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F4F - Michael Bergen - 1st Gen Farmer & Ultra-Marathoner

Episode 322 Published 2 years, 4 months ago

Description

@michael_bergen Instagram: ___ TikTok: ___ YouTube: ___ Twitter: 4.8k

Catch Up
Where are they from, what do they farm, how did they get into farming
How’s the family - do they farm with family?
Aurora, NE
Started adult life <10 miles from where he grew up
Father, husband, coach
1st generation Nebraska row crop farmer
Family owned and operated farm -- Irrigated corn and soybeans for biofuels
Childhood → Now
2 yrs old - pushed John Deere tractors across the floor
2006 - graduated from UNL → planted 1st crop on 145 acres
Now: ⅔ corn, ⅓ soybeans
Farms on top of the world's largest source of water, the Ogallala Aquifer - irrigate crops during summer
Utilize center pivot irrigation, subsurface drip irrigation, and a smaller amount of flood irrigation
Corn stored on farm in grain bins - haul during winter/spring
95% of our corn used for biofuels. *huge supporter of biofuels
Stewards of the land, water, and air
Fun facts: 100 mile runner, Future author
Trap shooting - with his son, uncle, nephew
Wife is the executive director of Aurora Development Corporation
Broke ground on $20M chemical manufacturing plant - 8/11/23
2 Twin Sons
One has special needs (I’m not sure how willing he is to talk about it but posted on twitter)
Worked 8 weeks before fair to show his animals
Other son plays baseball
Started to let him drive the tractor on his own
Michael coaches high school track
Hamilton County Corn Growers President
Leadership Academy - what did this include? Who attended?
Attended Commodity Classic
A delegate for Nebraska Corn growers fro Corn Congress General Session
Harvest
Drought and intense heat ruined some of his crops - Ahead of schedule
If you were an animal, what do you think you would be?
If you could make anything bigger on your body what would it be?