118 Bushel Soybeans

Dr. Cooper mentioned he visited Louie Rehm's 118 bushel soybean field near Orrville, Ohio last year.

1. My compliments to Louie Rehm’s on his record 118 bu/a yield.
   Before my retirement from the USDA/ARS and OARDC in 2003, Dr. Norm Fausey, USDA/ARS Ag Engineer at Ohio Sate University in Columbus,and I, conducted several years of cooperative research at the OARDC at Wooster, OH, on subirrigation/drainage management, using drainage lines and control stands to maintain a constant water table.
   
   Results from this research indicated that when combined with solid seeding in 7-inch rows and lodging resistant semi-dwarf soybean varieties, 90 to 100 bu/a soybean yields were possible using this
   water table management system.
   
   If lodging of taller, conventional indeterminate varieties can be
   avoided (absence of a rain and wind storm that would flatten the
   taller plants), these high yields can also be obtained with
   conventional varieties. However, lodging can significantly lower the
   yield potential of these taller varieties.
   
   I believe another factor contributing to Rehm’s record yield this year was the early warm spring temperatures that resulted in the soybeans flowering (entering the reproductive period) much earlier in the growing season than normal, when the day length was longer and the light intensity is higher (i.e., more light energy available).
   
   Results from 18 years of soybean irrigated maximum yield research at
   OARDC indicated a strong positive correlation between average May
   temperature and the maximum yields obtained. The warmer the temperatures in May the earlier the onset of flowering and the higher the maximum yields obtained.
   
   Mr.Rhem’s record yields indicates the potential for well managed
   sub-irrigation/drainage systems to increase soybean yields in Ohio and
   the Midwest."
   
   I and many of the followers of this blog are trying to do the same thing!  Keep learning, sharing and promoting high yield, high profit crops.  "Teach with your fields," as mentor Paul Reed from Washington, Iowa says.
   
   Ed