Alex Noll has been “farming since I could walk.”
He first entered the National Corn Growers Association’s National Yield Contest in Kansas in 2013, placing third in the state, and has entered every year afterward, winning 10 state placements between 2013 and today. This year, he is celebrating his first placement among the national yield winners. Noll, who just turned 40, had spent the day “pushing snow” and checking his cows before he spoke with High Plains Journal.
Together, Alex, and his wife Traci, along with his son,12-year-old Keegan, daughter, 9-year-old Karsyn, and his farming partner, Bryce, farm 4,000 acres near Winchester in eastern Kansas that are spread over several properties in Jefferson and surrounding counties, not too far from the Missouri River and about 45 minutes from Kansas City. There they grow corn, soybeans and soft wheat and run a 200-cow herd. His cows are currently calving in a staggered schedule. Both Noll’s parents are still living, and his dad remains active in farming in his 70s.
While Alex won in the category of conventional-till, non-irrigated yield with a yield of 340.39 bushels per acre, Traci won in the category of minimum-till, irrigated with a yield of 328.98. Both Nolls broke state records. Alex used DeKalb DKC68 35RIB seed, feeding it with Monty’s, an ortho-based plant food, and BW Fusion foliar products.
“Seed selection is important,” he said.
Alex and Traci and other yield winners will be honored at the Kansas Corn Symposium on Jan. 30 at the Salina Hilton Garden Inn.
The Kansas Corn Yield Contest is sponsored by Kansas Corn and K-State Research and Extension. The state contest awards dryland and irrigated winners in 10 districts, a nitrogen management class winner, along with one statewide dryland and one statewide irrigated winner.
The competitive instinct runs strong; Alex also placed first in the state in dryland wheat yields in 2023 and 2024.
When asked about what practices produced the record-busting yield, Noll refers to Midwest Advanced Crop Consulting, an Indiana-based ag practice group founded by Kevin Kalb, 14-time winner of the National Corn Yield Contest that promotes high-yielding crops. Noll follows MACC’s practices—including making decisions like the timing and amount of fertilizer based on tissue sampling.
Overuse of nitrogen fertilizer is a problem for many farmers, Noll believes. “Too much fertilizer ties up the biology and can overload the crops,” he said. He said most of the GMO-traited corn he grows goes to Mexico from Atchison, Kansas.
“It’s not the big things, it’s lots of little things,” he said. “We had an ideal year of rain—good rains, but not a lot of nighttime heat, along with elite genetics.”
His area got 35 to 40 inches of rainfall, well-spaced. The Missouri River water table also supplies abundant irrigation water.
David Murray can be reached at journal@hpj.com.
