Sandager recognized as “GroundBreaker of the Year”
Mavis Fodness | Freelance reporter
Nick Sandager, a six-generation farmer near Hills, knows a thing or two about breaking ground.
As a youngster, the son of Mike and Nancy Sandager, operated much of the family’s farm machinery by the time he was a high school freshman.
More than a decade later, Sandager is one of three young farmers named this year’s GroundBreakers of the Year. The award is given annually through Compeer Financial.
Pat Barnett, a financial officer with Compeer’s Worthington office, appeared in a promotion video featuring Sandager who exemplifies beginning farmers creating opportunities to strengthen rural communities and moving agriculture forward. The video was released on YouTube earlier this year.
“Nick really is the cream of the crop. He knows numbers,” Barnett said in the video. “He’s got off-farm income. He is open to things … ag is tough. The margins are tight. Extra money is great.”
Sandager almost didn’t return to the family farm.
After graduating from Luverne High School in 2010, he set out to South Dakota State University (SDSU) in Brookings as an agricultural engineering student. He interrupted his studies during his sophomore year to fulfill military training with the Minnesota Air National Guard. By the spring of 2012, Sandager switched majors to ag engineering and aviation with a renewed desire to return to the family farm and away from sitting behind a desk. He graduated from SDSU in 2016.
“I like being out on the farm and doing the work a lot more — turned out pretty good,” he said in the video.
Since his decision to return to the family farm, he’s spent the past decade making major farming decisions first on paper before implementing a plan.
Leaders at Compeer commended the attitude Sandager brings to farming by pointing out in the video preview “his willingness to think beyond traditional models and focus on long-term resilience, which sets him apart as a leader for the next generation of agriculture.”
Sandager’s forward-thinking attitude was first noticed by his parents.
In the Compeer video, his mom, Nancy, told of her son’s ability to analyze and input data into an easy-to-read format much more quickly than the previous generations of Sandager farmers.
“He took a two-month process and made it into a week’s worth,” she said.
It was his dad, Mike, that told him he needed to leave the family farm before deciding if he wanted to return.
“I’ve pushed him to do some other things that are not all traditionally agriculture,” Mike said in the video. “The experience he gains is invaluable to see how other operators work.”
The younger Sandager said he enjoys that not everyday is the same on the farm and that management decisions are made daily including from seed decisions to harvest times, machinery operating to equipment maintenance and long-term planning combined with two additional sources of income.
He’s a partner in crane business, where planning is paramount to success. The seven-year old partnership came a year before Sandager began working for the Southwest Farm Business Management Association in 2020. The association is an organization the Sandager family has been long-term members. As a field man, Sandager works with 40 farmer clients with bookkeeping, business analysis and tax planning for their individual operations.
Garen Paulson leads the business management team.
“What makes Nick such a valuable part of our team is his deep understanding that farming is about so much more than time behind the wheel,” Paulson said. “He recognizes that sustainable success comes from knowing your financial statements inside and out and using them to make smart, strategic decisions.”
For Sandager, a farm is no different than any other business operation and needs extensive planning to long-term success.
“Farming’s such a capital intensive business that knowing your finances and planning ahead is a requirement to operating a successful farming business,” Sandager said. “Having a plan for what you expect for income and expenses affects everything from interest costs to tax planning to locking in prices for lower fertilizer, seed or chemicals. Having plans in place ahead of time allows farmers to (hopefully) capture the advantage in those situations.”
Sandager also uses his talent for numbers to assist a close friend, who owns a crane business, with analysis and management decisions. The same process he uses with the family farm operation as he thinks about the future.
As generations before him, Sandager is thinking about the next generation of family farmers. He and his wife, Emily, have three girls — Addison, 4, Charlotte, 3, and Joelle, 9, months — and are more than a decade away of possibly choosing to become the seventh generation of Sandagers to choose farming as a career.
Until then, Emily said in the Compeer video that Nick is already planning for the next generation.
“He just wants to continue to grow and find ways to improve the farm — to have a farm to one day we can pass down if the girls want to,” she said.
About Compeer Financial, GroundBreakers award
Compeer Financial is a member-owned Farm Credit cooperative serving and supporting agriculture and rural communities through loans, leases, risk management and other financial services in 144 counties in Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Each year, Compeer accepts nominations for the GroundBreaker of the Year honor.
Candidates must be under age 35 with less than a decade of farming experience or generate under $250,000 in annual gross sales.
Sandager was one of two young farmers recognized with GroundBreaker honorable mentions from Compeer in 2026. The other is Karl Sime from Dane County, Wis. Sime is a fifth-generation farmer with a diversified beef and crop farm near Stoughton, Wis.
Selected as the 2026 GroundBreaker was Bryanna and Dylan Handel of Barneveld, Wis. As first generation farmers, the Handels began “B. Kurt Dairy” to strengthen local food networks and work with as many as 30 fellow producers. They regularly open their farm to public tours and events.
