Georgia Farmer Bests Own Soybean Record

This article was originally posted at 6:30 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, Aug. 13. It was updated with additional information at 10:13 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, Aug. 14.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (DTN) -- While record-breaking performances received overwhelming fanfare at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games this summer, another record was quietly being broken in the red clay soil of southwest Georgia.

For the second consecutive year, Georgia farmer Alex Harrell set a new world record for soybean production. On Tuesday, Aug. 13, he harvested a 2.5757-acre plot of irrigated soybeans averaging 218.2856 bushels per acre (bpa), eclipsing the record he set last year by more than 11 bpa.

Wes Porter, an associate professor with the University of Georgia Extension, confirmed to DTN that the harvest of Harrell's contest entry was personally witnessed by Chelsea Lopez, an agriculture and natural resources agent with the Sumter County Extension office. The entry was weighed on certified scales and averaged 12.5% moisture.

"We changed up a lot because we wanted to see if we could repeat what we did last year in a different environment," Harrell told DTN by phone. "We were in a different soil type on the opposite end of the county. We changed genetic traits. We changed herbicide traits."

In 2023, Harrell's soybean plot yielded 206.7997 bpa, making him the first soybean grower to exceed 200 bpa. The previous record was 190.23 bpa, set by Randy Dowdy of Valdosta, Georgia, in 2019. Dowdy had previously harvested soybeans yielding 171 bpa in 2016, which topped the 160.6 bpa record set by Kip Cullers of Purdy, Missouri, in 2010.

ABOUT THE CONTEST PLOT

This year, Harrell selected Pioneer P49Z02E, a 4.9 relative maturity soybean from Pioneer's new Z-Series. He planted into a strip-tilled field on 30-inch rows at a seeding rate of 110,000 seeds per acre on March 21.

"Last year, our seeding rate was 85,000, and we ended up with a final stand of 77,000," Harrell said. "With that population, we had trouble with the plants branching out and limbs breaking off.

"So, this year, we increased our planting rate to try and thicken up the stand. We ended up with a final population of 105,000," he continued. "Instead of branches breaking off, we had whole plants falling over. I think when you get that much weight on these plants, you're just going to have to deal with some lodging."

At planting, the seed was accompanied by a mix of nutrients, humic acid, fulvic acid, biologicals and PGRs delivered both in-furrow and using a 3-by-3 system. While last year's record-setting crop was planted in sandy loam, this year the field Harrell chose to push was red clay.

"I never expected this to be our highest-yielding field, but this was the field where I got the best singulation and best emergence, so it's the one we pushed," he said. "I didn't get the singulation and emergence I wanted on our loamier fields, so I pulled the plug on them, and they became standard production beans."

Each Monday from emergence until the field was desiccated, Harrell took tissue samples that he used to inform his application of in-season nutrition. Foliar fertility was applied primarily using Y-drops and drones.

"There was someone out there just about every day checking on it," he said. "It's not just about checking on nutrient levels, but it's also about nutrient balances."

Weed control was achieved with two applications of Enlist and glyphosate herbicides. Harrell noted that they treated the contest block with multiple fungicide passes, with Revytek from BASF "doing the heavy lifting." He said they ran a "zero tolerance" program for pest control.

"Stink bugs are the No. 1 enemy," he added.

KEYS TO YIELD

After last year's record-breaking performance, Harrell said he was convinced of two things necessary for achieving high yields: planting early and striving for large seed size.

"We were past the heavy blooming stage and in full grain-fill mode by the time those long, hot days of summer came around," he said. "That allowed us to pump up that seed size. Last year, we were about 1,660 seeds per pound, and we're somewhere in the same ballpark this year. We actually had pods busting at the seam."

Jason Jenkins can be reached at jason.jenkins@dtn.com

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