A decade of custom work and on-farm experimentation has led Wisconsin Soybean state record yield winner Kevin Klahn to believe that earlier planted soybeans have much higher yield potential. His plot, which binned a record 115-bushel soybean yield, went into the ground April 17, one of the first planting days of the season. 

Like most of the soybeans produced by Klondike Farms, the 11-acre test field containing the yield-winning contest entry was planted into corn stubble treated with a single vertical tillage pass.

Pioneer’s 2.8 maturity 28Z30E variety carrying a full rate of Ilevo fungicide, Lumaderm and an inoculant was seeded with a 60-foot John Deere DB planter set on 15-inch rows. Klahn uses that planter on the bulk of his soybean acres.

“Because the plan was to go heavy on fungicide and fertility, our planting population was set lower, at 165,000 seeds per acre,” Klahn says. “Pre-plant fertility, applied in the fall of 2024 included 200 pounds of potash and 100 pounds of 0-46-0 and sulfur.”

Following a pre-emergence herbicide program of Envive, Tricor, Shepherd water conditioner and glyphosate, the plot also got weeding assistance from post-emergence applications of glufosinate and Anthem Maxx. 

Throughout the season the plot received further intensive management including several drone applications of the NEXTA products.

“The production fields normally receive NEXTA products and a full seed treatment, but the contest plot received an additional, more expensive program” Klahn says. “Specifically, we used a second application of fungicide and some micronutrients in the late season not used on the production fields.”

To learn more about how Klahn accomplished his state record-setting soybean yield, read Dan Crummett and Noah Newman’s article “Strip-Tiller Shares Recipe for State Record Soybean Yield” featured in the Summer 2026 issue of Strip-Till Farmer.