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Lager family of Mankato to be honored at Gophers football game on Saturday

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Minnesota Farm Team

The Lager family from Mankato is this week’s Minnesota Corn Growers Farm Team Family of the Game when the Gophers play Iowa at TCF Bank Stadium.

written by Jonathan Eisenthal

Sometimes, you don’t have to be a farmer to be a farm leader.

Two thirds of all agriculture jobs are off the farm — processing, distribution, supply and service jobs. Without them, the crops and the livestock couldn’t be raised.

Gary Lager, an associate vice president of financial services for AgStar Financial, is a case in point. Almost all of his clients are farmers, and one day, one of his clients invited him to join the board of the Nicollet-Sibley County Corn and Soybean Growers Association. It’s been a decade since he stepped up to help the farmers in his area speak out on the issues that impact agriculture.

For the last five years Lager has served as county president of the grassroots farmer organization.

After joining the board, Lager wanted to hone his leadership skills and earned a spot in the coveted Minnesota Agricultural and Rural Leadership (MARL) program.

“In that program they do a lot of training for how to serve on boards,” said Lager. “Based on what I was learning I made some suggestions to our board about how we could formalize our meeting process, our accounting processes. They decided these were good ideas and because of that they elected me president. I like what I do with it — I’m very honored to serve in this role.”

Among the organizational ideas Lager shepherded was combining the local corn and soybean organizations.

Farming is in the Lager family history and continues to influence the lives of Gary’s family. His wife, Yvonne, who serves as the assistant activities director at Monarch Meadow assisted living facility, stays connected directly to farming through her mom, who still lives on the farm near New Ulm.

Gary grew up on a corn and soybean farm in Caledonia, and earned a degree in ag business management at the University of Minnesota. Gary and Yvonne’s son, James, graduated last year from the University of Minnesota with a degree in strategic communications and took a job with Olson Advertising, working with many agricultural clients, including Winfield.

Gary’s daughter Melissa is a freshman at the University of Minnesota — Duluth. All four of the Lagers, who live in Mankato, will be honored Saturday at the University of Minnesota Gophers Football game vs the Iowa Hawkeyes, as the Minnesota Corn Growers Farm Team Family of the Game.

The MN Farm Team is a concept launched by Minnesota Corn Growers Association to show farmers’ commitment to producing a safe and ample food supply while using conservation methods to protect water quality and natural resources. The Farm Team concept also demonstrates the importance of farmers and ag-advocates like Lager speaking out on important issues related to farming and conservation.

Lager notes that the Nicollet-Sibley Corn and Soybean Growers Association are strong supporters of conservation, which they convey to the public through billboard messages like “LEAVE CROP RESIDUE ON FIELDS TO SECURE SOIL [FARMERS DO THAT].”

“Helping farmers speak out and step into leadership roles is absolutely key to the ongoing success of agriculture,” said Lager. “So our board does things like having State Senator Kathy Sheran to our board meeting where we will present her with a copy of the corn growers resolutions, and talk with her about the issues that are most important to us. This is the kind of thing we get involved in all the time. Last summer, at FarmFest, I volunteered at the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, and I had a chance to meet Governor Dayton and candidate Fred Hagedorn when they were coming through. It’s the perfect situation for sharing the corn grower message.”

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