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The Minnesota Crop Improvement Association Jan. 29 presented its highest honor, the Achievement in Crop Improvement Award, to Mac Ehrhardt and Tom Ehrhardt of Albert Lea Seed. The award, presented annually since 1972, recognizes exemplary service to the seed industry as well as outstanding leadership in agriculture. The Ehrhardt brothers are third-generation leaders of their family’s seed company. Under their tenure, the business has become a top supplier of non-GMO and organic seed in the United States. Their Blue River Organic, Viking Non-GMO, and Albert Lea Seed product lines are well known to seed growers.

The award was presented at the Minnesota Crop Improvement Association’s 122nd annual meeting. The event was held at the Holiday Inn and Suites in St. Cloud.

The Ehrhardt farm and garden seed business was founded in 1923 in southern Minnesota. At the start, it provided seed and other farm supplies. With the release of hybrid corn, a processing facility for drying corn seed was added.

Although countless stories could be told in the history of this remarkably successful business, we must skip ahead to today’s chapter.

The third generation consists of two brothers who, at a very young age, did any job needed, from sweeping the seed conditioning plant to bagging seed potatoes and garden seeds. The oldest brother attended college for English literature. That led to a short career in finance. He still wasn’t sure if the seed business back in Minnesota was where he wanted to be. He received letters from his Grandfather Louis. They always ended with, “it would be great to have you back home working with the family seed business.”

The younger brother attended college too, earning degrees in English and agronomy. Before long, both brothers, Mac and Tom Ehrhardt, were back in Minnesota, working side-by-side for the family business — including over 30 years as president and vice president.

While the company has always worked with a wide range of certified crop species, their growth and niche has been in the nontraited and organic seed business. Albert Lea Seed became one of the top suppliers of non-GMO and organic seed in the United States. Their Blue River Organic, Viking Non-GMO and Albert Lea Seed product lines are well known across the country. Their success story continues today with over 40 employees and 6,000 customers across the Midwest and beyond. The business has adopted a stock-ownership structure that will, over time, transition ownership of the company to an employee group, the next generation.

The brothers’ involvement with MCIA runs deep, as heirs to decades of certified seed production and as advocates for new program development; for example, MCIA’s Non-GMO Seed Traceability and 99.9% Non-GMO programs.

They have worked with countless farmers and seed producers across the state, building relationships and a tremendous reputation. Among their innovations are online seed sales, field days and crop production conferences. Tom and Mac Ehrhardt have both said that personal relationships with their customers and seeing their customers’ success in the field have been two of the greatest rewards of Albert Lea Seeds’ business.

Mac Ehrhardt accepted the Achievement in Crop Improvement Award, saying, “I’m really honored because I feel like I’m accepting it on behalf of everybody in my company, because it’s a team.”