time, Mark enjoys baseball, bird hunting and gardening.

John Winchell has worked in the dairy industry all his life, 25 years as a dairy nutritionist and 15 years as a forage specialist. Graduating from Ohio State University in Dairy Science, he has been a sales representative with Alltech for 5 years, specializing in mycotoxins and forage quality. John, his wife Jodi, and their 4 children reside in Eden, NY.