Land Stewardship Project

Land Stewardship Project
  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • Long Range Plan
    • Staff Directory
    • Board of Directors
      • LSP Board Committees
    • LSP Steering Committees & Working Groups
    • Contact Us
    • Past LSP Projects
    • Employment & Volunteer Opportunities
    • LSP Publications
    • Financial Statements
  • The Latest
    • Community Care
    • Songs for the Soil
    • CSA Farm Directory
    • Upcoming Events
    • News
      • News Releases
      • Media Contacts
      • LSP in the News
    • Blog
    • Podcast
    • Land Stewardship Letter
    • LIVE-WIRE Sign-up
    • Myth Busters
    • Fact Sheets
    • Farm Crisis Resources
  • For Farmers & Landowners
    • Farmland Clearinghouse
    • New Farmers
      • Farm Beginnings Class
      • Journeyperson Course
      • Farm Dreams
      • Accessing Farmland
      • Farmland Clearinghouse
      • Beginning/Retiring Farmer Tax Credit
      • Beginning Farmer Profiles
      • Fresh Voices Podcast Series
    • Retiring Farmers & Landowners
      • Farmland Clearinghouse
      • Farm Transition Course 2026
      • Conservation Leases
      • Beginning/Retiring Farmer Tax Credit
      • Land Transition Tools
      • Transition Stories
    • Soil Health
      • Cover Crops
      • Grazing
      • No-till
      • Microbiology
      • Kernza
      • Soil Builders’ Network
      • Soil Builders’ E-Letters
      • Soil Health Steering Committee Members
      • Ear Dirt Soil Health Podcast Series
    • Cropping Systems Calculator
    • Conservation Leases
  • Creating Change
    • Community-Based Food Systems
      • Ear Bites Community-Based Food Podcast Series
    • Policy Campaigns
      • Soil Health & Climate Change
      • Healthcare
      • Factory Farms
        • Anti-Competitiveness & Price Gouging
        • LSP Powerline Story Center
      • Federal Policy
        • A Farm Bill For Us
      • State Policy
        • MN Farm, Food & Climate Funding
      • Developing Leadership
    • Justice & Stewardship
    • Organizational Stewardship
  • Get Involved
    • Your Membership Matters
    • Take Action!
    • Upcoming Events
    • Land Stewardship Action Fund
    • Connect with LSP
      • Stay Connected
      • Join, Donate, or Renew Today!
      • Shop
      • Employment & Volunteer Opportunities
      • Legacy Giving
    • Network with LSP Members
      • Farmland Clearinghouse
      • Soil Health
    • Farmland Clearinghouse
  • Join, Donate, or Renew Today!
  • Stay Connected
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
Search
More...

The Wonder of Farming with Nature

John Snyder’s Soil Health Journey Started with a Question: Where are the Worms?

By Barb Sogn-Frank
October 22, 2021

Share

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • email
Ben and John Snyder discuss their soil health practices with Minnesota Commissioner of Agriculture Thom Petersen.

Some five decades ago, a young aspiring farmer named John Snyder brought his bride Bernadette back to Minnesota from Tennessee to begin their farm and family dream together. The newlyweds settled in on a piece of rolling farmland near Preston in southeastern Minnesota where oak savanna forests, limestone ridges, and prairie meet. That first farmhouse had no running water, but it was home. And with just a few hundred dollars in the bank, they launched their life’s work with cattle, dairying, growing corn, soybeans and a family.

Fast forward to October 202I: their farm dream has taken on proportions they’d never have imagined decades ago. In addition to conventional row crops and hay, the Snyders also raise hogs and goats. All along, as John and son Ben planned, planted and harvested, they took care observing their land, its weather, and water patterns. They paid attention to the farm’s wildlife and the health of their crops and livestock as carefully as they managed seasonal planting, production cycles, and farm finances.

Over time, John got concerned about some things he was observing on the farm. “Something was wrong with my livestock – puffy joints, ornery…I went to the vet and he recommended no Roundup Ready infused feed and to go with non-GMO feed. I did, and the animals got healthier and happier,” he says. “I think Roundup is doing more damage than we know. I’m talking as a farmer here, I’m not a radical, left-wing, socialist…There’s something going on there. I got a lot to learn and I think we all do.”

