The phrase ‘one size doesn’t fit all’ is true from farm to farm – and it’s also a truth we face within our own farm. Our fields deliver a wide spectrum of conditions, making gathering, analyzing and using all types of farm data crucial for our long-term farm success. 

Monroe County is well known for its diverse farming conditions. In our fields you’ll find sandy river bottoms, gumbo clay hills and everything in between. Obstacles like timber, creeks and drainage ditches contribute to field sizes ranging from 3 to 125 acres across the farm. A nice, square field is hard to come by. Some fields have a fair amount of slope and are vulnerable to erosion. Others are low-lying and prone to flooding.

Sloped fields helped move us to start dabbling in no-till in the 1980s. Challenges with dense residue cover from wheat crops, heavy soils and the lack of no-till equipment and herbicides kept the transition gradual.

Making blanket decisions on how we manage the farm would produce disastrous results, so we’d wing-it with those decisions based on casual observations. 

For our farm, precision technology and data has allowed us to maximize not only production, but profits, on more of our acres more consistently. The investments we’ve made and the data we’ve compiled stretching back…