Farmers Cooperative Company customers Kurt and Rhonda Oathout recently received national recognition in the Asgrow Yield Chasers Contest for growing the highest yielding soybeans of all maturities in 7 out of the 10 Corn Belt States - including Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, the soybean yield of 89.77 bushels per acre stood alone as the highest in the nation in the 2.6 to 3.1 maturity.
“In the business of farming, our ‘factories’ exist outdoors. Our number one resource is our top soil. I’ve always tried to manage my business by focusing on the soil,” Kurt says. “Along with my neighbors, I’m fortunate enough to be farming some of the richest soil in the world right here in Iowa. I take my role as a steward of that ground very seriously.”
Kurt and his wife, Rhonda, farm in Greene County, Iowa, Northeast of Jefferson. “We raise corn, soybeans and kids,” Kurt jokes. “Rhonda has always been involved in the farming operation. She actually plants the soybeans at the same time I plant the corn. I figure if it’s a good day to plant corn, it’s a good day to plant soybeans as well.”
Kurt is a fifth generation family farmer who recognizes the importance of women in Agriculture. “When I introduced my wife at the national Commodity Classic awards ceremony in Florida and noted the fact that she had planted all the soybeans, the whole crowd broke out in applause. We can’t underestimate the role of the family in this business of feeding the world,” Kurt adds.
Kurt also credits his neighbors and his FC Agronomy team for their roles.
“Rhonda and I are surrounded by good farmers who know how to grow crops while protecting the soil and water quality which are the foundation of what we do. I’ve learned a lot from them. I actually heard from another farmer that they really trusted Brian Berns at FC, and that he’s really been a big part of their success on the farm. I called Brian up and quizzed him some. I felt like I could trust him,” Kurt said. “That was five years ago. We’ve been working together ever since.”
Kurt feels that as a cooperative, FC has the philosophy that what is good for the farmer is good for FC. “FC is your partner,” Kurt says. “ In order for them to be successful, the farmer needs to be successful. The FC Agronomy team has contributed greatly to the success of our operation. They’ve been there with solutions to some of our biggest challenges and partnered with us in decision making at every level. They help us sort through new products and technologies and figure out what works on our farm and even on specific acres. They help us deal with the unique hands the environment deals us each year in terms of weather, pests, and conditions. Like I said; I can trust them,” Kurt adds.
FC’s Brian Berns talked a little about what it took for the Oathouts to produce yields that would win at the national level. “Last year was exciting because Kurt won the soybean yield contest at the District level for the mid maturity group 2 beans. So the challenge became, how do we top that for next year,” Berns recalls.
“As Kurt said, everything begins with the soil. We started looking at each field and developing a fertility program. Then we got together and started talking about soybean varieties and trying to match the right soybean to the right acre and soil types,” said Berns.
“The next thing that really worked in our favor was planting. Kurt is in a unique position that he has Rhonda to plant the soybeans. With the dry, abnormally warm, early spring, they were able to get out there and plant the field in late April. We chose the variety Asgrow 2931 and treated it with Acceleron fungicide, insecticide, and an inoculant to help get the beans off to the best early start. We think this combination of seed treatments combined with the early planting date is the right thing to do to maximize bean yields. Little did we know it was going to be an even bigger deal with the growing season we were about to have.
"Things were looking good, we got a good emergence. We used an early preemergent herbicide combined with a timely post emergent pass that included a fungicide and foliar feed product to give us yield maximizing weed control and a healthy soybean plant. We had some spider mites start to colonize the field in mid-July so we did an insecticide, another fungicide, and another foliar feed application at that time to protect the field to harvest. It got down to harvest, and again, timing was everything,” said Berns.
According to Berns, Kurt “nailed it” when it came to timing. “The day we went out to do the yield check, we caught the beans at 13.1% moisture. In most cases last fall that soybean moisture didn’t last more than a few hours. Beans wanted to go from too wet to too dry in 24 hours,” he said. “I had the opportunity to jump in the combine with Kurt while FC’s David Hoskins was out measuring the 1.5 acre contiguous area for the contest,” Berns continued.
“These combines today are pretty amazing as far as what they can eat for beans; but I’m here to tell you, that combine was begging for mercy with these beans. They were fantastic! I mean, in 18 years in the business, I’ve never seen soybeans like this. It was fun just to watch the yield monitor bump up. We couldn’t believe it when we had it on the weigh wagon – it felt like we were doing a corn check.”
After sharing the story, both Kurt and FC’s Brian Berns agree that once you see these kinds of yields, it becomes an even bigger challenge to top them in the future.
“We’re up to the challenge,” says Berns, nodding. He looks at Oathout.
And the chase is on.
