Mike Pearson tells listeners the secrets to David Hula's success as the winner of several corn growing contests.

Hula won the National High Yield contest held by the National Corn Growers Association with a whopping 623.849 bushels per acre in the strip-till category.

All of the top winning yields averaged 373.27 bushels per acre in the contest.

Hula says his key to producing high yields is by "checking the boxes" by optimizing emergence and fertilizing as needed.

He planted a 114-day Pioneer hybrid that was new to him and fairly new to the market and is designed to give earworm protection which is a growing problem in his area.

And like many across the country, he noted a reduction in rainfall of 7 inches but was able to deliver irrigation which gave his corn 9 1/2 inches of rainfall.

He applied fertilizer as needed which ended up being over 575 pounds of nitrogen, 156 pounds of phosphorus, over 400 pounds of potassium, 80 pounds of sulfur and more to his fields.

Farm Progress America is a daily look at key issues in agriculture. It is produced and presented by Mike Pearson, farm broadcaster and host of This Week in Agribusiness.