I recently read an article called "Stop Farming Unprofitable Acres." It caught my eye because Quentin and I have been discussing this very thing lately. The idea is to flag areas in your fields where you are consistently losing money. With new technology, it is easier to see where these areas are. Of course, some you can see with your own eyes. I snapped this picture from the combine as we did some outside rounds by a tree line. Where the trees came close to the field, there were essentially no beans for the first 8-10 rows. As soon as there was a break in the trees or they were further away, we had beans.
After watching some of these areas for a few years, Quentin talked to our local USDA-NRCS agent about buffer strips. The idea is that if you have areas in your field where you are losing money year after year, it is a good idea to put a strip of grass in between the trees (or other hazard) and your field. Yes, you end up with less acres, but your overall profitability should go up since you are reducing the acres where your net profit is negative. Also, the strips would be easy to take out in the future if things change (e.g. a tree line is taken out). Right now it is just food for thought, but Quentin may be discussing this with you in the future to see if it makes sense in some areas of your fields.
