Patio Pondering: What Do We Really Know?

Today is the last day of the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour, and I’m starting a little later than usual after working on the computer late into the night. A cup of coffee on the patio is giving me the recharge I need.

As I scrolled through updates this morning, I noticed fewer posts about the tour on X/Twitter than in past years. Still, the pictures and reports all point in one direction: this is a big crop. The real question is, how big? Defining “big” may sound simple, yet the industry has debated that word for decades. It reminds me of President Clinton’s famous exchange over the definition of “is.”

In agriculture, good data and transparency are supposed to be our compass. Yet too often, information lags behind reality. Farmers remember all too well when USDA revises crop size estimates a year or two later with the quiet admission: “We were wrong.” By then, prices have already been set based on the faulty information. Profits were shaped by numbers that didn’t reflect the crop in the bin.

It makes me wonder: how do we handle information in our own businesses and workplaces? Do we use it as leverage in an “I know something you don’t know” way, or do we share it to help the whole team advance and win?

We talk about living in the Information Age, but if the data is incomplete, delayed, or flawed, are we really making informed decisions—or just reacting to interpretations that may miss the mark?

How do you make sure the information you rely on is accurate and used to move everyone forward, not just yourself?