Harrell shares secrets of success at 2026 NC Commodities Conference

Over 650 people attended the 2026 North Carolina Commodities Conference. One of the highlight speakers was Alex Harrell, farmer from southwest Georgia and current soybean world record holder (218.2 bu./acre in 2024).

“The number one limiting factor I’ve seen on corn and soybeans is the planter,” Harrell said. “On corn you want even emergence and on beans you want even spacing. The fastest way to improve production is to make sure your planter is running properly.”

You don’t want warped opening discs, Harrell said. They’ll wobble when moving across the field, creating a furrow with uneven depths. When the bottom of a furrow is uneven, corn seed may be planted at different depths, affecting emergence.

“A quarter-inch difference in seed depth is a huge deal,” Harrell said.

Likewise, with beans, when a furrow’s bottom is uneven, it can cause beans to roll, affecting spacing.

Harrell uses the flag test to measure emergence in corn. To conduct a flag test, first determine what area of your field you’re going to measure. (Check the internet for how long of a row you need to measure for 30- or 36-inch corn to get 1/1,000 of an acre.) Get wire flags – the kind used in land planning – of different colors. Go out every 12 hours (or more or less depending on your objectives) and put a flag next to each corn plant which has emerged. Continue visiting the test area, using a different colored flag on each visit, to mark when the corn plants come up.

Once they’ve all emerged, count each color of flag and tally how many plants came up within each 12-hour period, giving you insight into how consistently your corn stand emerged.

Similarly, Harrell tests singulation on soybeans by taking a row at random, marking off a 100-foot section, and measuring the spacing between each plant in that section. He’ll then measure the yield on the plants which are evenly spaced and compare it to the yield on plants which aren’t.

In one study, he found that plants which were singulated had 69% more yield than plants which were non-singulated.

“Going from non-singulated to singulated soybean spacing is like going form 100 bushels per acre to 169 bushels per acre,” he said. “Of course, that’s easier to say than to do.”

A critical factor on planters is having accurate depth control. The handles aren’t necessarily set at consistent depths, he said. To ensure even planting across the width of his planter, he’ll pull the planter on level ground, jack it up, loosen the depth control handles, put 2.5-inch blocks under each planter, then tighten the depth control handles.

“When you’re done,” he said, “it looks like the planters are at 16 different depths,” but that’s due to imprecision in the planter itself. Using his method, Harrell knows he’s able to plant at more consistent depths.

Another key with your planter is to make sure the starter fertilizer is placed below the depth of the seed. “Roots don’t grow up,” he said.

“The goal with corn and beans is to keep the plants alive longer than they’re supposed to be,” he continued. “You want to keep the plant in its reproductive stage as long as possible. I know when I go into a soybean field and the plants are dying before the pods are mature that we left yield on the table.”

Harrell has been farming full-time since 2008, when he joined his father, Rodney, who began farming in 1972. Today the Harrells grow primarily corn, soybeans, wheat and watermelons.

“Seven years ago we were growing 11 crops, including a lot of specialty crops,” Harrell said. “I sat down and calculated that we weren’t making any more money by growing more crops.

“We wanted to be more sustainable, so we decided to drop crops we couldn’t harvest with a grain combine.” That meant no more cotton or peanuts.

“My goal that first year was to grow an average of 100-bushel soybeans,” Harrell said. He wasn’t going to be able to make that planting beans behind wheat, so he looked at full-season beans.

The first year he planted 100 acres of full-season beans. That first year those acres yielded zero bushels – a total crop failure.

“The beans rotted in the pods,” Harrell said. “I learned you have to desiccate beans … We’ve learned a lot about pushing beans in the last seven years.”

In Harrell’s opinion, the most common mistake farms make is not knowing when to pull the plug on a crop – and when to invest in a crop. “It doesn’t make sense to put money in a crop when you’re not going to make money from it,” he said. “At the same time, you can be too conservative.”

In his view, the four ways to improve soybean yield are to increase the number of plants per acre, the number of pods per plant, the number of beans per pod and grow larger beans.

“We have found out that we can get more beans per pod,” he said. “We grow more four-bean pods than two-bean pods. And we’re also growing heavier beans.”

If you’re looking to improve your agronomic practices, Harrell recommends strip trials. “We’ve done dozens of trials. We’re looking to get at least a three-to-one return on any additional inputs we add to our crops.”

Today Harrell does soil sampling on one-acre grids. “Spending the money to soil test on one-acre grids will more than pay for itself,” he said. “We’re not spending more on inputs – we’re putting them where they need to go.”

He does tissue sampling at around 350 GDUs (growing degree units), when corn is around V3. The phosphorus level at 350 GDUs will set the ceiling on the yield. If the phosphorus level is too low on corn, he said, you won’t be able to push above 200 bu./acre.

As for applying herbicides, Harrell likes that done before 400 GDU – “definitely for corn.”

During the growing season, he monitors nighttime temperatures. His farm is 80% irrigated. During the heat of summer, he will irrigate right before dark to help cool nighttime canopy temperatures.

Harrell harvests corn at 25% moisture and beans at 17%. That requires drying, but the yield gain is worth the investment.

Despite Harrell’s impressive successes as a soybean farmer, he is still making tough choices. As reported by Chris Bennett in Farm Journal’s AgWeb earlier this year, in 2026 Harrell is cutting back on total acres planted, reducing planted acres by 45%. This is the result of the high cost of inputs and repeated damage to fields by deer and wild hogs.

by Karl H. Kazaks