Southern States Coop Grower Sets Georgia Soybean Yield Record
September 15, 2014 Georgia farmer Randy Dowdy just harvested the highest soybean bushel per-acre yield in Georgia history, according to a press release from Southern States Cooperative.
Dowdy’s soybeans yielded an astonishing 110.66 bushels per acre, crushing the previous record of approximately 82 bushels-per-acre, according to Dr. John Woodruff, retired University of Georgia Extension agronomist.
“I’m very impressed – an amazing first reported yield of over 100 bushels,” Dr. Woodruff expressed with excitement.
The historic soybeans were grown in Brooks County, GA, where Dowdy farms approximately 1700 acres in the area. Randy is a first generation farmer who has been farming since 2006. Last year he yielded a whopping 417 bushels of corn per-acre in the NCGA yield contest. There have only been five farmers documented to ever produce over 400 bushels of corn per-acre, according to Dowdy.
“Mitigating crop stress is the key,” Dowdy said. “I’m always trying to learn better practices – being a student of the crop.
He is the first person in the world — on record — to achieve both 400+ bushels of corn and 100+ bushels of soybeans per-acre in the same year.
“This was a lofty goal in the beginning of the season and only by God’s grace and blessings was this possible,” proclaimed Dowdy.
Dowdy used Southern States Cooperative’s SS 4917N R2 seeds, a maturity soybean with very good stress tolerance that does well in Soybean Cyst Nematode problem areas.
“It was the total production system that made it successful,” says Southern States Agronomist, Eddie McGriff. “It starts with Randy’s good management practices and then optimal fertility, irrigation, crop protections, fungicides, and insect control are also vital to success.”
Using Southern States Cooperative’s production practices, Dowdy, McGriff and Woodruff collaborated to produce the high yield with a good indeterminate variety.
Southern States will be conducting “soybean colleges” this winter to show growers how to put the management practices together with the varieties to produce high yields. Growers should contact their local Southern States store for more information.
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