Scott Gabbard

Also available on ScienceDirect

Surely, you’ve heard the caveat of “past performance does not guarantee future results” or some variant thereof at some point. This is certainly true if you hear someone talk about stocks and bonds. But alas, human nature is to look at how something performed and make decisions based on those results. When it comes to farming, you might consider the location and other practices. After all, rainfall and soils matter, are variable and change depending on location and time.

Now that the growing season is over, it’s time to take a break, right? But as Purdue agronomists Shaun Casteel and Dan Quinn pointed out in a recent podcast, demands don’t stop — they’re just different. Winter and early spring provide their own “opportunities for growth.” This is the transition time when field and classroom responsibilities overlap. This time of year, it is all about making sense of data. You also likely have a lot of data to analyze.