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1.01.2008

Brothers claim top 2 slots in no-till/strip till irrigation classes

By Shannon T. Allen
AFP Correspondent

CHARLES CITY, Va. — David Hula has done it again, laying claim as the nation’s top corn grower.
Hula, of Renwood Farm in Charles City, Va., produced the nation’s highest yield in the 2007 corn yield contest sponsored by the National Corn Grower Association.
And another member of the family came along for the ride.
David and his brother, Johnny, came in first and second, respectively, in the no-till/strip till irrigated division, and they did it with different varieties.
David produced the highest yield of the entire contest with an entry of 385.5 bushels an acre using Pioneer 33M57. Johnny followed with a harvest of 370.8 bushels with DeKalb DKC63-39.
The only other winner in the national contest from the Mid-Atlantic was Chris Santini of Stewartsville, N.J. Competing in the ridge till non-irrigated division for Class A states, Santini came in third with a yield of 254.3 bushels.
David Hula is no stranger to this contest, as he has participated for many years and has captured first place wins five of the past seven years at both the state and national levels.
Although the summer at Renwood Farm was hot and dry, timely rains helped supplement the irrigation, Hula said.
The keys to winning this year’s yield contest, Hula said, were “a lot of hard work and the good Lord giving us some weather when we needed it.” Good soil also helped us out as well, as it always has, he said.
The Hula brothers are the fourth generation of the family to be farming the investment their great-grandfather made in farmland, east of Richmond, in 1939.
The farm consists of about 3,000 acres of which 1,300 are devoted to corn. The “spread” stretches over three different counties — James City, New Kent and Charles City — and actually benefits by its proximity to three different rivers; James, Chickahominy and Pamunkey.
Hula is married and he and his wife have two children, a daughter, Sandy, and a son, Craig. They live in the Sandy Point area of Charles City County, about 10 miles from the Charles City Courthouse.
For the NCGA contest, a farmer selects a minimum of 1.25 acres on which planting involves seeding eight rows, skipping 24, seeding eight and skipping 24 right across the full width of the 1.26-acre plot. The site is monitored from start to finish by the Colonial Soil and Water Conservation District representatives in the Middle Peninsula of Virginia.
Growers compete in nine corn production classes, including non-irrigated (A and AA), no-till/strip-till non-irrigated (A and AA), no-till/strip-till irrigated, ridge-till non-irrigated (A and AA), ridge-till irrigated and irrigated classes.
The contest is divided into two divisions — Class AA for states in what is known as the “Corn Belt” and Class A for all other corn-growing states.
The Class AA states are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. When Hula has led the nation, his corn production in Virginia has topped even the best growers in the Class AA states can offer that year.
For 2007, the contest attracted a record number of entries — 4,932, an increase of 56 percent over the number of farmers who gave it a try in 2006. Additionally in 2007, 24 entries recorded yields of 300 bushels an acre or more.
The Hulas and other national winners will be honored at the 2008 Commodity Classic, the combined convention and trade show of the NCGA, the American Soybean Association and the National Association of Wheat Growers, Feb. 28 to March 1 in Nashville, Tenn.
Hula said believes that participating in the yield contest is a good way to gain a comparison to what others are doing across the country.
Although Hula said he is not surprised Virginia farmland can produce yield winners, he admitted, “We’re all surprised at just how high of a yield we could get.”

(Editor’s Note: Senior Editor Bruce Hotchkiss contributed to this article.)