Minnesota Crop Improvement Association (MCIA) today recognized Sharon Bring, of Strandquist, with the Premier Seed Grower Award. The award, presented annually since 1928, recognizes individuals or partners involved in quality seed production, active in MCIA, and who provide excellent service to the seed industry.
Sharon Bring was honored, along with fellow Premier Seed Grower Milo Ravndalen, during the Minnesota Crop Improvement Association’s 123rd Annual Meeting. The event was hosted at the Holiday Inn and Suites in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on January 28, 2026.
Sharon Bring grew up near Newfolden, MN in Marshall County on her family’s farm. She was active in school and on the farm, driving a John Deere Model D as soon as she was old enough to reach the hand clutch. She worked around the farm, and two of her main jobs were raking hay and milking the family's Hereford milk cow. “Yes, it was a Hereford,” she says with a smile. Sharon was very active in 4-H and school activities. After graduating from Newfolden High School she attended college in Thief River Falls for Secretarial and soon started working at a local bank. She quickly learned about banking, finance, and bookkeeping skills that served her well throughout her career.
She married Wesley Bring, and they raised 5 kids, farmed, and milked cows. During this time, they were very active in the community in many areas. Sharon was also a 4-H leader, and trips to the MN State Fair, showing cattle, were an annual highlight. Sharon and Wesley grew seeds as often as they could in their crop rotation. Barley, oats, and wheat were grown for certified seed, with Lacey and Stander barley being the “prized’ seed crop for many years. They sold seed and worked with local MCIA seed conditioners in the area. “The years were busy but flew by fast,” says Sharon. Unfortunately, Wesley passed away in the year 2000. The family milked cows for 3 more months, and the next chapter on the Bring Farm began.
Sharon and her son, Jeff, continued crop production, and Jeff took over the livestock side, raising beef cattle to this day. For the past 25 years Sharon and Jeff have continued farming together, but each maintains their separate operations. Sharon has continued producing small grains for seed and mostly U of MN wheat varieties that she says, “stand well, yield well, and have good disease packages and work well in this area.” Sharon thanks her children for the help over the years and said she really must thank Jeff for “all the mechanical work over the years, he can fix anything, and that’s the one thing on the farm I cannot do.” Her favorite farm activities are tillage, harvest, and watching things grow. “I really love all aspects of farming, including the planning, office work, and marketing.”
Sharon is equally well known in a wide area for her contributions away from the farm. She has been a Marshall County commissioner for 29 years, serves on the board for many organizations, including the MN Rural Counties board, Markit Landfill, Area Transportation Partnership, Marshall County Florian Park, and serves as a 4-H leader and many other area groups. She also has operated “Sharon’s Tax Service” for decades in the off-season and winter months.
Sharon enjoys keeping up with her 5 children and 14 grandchildren at all their many activities. She also enjoys bike riding, snowmobiling, and the outdoors
From the Northland to the Super Bowl: Local Seed Takes the Biggest Stage
When millions of football fans tuned in to watch Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, few knew that the game was being played, quite literally, on a piece of northern Minnesota.
The sod beneath the players’ cleats was grown in California, but the seed that made it possible started much closer to here.
Perennial ryegrass seed produced by Northern Excellence Seeds, LLC, was part of the turf used for the 2026 Super Bowl.
Northern Excellence Seeds is a member-owned company that operates out of a 156,000-square-foot facility in Williams. 53 grower-members, are all northern Minnesota farmers with the majority concentrated in Lake of the Woods and Roseau County, although some farms are in Birchdale (Koochiching County) and Gatzke (Marshall County).
The company was founded in 2002 and today employs about 18 people, processing and shipping seed to markets around the world. Originally, Northern Farmers Co-op Exchange owned 50% of the company but has since reduced its stake to 17%, offering more stock to grower-members.
“We actually found out the day before the Super Bowl,” said Brent Benike, general manager of Northern Excellence Seeds, LLC, and Northern Farmer’s Co-op Exchange in Williams. “One of our sales guys sent a text saying, ‘Your grass is on the field.’”
The ryegrass grown by Northern Excellence was produced under contract for DLF, the world’s largest seed company, headquartered in Denmark with facilities in Oregon and Nebraska. Northern Excellence grows specific varieties for DLF, which then markets the seed. From there, the seed was sold to West Coast Turf, a major California sod producer that supplies high-profile venues across the country.
West Coast Turf grew the sod used at Levi’s Stadium, marking the 11th Super Bowl field produced by the company and the second time its turf has been used at Levi’s Stadium. The company’s proprietary system, known as “Ready Play,” uses a Bermuda grass base overseeded with a three-way blend of perennial ryegrass, including seed grown in northern Minnesota, to create a dense, resilient playing surface that meets NFL standards.
Whenever the Super Bowl isn’t played indoors on artificial turf, the NFL contracts with a grass farm to grow the field specifically for the game. This year, West Coast Turf had between 800,000 and 900,000 square feet of Ready Play grass growing in Livingston, California, for NFL use.
While the sod itself never left California, the seed’s journey began months earlier in local fields, where perennial ryegrass heads out in July — a familiar sight to area farmers and a sign of a healthy crop.
Benike emphasized that the Super Bowl connection was far from a solo achievement.
“This was a total team effort,” he said. “Our grower-members deserve the kudos. So do the certifiers at Minnesota Crop Improvement, Williams Express for trucking the seed, and Habstritt Seed in Roseau, which helped clean one of the components.”
He said the national spotlight helps reinforce what northern Minnesota growers have been building for years.
“Our reputation in the overall turf seed industry has continued to grow over the years,” Benike said. “This helps to validate all of our hard work.”
Northern Excellence Seeds produces around 15 million pounds of perennial ryegrass seed in a typical year, making it one of the largest producers in the region. In addition to grass seed, the company operates conditioning lines to clean multiple grass varieties and also processes food-grade soybeans shipped to South Korea and Japan.
The company’s seed has been used at other elite venues as well, including Augusta National Golf Course — another point of pride for northern Minnesota agriculture.
From local fields to the world’s biggest sporting events, Benike said the story highlights what’s possible when regional farmers focus on quality.
“This shows what a local group effort can do,” he said. “We’re producing top-quality grass seed right here in northern Minnesota, and it’s being used all over the world.”
