In a sponsored research trial in Brooks County, Ga., 100-plus bushels per acre of soybeans were harvested, the highest official soybean yield ever recorded for the state.

Brooks County, Ga., farmer Randy Dowdy, as part of a 60-acre research trial using a dozen different varieties from Southern States and Pioneer on four- to five-acre plots on his farm, clocked 110.66 bushels per acre Sept. 11 on a plot of SS 4917N R2, a state record. On Sept. 18, he hit an average of 109.41 bushels per acre on a plot of P47T36R.

The idea for the trial was to get the beans in the ground early, by mid-April. But this year in south Georgia, where the trial took place, the area received double-digit rain events during the spring. The beans in the trial plots got planted between May 6 and 7 and soon after got a double-digit rain event, Dowdy said, with near-record rain for spring planting in region. But late in the season, drought conditions and triple-digit heat parched the area.

“These beans have been through it,” Dowdy said. “If we can produce 100 bushels with these beans after what they went through, then I know we can replicate it again next year – do even better.”

“I’m glad they were able to do it. It is a real accomplishment and shows what can be done with intense management,” said Jared Whitaker, UGA Cooperative Extension soybean specialist, who added the previous official record for the state was the in the mid-80 bushels per acre. The average state yield hovers around the mid-to-upper 30 bushels per acre.

No inputs were spared on these beans: double inoculants; irrigation, precise fertilizer applications through the irrigation along foliar applications; aggressive disease, pest and weed management programs; weekly tissue samples; and weekly if not daily scouting.

“Both the Pioneer and Southern States varieties had the same management program on them except the Southern States plots’ source of potash was potash nitrate compared to the muriate used on the Pioneer trials to limit the amount of chloride. Some soybean varieties are sensitive to chloride and we didn’t want this to be a limiting factor in our goal of 100 bushels per acre,” said McGriff.

In September before record harvest, more than 100 farmers and industry reps went to see firsthand the soybeans at a field day championing the quest for such high yields in the Deep South.

Last year, Dowdy’s top corn yields broke the 400-bushel mark, the highest ever for the Deep South, and gained him national attention.