Board of Directors

McKade Mahlen, Brockton, MT, was elected to the Northern Pulse Growers Association Board of Directors and is serving his first term repre-senting pulse growers in the At-Large II position. Mahlen is a fifth generation farmer (on his mother’s side), and fourth generation farmer (on his father’s side) and currently produces yellow peas & lentils. He grew up on a farm just west of McCabe, Montana with three brothers, one sister, and a gaggle of pets.

“I’m excited have the opportunity to work side by side with our stakeholders and further my leadership skills and knowledge of the field.” Mahlen said. “Pulses have provided many additional possibilities for my family’s farming operation and improving our soil health in our four-year rotation has been one of them. Learning is the goal and I plan on being involved in that effort!”

Mahlen attended school in Culbertson Montana, and during that time, developed new skills and progressed through my hard work; which would one day lead to him becoming the Valedictorian of the Class of 2016. He participated in every extracur-ricular activity that was offered in Culbertson; from FFA (served as Secretary 2013-2015, and President 2015-2016), BPA (served as VP 2015-2016), and 4-H all the way to football, golf, and speech and drama.

Mahlen continued his education in Bozeman, MT where he majored in Chemical En-gineering. While at Montana State, he was active in numerous organizations includ-ing the Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity (served as VP of Communications 2017-2020), MSU Inter Fraternity Council (served as VP 2020-2021), College Republicans (served as VP 2020-2021), Montana State ASMSU, USAFA ROTC and many others. This is also where he met his darling wife, Nicole (she is continuing her education in Tucson AZ in veteri-nary science with the goal to graduate with her DVM in August of 2024). Mahlen graduated from Montana state in the spring of 2021.

He returned to eastern Montana after graduation and went right to work on the farm with spring seeding. Mahlen also started his engineering career in June as an account manager with AGRI Industries with their Williston, ND branch developing public water and irrigation systems.
When asked what he saw for the future of the pulse industry, Mahlen responded, “Pulses continue to have break through uses that allow our stakeholders to buffer their bottom line; and as we become further antiquated with the health benefits they offer our soil profile we are aware of the continued disease pressure. This has prompt-ed me to begin working closely with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Center in Sid-ney MT to better understand the risks of these diseases and create study cycles that will offer some additional clarity for possible prevention techniques.”

In his free time, Mahlen tends to his crops, volunteers for local FFA and 4-H activities, and enjoys spending time with his family - whether it be fishing, hunting, or adventur-ing around the United States seeing the National Parks!