Peyton Manning retired from the NFL on March 7, 2016. Peyton is one of my heroes and I have admired him for many years, not because he was a football player but because of how he approached his craft. He always strove for perfection and never settled for “good enough.” He was never the best athlete or most skilled, but he worked harder, studied longer and pushed himself and his team mates to be better every day. Peyton mentioned a quote at his retirement press conference that struck a chord with me from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be.” That struck me as very applicable to what we do in agriculture and how we need to think about our industry moving forward. I thought of it like this “Treat a crop as it is, and it will remain as it is. Treat a crop as it could be, and it will become what it should be.” 

I believe this single thought should be what drives us and becomes our M.O. Once we embrace this thought it will naturally drive us away from what we have always done; and begin to look to new and innovative ways of looking at crop production. This single thought will drive us to become better farmers, focus on new products and techniques and build systems that focus on progression rather than old ways. Every successful business has a goal they strive towards but can never completely achieve. The moving bar keeps them moving forward to embrace new ideas and lead in their industry. ALPINE can play a part in that progression with new methods of applying inoculant to pulse crops, focusing on balancing nutrition, and feeding the crop what it needs to meet our goals. The main goal ALPINE can help achieve is the most important goal on the farm – profitability, not necessarily the highest yield but the highest profit.

Progression in agriculture will be driven by where we can go and not where we have been. In order to succeed in the future we need to think where things are going and how to get there efficiently. Treat a crop as it is, and it will remain as it is. Treat a crop as it could be, and it will become what it should be. Think about that and watch your profits and farm grow.