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

@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?

Word association 

Twitter                                     Trap-Shooting                         Irrigation                      Biofuel

Milk                                          Love                Popsicle                                  Mitten  

Rainbow          Zoo                                          Bracelet           Submarine                               Whiskey                      Embarrassment          Disgust                        Science           Taxes  

• What’s next for them?
• What can our listeners do to help?

What do you like most about being a farmer or about farmers ?

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