Farmers traditionally have gone gangbusters growing corn. Soybeans? Well, not so much.
Cory Atley has harvested bumper corn yields in recent years. In fact, he’s won the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) corn yield contest for Ohio each of the past four years. He applies the strategy behind his corn yields – such as 2020’s conventional non-irrigated 320 bushels per acre – to soybeans.
It’s not easy. “Growing 100-bushel [per acre] soybeans is a lot harder than growing 300-bushel [per acre] corn,” he says. “There are a lot more people to network with in corn, lots more styles and strategies than there are with beans. There is also a lot more trial and error – a lot more failures to get to the point where you want to be.”