Take Time to Fight For Every Inch

Combining this week has been interesting with weather, equipment, and ground condition issues abound.  One thing we did see was one field where down pressure was not working for part of the field when it was planted.  Where it was, we saw a 20 bushel bump from better planting depth and spacing.  So for 10 acres of a field we lost $600 from not taking time to fix an issue on the planter that took 15 minutes to fix, that works out to about $2,400/hour worth of our time to fix the issue we found.

I get it, we all get in a rush to put crops in, take care of them, and harvest them all on time but those minor issues we ignore while we are in that rush can cost real money and bushels.  It's often that
during harvest we really find out what we lost by not waiting for drier conditions, fixing small issues, or making sure our spacing is correct, etc.  It's amazing to see how much just little mundane things will affect the outcome of our crops.

I love the speech from Any Given Sunday where Al Pacino talks about how the little things make a huge difference in the outcome of life and in the game.  Agriculture has a lot to do with this quote. In the pursuit of more yield we can forget the little things that lay the ground work for that payday.  My focus has always been those little details that we focus on.

While some may recommend products to fix issues, paying attention to details and having a plan going into the season is a far better approach.  We spend a large chunk of the winter talking about tillage, planter setup, and soil conditions for a reason. Our goals should always be higher than what we are currently doing, and there are ways to get there.  While products can make a difference in how our crop comes out in the end, there is always a cost associated with them.  Sometimes making little tweaks, or stopping to fix issues can benefit us by only a minor time investment.  That's our focus, taking the time to understand what we are doing that could be changed easily to gain those bushels at minimal cost.  So instead of products, spend your time to dial in your agronomy.  Those are the inches you can gain that maybe can get you to your goal.