Virginia

From 60 to 600 Bu. Per Acre: Is 1,000-Bushel-Corn Next?

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:23:14 GMT

Across parts of the South, farmers are sitting on the sidelines this spring, not not because fields are too wet, but because they’re too dry to plant. With dust blowing and soil moisture in short supply, planters are parked as growers wait for rain, a stark reversal of the delays they’re more accustomed to and a reminder that in agriculture, timing is everything.

“We’ve been dry all season so far and we actually stopped planting because we’ve been so dry. Can’t just get the planter in the ground,” says David Hula, a farmer in Charles City, Virginia.

After six weeks of high winds and little to no rainfall, Hula says the conditions are unlike anything he’s experienced.

“I talked to my cousin who’s a decade older than I am, and this is the driest he’s ever seen. And I’ve talked to my agronomist, he says we’re the third or fourth driest on record since 1875 for this time of year. So this is uncharted territory for me right now,” he says.

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While part of his crop remains unplanted, Hula is encouraged by what’s already in the ground.

“Everything that we’ve planted so far, I feel really good. Emergence has been spot on. Even their soybeans came up good,” Hula says. “We waited till things warmed up, you know, I’m very diligent and patient about that. And all that corn has come up awesome.”

Waiting Without Sacrificing Yield

With roughly 40 percent of his crop planted, Hula is now watching the skies and waiting for moisture before continuing.

“So the portion that you’re waiting on moisture to be able to plant at this point, you don’t feel like you’re sacrificing yield by waiting. You feel like you’re protecting yield,” we asked Hula.

“Oftentimes growers think, well, it’s too wet to plant or it’s been too cold. So they’re the things that you want to wait for. Well, we still, because we’re not late yet, we still want to make sure we get uniform emergence. That’s the key, that’s the first box every grower needs to be paying attention to,” Hula says.

He says with sporadic pockets of moisture within the dry soils, he says conditions are conducive for poor or uneven emergency when planting into drought conditions, and it’s a risk he’s not willing to take.

Hula’s World Corn Yield Record

That focus on emergence has paid off. Hula holds the world record for corn yield, producing more than 623 bu. per acre , a benchmark that underscores his disciplined approach. He says the year he grew that new record yield was in 2023, and it was a crop that wasn’t planted early.

“That was towards the end of May. I mean end of April, first part of May, but it seems like our highest yield stuff comes when we plant later,” Hula says. “And that is again, we’re checking that box of the crop coming up uniformly. And that’s the one thing I don’t know that growers really understand the importance of that. And once they do it and see it, they’ll say, you know, it might have been worth holding off for one week.”

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A Seed Legacy That Dates Back a Century

The hybrid behind that record yield — Pioneer P14830VYHR — carries a legacy that stretches back a century.

“One of the wonderful stories of Pioneer is actually the introduction of Raymond Baker,” says Dean Podlich, who leads R&D digital solutions at Corteva Agriscience, during Pioneer’s 100th anniversary celebration last week. “Raymond Baker was a college student. In 1926, he met Henry Wallace at an event at Iowa State. He was very interested in hybrid corn, and he said, I would like to get involved with hybrid corn to Henry Wallace. Together, they actually put an entry into the Iowa corn yield test, and they actually won that contest in 1927. This is actually a certificate from 1927. We actually have the ribbon.”

Podlich says that early success helped launch hybrid corn into mainstream agriculture.

“Raymond Baker actually quit college in 1928, he joined the company as a farm hand, and he would go on to lead the breeding organization for more than 40 years, especially after Henry Wallace went to Washington. And so there’s a huge amount of history that is the start of our research engine,” he says.

100 Years of Yield: 60 to 600 Bu. Per Acre

One of the inbreds behind modern hybrids, known as Baker’s Inbred or B164, still plays a role today.

“What’s fascinating is that David Hula had a world record with 623 bushels a couple of years ago. We can trace the family tree of the genetics behind that hybrid all the way back to Baker’s Inbred itself,” Podlich says.

Two kernels, 100 years apart: One yielded 60 bushels per acre in 1927; the other topped 623. They look nearly identical on the outside, but a century of genetic innovation separates them under the hood.

(Tyne Morgan)

To the eye, seeds from then and now look nearly identical. But the difference in performance tells a much larger story, from the seed yielding roughly 60 bushels per acre a century ago to more Hula’s record yield of more than 600 bu. per acre today.

