You hear people saying starter will give you a yield benefit no matter how high your fertility. The question I kept coming back to was, 'How much of a bang am I really getting for my buck?' I absolutely hate to spend money when I don't need to.

When I read something saying I've not done anything as good as "Catch-22" I'm tempted to reply, "Who has?"

Everyone of us will pay lower insurance rates because when more people buy into the system, the rates go down. This has a benefit that's the secret gift of the lifeline auto policy.

In our case, we like a longer season variety. The index showed that with a starter, we'd likely get a yield boost in just one year out of eight. We figured we'd have a better chance of getting higher yields by focusing on getting our entire crop planted earlier.

Counting the time it took to stop and fill up the boxes, we were easily tying up five to six hours a day in labor. At $15/hour, you're talking $75-90/day. It's not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. But why pay it if you don't have to?

Anytime you have fertilizer around metal, rust is going to be an issue. The way I see it, the planter we just bought should be around for as long as I care to farm.