Strip tiller Alex Harrell of Smithville, Georgia, raised the bar again with a soybean harvest of 218 bushels, breaking his own record of 206 bushels set in 2023.
“Last year surprised everyone,” Harrell says. “This year proved that with a different fertility program on a different soil type, we can do it 15 miles from our last location. We changed varieties, seed companies and herbicide properties. It gives me comfort to know that this is not a fluke, but something that can be replicated.”
Despite all the changes, strip tilling and cover crops remain the main ingredients of Harrell’s record-breaking recipe. The 34-year-old used a wheat cover crop in the winter before using a Rapid Till flail to strip till the soil with the cover crop in the spring. One big change from last year is that he’s foregoing chicken manure before planting, replacing it with a strip tilling.
“We ripped 8 rows deep with a ripper and then came back about 3 weeks later with the Rapid Till flail at a shallower depth to refresh the strip,” says Harrell. “We improved fertility with the flail unit and a Montag wagon pulled behind it.”
Harrell has formulated a homogeneous fertilizer blend that contains nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulfur, zinc, iron and copper in each pellet.
“I have been strip-tilling for 7 years now. The combination of strip-till and cover crops has been a game changer for me. Cover crops not only improve water infiltration and reduce the amount of water we need to irrigate soybeans, but they also help with weed control and most importantly, erosion control during the winter months.”
WORLD RECORD: Alex Harrell, a strip-tiller from Georgia, raised the bar again with a soybean yield of 218 bushels, breaking his own record of 206 bushels. Watch this clip from last year when Jonathan Spence explained how Harrell broke the 200-bushel mark with the Flail Rapid Till. pic.twitter.com/D8XwlMI0iy
— Strip-Till Farmer (@StripTillFarmr) 14 August 2024
Harrell planted the Pioneer P49Z02E soybeans in 30-inch rows at a seed rate of 110,000 on red loam soil on March 21. That’s a marked difference from last year, when he planted an Asgrow AG48X9 variety at a seed rate of 85,000 on sandy loam soil in early April.
“Last year, a lot of branches broke off and we tried to increase the population density,” says Harrell. “We ended up with a population of 105,000. No branches broke off, but some whole plants remained hanging.
“When planting, four things came out of the planter: seed, a furrow mix, a 3-by-3 mix, and an herbicide mix that was spread out the back of the planter.”
Harrell said early planting and late management were two important keys to success this year. He fed the soybeans foliar fertilizer throughout the season at rates determined by weekly tissue testing.
“The soybean plant takes up about 67% of its fertility after R1,” said Harrell Strip-till farmer in 2023 after its 206-bushel yield. “Then we start treating it with growth regulators, foliar feeding and fungicides. We spread nutrients with Y-drops next to the rows and inject nutrients through the circle irrigation system.”
Harrell hopes to increase his average overall yield by applying the lessons learned on the high-yielding parcels to the rest of his 4,000 acres.
“We’ve learned a lot about the benefits of early planting, growth hormones, tissue testing and nutrient balances,” Harrell says. “But the most important thing we’ve learned from these high-yielding plots is how important singulation is in soybeans, not just corn. In corn, emergence is still the most important thing, but in soybeans, singulation is more important. Making sure the planter is set up perfectly is hugely important. That costs nothing but time. It’s not a product in a jar, it’s not a dry fertilizer or anything like that. It’s just making sure the planter is set up properly and we get proper singulation and proper emergence. That’s the easiest way to get free bushels.”
Click here for more industry news.
