The 2025 MCIA Annual Meeting, which was held Wednesday, January 29, 2025, included an election to fill two Category A Director seats on the MCIA Board of Directors. Category A directors serve 3-year terms of office. MCIA members elected two persons who are new to the MCIA Board: Brian Jensen (District 1) and Michael Backman (District 2). Members also ratified the nomination of incumbent Nancy Ehlke as the board’s Category B Director (who is nominated by the Director of the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station to serve a one-year term of office). In addition, members approved an amendment to MCIA’s bylaws that was proposed by the MCIA Board of Directors.
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Background information about the newly elected and ratified directors follows.

Brian Jensen (District 1). Brian grew up on the family farm near Stephen, Minnesota, and enjoyed helping on the farm and working in the seed conditioning plant at an early age. After graduating high school from Stephen, he attended NDSU and received a degree in agronomy and agriculture economics. He has continued farming and running Jensen Seed Co. with his father and family to this day. The farm grows wheat, barley, soybeans, sugar beets, corn, and dry beans among other crops over the years. The on-farm MCIA-Approved Seed Conditioning facility primarily conditions small grains. Jensen Farms and Jensen Seed Co. have been MCIA members for over 40 years, producing and conditioning certified seed including foundation wheat and barley for MCIA.
Brian has served on the Minnesota Wheat Research and Promotion Council, Augsburg Township, Storm Booster Club, and Church Council. Brian and his wife Betsy have three children and enjoy the diversity of their farm and seed business and look forward to helping the next generation grow. In his spare time Brian enjoys spending time at the lake and outdoor activities with his family.

Michael Backman (District 2). Michael Backman is a fourth-generation farmer from Herman, Minnesota. Michael farms alongside his parents, Tim and Marilyn, and his brothers, Pat and James. The Backman family raise corn, soybeans, wheat, and sugar beets. In addition to selling corn and soybean seed, they also operate a seed cleaning facility that primarily processes hard red spring wheat.
Off the farm, Michael is an active member of Herman Fire & Rescue, head coach of the local youth downhill ski racing team, Logan Township board member, and a parish council member at St. Charles Catholic Church. Michael and his fiancée, Jonnah, will be married this coming July.

Nancy Ehlke (Nominee from the University of Minnesota) Nancy Ehlke is a professor and plant breeder in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota. She has been a member of the department faculty since 1986 and is nationally recognized as a plant breeder working on forage legumes, turf grasses, and native plant species. She is also a fellow in both the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America. In addition to her administrative and teaching responsibilities, Nancy leads research and outreach activities in northern Minnesota with the grass and legume seed producers. She received her PhD from Pennsylvania State University. She has been an MCIA board member since 2006.
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Members approved the following amendment to Article XII—Miscellaneous, 12.8 Financial Accounts, of the MCIA bylaws:
The Board of Directors shall examine the accounts of the Association at their meetings as set forth herein, and shall, in addition, conduct a financial review every year and a financial audit at least once every three years by a disinterested competent accountant, or by a committee of three members of the Association who are not members of the Board of Directors.
Approved bylaws revision, above, highlighted in red.