The road to profitability in soybean production can sometimes be difficult to maneuver. Rapidly rising input costs, such as land rent and seed costs, plus those unexpected expenses, such as insecticide for aphid control, can quickly eliminate the narrow margins typical to soybean production.

Improving the profitability of your operation takes resolve to sharpen your management skills. By improving your management skills, you will increase the resilience of your farming operation; it is this resilience that determines your long-term success. How do you increase the resilience of your farming operation? Get good at what you do. And when you feel good about your management skills, get better. If you think you are already the best – look around, there is always somebody better. Learn from them.

The success of a farming operation today is no longer dependent solely on maximum productivity. It depends on your ability to access information, process it, and make a decision. We live in an information-based society with resources at your fingertips through hand-held electronics, Internet access, live news feeds, and computers.

It doesn’t matter what skills you have. All that matters is the skill set you need to have to make the best decisions. The future is more important than the past. Knowledge is the most valuable asset you have today. If you want to improve the quality of your farming operation, improve the quality of  your decision-making skills. Greater productivity follows better management skills.