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Southeast Minnesota farmer says soil health practices are paying dividends

A southeast Minnesota farmer says conservation practices are paying off.

Tom Cotter began using cover crops and reducing tillage in the late 1990’s.

“When you treat soil healthy and treat it good, the nitrogen is more efficient. You can get up to 4.6 times more nitrogen out of earthworm channels. Same with potassium and calcium.”

He tells Brownfield he’s only fertilized with lime once in 15 years.

“We used to always lime. So bringing the soil health in has paid me back dividends, it’s just hard to put numbers on it. But I’m more resilient with water. My no-till practices, I’ve had 3 inch rains when they’ve been there and the soil has held up pretty good.”

Cotter was recently awarded the 2025 Minnesota Leopold Conservation Award.