Bogard, Mo., no-tiller Kyle Hawkins cracked the high-yielding code for soybeans when he took home first place in the Golden Harvest “Go for the Gold Challenge” with a 103-bushel yield. Hawkins says his yields started taking off when he changed his planting date.  

“We started in 2020 doing early planted soybeans. The 1st of April we go out there and start planting. It was a battle getting my dad on board with this. We had really good yield results. We had 37 acres that averaged 101 bushels per acre. It was kind of a shock and awe thing because we’ve never had anything like that. It was enough to give you an idea that we could potentially have something good going here. We’ve hit 90s, 80s as the years went on. Planting soybeans early has been key, and we do some other microbial stuff with another company that gives us a pop.”   

 Hawkins no-tills 5,000 acres of soybeans.

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