MILLEDGEVILLE, Ill. — Steve Hollewell over the years has used generous amounts of manure from his livestock operations on his crop acres, and the formula has worked consistently well for him.

That includes this season, when his test field produced an average soybean yield of nearly 77 bushels per acre – with top performers checking in at nearly 90 – said Jason Beyers, a site manager for the Farmers’ Independent Research of Seed Technologies (FIRST) program.

"It was a fairly uniform stand, thick, green stems and consistent color throughout," Beyers said. "This was a strong crop, one of the best of the season.

"Over the years this field consistently gets a fair amount of manure from his own operations, so there’s a level of fertility there that definitely helps each year."

It also helped that weather conditions played to Hollewell’s favor this year, unlike Mother Nature’s wet-spring treatment in other parts of the state. "He received almost perfect amounts of rain most of the time, as I recall," Beyers said.

Hollewell tills his non-irrigated land in the fall, and the Osco silt loam soil had moderately high levels of P and K and a pH level of 6.6. He alternates beans and corn from year to year.

The top three performers in the trial were Pfister’s 30R25 at 89.2 bushels per acre, with a gross income return of $821 per acre; Asgrow’s AG2636 at 86 bushels per acre, on a return of $791; and Stine’s 33RH20 at 85 bushels per acre on a return of $782.

Beyers noted that returns were good no matter the maturity of the types, which ranged from 3.30 to 4.30.

"His seed size was very large, and as I recall there wasn’t any evidence that stood out of any diseases there," he added.