Soil erosion and the lack of life he’d been noticing in his soil bothered him too. Where were the worms?

Snyder says his brother, who has some of the best farmland in the area, loves to fish. When it was time to go drop a line, he’d say, “I gotta go to the Amish to get some worms.” Even though John’s brother’s farm looked great, John says, “His soil didn’t have the life and diversity that you find in Amish country where they use more diverse cropping and livestock integration.”

John and Ben made the switch from Roundup Ready seed to non-GMO and organic production. That required taking a different approach to weed control that relies on a rotary hoe, a cultivator, and an electric weed zapper along with a mix of cover crops. John’s learned that, “…timing is critical. You’re not a windshield farmer anymore. Next year I’ll do barley. Also, clover, alfalfa, and grass, and then I hay it for a couple of rounds. You gotta break up the cycle, you gotta have oats or beans. All your weeds germinate at different times so you gotta change up your tillage.”

They switched to spring interseeding of cover crops in standing corn. About 200 of their 700 acres are now either certified organic or in transition away from conventional non-GMO corn and soybeans to organic. Their remaining acres are conventional, non-GMO crops and cover crops.

The Snyders are happy about the many positive changes they’re seeing on their farm with the switch to regenerative practices over the past few years. Their plants withstand drought better — a particularly key characteristic during the summer of 2021 — because there’s more moisture retained in the soil. Wildlife is more plentiful around the farm. An added benefit is lowered cost of production. “Conventional corn’s $260 a bag,” John says. “My preferred organic seed corn is $160 a bag. And fertilizer just went up in price six times in six weeks.”

“What’s underneath your feet is what’s making the health of those plants,” John Snyder says of this thriving stand of organic corn.

The ‘Wonder Field’ Tells the Story

Recently, on an unseasonably warm, overcast October afternoon, John hosted a group of about a dozen visitors including Thom Petersen, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. They came to see and hear about what Snyder calls his “wonder field” — a stand of 11-foot-tall organic corn. It is indeed a wonder to see and walk through; the response of the visitors that day was genuine awe and appreciation.

John and Ben led the group into the midst of the massive stalks to demonstrate how to calculate an estimate of bushels-per-acre-from this field. There was a hand count and folks calculated the averages on their phones yielding a reasonable estimate of 188 bushels per acre, which will make for a profitable harvest for the Snyders.

“What’s underneath your feet is what’s making the health of those plants,” John told his guests emphatically.

Towards the end of Commissioner’s visit, the two of them had a chance to walk and talk a bit. To John, this was the most important aspect of the Commissioner’s visit. While it was nice to have him stop by to see the Snyders’ soil building results firsthand, the vital element was for the Commissioner to leave with a visceral understanding of what the future of farming could and should be for the next generation.

LSP soil health organizer Barb Sogn-Frank can be reached e-mail or at 507-479-9119.

Category: Blog
Tags: cover crops • crop rotations • non-GMO • Soil Builders' Network • soil health

Video: Soil & the Next Generation

In a Land Stewardship Project video, John Snyder describes why building soil health on his farm is key to allowing him to pass the land on to the next generation. Check it out here.

Soil Builders’ Network

Join LSP’s Soil Builders’ Network to get regular updates on workshops, field days, and on-farm demonstrations, as well as the latest soil health and cover crop research. For more information on joining, see the Soil Builders web page.

Grazing Events

LSP in holding two events on managed rotational grazing in November:

  • Nov.11: Canoe Creek Dairy, Decorah, Iowa
  • Nov. 18: Knutson Shorthorns, Red Wing, Minn.
  • Join, Donate, or Renew
  • Building People Power

Upcoming Events

×

October 2025

Tuesday October 7

6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Book Event: We Can Do Better: Collected Writings on Land, Conservation, and Public Policy
Tuesday October 7
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Book Event: We Can Do Better: Collected Writings on Land, Conservation, and Public Policy
The Landing Market, 211 College Dr, Decorah, IA 52101, USA

The Johnson Center for Land Stewardship Policy is excited to share that one of our its primary pillars of work — a published collection of Paul Johnson’s writings —  is set for release on Oct. 2.  The book features a brief biography and a discussion of Paul’s ideas within the historical and future contexts of private lands conservation. Details on the event are available here.

