First 100 bu Beans and 400 bu Corn, One Farmer

One farmer produced 100 bu soybeans and 400 bu corn in 2014! He broke the all time yield barrier of 500 bu per acre with irrigation.  He gives a lot of credit to Advanced Biological Marketing inoculants.  No matter how you slice it, that is pretty amazing!

"Dowdy had intended to plant in mid-April. But 30 inches of rain from March 15 on soaked the field. The farm also recorded a 12-hour, 6-inch rain just as the crop was emerging. That didn't help.

All varieties had an ABM liquid inoculant applied in-furrow.  In-furrow is the most effective but most expensive way to apply inoculants.  We used to call them soil or furrow drench.  At those yields, cost is not prohibitive and the end goal is yield for the yield contest.

This is America’s Best Inoculant system for soybeans contains a rhizobia strain for high yields. Priaxor was sprayed in-furrow to combat seed and seedling rot.

Dowdy applied Avail with preplant phosphorus. Avail makes phosphorus more available to the plant. The preplant fertilizer was coated with Nu-Trax P+ to help supply the plant with N, phosphorus (K), zinc (Zn) and manganese (Mn). He applied 50 pounds per acre of N with NutriSphere through his irrigation system in three applications, beginning at pod elongation. NutriSphere-N Nitrogen Fertilizer Manager reduces long-term volatilization of N. The team applied Biostart in-furrow. Biostart is a root and foliar growth stimulant.

Dowdy believes insect thresholds for normal soybean production don’t hold true with high-yield beans. He’s not content with even a few pests. “If they are eating my leaves, they are eating my factory,” he says.

Dimlin, Belt and Prevathon provided pest control for worms. Stinkbugs were treated with Fastac. Dowdy looked to control downy mildew and soybean rust with Aproach Prima and Stratego YLD.
Brandt’s B Moly was applied with Brandt Smart Trio to supply foliar N, boron and molybdenum. Smart Trio also includes sulfur, Mn and Zn."

Southern States agronomist Eddie McGriff announced Dowdy’s Sept. 11 record by way of email: “Today, Brooks County Extension Agent Ben Shirley documented Randy Dowdy’s soybeans at 110.66 bushels per acre with [Southern States] 4917N R2. This is the first time that 100 [bushel-per-acre] soybeans have been made in Georgia. … This makes Randy the first farmer in the world to make 400 [bpa] corn and 100 [bpa] soybeans.”

They were “big, beautiful beans,” McGriff says of the full-season, late-Group IV indeterminate variety. The yield monitor bounced up and down from 75 to 140 bushels along the 30-inch rows—evidence of nematode damage.

In-furrow is the most effective but most expensive way to apply inoculants.  We used to call them soil or furrow drench.  At those yields, cost is not prohibitive and the end goal is yield for the yield contest.

I thought I would have met Randy by this time but I haven't.  Maybe I will get the chance to meet him yet.

Ed