Meet Nebraska Corn Board Director, Jon Holzfaster

Jon Holzfaster’s contributions to agriculture and community are helping to position Western Nebraska as an innovative and progressive area, not only to farm and ranch in, but to build new value added ag related businesses in. Jon is a graduate of the University of Nebraska, majoring in Ag Economics and a LEAD XIII graduate.

Jon operates a third-generation family farm based in Perkins County. He produces corn, popcorn, alfalfa, wheat, soybeans, edible beans and operates a background feed yard.

Jon and the Holzfaster family have always taken economic development seriously in the Perkins, and Keith County areas. Jon has served on the board of directors of the Keith County Community Foundation and the Economic Development Commission. Anyone who travels through Keith or Perkins County can see the impact that Jon and his family have had in the Paxton community and at the intersection of Interstate 80 and the Paxton exit. It is very much a family affair that provides jobs and income for many in the area.

Jon also served for six years on the Nebraska Dry Bean Commission, helping develop markets for a value added crop this is primarily grown in the western part of the state. Jon has put his economic development experience and his education in ag economics and the LEAD program to work as an active member of the Nebraska Corn Board. He currently serves on the Board’s government affair committee. His involvement on the Nebraska Corn Board since 2003 has also provided Jon the opportunity to be involved on the Ethanol Action Team of the National Corn Growers Association, and further to his current role as a board of director on the National Corn Board. He has taken his commitment to building new demand for corn and his knowledge of economic development to help establish a farmer cooperative to build an ethanol plant.

Jon also serves his community by being active in the Paxton Optimist Club, and his local St. Patrick’s Catholic Church as a Council member. Jon has the spirit of an entrepreneur that is framed around optimism and passion for his community and for agriculture. He continues to apply himself and is not afraid of tackling new adventures. He does all of this with a smile and a positive attitude. He helps bring divergent opinions together and builds alliances where friction previous existed. His neighbors, community, family and the state can be most proud of Jon and the commitment he has made to represent agriculture. He has not sat idle and let good ideas go by the wayside, he analyses those ideas, brings different players together and then goes to work to make those ideas successful.