Reading a profit map properly

The first instinct on opening a profit map is to find the red and ask what is wrong with it. Often the answer is nothing — that ground has been marginal for forty years and the map is simply reporting it accurately.

The more useful question is how many acres are in each band, and whether that distribution is something you can move. Fifteen acres of consistent loss is a land-use decision. A hundred and fifty acres sitting just above break-even is an agronomy decision.

Prices matter enormously here, which is why every map in this portal recalculates live. A map drawn at $4.00 oats and a map drawn at $5.20 are two different pictures of the same field.

Treat the map as a question generator. It tells you where to walk in July, not what to do in April.