News
Nebraska farmer sets new dryland soybean yield record
A southeast Nebraska farmer has set a new yield record for dryland soybeans
Jimmy Frederick of Rulo, Nebraska had a non-irrigated yield of 148.8 bushels per acre on a five-acre area this fall.
The entire 204-acre field averaged better than 90 bushels per acre.
Record-setting yields are often associated with high levels of crop inputs, but Frederick takes the opposite approach. He says it starts with reduced population rates.
“I cut my population back quite a bit. I had anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 in that field,” Frederick says. “My norm is right around 80,000 where I used to be 160.”
Frederick says some of those seed savings are being invested in biological products.
“Soil health is a big concern, trying to get away from a lot of synthetic fertilizer that’s always been a norm in the past,” he says. “I’ve been using (biologicals) for five or six years now. I have my N for my corn down around 100 pounds and I’m still getting 240 bushels. So we’re gaining.”
Frederick says he does frequent tissue sampling and applies specialty fertilizers and fungicides throughout the season so he can regulate how the plant performs at each stage of growth.
Frederick farms 2,500 acres of corn and soybeans.
