Think of your farm as a trial plot in part

Always keep an eye out for different situations on your farm and analyse them so that you can fine-tune your methods and raise your yields. Learn from experience and don't repeat your mistakes

- Bill Kerr.

I overheard a farmer bragging about having 20 years of farming experience when arguing about a cultural aspect. The person with whom he was having a disagreement mentioned to me that he actually had one year of experience 20 times over.

If one does not learn anything new in a year, that can hardly be ticked off as more experience gained.

You often find neighbouring farmers planting the same crops under the same conditions, yet one would be struggling and the other one thriving.

You have to be continuously learning from events to improve your farming.

For instance, a farmer gets a batch of pepper seedlings and is in a hurry to get them planted but the soil is dry. He reasons that he will irrigate as soon as he has finished planting, but does not realise that the soil is on the hot side and the plants are on the soft side.