We’re not out for the highest yield at any expense. We’re out for the highest yield we can produce profitably. This tenet is always in the back of our minds when my son, Ryan, and I are evaluating the different management practices we try.

Among the first of the changes we made in our ongoing journey to the top of the profitability bell curve was going no-till. In 1987 we no-tilled 37 acres of soybeans and really liked what we saw.

We realized that not only did it make sense on my farm, but it would make sense to a lot of other people in the area, too. We figured if it caught on, the value of our tillage equipment would plummet. Instead of slowly working our way into no-till, we had a sale in the spring of 1988 and liquidated all the tillage equipment on the place before the price took a hit.

We sold cultivators, a one-pass finishing tool, discs, the planter, our two biggest tractors — everything. All that expensive equipment was replaced by one John Deere no-till planter and Great Plains drill. The savings from no longer having to purchase, maintain or operate those pieces of equipment was substantial. 

Over the subsequent years we’ve made a lot of other changes both large and small to improve productivity efficiently. We’ve tiled…