Austen Germolus, who grew on his family’s fifth generation homestead west of Borup, understands the value of hard work and family roots.

“I started farming after college,” he says, “and during that time I held a full-time job at North Dakota State University (NDSU) as a meat lab manager.”

After 10 years at NDSU, Germolus started his next adventure selling crop insurance and farming Germolus and his family – wife, Amy, and sons, Oden, Thorin and Ronan – grow corn, soybeans and wheat and raise cattle. In addition to farming, Germolus serves on the Norman County Corn and Soybean Board.

“I wanted to be more involved and work with our area farmers, so it was a pretty good fit,” he says.

Germolus is a member of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association and recently graduated from the Minnesota Agricultural and Rural Leadership Program (MARL). Germolus has learned the value of having a strong advocating voice at the Capitol.

“If you’re putting money into a commodity organization, that money is being used to help improve your price, help improve your relationships with other countries and drive policy,” Germolus says.