“The thing that’s very striking as you look at these two sets of seeds is how similar they are. It’s really hard to see any difference, but under the hood these things are really, really different,” Podlich says. “You have 100 years of selection, 100 years of breeding, 100 years of improved agronomics, improved drought tolerance, and higher genetic potential. This one also has biotech traits in it that help increase yield, protect that yield from insects, and provide herbicide tolerance. So this is what’s so remarkable.”

Is 1,000 Bu. Per Acre Yield Next?

Even with record-setting yields already achieved, Hula believes the ceiling is still far off.

“My late granddad was the first one to break a hundred in the area. My dad, a couple hundred bushels, and we got three, four or five, and where we are now. And that has been a really steep incline. So I’m excited about where things are in the future. I have no clue what the yield potential is,” Hula says.

“Somebody was asking me what the yield potential is today. When you open up the bag, I would say it’s in excess of a thousand bushels. If that’s the case, we’re poor farmers. You know, here the country’s only averaging 180-some bushels, and if the potential is truly that, we’ve got a long way to go. But then can you imagine what price corn would be,” he says.

During Pioneer’s 100th anniversary last week, Sam Eathington, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Pioneer, gave remarks to those in attendance. In his address, he not only looked at the past, but also gave a glimpse into the future. He says in 50 years when Pioneer is celebrating it’s 150th anniversary, he think it’s possible agriculture will have national average corn yield of 300 bu. per acre and record yields reaching 1,000 bu. per acre.

For Hula, he thinks that’s a very reasonable reality even less than 50 years from now.

“Within 50 years, yeah, I do think so. That’s almost doubling where we are. But think about where we have come. And then also think about the technology that’s coming about,” Hula says.

As advancements in seed technology continue and farmers gain deeper insight into soil health through biological tools, Hula says the future of yield remains wide open.

“But as they start figuring out how to allow the plant to be more efficient with what it can find in the soil, I’m excited about that,” he says. “And then the one key that nobody can duplicate is sunlight. As they start figuring out how to make plants more efficient with the sunlight that we have and the moisture, either lack or more, the sky’s the limit.”

Related Story: The Technology Poised to Revolutionize Corn Yields — Just as Biotech Did in the 1980s

Growmark Adds Virginia Co-op

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 20:18:43 GMT

Announced today, Virigina-based Farmers Cooperative has joined Growmark Inc.

Farmers Cooperative employs 32 full-time employees and serves central and southern Virginia. The co-op was founded in 1947, and is now the latest to become an FS member in the Growmark retail network.

“We’re excited to welcome Farmers Cooperative into the Growmark System as a new FS member,” Mark Weilbacher, Growmark Executive Vice President, Member Resources said in the announcement. “This aligns with Growmark’s commitment to expanding and strengthening the FS presence in the Eastern U.S.”

“Farmers Cooperative is proud and excited to partner with Growmark in strengthening our capabilities to serve our members and customers,” said Alfie Parker, who is general manager of Farmers Cooperative.

Industry News: Leadership Transitions at MFA and Virginia Agribusiness Council

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 18:26:40 GMT

MFA Incorporated Begins Search Process for Next President and CEO
Following a 38-year tenure at MFA Incorporated, and 10 years as president and CEO, Ernie Verslues is planning to retire this fall.

“Ernie’s contributions to the company have bolstered its mission. His leadership will continue to inspire and guide MFA long after his retirement,” said Don Schlesselman, chairman of the MFA Incorporated board of directors.

The MFA board of directors says they will conduct a thorough and disciplined search process in identifying the best candidate to lead the company into the future, and they will consider both internal and external candidates.

Virginia Agribusiness Council Announces Transition
Virginia Agribusiness Council (VAC) has shared a change in leadership, and this will be executive director Cliff Williamson’s last week on the job.

“The Virginia Agribusiness Council’s Board of Directors have determined that a change in leadership is needed, and I will be leaving effective March 1,” Williamson wrote in an email. “Serving Virginia’s agricultural and forestry communities has always been my dream, and I am grateful for the chance to play a small part in this great work. I am grateful for words of encouragement I have received of these last few days, and I hope to find a new opportunity within Virgina’s great agricultural community.”

