By Chris Aldridge
Kentucky Ag News

Good weather has been a blessing and a curse since humans began burying seeds in the soil to grow food.

It was definitely the former last summer for Goetz Brothers Farm in Daviess County, which was recognized Jan. 13 at the Kentucky Commodity Conference for setting a new state record soybean yield of 112.02 bushels per acre.

“I would say it was a combination of things, but weather was No. 1,” said Joe Goetz, who farms the 2,500-acre operation with his son, Justin; his cousin, Scott Goetz; and Scott’s nephew, Tate Smith. “We’ve been trying other things – adding fungicide, insecticide, microbes. Boron is a key, keeping them (beans) healthy.

“Some years you push them, and they get too big and fall down, and that hurts them more than having a bad weather year. Too much rain can make them too damp and cause disease. Or if you have a bad rain that beats them down, they won’t yield as much.

“The key,” he added, “is get as many nodes and pods as you can (on each plant) and keep them standing.”

This was the second straight year Goetz Brothers Farm has grown the state’s highest full-season yields. The Kentucky Soybean Board commemorated the accomplishment by presenting the family farmers with “100 Bushel Club” jackets.

Joe and family had to work harder for those jackets in the summer of 2020, which was wetter than last year.

“The weather in (20)20 wasn’t as good,” he said. “Our upper ground was fine, but we got a lot of rain and the lower ground was hurt real bad with flooding. We had to do a lot of replanting in ’20.”

2021 was also the second year in a row Goetz Brothers Farm won the yield award for non-irrigated double-crop soybeans at 79.06 bushels per acre. Both the double-crop and full-season yield awards were worth $1,000 each in prize money.

“All yields (in Kentucky) seem to be pretty good last year,” Joe said. “There were more 100 bushel beans out there than in years past.”

Six of the seven member of this year’s “100 Bushel Club” grew their crops in Daviess County. The other was a county away in Union County, which also borders the Ohio River.

“We do have some good dirt around here,” Joe said, noting 2,000 of the acres they farm is rented. “We’ve been trying to up our grain yields, trying some things on some acres just to see. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t.”

The 500-acre Goetz Brothers Farm began more than 50 years ago by, as its name states, brothers Tom and Bob, the fathers of Joe and Scott, respectively. The brothers’ father also farmed in Daviess County, growing soybeans and corn, and running a dairy.

Joe and Scott, who pronounce their last name “Gates,” strayed from farm life briefly after high school.

“We both tried something else, then came back to the farm,” Joe said. “We’ve been doing it for 30-plus years.

“You hate it,” Joe said of growing up on the farm, “then you find out you like it.”