IGNORANCE MAY BE bliss, but it’s no way to farm. Instead of blindly seeking the highest yields and following conventional management recommendations, my wife, Kelli, and I work to track, evaluate and problem solve on the farm we started together.

We both worked in ag finance while building the farm, which makes crunching numbers second nature. Our No. 1 criteria is per-acre profitability. This may work out to be getting the highest yield, but most often not. Yield is only important if it equates to the most net profit. 

Maximizing profits does not mean finding the sweet spot and idling, though. By working to improve our soils with cover crops, adding livestock, and moving toward 100% no-till and careful management we hope to constantly push the peak of our production profitability curve ever higher. 

We want our farm to not only be profitable for us but set it up to be profitable in the future. We have three boys, Sam, Seth and Silas, that may want to farm one day, and we want them to have every chance at success.

We’ve set some aggressive goals for ourselves and our farm:

1. Bring applied nitrogen (N) per bushel down to a…