Beginning Monday, March 3, VAC will have a new president and CEO in Trey Davis.

Davis has previously held government relations roles at Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, Monsanto, Bayer CropScience and Tetra Pak. He outlines his vision for VAC as the following:

Expanding membership
Enhancing advocacy and government relations
Fostering partnerships

“We are excited to have Trey Davis at the helm of the Virginia Agribusiness Council,” said Paul Franklin, board chair for VAC and president/CEO of Colonial Farm Credit. “His combination of strategic vision, industry experience, and passion for agribusiness makes him uniquely qualified to lead VAC through its next phase of growth and reinvention. His leadership will allow us to advocate for agribusinesses across Virginia with additional energy and focus.”

2024 Top Producer of the Year Finalist PJ Haynie: Advocacy And Tenacity

Fri, 09 Feb 2024 18:39:35 GMT

No step is too big for Top Producer finalist, PJ Haynie. Deep family roots are the foundation of his farming legacy.

“My family lineage dates back to my great-great-grandfather, who was the first African American to come out of slavery and purchase 60 acres of land on Sept. 14, 1867, in Northumberland County, Virginia,” Haynie says.

Today, his family still owns and operates a portion of that land, which is now spread across four counties in the northern neck of Virginia and near the Chesapeake Bay. His accomplishments led to be named a finalist for Top Producer of the Year, which is sponsored by BASF, Case IH, and Rabo Agrifinance.

“I spent a lot of time with my dad, and I was his walking shadow,” Haynie says. “And I tell folks that my dad tricked me into farming, you know, as I was on the floor, carpet farming with my toys, I matriculated to the bigger toys, the real ones.”

He started driving at age seven and by 10 replaced a 40-year-old hired hand. After graduating from Virgina Tech, Haynie returned to the family operation looking to build a future with a focus on technology and improving efficiency.

“Instead of planting from sunup to sundown, dad would say, ‘Hey, you can take that bubble on that roof, and you can work half the night, can’t you?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ So, he said, ‘I will get you into big fields, so you can work the night, and that way, you know, it increased our productivity with the equipment by being able to work longer days and longer hours,” Haynie says.

Today, as one of five kids, he and his four sisters still work together on the farm. But in 2010, while helping start and run a nonprofit called the National Black Growers Council, Haynie found himself in the Arkansas Delta.

He tells the story of how he and his father thought about the expansion.

“If we had a farm down south, we could probably start planting three to four weeks before we start here in Virginia,” Haynie says. “And with the equipment, we have our own trucks, let’s haul a tractor and a planter down and some equipment down, get it done, and then bring it back up to Virginia to spread the cost of that equipment over more acres.”

Sixteen hours and a thousand miles from home, Haynie went to work, building a satellite operation in Phillips County Arkansas, roughly 25 miles west of the Mississippi River.

“Here in the Delta, we have a lot of flat land,” he says. “And that’s a little different than the landscape in Virginia.”

No rolling hills and natural drainage, instead Haynie’s learning to plant on raised beds and furrow irrigate. It also opened the door to his newest endeavor: restarting an abandoned rice mill.

“When we went to this facility, we saw a diamond in the rough; we saw an opportunity,” he says. “A state-of-the-art facility that was constructed brand new in 2016 that had close to 4,000-bu. storage capacity and the milling capacity. They processed about 22 metric tons of rice per hour.”

Today, he’s running the nation’s only Black-owned rice mill.

“As a commodity farmer, no matter how much corn or wheat or soybeans that I grow that are for feed, you can’t directly take that home and feed it to your family,” Haynie says.

And thanks to new USAID contracts, he’s helping feed the world. It’s a mission he takes seriously as a farmer and a member of the Black row-crop farming community.

“You know, in 1920, there were a million Black farmers in this country, and African Americans owned 16 million acres of land. Present day, there are less than 15,000 Black row crop farmers, and less than 2 million acres of Black-owned land. And if we don’t continue to keep our foot on the gas, Black men and women in row crop production agriculture are going to be extinct.”

It’s a mission he’s working to fulfill every day.

“I’m hoping that my interest in my advocacy work, will show others in the country and other young men, who I was in their shoes one day, that through hard work and tenacity and faith, the opportunities can come your way,” he says.

Congratulations to PJ Haynie, a finalist for the 2024 Top Producer of the year.