Just Over Here, Setting World Records...

I don’t talk about soybeans much in your Southeast Regional Ag News, but today is the day. We’re talking beans!

Southwest Georgia farmer Alex Harrell surpassed his own world record soybean harvest of 206.79 bushels an acre set in 2023. Now, he’s a back-to-back yield champ, growing the highest-yielding soybeans in agriculture history. He cut a bin-busting 218 bushels per acre in the Georgia Soybean Production Contest.

He told Farm Journal that he never thought this year’s harvest would surpass last year’s by such a wide margin. After setting the record last year, he wanted to try again but decided to change things up. Harrell planted seeds into red clay watered by center pivot irrigation on the opposite end of the county from his previous year’s success. During the August harvest, Harrell hit 218.2856 bushels an acre on 2.58 acres, with the remainder of the field still well above 100 bushels per acre. The record soybeans averaged almost 3.1 beans per pod. His 2023 average was 2.8 beans per pod.