Data Truths — How Data Helps with Decision Making

Feb 17, 2023

Farming technologies have come a long way in the last two centuries. Modern agriculture has witnessed a technology boom that farmers a century ago would scarcely recognize.

Technological advancements allow today’s farmers to work much more efficiently than those in the past. Soil sensors gauge soil moisture levels and send alerts when irrigation is needed. Today’s combines have a larger capacity and utilize tailored software to relay information like yield and moisture levels to the farmer in real time during harvest.

Through the use of aerial imagery from satellites and drones to GPS-supported technologies such as autosteer and site-specific spray prescriptions, farmers are able to make more informed decisions, leading to profitability while reducing their environmental footprint.

Collecting this much data creates another problem — what to do with it and how to manage it. Data related to soil composition, historical yield trends and inputs can be overwhelming. The checkoff is working to solve this problem with research that provides solutions to help farmers better utilize and manage data, ultimately leading to greater farm profitability.

“We try to make good use of our data,” says Laurie Isley, a soy checkoff farmer-leader from Michigan. “We do regular soil testing on our farm, so we have a deep understanding of our farm’s soil health, and we make our fertilizer decisions based off the results. We also use precision technology and data points to help us ensure we only apply nutrients when the soybean plant needs it so it’s not wasted.”

Isley farms in the Maumee River watershed, part of the larger Lake Erie watershed in Southeast Michigan. The region is not immune to water quality issues. Keeping nutrients on the land and out of the waterways is an environmental concern she takes seriously.

“We generally have sandy soil on our farm,” Isley says. “We use data to show us where and how we can make the soil the best for our crops. We also use other management tools like cover crops to help keep the soil in place. We have a crop growing on our land 12 months a year.”

Tony Mellenthin, a soy checkoff farmer-leader from Wisconsin, agrees, saying, “Data collection is one of the most important tools we have to make decisions on the farm moving forward. From yield maps and collecting to tillage maps, we use data to make decisions that maximize our bottom line.”

Mellenthin also points out that yields are critical to profitability.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.