8:42 a.m., Feb. 2, 2009----The Governor's Conference on Delaware Agriculture will focus on farming in volatile markets and how to manage uncertainty in agriculture. The conference, now in its 15th year, will be held Friday, Feb. 27, at the Modern Maturity Center, 1121 Forrest Ave., Dover.

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Speakers include Cole Gustafson of North Dakota State University, who will speak about trends in agricultural commodities and bio-fuels; Brent Gloy of Cornell University, who will discuss decision making in volatile times; and Robert Frazee, chief executive office of Mid-Atlantic Farm Credit, who will focus his remarks on the credit markets.

The keynote speaker will be Jean Lonie, executive assistant to the executive deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, who will give an address entitled “The Importance of Agricultural Leadership.”

Following her talk, the first LEADelaware class will be officially recognized as graduating leadership fellows. LEADelaware is a University of Delaware initiative that provides emerging agricultural leaders with knowledge, skills and opportunities for growth.

“Agriculture has experienced a lot of volatility over the past year with big swings in prices of commodities and inputs, plus the uncertainty in the credit markets. These big swings make it difficult to estimate risks, predict the future, and make informed decisions,” says Tom Ilvento, chairperson of UD's Department of Food and Resource Economics in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

“We invited speakers to this year's conference who have experience and knowledge in such areas as the credit markets and trends in agricultural commodities and input prices,” Ilvento said. “Producers and agribusinesses need to understand the changes in the markets if they are to be successful in these challenging times.”

The February Friends of Ag breakfast will be held immediately before the conference, at 7:15 a.m. The breakfast speaker is Greg Romano of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation. Romano will speak about President Lincoln's contributions to agriculture, in honor of the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

To register for the conference, go to this Web site to print out a fax registration form.

For more info, call Vicki Taylor at (302) 831-2511. The $40 registration fee includes the breakfast meeting, lunch and refreshment breaks. Call Taylor to register for the Friends of Agriculture breakfast without conference participation. Breakfast registration alone is $20.