Top 5 AgWeb Stories in 2023

Move over Iowa, there’s a new record farmland sale on the books. After a 15-minute bidding war between two area farmers, the gavel fell at $34,800 per acre. The recent sale beats out the previous record set on Nov. 10, 2022, when 73 acres in Sioux County, Iowa, sold for $30,000 per acre.

Three game wardens entered Josh Highlander’s private land, proceeded to his food plot and stole his game camera without warrant or consent. He is fighting back via a major constitutional lawsuit.

A pair of steel moldboard plows crafted by the hands of John Deere and bought directly from the American titan’s Illinois shop in 1839 and 1840 sit behind unassuming garage doors on Sam Shaff’s Iowa farm. Purchased by his great-great grandfather, the 1839 specimen was the first Deere plow on Iowa farmland, and possibly the first to break dirt on the far side of the Mississippi River.

In 2023, Alex Harrell, a southwest Georgia farmer, harvested 206.7997 bu. per acre — the highest-yielding soybeans in history. “It was surreal sitting in that cab watching the yield monitor,” Harrell explains. “Long story short, this comes down to late-season management.”