Below is a BRIEF HISTORY – Many More Details at Celebration!
The Terning Family Farm was established and homesteaded in year 1911. The Patriarchs of the Terning Farm were Carl and Anna Terning. Carl was the first American born Terning Family Member, and the first son of Swedish Immigrants Gustaf and Fredricka Terning.
Like most immigrant families and first-time farmers, the family worked hard and lived poor. In the early 1900s many farm families milked cows, raise hogs, chickens and acquired farmland to raise crops. With such need for labor on the farm, Carl and Anna began having children. They soon learned, that in its self can be challenging. However, it did not deter them, for they tallied up a total of eight children over the next decade. There were five sons, Howard, Earl, Ellsworth, Ralph and Marlin. As for daughters, their names were Ethel, Adella and Alice.
In those early years, from 1911-1916, Carl used a team of draft horses to perform most all field activities. Most prevalent, walking step-by-step behind the pair as he manhandled his two-bottom plow. He cherished that team of horses along with others that performed tasks of raising loads of hay into the loft of his dairy barn, pulling wagons and various other ways to lessen the amount of human labor.

That all changed in 1917 when he finally received the Fordson tractor he had been waiting for over two years. The Fordson tractors were not available for farmers to purchase until after world war one. Prior to that, Henry Ford was commissioned to send every tractor he could make to help in the war efforts.

From that point on Carl was known as a progressive farmer in the area. As the children got older, each and every one of them had chores to do each morning, afternoon and evening. The farm continued to grow under his tutelage for approximately 40 years. By that time though, their only remained two of his children on the farm, which were son Ralph and daughter Alice. So, in 1951, the decision was made for his second youngest son, Ralph to become the head of household and chief decision-maker. Ralph relished in his opportunity to take the reins. He then married Doris Bushkowsky. They to, started having children on an ASAP basis. Over the next decade + they compiled a total of four boys.

Just like Ralph was raised, all four boys had daily responsibilities on the farm. With a now dairy herd of 60+ cows, there was plenty of work to go around. Daily milking, feeding calves, cleaning barn, picking rock, hoeing weeds etc. etc. As the boys became old enough to take care of the daily duties in the dairy barn, Ralph spent more time with his passion, which was to have a close working partnership with Green Giant Canning Company.

Ralph enjoyed raising sweetcorn and peas on some of the farmland. He also leased many pieces of equipment, which consisted of several tractors during the harvesting of peas and sweetcorn annually. Ralph then began purchasing Uni-New Idea harvesters. He would lease them along with a couple tandem trucks for harvesting and hauling sweetcorn out of the field and to one of the several plants Green Giant had scattered across central and southern Minnesota during those times. In addition those harvesters rented to Green Giant, Ralph began raising seed corn for a few local seed corn companies. At the time, the Uni-New Idea Harvester was the “Cadillac” for harvesting seedcorn.
Ralph continued his diversification in 1975. He chose to construct his own seed conditioning plant on the farm. This was a novel idea at the time. By the fall of 1976, we were harvesting Minnesota Certified Seed. Namely, oats, wheat and soybeans. At the time, he was unaware as to how this decision was going to change the scope and course of the Terning family farm in the not-too-distant future.

BUT FIRST WE MUST SURVIVE The Early 1980s
All these extra sources of income became a real safety net for the farm in the early 1980s. During those early years of that decade, farmland had raised in price much faster than ever expected. The whole farm economy was seriously deflated because many farmers built and expanded their operations during those times. Those high purchase prices were funded by bankers more than willing to lend huge amounts of money while they charged high interest rates of 14%-18%. Prior to agreeing to lend the money, the lenders would place a lien on all of the farmers assets. The subsequent dramatic fall in corn, soybean, milk, beef and pork prices caused massive farm foreclosures for a few years. Ralph’s decision to diversify his “portfolio” so-to-speak, raised enough additional income from Green Giant and becoming a proud farmer grower of seedcorn for several area seedcorn companies. He often said, a farmer needs to produce crops that are not traded on the Chicago Board of trade! He felt, the “cigar smokers” in Chicago can manipulate those commodity prices, which can eventually ruin the finances of a hard-working family farmer! Ralph, in particular, had wisdom, which was more useful in his life’s endeavors, then what further schooling and education would have given him, if he had not dropped out in eighth grade!
By this point Ralph had only two remaining sons working on the farm. They were his two youngest sons, Dean and Dennis. Dean graduated from high school in 1980 and Dennis did the same in 1983. At that time both boys were set on continuing the legacy of the Terning Family Farm. However, of the two, Dean took a liking to and was a talented mechanic, welder, operator of planting and harvesting equipment.

With Dean gone to the fields or shop, Dennis continued to accept his needed role in milking cows and all that goes along with that occupation and way of life. However, he was most interested in the seed business. One of his favorite times to skip school, was during seed corn harvest in the month of September. Dennis took a liking to learn how to set various seed conditioning equipment along with all the responsibilities involved in producing, marketing and selling seed products. After graduating high school in 1983, Dennis enrolled in the two-year Agricultural Course at University of Minnesota-Waseca.

While Dennis attended courses in Crop Production, he became aware that one of his favorite agricultural instructors, Myron Guthrie, had worked several years as a staff member of a large seed corn breeder. These are companies that perform the raising and increasing seedcorn genetics. The company creates inbred lines for hybrid seed corn companies, which they use to produce hybrid seed corn for farmers across the globe.
Shortly after completing year one of the two-year course, Dennis became more and more interested in the pursuit of raising seed corn for their own company to sell. When he started his second year of schooling, nearly his entire focus was to get the right contacts and gain the knowledge of how to purchase the correct genetic traits to maximize yield in and around Wright County Minnesota.
The decisions Dennis makes from that point on, changes the course of the Terning Family Farm forever.
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS?

YOU WILL HAVE TO JOIN US ON July 5, 2025 FOR THE ANSWERS!

DRIVE SAFE and WE WILL SEE YOU THERE!