About Us

Pete Loewen is the founder and owner of Loewen and Associates. He grew up on his family’s grain production and commercial cattle feeding operation in western Kansas, graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in Animal Sciences and Industry and jumped right into the ag brokerage/analysis business. Pete has a wealth of experience in commodity brokerage and price risk management consulting. Grain and livestock futures market and fundamental analysis is Pete’s lifelong profession. Prior to starting Loewen and Associates, Pete was a partner and member of the board of directors for a professional agricultural risk management firm specializing in commodity futures and options brokerage. Pete is a licensed broker and grain and livestock analyst. Married with two sons, Pete’s passions are hunting, fishing and watching his kids grow up.

Tim Strunk has been involved in agriculture his entire life and made the move to full-time ag market analysis and brokerage in June of 2005. Tim’s education included his degree from Kansas State University in Marketing and Agri-business and he has been a licensed commodity broker since June of 2005. Tim has a strong agricultural background and is a valuable addition to the commodity brokerage and risk management segments of our business. Tim’s true specialty is grain market analysis, but he’s highly competent on the cattle end as well. When not at work, Tim can most likely be found in the field or at the lake, as hunting and fishing are his favorite activities.

Matt Hines rejoined Loewen and Associates in August 2007. Matt graduated from Kansas State with a dual degree in Agricultural Economics and Milling Science & Management. After graduating, he began his career as a grain merchandiser for ADM/Growmark on the Illinois River in Beardstown, Illinois. Matt then moved back to Kansas and joined 21st Century Grain Processing Cooperative as a grain merchandiser in 2001. We say he "rejoined" Loewen and Associates because from 2004 to 2005 he was also with Pete Loewen as a licensed broker, commercial grain consultant and grain analyst. Matt spent the next 5 years as the grain merchandiser for Farmers Union Coop in St Marys, Kansas. In September 2010 Matt was hired as the grain merchandiser for Farmers Coop Elevator in Sabetha, KS. However, he also works with producer consulting clients and commodity brokerage clients through Loewen and Associates, targeting his trade area of Northeast Kansas. Matt resides in Circleville, KS with his wife and 2 children.

Doug Biswell is a native to the Kaw River Valley, having grown up in St Marys, Kansas. Doug graduated from Kansas State University in May of 1989 with a Degree in Business Administration. He started his business career as a loan officer for a local credit union and then moved into agriculture, working as the grain merchandiser for the Farmers Union Coop in St Marys. Doug has been a licensed commodity futures and options broker since 1998. He has held the merchandiser position for several Kansas Coops and spent five years as a grain originator for Cargill in Topeka. He currently holds the grain merchandiser position at the Farmers Cooperative Association in Manhattan, Kansas.

Doug joined the Loewen and Associates team in March 2009 as a risk management consultant and broker, while still maintaining his position with the Coop. Doug is a valuable addition to the Loewen team because of his cash market knowledge and risk management skills. His philosophy is to strive to get to know as much about each individual customer’s operation as possible, to better help those producers manage their price risk. He, his wife and four children reside between Rossville and Silver Lake.

LaVell Winsor joined Loewen and Associates in January 2011. She graduated from Colorado State University in 1997 with a degree in Agri Business. LaVell started her career with Cargill and spent over 10 years working for Cargill in various roles. The first 2 years were spent training to be an elevator manager. After a temporary assignment in Kansas City, LaVell was moved to Topeka and spent 5 years as a Farm Marketer where her primary focus was to help farmers with their marketing. She obtained her commodity brokers license in 2003, and spent her last 3 years working with Cargill's advisory service.

Most recently, she spent 3 years serving as a Farm Financial Analyst for Kansas State Research & Extension. Her primary focus was to assist families who are transitioning their operation from one generation to the next. At Kansas State University, LaVell’s work centered around farm financial analysis.

The various roles that LaVell had with Cargill and Kansas State University along with her own farming experience gives her unique understanding to the challenges that farmers face in marketing. Married with two sons, LaVell and her husband farm east of Topeka.