About This Site
On Feburary 14, 2009 Norman Brakken was interviewed about his family history.
He covered nearly 160 years of family and local history starting in 1865 with his Grandfather Gilbert Brakken.
He provides insight as to what it was like to homestead land in the mid 1800s, living throughout the Depression, the transformation from framing with horses to modern mechanized farming.
This site is based on this video interview.
About Norman Gilbert Brakken
Norm Brakken grew up working on the family farm. He got involved in 4H and with its connection to the U of M found bulletin #218 Feeding Dairy Cattle.
He convinced his father to implement the recommendations to increase dairy production. As a result, the Brakken farm was one of the most productive farms in the Alexandria area.
This started Norm down the path to teaching AG studies to all ages of farmers. He went on to college and obtained a degree in agriculture and began a career as an AG teacher.
He was active in supporting the Future Farmers of America (FFA) as was instrumental in setting up an environmental AG studies program.