Crossing Generations,
Connecting to the Land

At Flying J Farm, a diversified and balanced approach supports healthy land, wildlife habitat, and a sixth-generation family operation

Photos By Matt Addington • Words By Tom Carpenter

Of Dreams, Balance and Land

Shea-Lynn and Luc Ramthun are the kind of folks that Pheasants Forever dreams of … and of which dreams are made.

But, as with most dreams, hard work and deep caring reside at the core of their vision.

"My great-great uncle Peter Nelson homesteaded land here in 1856," says Scott Johnson, Shea-Lynn's father and a longtime Rooster Booster member of PF. "Peter worked the original 100 acres. His is the first entry on the original deed abstract from the U.S. Government; Minnesota was not even a state yet."

Now, 170 years later, Shea-Lynn runs a diversified farm operation across 385 acres, incorporating grain fields (including small grains, primarily oats), pasture lands for cattle and sheep, grasslands where the land is unproductive for grain or pasture, and grassy filter strips along waterways.

"Shea-Lynn is the farmer, I'm just the help," laughs Luc Ramthun, who doubles as Senior Corporate Partnerships Account Executive for Pheasants Forever.

"Doing things this way is not the easy way," says Shea-Lynn, who also holds down a full-time job with The Land Stewardship Project. "But it is the right way for us, and for the land."

They are busy people, with jobs to work, a farm to run, and a young family to raise. But they made time for photographer Matt Addington and I to spend a delightful October morning at Flying J Farm.

The land smelled good. There was much to see. Across the acres, you just felt happy. Pheasants flew. Deer bounded. Monarch butterflies wafted. Bees buzzed.

But the land was also at work, and a living was being made.

Come along.

Flying J pheasants don't get a complete free pass.

Diversity makes the land work, and makes a living.

A family operation.

Grain, Prairie and Buffers - Each Where They Belong

We stopped along a brook bisecting Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grass on a hillside above, and crop fields below.

"This entire valley used to be in a corn and soybean rotation," says Scott, "farmed edge to edge. We knew that wasn't working for the soil." The spring-fed brook suffered too.

We strolled the hillside, which went into CRP at the start of the program in the late 1980s. "It's time for management again," says Luc, eyeing invading raspberry canes, cottonwood saplings and brush. Prescribed burn help will come from the Goodhue County Chapter of PF this spring.

Other strategic high and low tracts on the rolling land have since been enrolled in other conservation programs. The productive ground is in grain, and all that ground is no-till.

Where wildlife habitat and agricultural pursuits coexist.

A buffer protects the brook. "All of our buffers are volunteer; they're not in any program," says Shea-Lynn. "It's just the right thing to do for soil and water quality."

Part of the buffer was overgrown with giant ragweed and wild parsnip, while the other part was filled with beautiful grasses and forbs. "We graze sheep, which prefer the broadleaf invasives over the grasses," says Shea-Lynn. Where the sheep had done their work, you could see what sun and water had done for the thriving prairie grasses, wildflowers and milkweed.

"The monarchs and bees love it," says Luc. "So do the pheasants."

Small Grains in the Rotation

Shea-Lynn is a maverick in a part of the world that embraces a corn and soybean crop rotation almost exclusively. At Flying J Farm, oats and add a land-friendly and wildlife-friendly third leg to the grain rotation.

"Oats are gentle on the land, and they help the soil recover after corn and then soybeans," says Shea-Lynn. "Oats put nutrients back in the soil. We inter-seed with red clover and other cover crops that grow after the oats are harvested. Later, in the summer and fall, we put the grazers — sheep and cattle — to work. They get great forage, and further replenish the soil."

"The cover crop after oat harvest makes great brood-rearing cover for pheasants," adds Luc. The grazers are rotated through paddocks. "And you should see the pollinators in here once the clover is up."

"The decline of pheasants aligned with the decline of small grains," says Shea-Lynn. "Since we have added small grains, the pheasants have come back. Next year we will have 60 acres of oats and 15 acres of rye."

The oats are food grade. The rye is grown as cover crop seed. Part of Shea-Lynn's day job is working to create reliable domestic markets for farmers who want to grow more small grains, such as oats. She is eying sunflowers next.

Sheep, guarded by donkeys, graze a paddock in a harvested oat field.

Cattle and Sheep Diversify Income Streams

Up on the flanks of a ridge, we visited a pasture where beef cattle grazed. Shea-Lynn knows the animals by name.

"This is ground that should never be plowed," says Scott of the hillsides, draws and ridge. Grazing paddocks are rotated, which always leaves some pasture for wildlife value.

"It's so much work to set these paddocks, but it is so good for the land and the livestock," says Shea-Lynn. "We also use bale grazing in winter, placing haybales that concentrate the cattle on different areas of the pasture and leave good fertilizer for next spring's grass."

Black Angus cattle in a hilly pasture where rotational grazing is gentle on the land and supports wildlife.

Pointing to a brushy draw, Luc says, "We're going to let some sheep loose in there. They'll eat the woody invasives such as prickly ash, buckthorn and others; it's death by a thousand cuts. The big trees will persist, and we'd love to see it become a savanna that works for wildlife and livestock."

The end result of smart grazing practices? Good grass for wildlife, and another income stream — via the cattle and sheep — to further diversify the farm's productivity.

Donkeys at Work

"We use donkeys as guardian animals for the sheep," says Shea-Lynn. "The donkeys are so smart and soulful. They bond with the sheep. The donkeys' mere presence keeps the coyotes away. And if coyotes do come, the donkeys will rip 'em apart!"

Scott Johnson (right) with Luc and Shea-Lynn.

Doing the Right Thing

"I can always lean on one of my enterprises if one the markets is down," says Shea-Lynn. "Diversification pays -- for wildlife, for the land, and for producers"

"Doing the right thing for the land, and for future generations, is our goal," adds Luc … "to build a farm ecology that works with nature and not against it."

"Shea-Lynn does it," says Scott. "She brings the new ideas. I am so proud, seeing this land being taken over by the next generation not because she felt she had to, but because she wanted to."

"It's an entire ecosystem," says Shea-Lynn." "It all works together, supporting our family financially, supporting livestock, growing wildlife, and improving soil and water quality."

Ada and Luc explore a Flying J CRP field.

Some Hunting Too

Of course, when time avails, some hunting happens on the farm. Whitetails and turkeys call the acres home, but for Luc and the family's large Munsterlander Ada, it is the occasional afternoon jaunt for a wild and homegrown ring-necked rooster that means the most.

"Hunting here ties back to our goals for the farm," says Luc. "We want the land to be healthy for wildlife and for the next generation. Just to be out here hunting — where you used to see one or two birds but now maybe 20 — is a testament to that. It feels magical."

A coneflower persists for pollinators into early autumn.

The Ramthun family, from left: Luc, Alek, Shea-Lynn, Quinn and Ada.

An autumn hunt.

Tom Carpenter is editor at Pheasants Forever.

"Crossing Generations, Connecting to the Land" originally appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of Pheasants Forever Journal.