Thirty-four-year-old American, Alex Harrell, broke his own world-record soybean yield on a small plot.

World-record soybeans:

State of Georgia farm sees 218 bushels per acre

Farmers Forum staff

GEORGIA — An American crop farmer set a world-record of 218 bushels per acre of soybeans.

Say, what? Fifty bushels per acre would be a great yield anywhere in Ontario. The best yield on record by county was in Elgin in 2022 which saw on average a yield of 57.4 bushels per acre, OMAFRA reported.

But 218 bushels? Granted the winner took part in a contest that allowed farmers to enter a small portion of a field.

Alex Harrell, 34, of Leesburg, Georgia, set the new world record with Pioneer Z-Series variety P49Z02E™ on 2.58 acres of a 65-acre field. The record soybeans averaged almost 3.1 beans per pod. They were weighed on certified scales and averaged 12.5 % moisture.

The record yield was verified by the University of Georgia. Harrell is not new to honking big yields. He broke his previous world record of 206 bu/ac set last year.

Harrell planted the variety on single, 30-inch rows and planted it thicker than last year’s record, putting 110,000 seeds per acre in the furrow with a final stand of 105,000 plants per acre.

Harrell grows corn, soybeans, watermelon and wheat on 4,000 acres.