For details on We Can Do Better: Collected Writings on Land, Conservation, and Public Policy click here.

 

Friday October 10

8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Weaving a Wider Community: Seeing & Countering Racism in Our Backyard
Friday October 10
8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Weaving a Wider Community: Seeing & Countering Racism in Our Backyard
111 N 1st St, Montevideo, MN 56265, USA

Join LSP and CURE for a community event at the Land Stewardship Project office in Montevideo (111 N. First St.), from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., on Friday, Oct. 10. This event includes lunch catered by El Mana; please register by Oct. 3 to be included in the food count.

You can RSVP here.

The Racial Equity Conference, organized by the Greater Minnesota Partnership of the Facilitating Racial Equity Collaborative, has been specifically designed to bring engaging content to local communities through a unique pairing of online speakers and in-person local sessions. The morning’s online content will include a conversation focused on seeing and countering racism in rural communities, moderated by Eryn Gee Killough, paired with two outstanding keynote speakers, Jenna Grey Eagle and Ron Ferguson, who have experience working in rural communities. 

This online content will be exclusively available to local community gatherings. Each gathering will gear their in-person activity to their specific community with the goal of extending the impact of the conference to others throughout the following year. Join LSP and CURE for this western Minnesota gathering, or if a different location works better for you, check out all the local gatherings on the FREC site,

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out. LSP’s Nick Olson can be reached via e-mail at nicko@landstewardshipproject.org.

9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Intensive Small-Scale Market Gardening Bus Tour
Friday October 10
9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Intensive Small-Scale Market Gardening Bus Tour
Leatherdale Equine Center, 1801 Dudley Ave, St Paul, MN 55108, USA

Explore profitable small-scale farming (1–5 acres) and soil care. Visit a cooperative incubator farm and a thriving suburban market garden. Learn about cover crops, reduced tillage, high tunnel soil health, and support for growers.

This is the second tour in a three-part soil health bus tour series. Participants can sign up for just one, two, or all three tours. Register at https://z.umn.edu/vegetablebustours. The cost is $15 (flat fee, covers 1, 2, or 3 tours). There are more details in the attached flyer.

Saturday October 11

11:00 am – 2:00 pm
LSP-COPAL Visita a la Granja | Farm Tour
Saturday October 11
11:00 am – 2:00 pm
LSP-COPAL Visita a la Granja | Farm Tour
36919 County 57 Blvd, Dennison, MN 55018, USA

Building off the success of last year’s farm event with COPAL in Austin, Minn., this year Land Stewardship Project and COPAL members and supporters will gather at the Young-Walser Family Farm in Dennison, Minn. for a festive and delicious farm tour on Saturday, Oct. 11, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. We invite you to come and meet new folks, learn new skills, and try new food! 
 
This year’s COPAL-LSP farm event offers a little something for everyone: 
 
🍯 Honey sampling and the opportunity to purchase from Homestead Honey Farm. 
 
🍎 Apple cider pressing and tasting. (BTW, we’re still looking for an apple press if you or a farmer friend have one nearby we could borrow for this event!) 
 
🌽 Nixtamalization workshop and fresh, homemade tortillas, made with corn grown by LSP and COPAL members at the Young-Walser Family Farm! 
 
🍅 Salsa making and cricket-eating competitions! Yes, you heard that right —we’ll have the opportunity to sample crickets, a delectable crispy and savory snack commonly enjoyed throughout Mexico and Central America. Stay tuned for details on how to enter either competition. 
 
🥾 A tour of the Young-Walser farm, nestled in the beautiful Sogn Valley not far from Cannon Falls, Minn. Enjoy a tromp through the corn and squash fields and hike in the nearby woods. 
 
🌮 A shared meal and opportunity to hear from LSP and COPAL organizers about our participation in the Immigrant Defense Network. 

Let us know you can make it to ensure we order enough food and supplies! Carpools from Minneapolis and Rochester will be available to all attendees. 

