Enestvedt Seed Company

Our Company - 110 Years of Service

2010 marks the 110th Anniversary of Enestvedt Seeds. Three generations of the Enestvedt Family have made Enestvedt Seeds what it is today. Enestvedt Seeds is a family-owned and operated seed business in operation today by Roger Enestvedt.

The Enestvedt Seed Corn Company was established in 1900 by E.G. Enestvedt. Enestvedt Seeds office is still located on the farm homesteaded in 1867 by the great-grandfather of Roger and grandfather of Johannes & Bert, Ole Enestvedt.

The University of Minnesota released 13 open pollinated seed corn in 1897. Johannes & Bert's father, E.G. Enestvedt, was attending the St. Paul School of Agriculture at this time, growing and selling seed corn while he was in school. He graduated in 1902, returing to the family farm in the Minnesota River Valley to continue farming and growing seed. In 1908, he married Clara Haug and together they continued the farming-seed business. E.G. passed away in 1923 leaving his wife Clara and their five children. Clara operated the farm with hired help until her sons Odean, Johannes, and Bert were old enough to take over.

The three boys operated the Enestvedt Seed Company together from that point on. Odean passed away in 1988, and Johannes and Bert have been retired for some years now.

Minnesota 13 seed corn was sold by the Enestvedts until they started raising Minhybrids in the mid-1930's. Today the company sells seed corn, public variety and North Star Genetics soybeans, and other seed grains.

The Enestvedt's tradition of detassling began in the mid-1930's with the coming of hybrid seed corn varieties. Countless numbers of young people have had summer jobs at Enestvedt's. Today, up to 50 young people are still hired for the manual job of detassling every summer.

In 1991, the University of Minnesota named one of their newly developed varieties of soybeans "Bert" in honor of Bert Enestvedt's involvement in the soybean industry. In 1994, Bert was selected as the recipient of the Eldon Siehl Prize for Excellence in Agriculture, presented by the University of Minnesota for production agriculture.

We are a member of North Star Genetics, a company of seedsmen banded together to provide several hundred years of experience and research in raising and conditioning seed.

We produce and process all of the hybrid corn varieties we offer. Our seed is certified by the Minnesota Crop Improvement Association (MCIA). Our corn is dried, graded, and treated in our modern processing plant according to uniform and proven standards.

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