I'm a sweeper in my local curling club. It’s my job is to manipulate the ice, helping guide the stone down the perfect path to its ultimate target. It sounds a bit like farming, right? From the moment we put seeds in motion we’re constantly working to provide them a clear, smooth path to harvest.

Path smoothing is far from easy these days as we all know. I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing for even one ‘normal’ year. Maybe around April 20^th the temperature would start warming up. We’d start planting April 25^th and be done by the middle of May. Rains would come when they’re supposed to and not be torrential. Everything would get done roughly on time. I don’t think I’ve seen years like that since I was a kid and I highly doubt there are many more coming. With that in mind, flexibility (and clearing an increasingly cluttered path) must be the plan.

 Change is the standard around here. Part of that started back when I first got into no-tilling, which is right about when I started farming myself. My father had 1,100 acres he farmed conventionally. When he retired, I took over those acres. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the money or the credit at the time to buy his equipment when it sold.

Time also was in short supply. I was raising farrow-to-finish hogs, so making four trips over the field to prepare for planting would have been a tall order. Instead, I…