John KempfRegenerative Agriculture Entrepreneur

"A level of grain production that we didn't really believe possible"

7 Aug 2025 · 1 min

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1:22

A farmer (speaker) describes unexpectedly high recent grain yields — farm averages of 275 bu/acre in the first year and 285 bu/acre the following year — roughly 40–50 bushels above the county average. The speaker discusses targeting a cost of production around $400/acre (calculated old-system costs about $415/acre this year) while trying to raise yields. Specific management details include historical use of ~200 pounds of nitrogen, fungicide passes, potential reduction of sprayer passes and seed-cost reductions if finances were tighter, and a move from genetically modified corn to non-GMO seed.

Questions this video answers

275 bu/acre in year 1; 285 bu/acre in year 2.

About 40–50 bushels per acre higher.

Approximately $400 per acre (speaker's target).

$415 per acre.

200 pounds of nitrogen per acre.

Chapters

People don't believe me when I talk about this, but truthfully, our last couple years have been astounding. Like the level of grain production that we didn't really believe possible. Our farm average for the last two years was 275 on the first year and then 285 last year. And, you know, it's yet to be determined what we are, but that is about 50 bushel better than the county average. At least 40. What are comparative input costs in your local area? So every year, just the reason I kind of come up with that 4, $400 an acre of cost of production is if I would go back to what I call the old system and say we're going to do the 200 pounds of nitrogen, the dry fertilizer, the fungicide applications. If we were going to do all of that, it would be. I figured it up this year it was 415. So it's. We are trying to stay right on that same cost of production while increasing our yields on the other side. And part of that is just the last couple of years we have had really good crops, so we've had some extra money to spend on it. I feel like if we were in a little bit tighter position, we probably would. I don't know that we'd make every single pass we make with the sprayer. I also think we would significantly cut seed costs, you know, and we're working on that anyway. Switching from genetically modified corn to non GMO SA.