Cutting edge of cropping

AUSTIN — Tom Cotter, the 2025 recipient of the Minnesota Leopold Conservation Award, which recognizes him for going above and beyond in his management of land and water, said this was not a recognition he earned on his own. Instead, Cotter said he stands on over a century of his family’s work, and he is aided by the farming community around him as he continues to pioneer healthy practices.

“You have to network with just regular farmers around you and work together as a team,” Tom said. “Many times, we (farmers) think we can’t do it, but we can. If we’re true to ourselves, we can do amazing things.”

The Cotter family immigrated to America from Ireland during the Irish Potato Famine. Cotter Farms dates back to when its ground was plowed in 1874 by Tom’s great-grandparents, with the first crop getting brought in the following year.

Tom grew up on Cotter Farms and returned to farming full time in 1995 after attending college at the University of Minnesota-Waseca and living in Owatonna for a couple years. Over the next 15 years, he transitioned into full management of the farm.

Tom’s father, Mike Cotter, stepped back from farming around 2010, but he continued to help afterward. Tom credits him with starting cover cropping on the farm in 1998, initially growing peas. Mike also bought the farm’s first tile plow, looking to improve the soil quality.

Around 2000, Tom got into government programs which required over-winter cover crops. The Cotters had planted winter rye before, but adding other crops presented a learning curve, and they usually planted them in the back 80 in a single field.

“It would have been nice to have a little more guidance, but then again, nobody knew very much about (cover cropping) then,” Tom said. “There was internet, but it wasn’t like now where you can just hop on and find stuff immediately.”

The operation got up to about 20% cover crops by 2012, and because of the crops’ successes in weed control, Tom had cover crops on all his acres by 2015. He has had up to about 37 different species of cover crops growing at a time.

“I wouldn’t advise that unless you’re much further along in your soil health journey,” Tom said.

He said 20 species of cover crops is more manageable.

Tom moved into reduced tillage in 2015 and began networking with other farmers interested in soil health and sustainable farming. In 2016, Cotter Farms became the first farm certified by the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program for implementing conservation practices that exceeded regulatory requirements. The year after that, Cotter Farms became an organic farm because the cover crops were effective as weed control.

Mike passed away in the summer of 2017 as Tom was transitioning the farm to organic.

“The fall was my first organic crop without my dad,” Tom said. “He was an avid storyteller, and so I got to have him tell me stories (through CD recordings) while I was driving the combine in that cornfield. … He always said, ‘You take care of the land, and the land will take care of you.’”

Before going no-till on his corn, Tom did strip tilling on his fields for several years until he got the soil in the right condition to support the crop.

“You have to earn the right to no-till your corn,” he said. “You can no-till soybeans from Day 1, but the corn is a little more of a delicate plant. … I started no-tilling all my corn and soybeans and sweetcorn, (and) I no-till sunflowers now.”

Today, Tom’s fields are about 40% organic production and 60% no-till. There is a rotation of corn, soybeans, sweetcorn, sunflowers, peas, oats and alfalfa.

“It’s really eye-opening when you are doing two opposite ways of farming, but you see the benefits … and negatives of both,” Tom said. “I can be pretty neutral when I talk about soil health practices because I see and live both sides. … We farmers are just trying to do our best.”

Tom produces and sells cover crop seed mixes and advocates for conservation practices that benefit biodiversity, water quality, carbon sequestration, farm resiliency, financial viability and rural community revitalization. He transitioned from raising beef cattle in a feeder lot to grazing cow-calf pairs, and he used to cultivate about 6 acres of industrial hemp and use on-farm processing equipment to make certified-organic, verified-regenerative CBD oil.

“(Hemp) really taught me about inflammation in the body, but it also taught me a lot about inflammation in the soil with the practices we do,” Tom said. “It can be on the organic or no-till side; I’m not blaming either side.”

Tom was nominated for the Minnesota Leopold Conservation Award by Liz Haney of Soil Regen. Tom was presented with the $10,000 award at the Premier Soil Health Event in early December 2025 in Mankato.

“It’s a total honor, but to me, in just means my efforts to help people have been noticed,” he said. “There are hundreds of farmers around me who are doing good things, so they all deserve (the honor).”