Magazines

David Cooper

David Cooper is a native of Pocatello, Idaho, but was raised by his mother in Sandy, Utah. He was a newspaper reporter and editor for 16 years in Utah, Alabama and Idaho, before joining Progressive Publishing in 2010 as the first editor for Progressive Cattle. He and his wife have five kids. He enjoys all sports, most dogs, reads only non-fiction, enjoys pineapple on his pizza, but thinks it should be illegal to put fried egg on a burger.

Jenn Coyne

Jenn Coyne got her start in the dairy industry through the 4-H leasing program and working on a small dairy farm in Minnesota. It was during those years that she learned about the knowledge, will and dedication it takes to be a part of the dairy industry. Jenn attended the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities for dairy science and has spent her career in communications within the dairy industry. She served as a 2014 editorial intern for Progressive Dairy and worked for a regional publication prior to rejoining the Progressive Publishing team in 2022. Being a hands-on learner, Jenn tries to keep one foot in the barn as she connects with producers and leaders throughout the industry to provide the most up-to-date information for our readers.

Katie Coyne

Katie Coyne has been in the dairy industry her entire life and is a fourth generation dairy farmer whose homebase is Geneseo New York. She travels the country teaching youth the finer points of fitting and showing cattle, a skill she has honed for many years exhibiting Holsteins, Jerseys and Brown Swiss at local, state and national shows. She has served on the World Dairy Expo Board of Directors, Dairy Cattle committee and as the Fitting and Showmanship superintendent. Katie has been writing for Progressive Dairy for several years, encouraging up-and-coming show enthusiasts through her column Leading the Way. When not writing or working with her cattle, she enjoys spending time with her three children and three granddaughters.

Kimmi Devaney

Kimmi Devaney grew up in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in western Washington. Growing up, she spent a lot of time at her grandparents’ retired dairy farm raising dairy heifers as her 4-H projects and helping her grandpa with the beef cattle and during hay season. After graduating from Washington State University (Go Cougs!), she worked in various public relations, crisis communications and industry relations roles for a few state and regional dairy checkoff organizations, a milk marketing cooperative and a state department of agriculture before fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming an editor at Progressive Dairy. When she’s not writing or learning about what’s new on dairy farms across the nation, she enjoys running, working out in her home gym, road trips, country concerts, canning, and spending time with family and friends.

Abby George

For Abby George, agriculture and raising beef cattle have always played a huge part in her life. Though she’s from Wisconsin, America’s Dairyland, she grew up on a beef cattle farm. She showed cattle across the U.S as a junior exhibitor. Her passion continues today and can be found in a mix of practicality and fancy show calves that currently make up her herd.

George worked as the Progressive Cattle editorial summer intern in 2022 and joined the team full time after receiving her master’s degree from Oklahoma State University – Go Pokes! When she’s not at work, you can probably find her with a camera in hand and too many cow pictures in her camera roll.

Joy Hendrix

Joy Hendrix was raised on a multi-generational family farm and ranch in southeastern New Mexico. Growing up raising heifers in 4-H and reciting speeches while wearing blue corduroy she knew she never wanted to leave this industry. She served as the editorial intern for Progressive Forage in 2018, and after graduating with bachelor’s degrees in agribusiness and agricultural communications from Oklahoma State University, she returned to Progressive Publishing full time. Her happy place will always be trailing calves on a solid horse with her husband, Cody, or in the buddy seat of a swather with her dad or brothers.

Jenna Hurty-Person

Jenna Hurty-Person currently lives in northern New York with her husband and daughter. Jenna grew up in Connecticut where she spent every free waking moment at the barn riding horses and mucking stalls. However, it wasn’t until she went to college in Missouri that she developed a passion for production agriculture. In particular, she enjoys hearing about and sharing the stories and insights of farmers from around the country. In addition, she likes sifting through information, research and hearing from those in the industry. This feeds her quest to find the most useful and practical answers to questions or challenges farmers face today and in the future.

