Sunflowers Bring Soil Health and New Markets to Minnesota Farm

Driving east on Interstate 90 in southern Minnesota was just another Sunday drive, until we spotted the bright yellow fields. A few turns later - and down a gravel road or two - we came upon a sign, "Sunflowers on the Cotter Farm Open to the Public." I'd seen sunflower fields near central Iowa, but believed them to be relatively small and sought after for family photography sessions. I thought these sunflower fields in Minnesota had to be different; the acres upon acres of flowers had to be production ag fields.

The Transition to Regenerative Ag

Over the past 31 years, Tom Cotter has used a number of diversified farming practices, which have led him to a deeper connection with regenerative ag on his south-central Minnesota farm near Austin. He began conventional farming in 1994 and added cover crops in 1998. By 2012, he was starting to try reduced tillage, and in 2016, strip tillage. He then converted some of his farm to organic in 2017, and in 2019, began farming hemp. The reasons Cotter got into sunflowers on his farm make perfect sense, but one of the reasons he stays may be surprising.

Now in 2025, on the conventional side, Cotter is planting a diverse array, including peas, sweet corn, corn, soybeans, and sunflowers. On the organic side of the farm, he is into sweet corn, oats, soybeans, and sunflowers. With all of the combined crops on his farm, Cotter farms about 800 acres, down from 1,200.

In 2016, Cotter made changes to his livestock, moving away from a 500-head feeder lot to a grass-finished cow-calf operation. "Right now, the hottest thing is cattle," he said.

Cotter decided to take away some grain production and move more into grazing his cattle. "I've always grazed - that's probably the one thing that I've done well - besides having a really large diversity of cover crop mixes and bringing that into the cash crop world too," he said.

Cotter said what helps with his grazing is that he interseeds into corn when it's in V6 stage and that sunflowers can be interseeded into sweet corn. "Sometime during the year, the cows get out onto every acre," he said, adding sweet corn opens up the grazing possibilities for before and after harvest. He grazes soybeans, sweet corn, and sunflower fields before planting, and grazes the peas and field corn afterward.

Sunflower Production Driven by Market and Soil Health

Cotter credits two things for getting him into sunflowers: his wife and the war in Ukraine.

He began growing multi-cover-crop fields for grazing. He said he was always excited about seeing other farms when driving down the road with his wife Alma. "'Oh, look at the sorghum, look at the meal, look at the kale, look at all those wonderful things!'" he'd say. "And I realized it was just me getting excited. So, that's how I started putting sunflowers in the mixes - that way, when we drove down the field, she would enjoy it too."

Since he was already growing them in his diverse cover crop fields, Cotter said he expanded into sunflower production after learning that the Russia-Ukraine war had raised sunflower prices. Cotter said, "I jumped on board and started growing sunflowers."

Now in his fourth year, Cotter grows 60% conventional and 40% organic sunflowers, which he believes sets him apart. He said, "I really like it because I can compare differences … soil health and ROI wise…. I just try and take the good from both sides and reduce the bad."

Field Days

The Minnesota Soil Health Coalition, Cotter explained, is very important to him. He was on the board for six years, and with all the field days on his farm, he said he couldn't do it without them. "I really like the coalition because they are farmer led, farmer driven."

Even though Cotter is no longer on the board, he's still active and wants to help other farmers, because when he first started doing cover crops, he said there was really no one that he could talk to. "I don't want people to go through that," he said. "They're going to try this route of a different way of farming. I want to make sure they have help, and I really think networking for people - for farmers - is probably the most important thing."

Cotter said when he first started doing farmer field days 10 years ago, he may manage to get one farmer at a time to change their practices. He added that when talking to consumers he could change 20 people at a time by encouraging them to "start investing their money into their food for health … healthy food, healthy people, so farmers can get paid a fair price," he said. Which allowed him to make a bigger difference.

In 2025, Cotter had 75 people out for field days. He spoke about the regenerative side of agriculture, while another speaker talked about teaching healthy food options, and the benefits of healthy soil and how that translates to healthy food. Field day attendees were served a home cooked meal of tacos made with Cotter's grass-finished beef along with a tour of the livestock and cover crop fields. The tour ended in the sunflower field. "People just want to be in touch with their food," Cotter said.