Minnesota Farmers Making a Difference

Tom Griebel

A few years ago, Tom Griebel noticed something was wrong with his soil. “It seemed more like dirt,” he says.

Tom decided to plant cover crops which protect fields from erosion and nourish soil fauna. Over time, he notes, "the soil has gotten better.”

After trying cover crops, Griebel also began to pursue no-till practices, a technique of growing crops without disturbing the soil through tillage. Although there is specialized equipment to support no-till farming, Griebel says, “I do not have a special planter. I have to drive slower and check more regularly and make adjustments. You have to manage it a lot more.”

Griebel explains that better soil fertility leads to higher yields and income. “As soil health goes up, we can lower the inputs, fertilizer and things like that, even natural fertilizer like manure.” Griebel has been able to reduce his expenditures and improve profitability.

Kristin Weeks Duncanson

Kristin Weeks Duncanson, along with her husband Pat, owns and manages Highland Family Farms with the help of their children Ben and Gabe. Their operation is larger than average and produces corn, soybeans, pork and cereal rye for a local distillery.

Kristin is also a consultant who helps farms build and implement sustainability plans. She practices what she preaches and actively pursues sustainable solutions on her family’s farm.

To reduce their environmental impact, Highland is working to incorporate cover crops and advance no-till and low-till practices. "We're having to think differently as the climate is obviously affecting us differently than it had," she says.

Kristin says their sustainability plan includes three pillars: "profitability, environment and community.”

Matt Hanson

When Matt Hanson was growing up, it was not unusual for the family farm to flood once a year or so, typically early in the season. Today, it’s not unusual to get a midsummer flood—significant flooding, two to three feet deep across several acres. It’s also no longer unusual for the farm to flood more than once in a season. One year, Hanson recalls, “it flooded four times.”

Hanson planted cover crops to reduce erosion during the fallow season between main crops and to protect water quality in the Root River. Cattle can also graze on cover crops later in the season, reducing feed costs and saving labor.

Hanson also pursued flood mitigation strategies along the Root’s riverbed and placed conservation easements on the floodplain to protect the land where it was ill-suited for farming. He followed up by installing a thick bank of natural grasses on 80 acres along the river, which cost about $300 an acre to plant. He worried they’d be washed away, but they took hold and have survived several floods.

Hanson no longer fishes, but when he’s checking on his cows, he sometimes visits with people who are fishing at these sites. He’s learned that trout and bass flourish here— a significant improvement over the carp and suckers he reeled in with his grandfather. “If you’ve got less dirt in the water, the trout survive better,” Hanson says.