Nick Sandager, a six-generation farmer near Hills, knows a thing or two about breaking ground.
As a youngster, the son of Mike and Nancy Sandager, operated much of the family’s farm machinery by the time he was a high school freshman.
More than a decade later, Sandager is one of three young farmers named this year’s GroundBreakers of the Year. The award is given annually through Compeer Financial.
Pat Barnett, a financial officer with Compeer’s Worthington office, appeared in a promotion video featuring Sandager who exemplifies beginning farmers creating opportunities to strengthen rural communities and moving agriculture forward. The video was released on YouTube earlier this year.
“Nick really is the cream of the crop. He knows numbers,” Barnett said in the video. “He’s got off-farm income. He is open to things … ag is tough. The margins are tight. Extra money is great.”
Sandager almost didn’t return to the family farm.
After graduating from Luverne High School in 2010, he set out to South Dakota State University (SDSU) in Brookings as an agricultural engineering student. He interrupted his studies during his sophomore year to fulfill military training with the Minnesota Air National Guard. By the spring of 2012, Sandager switched majors to ag engineering and aviation with a renewed desire to return to the family farm and away from sitting behind a desk. He graduated from SDSU in 2016.
“I like being out on the farm and doing the work a lot more — turned out pretty good,” he said in the video.
Since his decision to return to the family farm, he’s spent the past decade making major farming decisions first on paper before implementing a plan.
Leaders at Compeer commended the attitude Sandager brings to farming by pointing out in the video preview “his willingness to think beyond traditional models and focus on long-term resilience, which sets him apart as a leader for the next generation of agriculture.”
Sandager’s forward-thinking attitude was first noticed by his parents.
In the Compeer video, his mom, Nancy, told of her son’s ability to analyze and input data into an easy-to-read format much more quickly than the previous generations of Sandager farmers.
“He took a two-month process and made it into a week’s worth,” she said.
It was his dad, Mike, that told him he needed to leave the family farm before deciding if he wanted to return.
“I’ve pushed him to do some other things that are not all traditionally agriculture,” Mike said in the video. “The experience he gains is invaluable to see how other operators work.”
The younger Sandager said he enjoys that not everyday is the same on the farm and that management decisions are made daily including from seed decisions to harvest times, machinery operating to equipment maintenance and long-term planning combined with two additional sources of income.
He’s a partner in crane business, where planning is paramount to success. The seven-year old partnership came a year before Sandager began working for the Southwest Farm Business Management Association in 2020. The association is an organization the Sandager family has been long-term members. As a field man, Sandager works with 40 farmer clients with bookkeeping, business analysis and tax planning for their individual operations.
Garen Paulson leads the business management team.
“What makes Nick such a valuable part of our team is his deep understanding that farming is about so much more than time behind the wheel,” Paulson said. “He recognizes that sustainable success comes from knowing your financial statements inside and out and using them to make smart, strategic decisions.”
For Sandager, a farm is no different than any other business operation and needs extensive planning to long-term success.
“Farming’s such a capital intensive business that knowing your finances and planning ahead is a requirement to operating a successful farming business,” Sandager said. “Having a plan for what you expect for income and expenses affects everything from interest costs to tax planning to locking in prices for lower fertilizer, seed or chemicals. Having plans in place ahead of time allows farmers to (hopefully) capture the advantage in those situations.”
Sandager also uses his talent for numbers to assist a close friend, who owns a crane business, with analysis and management decisions. The same process he uses with the family farm operation as he thinks about the future.
As generations before him, Sandager is thinking about the next generation of family farmers. He and his wife, Emily, have three girls — Addison, 4, Charlotte, 3, and Joelle, 9, months — and are more than a decade away of possibly choosing to become the seventh generation of Sandagers to choose farming as a career.
Until then, Emily said in the Compeer video that Nick is already planning for the next generation.
“He just wants to continue to grow and find ways to improve the farm — to have a farm to one day we can pass down if the girls want to,” she said.
About Compeer Financial, GroundBreakers award
Compeer Financial is a member-owned Farm Credit cooperative serving and supporting agriculture and rural communities through loans, leases, risk management and other financial services in 144 counties in Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Each year, Compeer accepts nominations for the GroundBreaker of the Year honor.
Candidates must be under age 35 with less than a decade of farming experience or generate under $250,000 in annual gross sales.
Sandager was one of two young farmers recognized with GroundBreaker honorable mentions from Compeer in 2026. The other is Karl Sime from Dane County, Wis. Sime is a fifth-generation farmer with a diversified beef and crop farm near Stoughton, Wis.
Selected as the 2026 GroundBreaker was Bryanna and Dylan Handel of Barneveld, Wis. As first generation farmers, the Handels began “B. Kurt Dairy” to strengthen local food networks and work with as many as 30 fellow producers. They regularly open their farm to public tours and events.
