Whenever someone utters the word “data,” I feel myself physically cringe. How does such a simple word have this power over me?

For me, I think it is the fear of the unknown. Can we really define data? I can’t touch it. I can’t really see it, other than a stream of numbers that eventually blur together. But what if I told you that those numbers, charts and maps could make your operation more profitable?

Where to start

Roger Fry, a farmer from Benton County, Ind., says analyzing your data doesn’t have to be so scary. First, he says you need to simply pull up your harvest yield map.

“Look at that harvest map, and just scan over it and know what you know by sitting in the seat pass after pass,” Fry says. “And then go, ‘Well, gosh, that area did better than I thought.’ And then you start to ask the question, ‘Why?’”

Once you have that yield map in front of you, you can compare it with a planting map. Or you can compare it with soil test data. Or you can put it side by side with a fertilizer application map.

Fry shares that this becomes an ongoing process of determining why you saw certain results. Luke Lightfoot, a farmer from Tipton County, Ind., shares that the data also can show you if what you are doing is working. Or it can show you what isn’t working.

Related:Dear farmer: We need you

“I get discouraged,” Lightfoot says. “Why am I spending all this money on a particular product, and it doesn’t work like I thought it would work?”

Keep going

Although it can be frustrating to not see the results you expected when examining your yield maps, Lightfoot emphasizes that you should not get discouraged.

“It’s hard, and I think that’s probably the biggest problem for farmers,” Lightfoot says. “They do get discouraged because they don’t see the results they’re looking for, and then they give up on it. And then they won’t know next year if it does work because they gave up on the whole process.”

So, although it may seem frustrating to analyze your data — or downright scary like it does to me — there is value in spending the offseason at your computer comparing maps.

Don’t let yourself get lost in the numbers and charts and graphs. Do not let the maps get jumbled together. Or worse — do not let them sit untouched this winter.

Most of all, do not be scared to dive into the data. Diving in is simply what it takes. There is no better way for you to learn how to interpret your data than to just start looking at it.

“Don’t be afraid of it,” Fry says. “I know it sometimes feels like it’s challenging, but ask yourself: Why do you plant the hybrids that you do? Why do you fertilize the way you do? And allow the information to help you with those decisions.”

Related:Should I ditch nitrogen for biologicals?