SWOF Farmer Spotlight: John Sorenson

Meet John Sorenson, a fifth-generation Minnesota farmer. To combat harsh winds threatening his sugar beets, John joined the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund (SWOF) to implement a rye cover crop and reduce his tillage. These changes have protected his crops and produced savings in fuel and labor costs. SWOF is excited to highlight the work John and his dad, Todd, have been able to achieve, and we encourage you to learn more from their experiences below.

Tell us more about your farming operation.

We farm in west Polk County, Minnesota. Our operation is about 4000 acres. We farm sugar beets, corn, soybeans, wheat, and edible or dry beans. My dad and I took things over from my uncle at the end of 2020. I'm also a supervisor for the West Polk Soil and Water Conservation District.

The Red River Valley is a lake bottom. There used to be a big glacier that came through and flattened things out. We're kind of right in the dead center of it. We have very good soil. The beets grow really well here. We grow 20% of the world’s sugar right here in the Valley.

That’s very impressive! Tell us more about the sugar beet farming community.

The sugar beet industry is the bread and butter of this valley, and it's been here since the early 1900s. It benefits the entire valley. There are factories in Moorhead, Hillsboro, Crookston, East Grand Forks, and Drayton. They employ about 1,300-1,500 people, year-round. And during harvest, it employs a lot more. And in 1973, the farmers bought the company, so it's a farmer owned co-op since 1973. It keeps this valley alive.

Why were you looking into adopting more sustainable farming practices?

Growing up, my grandpa and my uncle told me we have to make the ground black. They said, you have to make it black because you're planting a really tiny seed, and it's very susceptible when it's little to anything blocking it.

Once the beet plant is up and it's got six leaves, they're pretty hard to kill. But to that point, anything can kill it, especially when they just have four leaves. The wind can just helicopter them right off. And they're done, and you have to replant. And they're not cheap to plant. So that’s what we'd always done—make it really black.

But in 2019, we just about a lost a bunch of our beets because it’s so flat, the wind blows 30, 40, 50 miles an hour, and the sky is just black with soil. My dad was out right across the coulee, digging and cultivating the rows to try and keep the wind from blowing the dirt. We didn’t know if it would work but we just kept going before we lost more.

We’d heard of other people using planting barley in the spring, letting it grow up to protect the young beets, and then killing it off. The wind is just so bad here, so in the spring of 2020 we started spreading barley on our beet ground. And it worked really well to stop the wind. But we had a guy running, spreading it with a spreader. Then we cultivate it and then harrow it, and plant it, and it gets to be a lot of steps. And with labor, that gets to be an issue.

My uncle also retired at the age of 80 at the end of 2020, further compounding our labor problems. He still helps out. Even at 83, he still plants all our beets and most of our beans. But labor issues are why we switched to planting a rye cover crop in strips in the fall.

John and his dad, Todd, chat while waiting for the next semi truck to arrive during sugar beet harvest in west Polk County, Minnesota. 

How did you get started with SWOF?

I first heard about the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund from our agronomist. He had another customer that was doing it. And, since we were kind of experimenting with reducing our tillage and cover crops to fight the wind erosion, he thought it might be a good fit.

So, we talked to Joe [Field Program Lead at SWOF], and he was easy to work with, a great guy. It just kind of went from there. We started with about 700 acres of mostly sugar beets and then this year we enrolled all our acres because it went so well last year. With both Joe and Katie [SWOF Field Program Representative in John’s area], everybody has just been easy to reach out to.

Our focus has really been on our beets. We needed a way to fight the wind with one guy instead of four. Instead of doing the barley and all the labor that was involved, we planted winter rye in strips with our planter and then offset that in the spring when we planted beets. We also put rye strips in our edible beans because that can blow badly in the spring, too. This spring we had some horrendous winds, and none of the crops we had rye in blew. Young beets and edible beans are very susceptible to wind damage, but none of that blew.

We learned a few things as we got started, of course. When we planted into the rye that first spring, it was tough getting the strips to align with the planting of the rye from the fall with the GPS. My dad was wondering whether it was worth it the struggle, but that spring when our fields weren't blowing, and everyone else's were, he said, ‘I don't care what it takes. We're doing this again.’ So we made some adjustments, we found some special plates for planting, and decided to do it across a lot of our acres this year.

Everyone had been asking what we were doing. And after the horrible winds and our beets were up in the rye strips, they started asking, ‘Oh, how can we do this? What did you do?’ So, that’s awesome.

And what do you tell other farmers about SWOF when they ask?

By changing to a rye cover crop and implementing more minimum till, we’ve cut down from three tractors in the spring to one tractor. We definitely did not use as much fuel as we normally do. I recommend looking into the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund because it's beneficial to your farm, not only financially to help you implement it, but it can save your crops.

A lot of people are, ‘If it works, don't change it.’ And up until a few years ago, we were using conventional tillage, too. But, the world is changing and we kind of have to change with it. I think you're going to have to start implementing these practices because it's what's going to be sustainable in the future. It's just figuring out what works for you and what works for your farm, and SWOF can help you do that.

Want to begin or expand a conservation practice, such as reduced tillage, implementing a cover crop, or adding a crop rotation? You can receive agronomic support and earn financial incentives for your on-farm conservation efforts by enrolling with the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund. Contact our team today at contactus@theoutcomesfund.com or request a free estimate and discover why so many choose to stick with SWOF.

Sugar beet harvest in one of John’s fields enrolled with SWOF in late August 2024.