-Farm News photo by Karen Schwaller
Jason Brockshus has been named CEO/manager of the Clay County Fair. He will begin his duties on April 19, taking the place of Jerome Hertel, who is retiring after managing the fair the past two years.

SPENCER — The Clay County Fair will have a new CEO/manager as of April 19.

Jason Brockshus has replaced former CEO Jerome Hertel, who came to Spencer from the Alaska State Fair to lead the CCF for the last two years, and who has spent the last 25 years in the fair industry.

Brockshus has been a member of the CCF team since 2021. He served as partnerships director, working with sponsors to enhance fair experiences, developing ag education initiatives and coordinating the fair’s Charitable Trust.

He has had numerous leadership roles in farming, agribusiness and ag education, including operating Brockshus Dairy LLC and serving as an ag education instructor and FFA advisor.

“My goal as I step into this new position is to continue to be a good steward of the fair,” said Brockshus. “Agricultural education is at the heart of every fair, especially ours. I want to continue the traditions that so many people are passionate about while also exploring new and exciting ways to connect future generations to the Clay County Fair.”

Ag roots

Brockshus grew up showing beef and dairy exhibits at the Osceola County Fair as a member of a couple of different 4-H clubs, including the Horton Hustlers, which is no longer a club, and the Ocheyedan Indians.

“I always heard about the Clay County Fair (as a kid) but this was my state fair. Until I went to Iowa State and was a state FFA officer, I never was at the Iowa State Fair,” he said.

Brockshus was always interested in agriculture and excelled in all things FFA. His high school trip to the Washington, D.C. Leadership Conference “lit the spark” for what FFA could do for him. He served as both district and state FFA officer, and got the leadership “bug” during his time in FFA at Sibley-Ocheyedan High School. He graduated from there in 1992.

Brockshus earned a degree in dairy science and agricultural education from Iowa State University. He went on to teach high school ag education for three years at his alma mater, Sibley-Ocheyedan High School, and continued to work on the family’s dairy farm, which ran up to 700 cows and supported 13 non-family employees, running 24 hours a day.

Brockshus met Jeremy Parsons (former CCF general manager) while in college when a younger Parsons was working summers at the Iowa State Fair. They became friends and, in time, Brockshus introduced Parsons to the Clay County Fair, a fair that Parsons would eventually manage.

Brockshus said once Parsons began his tenure with the CCF, he would joke with Parsons — asking if he had a job for him, even though he was busy growing a dairy business and raising his family. One day Parsons countered with a job offer for him, the role of director of sponsorships, which Brockshus accepted. This was after previously deciding to buy off the heifer ranch part of the dairy to feed cattle and raise heifers for the dairy and custom feed for another dairy.

Brockshus and his wife sold their cattle in 2023 and he put his full focus on his role with the Clay County Fair, which he had begun in 2021.

Looking ahead

Brockshus said he wants to continue the strong agricultural roots in which the fair was founded, and maintain quality food and entertainment (both paid and free entertainment options), which give the fairgoers a different experience to look forward to every day.

The fair spends between $150,000 and $180,000 annually on free entertainment fees.

He said he would like to give fairgoers a true ag education experience if they wish, not just telling the story of agriculture, but showing them what it’s really like to run a farm and the technology that makes it more (necessarily) profitable in today’s tight margins.

“Financially, it takes lots of ‘0’s to run a farm,” Brockshus said. “And the technology — we could show people that now you can use a drone to scout your fields or find a weed in a field and use it to spray just that one weed, and show people that we use a lot less chemicals today, and what chemicals we do use are a lot more specific. It’s also important to be able to keep that connection with people wanting to know where their food comes from, and be able to help show that to them.”

Brockshus said he wants to continue adding experiences to the fair that appeal to the next generation in order to help propel the fair into the future.

Brockshus has taken his leadership roles outside of Clay County, holding leadership roles within the fair industry in organizations such as the International Association of Fairs and Expositions and the Iowa State Dairy Association.

Brockshus’ interest in the fair industry during his youth and his continuing interest makes him uniquely positioned to lead the Clay County Fair, according to Greg Lear, CCF board chairman. He said Brockshus knows that fair inside out.

“We’re excited to have Jason take on this role as CEO/manager,” said Lear. “His deep passion for agriculture and leadership experience make him the perfect person to carry on the fair’s traditions.”

He said Brockshus will hit the ground running, especially with his strong ag background and involvement with the fair’s sponsorship and Charitable Trust.

“He’s wired at 220 — he just keeps going and going,” said Lear. “He brings some wonderful assets to the fair. He’s also worked with and around all of our staff and knows all of their capabilities, which I think is an asset, too.”

Brockshus will pick up where Hertel leaves off. He said Hertel leaves a legacy of financial prudence and a wealth of helpful experience with concessions and beverage sales.

“He was key in finding out what we were good at, capitalizing on it and making the profitable things even more profitable,” said Brockshus. “He was a good numbers guy and wasn’t afraid to make some of the hard decisions that had to be made after COVID. He’s been a really good mentor to me that way.”

Brockshus said he feels blessed to have worked with Parsons and Hertel prior to taking on the responsibility of managing “The World’s Greatest County Fair.”

“Hopefully we become all of the best parts of the people we meet and work with,” he said of the previous CEOs.

Brockshus and his family live in Lake Park.

The 2025 Clay County Fair will take place Sept. 6-14. More information about the fair can be found at www.claycountyfair.com.