"It was surreal, but it was pretty cool," Harrell told DTN during a phone interview on Thursday. "Doug Collins, our local county agent, was in the combine with me, and he couldn't believe it. Even just watching the combine go through it, I said there's no way they're going to break 200, but they did."
Richard Roth, University of Georgia Extension Grains and Soybean Agronomist, is responsible for administering the state's soybean yield contest. He confirmed to DTN that the harvest of Harrell's contest entry was personally witnessed by Collins, the Lee County Extension Coordinator. The entry was weighed on certified scales, and three tests averaged the entry at 14% moisture.
"Our state contest only requires a minimum harvest of 1.25 acres. A lot of states require 2.5 acres, so that is what Alex harvested," Roth said. "The average soybean yield in Georgia is about 45 bpa, so what Alex has done has shown us what the genetic potential of soybeans in this environment can be. He's shown us some techniques that we can use to improve yields."
While the U.S. soybean industry doesn't organize a nationwide yield contest, news of Harrell's accomplishment was met favorably.
"What's more exciting than a potential new world record for soy?" said Wendy Brannen, spokesperson for the American Soybean Association, in a statement to DTN. "We're so pleased for Alex and his entire operation that they've been able to implement outstanding farming practices and demonstrate how effective U.S. soy production can be."
ABOUT THE CONTEST PLOT
For his contest entry, Harrell chose a 10-acre block within a 60-acre sandy loam field equipped with pivot irrigation. After grid soil sampling last fall, lime was applied at a variable rate, and the field was seeded to a winter cover crop mix of oats, rye, triticale and daikon radish.
Prior to planting this spring, the field was strip-tilled to prepare the seed bed. Gypsum and chicken litter were also applied preplant.
Harrell selected Asgrow AG48X9, a Group 4.8 indeterminate, as his soybean variety. He planted in 30-inch rows at a seeding rate of 85,000 seeds per acre on April 5.
"At planting, we had a concoction of humic acid, fulvid acid, biologicals and PGRs," he said. "We also ran all our nutrients -- NPK&S and all our minors -- in a 3-by-3 system at planting."
The day after planting, Harrell said a "packing rain" fell on the field, which caused some concern about the potential for stand reduction. The final stand count was 77,000 plants per acre.
Each Monday from emergence until the field was desiccated, Harrell took weekly tissue samples that he used to inform his application of in-season nutrition. "There was not a single five- to seven-day window when we didn't make an application of some sort, whether it be with Y-drops, fertigation or foliar sprayed on," he said.
Weed control was achieved with applications of XtendiMax and glyphosate herbicides. Revytek from BASF was the primary fungicide that Harrell employed. He said they ran a "zero tolerance" program for insect control.
"Stink bugs are a huge program in Georgia, along with soybean loopers, velvetbean caterpillars and armyworms," he said. "I wanted absolutely no yield to be lost to an insect."
When estimating yield prior to harvest, Harrell wasn't entirely sure what results to expect. He said averages were running from 140 to 160 bpa.
"But we were making those estimating using 2,500 to 3,000 beans per pound, when in reality, we were around 1,600 to 1,700 beans per pound," he said. "It's not like I had three times as many pods per acre. I credit those big, heavy beans. They looked like marbles going into the grain tank."
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