________________________________________________

¡Únete a LSP + COPAL para nuestro recorrido anual comunitario en la granja!
Un espacio divertido para tod@s donde exploraremos la agricultura, aprenderemos sobre el campo y participaremos en actividades prácticas. ¡Uno de los momentos más especiales será hacer tortillas frescas junt@s!

Compartiremos un delicioso almuerzo comunitario, preparando tacos en estilo potluck (tipo convivio). Te invitamos a traer un platillo o acompañamiento para compartir.

También estás invitado@ a llegar temprano (desde las 9 AM) para ayudar a cosechar calabazas que sembramos. Puedes llevarte algunas a casa, y el resto se donará a un banco de alimentos local.

El Land Stewardship Project (LSP) es una organización aliada de COPAL que trabaja por sistemas alimentarios y agrícolas más sostenibles y justos. LSP y COPAL están unidas en su lucha por instituciones democráticas sólidas, comunidades saludables y acogedoras, y una ética de cuidado hacia la tierra y las personas que nos alimentan.

Tuesday October 14

11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Birds as Pest Control Allies on the Farm
Tuesday October 14
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Birds as Pest Control Allies on the Farm
Online

This 10-lesson Wild Farm Alliance virtual course teaches agricultural professionals and farmers how to support beneficial birds and manage pest birds on farms. By learning how to assess the farm’s avian needs and opportunities, farms can be designed to provide for a diversity of beneficial birds. 

If pest birds are a problem, they can be discouraged with specific practices during the shorter periods when they cause damage. The sessions cover the latest research, tools and resources, and are given by experts in avian pest control, entomology, ornithology and conservation. While many topics and species are specific to the Midwest, most of the principles discussed are applicable across regions. 

Continuing Education Credits have been requested and are expected to be approved from American Society of Agronomy.

For details and to register, click here. 

The Course Schedule:

LESSON 1

Why Birds Belong on the Farm: Biodiversity, Pest Control & A Thriving Landscape

Tuesday, September 23, 2 p.m. CT


LESSON 2

Birds as Pest Control Allies on the Farm

Tuesday, October 14, 11 a.m. CT


LESSON 3

Birds in the Balance: Pest Control Services Across Crop Types

Tuesday, November 4, 11 a.m. CT


LESSON 4

Integrating Habitat into Croplands: Prairie Strips and Bird Conservation

Tuesday, December 2, 11 a.m. CT


LESSON 5

Birds on the Farm: Balancing Biodiversity and Food Safety

Tuesday, January 13, 11 a.m. CT


LESSON 6

Beyond the Crop: Birds, Biodiversity, and the Power of Edge Habitat

Tuesday, February 3, 11 a.m. CT


LESSON 7

Bridging Forestry, Farming, and Habitat

Tuesday, February 24, 11 a.m. CT


LESSON 8

Perennial Pathways: Agroforestry for Birds and Biodiversity on Farms

Tuesday, March 17, 11 a.m. CT


LESSON 9

Birds on the Range: How Grazing Practices Shape Habitat for Grassland Species

Tuesday, April 7, 11 a.m. CT


LESSON 10

Birds at Risk: How Pesticides Shape Safety on Agricultural Lands

Tuesday, April 28, 11 a.m. CT

View Full Calendar

Recent Posts

  • Local Democracy Challenge Launched by LSP in MN October 1, 2025
  • As Avian Flu Reemerges in Minnesota, White Paper Asks: Are Factory Farms the Victims or the Vectors? September 25, 2025
  • Area Farmers Share Land Access & Marketing Concerns with Legislators From 9 States September 23, 2025
  • Land Line: Monopolies, Crop Rut, MISA, Soil Microbes, Corn Production Costs, Nitrates, Kernza September 15, 2025
  • Land Line: MAHA, Bumper Corn Crop, Oats, Defining Regenerative Ag, Feeding the World, CAFO Hotspots August 28, 2025

Montevideo

111 North First Street
Montevideo, MN 56265

(320) 269-2105

Lewiston

180 E. Main Street
Lewiston, MN 55952

(507) 523-3366

Minneapolis

821 E. 35th Street #200
Minneapolis, MN 55407

(612) 722-6377

  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Land Stewardship Project. All rights reserved.

https://landstewardshipproject.org/the-wonder-of-farming-with-nature