Burres, 24, has a resume full of leadership positions that range from serving as district officer for the North Central District FFA chapter while in high school, to serving as president of his fraternity while at Iowa State University and involvement as an ambassador for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at ISU.

“I am not sure I have always enjoyed staying involved and being busy with things, but I enjoy the camaraderie of working with folks and being around folks that are like-minded and share similar values,” he said.

Burres received the Iowa Soybean Association’s New Leader Award, presented by Corteva earlier this year.

The nomination based award, Burres said came from his various involvements with ISA.

“I have been involved in quite a few things with them already,” he said.

According to ISA, Burres has exponentially grown his involvement with the association over the last two years. After joining as a District Advisory Council member, he completed the 2018 ISA Experience program that engages soybean farmers who want to learn more about the association and consider future leadership opportunities.

“The Experience program was kind of the tip of the iceberg for me,” Burres said. “It was shortly after that I was nominated for the New Leader Award.”

Impacting policy issues affecting soybean farmers is also a priority for Burres, according to the ISA. He is an ISA policy Advisory Council participant and served as ISA’s representative in the 2018-2019 American Soybean Association/Corteva Young Leader Program.

“Through my involvement with the Iowa Soybean Association, I have been able to interact with some of the best farmers in the country,” he said. “Through these interactions I have become a better agriculturalist as I have newfound perspective on growing practices and management techniques.”

Currently Burres is looking to expand on his leadership roles within ISA.

“I am running for District 2 board of directors,” he said. “If given the opportunity to lead, it is a three year term. I am looking forward to it, because I know myself pretty well. Once I get going and involved with a group, it doesn’t matter what it is, I see it through. I certainly do have some aspirations to continue on, hopefully with Iowa Soybean Association, but I just need that initial opportunity to lead.”

Choosing to be a leader, Burres said, isn’t for everybody.

“There is a criticism,” he said. “There are plenty of opportunities for the naysayer to post their opinions. But, the biggest thing right now as a young person in production agriculture, I see no better way to shape the future than by jumping in, taking the opportunity to lead.”

There is one particular leadership opportunity that sticks out above the others for Burres. As part of an internship working on his master’s degree, he had the opportunity to work with farmers in northwest Peru for two and a half months.

“It’s a different way of life down there,” he said. “It really gave me a different outlook and an appreciation for what we have.”

Burres worked alongside the farmers, helping them not only with some farm management skills, but also to hand apply fertilizer and chemicals.

“We did that for quite a few acres,” he said. “We hand broadcasted urea. It made for long days, but it was rewarding. We just did some of the little things we could do to work with them and help educate them.”

And that experience helped Burres lead into what he does today as co-owner and agent/consultant of AgriPeril Insurance and Risk Management.

Burres said he works with producers from the Iowa and Minnesota border down to central Missouri specializing in crop and livestock insurance as well as providing holistic reviews and operation analysis.

“Basically, we are trying to work with folks to give them the best opportunity to be successful and to be around for another year,” he said. “One of the biggest things we talk about is protecting tomorrow’s future.”

One way Burres and his father, Tim Burres are working to protect their farm’s future, is by trying to reduce their environmental impact.

“We haven’t put anhydrous on, going on our third year now,” he said. “By doing that it actually does less damage to the ecology of the soil.”

Profitability is also key for them.

“We hope to get as many bushels as we can, but the way we go about doing it, our management strategies are sometimes more intensive than others,” he said. “We do a lot of things working to really minimize our actual impact and it all goes back to protecting tomorrow’s future, whether it is financially, agronomically or ecologically. We work awfully hard for what we have right now and I am very fortunate and blessed to be giving the hand I have been given and to do my part to make sure I can make the most out of it.”

Burres said they raise livestock along with their row crop corn and soybean operation. They also raise and sell sweet corn. Cover crops have become a large part of their operation and they are currently raising and harvesting their own cereal rye seed.

When time allows, Burres said he enjoys bow hunting, golfing and fishing.

Burres said he hopes to continue to be involved in different agricultural advocacy groups but in the meantime, as far as his career he has hopes to keep progressing and growing and getting the opportunity to help people.

“We only have so many opportunities at the end of the day to make that positive impact we are looking to make in whatever it is we are involved with,” he said.

Burres graduated from Iowa State University in 2017 with degrees in agricultural business and international agriculture and completed his master’s degree in international agriculture at Oklahoma State University.