Focus on high-quality forage, secure a long-term market Eric Sheffer knew he wanted to make his life in agriculture.

“If your combine was throwing 80 percent of what it took in back on the ground, you’d be pretty unhappy,” Steve Kenyon points out. A cow, on the other hand, has a greater purpose.

Harvest season always seems to start in the same frantic, frustrating way. Two months before the combines roll, Megan Hedges recounts, her brother starts calling everyone he knows who might be able to run a machine.

In a state of 10,000 lakes, water law rules the land. At Stoney Creek Farm, near Redwood, Minnesota, Grant Breitkreutz knows conservation isn’t just good practice;

Monitoring the amount of bare ground, plant diversity, worms in times of moisture and the smell and feel of the soil will give quick indicators of a ranch’s below-ground health. But Kate Vogel, an agronomist with North 40 Ag consulting in Ballentine, Montana, says digging a little deeper will provide more meaningful measurements of soil health.

The money may already be in the bank, just waiting to be cashed out. “Often, we’re sitting on a great big bank account we have no idea is there,” Nicole Masters says.