How Top Farmers Turn Yield Contests Into Whole-Farm Success

Every year, yield contests capture attention with eye-popping numbers — world record yields now exceed 600 bushels for corn and 200 for soybeans. Although most winners don’t hit those extremes, many still top 300-bushel corn and 100-bushel soybeans using practices that can translate into practical, profitable strategies for any farm.

“Yield contests are about doing a hundred things 1% better,” said Troy Uphoff, an Illinois farmer and National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) yield winner. For him, that means looking at every planting pass, every fungicide decision, every hybrid choice, and asking where small improvements can be made.

None of those changes alone creates 600-bushel corn, but together, they compound into contest-level yields. It’s a philosophy of continuous refinement other yield winners and agronomists echo across crops and geographies.

Soil and Foliar Fertility

Fertility is the foundation for contest-level yields, said Fred Below, professor of crop physiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Corn yield starts and ends with fertility,” Below stressed. “You have to have every nutrient available during peak uptake.” Placement is as important as rate. “Put the fertilizer where the root is,” he said, pointing to side-dressing, Y-drop, and starter placement as proven methods.

Soybeans, once treated as scavengers, now demand their own fertility programs, said Kris Ehler, an agronomist and president of Ehler Brothers Company in east-central Illinois. He recalled the drought of 2012 as a turning point: “The next year, we had great soybeans, because nutrients weren’t used up. We used to let soybeans scavenge what was left after corn, but after 2012, we realized they need to be fertilized every year as their own crop.”

Foliar feeding has become an increasingly common tool. Emily and Dan Sleik, Wisconsin farmers who placed first and second, respectively, in the 2024 state soybean yield contest, emphasized adding micronutrients and foliar fertilizer during herbicide passes. “We’d rather feed beans throughout the season than front-load everything,” Emily explained. She said that means reallocating fertilizer dollars. Instead of investing heavily in preplant dry potash, she shifted a portion of that budget into in-season foliar passes and saw more efficient uptake and better returns.

While additional passes could add cost, Emily said she offsets much of that by combining applications. “We roll our foliar products in with herbicide passes, so it doesn’t require extra trips across the field,” she explained.

Tissue testing supports those programs, though farmers disagree on how prescriptive it should be. Casey Hook, an Arkansas farmer who grows corn, soybeans, and cotton, is a multiyear winner in both the NCGA and the state’s Grow for the Green soybean yield contests. He sees tissue tests as baseline benchmarks. “By V3 or V4, I can tell if I have a shot at 100-bushel beans,” he said. He said consistent tissue data helps set expectations and identify nutrient shortages before they limit yield.

Emily Sleik said she uses tissue results to help track progress but they aren’t her sole guide: “We benchmark year to year, but don’t let one test dictate everything,” she said.

Hybrid Selection and Maturity

Hybrid choice remains one of the most consequential decisions. “All hybrids aren’t created equal,” Below emphasized. “The right hybrid, in the right environment, can make or break your yield.” Typically, longer-season hybrids dominate the winner’s circle. “Usually, the fullest relative maturity for the region is what wins,” he explained.

Uphoff agreed. He stopped planting 108-day hybrids after consistently seeing them yield lower. “Now, we start with 110-day relative maturity and run up to 118,” he said. “The fuller-season hybrids have consistently outperformed.” In 2024, his winning hybrid was a 118-day corn that not only yielded well but also dried down faster than expected, a critical consideration for harvest timing.

The same principle applies to soybeans, said Shawn Conley, soybean specialist at the University of Wisconsin. “We’ve seen 15-to-40-bushel swings just from variety choice,” Conley said. “You need to pick soybeans with both yield potential and the defensive traits to handle disease pressure.”

Plant Population and Row Spacing

Plant density is another key lever. Contest winners frequently push higher populations, but Below cautioned there are trade-offs. “Every thousand plants per acre shrinks root weight by about 2.5%,” he explained. “When populations climb too high, you increase the risk of drought stress because each plant has less root mass to draw from.” Narrow rows can help offset this stress by giving each plant more distance and root space within the row, allowing better access to water and nutrients, Below said.

Uphoff said he has tested beyond 40,000 plants per acre but found steep penalties. “It’s almost a cliff,” he said. “Above 40,000, yields drop dramatically. Our sweet spot commercially is 34,000–36,000. We only push higher in contest plots.” His NCGA-winning fields have run close to 38,000 in 30-inch rows.

Uphoff added that narrowing row spacing in corn could be one of the next big steps toward higher yields. “I think 20-inch corn is the future,” he said. “We’ve reached a point where populations are maxed out, and the next way to position more plants and intercept more sunlight is by tightening the rows.”

Conley said for soybeans, narrower rows often pair well with adjusted seeding rates. In his Wisconsin studies, 15- or 20-inch soybeans hold yield with slightly lower populations — often around 100,000–120,000 plants per acre, when planted early — because they close canopy faster and intercept more light. As planting is delayed into mid-May, those narrower rows regain a clear advantage over 30-inch beans and may benefit from slightly higher seeding rates.