When Jenna isn’t working, she’s probably gardening, hiking, searching for beautiful waterfalls or on the hunt for amazing local ice cream.

Alan Leavitt

Alan Leavitt grew up in Jerome, Idaho and enjoys being part of the Progressive Publishing team, interacting most closely with editorial and production. He and his wife Staci have raised their family in Jerome and are “nearly” empty-nesters and enjoying the next stage of life — being grandparents. They enjoy time spent with family and outdoor activities including gardening, biking and hiking.

Karen Lee

Karen Lee comes from a dairy farm in southern Wisconsin and has been writing about cows and all things related to them for most of her life. After visiting farms across the U.S. and Canada, she says no two dairies are alike, yet they all share common values. Karen learned about hard work, discipline, authenticity, stewardship and teamwork while milking cows, feeding calves, unloading hay and picking rocks with her family on the farm and through 4-H and FFA. Karen enjoys instilling these same farm values in her three children on a small farm where she and her husband raise grass hay, tobacco, feeder calves and fair projects. At Progressive Publishing, Karen appreciates working with a team of like-minded people and sources throughout the industry to find and share information for the benefit of dairy producers.

Tyrell Marchant

Tyrell Marchant’s youth was largely spent learning to dribble a basketball on hard-packed dirt, moving hand lines across the hay field, and trailing cattle across some pretty rough country in southern Idaho’s high desert. For the record, he never once complained (though in a candid, off-the-record moment, you may hear a different truth). These days, he and his wife, Krista, have their hands full chasing their two kids around and trying to convince them that ketchup doesn’t count as a vegetable.

Tyrell is an avid fan of fancy show cattle, Winston Churchill and well-written literature. He is tragically afflicted with a chronic habit of always pulling for teams that end up breaking his heart (see Jazz, Utah). Tyrell considers one of his best attributes to be the ability to be at peace with not being the smartest guy in the room – a skill that comes in handy alarmingly often.

Matti McBride

Feeding bottle calves in the summer heat and frigid northern Utah winters, moving irrigation pipe among seas of mosquitos, hauling hay in a dusty haze, and chasing the purple ribbons of a show ring taught Matti McBride how to work hard and love the dairy industry. If she isn’t chasing her husband around the mountains hunting, snowmobiling or camping, they’re working beef or dairy cows — depends on the day. She’s one who attempts to cook on a frequent basis but probably should stay out of the kitchen. She considers herself a professional but uses “lol” way too frequently in emails. A Holstein enthusiast and someone extremely passionate about the industry, Matti truly enjoys her work and is excited to work with you.

Audrey Schmitz

Audrey Schmitz is from Axtell, Kansas, where she grew up on her family’s 90-cow Holstein dairy farm. She feels blessed to have grown up helping with chores, milking cows and caring for livestock. Her upbringing inspired her to choose a career in agriculture, and her years of participation in 4-H and FFA led her to become an ag communicator. She served as the Progressive Dairy intern in 2017. After graduating from Kansas State University with dual majors in agricultural communications/journalism, and animal sciences with a dairy emphasis, she returned to Progressive Publishing full time to start her career as a professional journalist and future dairy leader.

Carrie Veselka

Carrie Veselka grew up on a small commercial beef operation in Adams County, Idaho. After completing an internship with the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation, where she got her first taste of ag journalism, she graduated from Brigham Young University – Idaho with a degree in English and started working for Progressive Publishing. Her favorite way to describe her job is, “I basically geek out about cows all day.”

When she’s not at work, Carrie enjoys singing in her church and local community choirs, reading her hoard of books (English major, remember?) and, at least as long as her landlord says, “no pets allowed,” inflicting her repressed animal-loving urges on a flock of houseplants. When she makes it home to the “promised land,” Carrie serves as shot-giver, baby/calf wrangler and general go-fer when working cattle. And if she asks nicely, she usually gets a turn riding a horse.