Jack Maloney used to be your typical farmer when it came to managing soil and fertility. He relied heavily on his local co-op for recommendations — after all, their agronomists had spent years in school studying science, chemistry and biology.

The higher the cost of the input, the more important it becomes to maximize efficiencies and make sure that input pays dividends. High fertilizer prices paired with potential environmental impact makes managing nutrient inputs doubly important.

Fertilizer was a painful input for most no-tillers in 2008. Growing world demand (up 14% — a growth equal to the entire U.S. market, according to The Fertilizer Institute), high production costs, increased transportation expense and a faltering U.S. dollar all contributed to record-high prices for major nutrients.

With skyrocketing input prices like seed and fertilizer, it pays to measure your production and more closely manage your inputs. One of my favorite management slogans is, “Measure to manage.” Without measuring your inputs and yields, it’s really hard to manage to the highest level of profit.

If you're not measuring the nutrient needs of your soils, you may be throwing tons of money away and hurting your soil structure — even if you’re no-tilling.