Planting Date

If there’s one universal lesson from yield winners, it’s planting date. “Early planting is by far the most consistent driver in soybean yields,” Ehler said, noting he has run early-planting trials since 2009. His data shows April-planted soybeans consistently yielding 9–10 bushels more than later ones. Ehler pointed out that adjusting the planting date is one of the simplest changes a farmer can make. “It doesn’t cost any more money, but it consistently pays in yield,” he said.

Conley’s Wisconsin research has shown that when soybeans are planted early, row spacing matters less. In his trials, the yield penalty typically showing up in 30-inch rows, compared with 15- or 20-inch rows, virtually disappears with early planting. However, as planting is delayed into mid-May, that penalty reappears, and narrower rows regain their advantage.

For corn, timing is less about the calendar and more about conditions. “It’s not early — it’s fit,” Below stressed. “Uniform emergence trumps early planting. Plant when soils are warm and ready.”

Uphoff agreed, noting his contest plots aren’t always the first planted. “We wait for soils to be just right to ensure rapid, even emergence,” he said.

Emergence and Early Growth

“High yields start with even stands,” said Below, who added his research shows every day of delayed emergence costs corn yield. Contest winners often flag plants to check emergence timing, aiming for every plant up within hours of each other.

Soybeans, long thought more forgiving, are getting similar scrutiny. “Even emergence matters more than we used to think,” Ehler said.

“Tall beans don’t matter,” Emily Sleik added. “We want pods per node and big seed size. That comes from uniform stands and steady nutrition.”

Plant Health Products

Plant health products are staples of high-yield systems, but they work best when integrated into sound fertility and management plans.

Ehler says fungicides have proven to be steady profit drivers — often adding six to eight bushels on soybeans, and as much as 25 on corn in the right years. “You treat it like insurance,” he said. They only pay off, he added, when they’re timed right and paired with multiple modes of action to stay ahead of resistance.

Seed treatments, particularly in soybeans, are also essential. Conley noted the effectiveness of fungicide seed treatments and their role in early planting situations to manage sudden death syndrome and other early-season disease stress. The Sleiks, farming heavier Wisconsin soils prone to compaction, consider seed treatment nonnegotiable to protect emergence and early plant health.

Biologicals are the newest entrants into the plant health conversation. Every contest field seems to feature at least one product, but are they difference-makers? “Biologicals aren’t a slam dunk,” Below said. “Without fertility, variety, and population right, they won’t save you. But they can take good management and make it a little better.”

Hook said he uses biologicals primarily in-furrow or on-seed, where return on investment is highest. “The payback is much stronger on the seed than broadcasting across an acre,” he said.

Timing and Tools

High yields don’t hinge only on the products but also on the precision of their timing. Technology is helping farmers hit those narrow application windows. Ehler high-lighted drones as game-changers for late-season soybean applications. “You can’t run a ground rig through R4 or R5 beans, but drones make it possible,” he said. He added that owning a drone makes the most sense for operations around 2,000 acres or larger, where the cost can be spread across enough acres to justify the investment.

The Sleiks said owning a sprayer was the biggest step forward after their 2024 contest win. “Last year, we had to wait on the co-op, and timing wasn’t always right,” Dan Sleik said. “Now, we can hit the window ourselves.”

Scaling Up

The biggest critique of contest systems is that they don’t scale. “We’re not chasing 150-bushel soybeans with weekly passes,” Emily Sleik said. “We’d rather raise the whole-farm average by 5–10 bushels than have one field at 100 and the rest at 55.”

For Uphoff, the lesson is similar. “Three fungicide passes or 40,000 populations aren’t economical across every acre,” he said. “But fuller-season hybrids and strong fertility — those pay everywhere.”

Hook said scaling up is about spending smarter, and shifting resources where they provide the most consistent return. He said he uses his contest plots to identify which inputs and timings pay before scaling them across the farm. “DAP [diammonium phosphate] at $900 a ton doesn’t make sense for soybeans,” he said. “But moving that budget into foliar applications does.”

The Fun Factor

For many winners, the yield contest is about more than just bushels — it’s also about enjoying the challenge. Emily and Dan Sleik said competing together adds a playful, family dimension. In 2024, Emily edged out Dan for first place in their state soybean contest, and they still joke about it. “I let her win,” Dan said, with a laugh. Emily said the experience showed her customers that big yields are possible on Wisconsin soils but it also brought energy and enjoyment to their farm. “There’s no one else I’d rather farm with,” she said.

Conley, who oversees the Wisconsin state soybean yield contest, said contests encourage farmers to try new things but they also inject a sense of fun and camaraderie into farming. “It’s a sandbox to play in,” Conley said — a place to learn and laugh at the same time.

Yield contests may celebrate outliers, but their lessons apply broadly. Hybrid selection, planting date, fertility, plant health, and emergence are the levers every farmer can pull. Biologicals, drones, or multiple fungicide passes may fit selectively, but the common thread is attention to detail.

“High yield isn’t a recipe. It’s a system of interactions — weather, fertility, genetics, and management,” Below said. While not every acre can be managed like a contest plot, every acre can benefit from Uphoff’s mindset: doing a hundred things 1% better.