A great-grandson of Norwegian immigrants to the United States, Borlaug was born in 1914 and grew up on a small farm in the northeastern corner of Iowa in a town called Cresco.

博洛格是美国挪威移民的曾孙，1914年出生，在爱荷华州东北角一个名为Cresco 的小镇上的一个小农场长大。