Rod Smith’s focus was on soil management
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
A farmer in the United Kingdom found a way to outdo himself by breaking his own Guinness world record for the highest wheat yield.
Using his New Holland 9070 combine on Sept. 1, 2015, Rod Smith harvested 249 bushels of wheat per acre on his 27-acre field at Beal Farm.
“We had to take a picture of the yield monitor to prove our eyes weren’t deceiving us,” Smith said. “This field had a history of high yields, but we’d never seen those sorts of peaks before.”
The record tops the previous world record, which Smith set in 2015 when he harvested 245 bushels/acre.
He used a Dickens variety grown for Master Seeds and the crop was able to generate a gross margin of approximately $571 U.S. per acre.
According to Smith, one of the secrets of his success is treating the soil properly.
“Our initial focus was on soil management,” Smith said. “We used tracked equipment, effective subsoiling, rotational plowing, furrow incorporation and the application of 500T/Ha. of muck annually. We also relied on soil testing and broad spectrum tissue analyses.”
He planted by the third week of September in 2014 and applied what U.S. farmers know as Take Off in a tank mix with a broadleaf herbicide and insecticide; his methods also included four split nitrogen applications and four fungicide sprays.
If you enjoyed the video of Rod Smith's harvest, check out the Top 5 Harvesting Videos on Farms.com.