The 1% Rule: How 14 Minutes a Day Can Help Future-Proof Your Farm

Tue, 26 May 2026 19:41:50 GMT

When Angie Traetow’s father returned to his South Dakota roots to farm in 1984, the U.S. agricultural economy was crumbling. He survived the brutal decade through a combination of grit, hard labor and a good dose of deliberate, intentional planning. Decades later, it’s a lesson Traetow is sharing with the wider agricultural community as she urges today’s farmers to dedicate just 14 minutes a day — exactly 1% of every 24 hours — to strategic thinking and planning.

“When you actually do the math, it’s crazy,” Traetow shared during a recent episode of The Dirt podcast. “Fourteen minutes a day equals 98 minutes a week... that totals to over two working weeks a year.”

As the senior manager of North American learning and development for Nutrien, Traetow challenges growers to step away from daily practices and distractions and repurpose 14 minutes daily toward big-picture planning and decisions that can help support long-term viability.

Tackling Volatility And Other ‘Tough Stuff’

In an industry defined by unpredictable variables, proactive planning is a critical need. Traetow notes that dedicating this daily sliver of time allows growers to focus on things like developing grain marketing plans to mitigate financial risk.

Beyond market logistics, the 1% rule can also help farmers tackle the emotionally charged hurdles that many choose to avoid or are putting off, such as succession planning. For multi-generational operations, the sheer scale of this task can cause paralysis. Traetow suggests using those 14 daily minutes to break massive decisions into manageable, “bite-sized” pieces.

She points to her own father’s success as a prime example of this micro-planning in action. By being intentional and communicating clearly, over time he ensured a seamless transition for the fifth generation of their family farm.

“He’s been very intentional with his succession plan to the point where he has communicated to all of us kids, even those that are off the farm, what that succession plan is, so there are no surprises,” Traetow says.

Breaking The ‘Always Done It This Way’ Cycle

Traetow believes embracing strategic planning and management also requires a fundamental mindset shift regarding technology and tradition. Being intentional means adopting modern tools to maximize every acre, rather than relying on legacy methods just for tradition’s sake.

“Don’t just do what’s always been done,” she encourages. “Utilize technology... to work smarter, not harder.”

Thinking outside the box often requires structural creativity, too. Traetow notes that her husband applies this exact philosophy to their own business. “We know we have to diversify our operation to make our farm work,” she says. “He partners with another farmer, and we also do a lot of custom work to help with that.”

Moving Beyond The Farm Gate

Ultimately, the 1% philosophy extends beyond business logistics. Traetow notes that trading 14 minutes of aimless social media scrolling for personal reflection, reading market reports, or simply being fully present with family can yield massive personal dividends.

It’s a small investment with a compounding return.

“I’d like to challenge our farmers and our customers to take 1%, or 14 minutes, of their day and be more strategic and think about the big picture of their operation and their business,” Traetow says. “The results will follow.”

You can hear the The Dirt podcast featuring Traetow here .

New Product of the Year 2025 Runner-Up: BenVireo TerraLux From Wilbur-Ellis

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 22:29:35 GMT

There’s a new twist for a common conventional product now available for the organic market. As Gina Colfer, sustainable solutions agronomy manager for Wilbur-Ellis, explains, BenVireo TerraLux (10-0-0 liquid organic nitrogen (N) fertilizer) is something organic growers may not have dreamed they’d have access to 30 years ago.

Readers also voted BenVireo TerraLux as runner-up in The Scoop’s 19th annual New Product of the Year contest for 2025.

“This is a really new, unique, novel form of organic nitrogen. It’s not new so much on the conventional side, because it is ammonium nitrate, but it is new on the organic side, because it is organic and it is biologically derived from dairy lagoon effluent,” she says. “So, it is a true waste stream that we are taking and making a really needed product for organic growers.”

From its repurposed supply source to its novel crop nutrition for the organic market, this new product got the attention of The Scoop’s audience as they voted it to be the 2025 New Product of the Year runner-up.

“It is a 100% plant-available nitrogen in the form of ammonium nitrate. This is a straight shot, so you don’t have to go through that mineralization process in the soil. And really, nitrogen is one of the limiting factors for organic growers, so this helps the organic grower place their nitrogen when they need it, when their plants need it,” Colfer says.

In addition to flexible application options, one other benefit is low odor.

Colfer says this is a new tool that many organic growers never expected to have access to.

“It is so new that [we’re] helping them understand how to place it in their system and when and how to apply it,” she says. “The product is filtered down to 1 micron, so it can go through any type of irrigation system, even microsprinklers, microdrip, foliar applications through the drone. It has a 0:1 carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, so there is no carbon in it to grow biofilm in any of the drip tapes or tanks that you store it in.”

Its ease of use is something she says is really sticking out with growers who have been part of early trials.

“We’ve done foliar application trials on spinach, where we’ve gone in at 2 gal. per acre and 60 gal. of water in warm weather in the desert, looking for phytotoxicity, because that is a big issue; you look at spinach sideways and it burns,” she says. “We wanted to really be confident, because we feel this is a great leafy greens application. And at that application rate, later in the growing season when the spinach is really running out of gas, we showed no phytotoxicity.”

Other crops with positive trials reported are blueberries, strawberries, broccoli and corn.

Your next read: New Product of the Year 2025 — Biotrinsic Nemora FP From Indigo Ag

Retail Products

The 1% Rule: How 14 Minutes a Day Can Help Future-Proof Your Farm

Tackling Volatility And Other ‘Tough Stuff’

Breaking The ‘Always Done It This Way’ Cycle

Moving Beyond The Farm Gate

New Product of the Year 2025 Runner-Up: BenVireo TerraLux From Wilbur-Ellis