Burke Farmer Wins More Than Corn Yield Contest

For Kyle Wilhelmsen, farming has been in his blood since he was born and raised on a family farm just south of Burke, SD. A former full-time South Dakota Army National Guardsman based out of Chamberlain, Kyle had to work his way back to the farm like so many young farmers do today who don’t have the opportunity to step into an operation that can support multiple family members.

In 2011, Kyle helped take over the reins of the family farm, but it was still a challenge to make it work. “I had the opportunity to come back to the farm and it was best for my family and farm, but I had to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. My wife Amber and I knew we had to be diversified, but we were committed to making this a success. Fortunately, a lot of area farmers I knew growing up were getting ready to retire, and I knew there would be opportunities for me to do custom farming and renting land.”

Today, Kyle has prospered and has continued working with his mode of diversification for success. In addition to custom farming which has him working in a radius of 20 miles, he plants corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, alfalfa, sorghum, rye and hay as well as running 100 head of cattle. He has also embraced planting cover crops after his nephew, who earned his agronomy degree from South Dakota State University, shared the benefits of it.

Kyle notes, “I’ve learned that you have to build up your ground and improve soil health to not only maintain it but enrich it because if you don’t take care of it, it won’t take care of you. Since we’ve started doing this our yields have really come around. Our ‘bad’ spots have had phenomenal yield improvements because the ground is holding the water and suppressing the weeds. I really believe it’s information like this that can help you improve so you better be listening, looking and paying attention. You can’t continue to do it like it’s always been done before and expect to be successful.”

Because of his innovative practices, Kyle and his seed corn dealer, Tom Waterbury, have been amazed by the results. He shares, “The yields we were bringing were incredible and unbelievable for this area, so Tom introduced me to the corn growers Corn Yield Contest and that’s how I got involved. It’s a great program for the farmers out there because it really drives you to be a better farmer. There’s more to it than just entering a contest, and I know that now that I went to the Corn Conference and experienced it firsthand. It really opened my eyes as to what this organization is all about.”

This year, Kyle placed third in the No Till, Non-Irrigated category. “I learned a lot this first year and I think I’ll be a lot more competitive in the coming years. There are so many things that have to be implemented together to get a higher yield and there’s a lot of heartache with it. You’re trying your hardest with the investment per acre and at the end of the day my average wasn’t where I wanted it to be, but I am working on doing what I need to do to improve that.”

As to why other farmers should consider becoming involved in the Corn Yield Contest and South Dakota Corn Growers Association? Kyle shares, “Here’s the deal and the biggest point of this all. You’re submitting money for a membership and that money is going in the future of our corn. We can only grow so many products out here and with corn there is so much money invested into it we need to improve more on what we have. So, let’s improve even more on it through better fuels, plastics, oils, so many things that can be done. When my kids want to take over farming, they need to have a direction to make this work. The South Dakota Corn Growers Association is helping with that.”

Not only has Kyle recognized the value of the organization, he is committed to becoming more involved in the future along with his wife Amber who has also joined as a member. He shares, “My wife said this is so neat and that we should have done this before and that we need to be more involved, so I am absolutely going to do this contest again next year, lose or fail I don’t care because I’m having fun doing it. It’s made me rethink some things and how I can improve on them, but this is also a morale booster. I was so glad to be on stage with these other guys who are great farmers because I was there with them. I put myself out there and I’m glad I did.”

Corn Yield Contest

The Corn Yield Contest (CYC) is a National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) competition held annually. It has been organized to encourage the development of new, sustainable and innovative management practices resulting in higher yields and to show the importance of using sound agricultural practices in United States corn production. Trophies are awarded to the first, second and third place national winners, and first, second and third place state winners in each class.

Eligible South Dakota entrants must be a South Dakota Corn Growers Association member and can’t have refunded from the South Dakota corn checkoff program in the past marketing year.

Contest Classes

• Conventional Non-Irrigated

• No-Till Non-Irrigated

• Strip-Till, includes Minimum Till, Mulch-Till, Ridge-Till Non-Irrigated

• No-Till Irrigated

• Strip-Till, includes Minimum-Till, Mulch-Till, Ridge-Till Irrigated

• Conventional Irrigated

For more information contact your seed corn dealer or call the SD Corn office at 605.334.0100. watch for a CYC webinar coming soon!