Du QUOIN, Ill. — As Don Polczynski watched the combine from a distance, he couldn’t believe his eyes, so he rolled out into the field in his early 1970s Chevy and hopped aboard.

“Is that really 40-bushel beans that I see?” Polcynski asked Eric Beyers, the Farmer’s Indpendent Research of Seed Technologies (F.I.R.S.T.) plot manager, as he began harvesting Polczynski’s field in late October.

“Yep” was Beyers’ quick response, noting later that Polczynski was expecting something in the 10-bushel range, given the severe drought conditions for the season.

“He couldn’t believe what he was seeing on the gauge, given everything that went on with the drought this year,” Beyers said. “It turned out to be exceptional yields for him this year.”

Polczynski, who has been on the Perry County family farm his entire eight decades, tends to about 300 acres of soil that is a heavy clay loam, with poor drainage. And, following up on corn, he’s a non-irrigator.

“He’s a no-till guy, always has been and very conservative, so with this season, that helped a lot because it held what little moisture there was,” Beyers said.

Polczynski put in soybean trial seeds at a rate 134,000 per acre, somewhat low for the area but a good number based on his soil type, Beyers said.

“He’s just not working that ground like others do, and that has led to a lower evaporation rate overall, and it definitely helped this year,” he explained.

Average yields for the plot were at 39 bushels per acre, with a moisture content of 11.5 percent.

The top yielder of seeds tested was Dairyland variety DSR-485OR2Y, at 48.3 bushels per acre and a gross income of $749 per acre.

In second place was NK Brand’s S46-T3 at 47.7 bushels and a gross income of $739. Finishing third was Dairyland’s DSR-4633R2Y, at 46.9 bushels and a gross income of $727 per acre.

Overall, the average gross income for all the varieties tests was $604. The average height for most of the beans were in the 36- to 42-inch range, Beyers said.

“It was amazing how these soybeans stayed alive,” he added. “The type of soil he has is tight clay. It sits well for surface drainage, but it can hold moisture better than you’d think.”

Beyers explained that in “average” years, with more moisture, Polcynski has produced soybeans on average at 55 bushels an acre, and corn exceeding 200 bushels.