At Sugar Tree Farms in 2023, standing water + ponding was occurring on about 40 acres of field after moderate rain events, dragging down the overall yield average on the entire field. Doyle Eichelbeger, the grower, had planted proper seeding rates and used proper nutrient management practices in an attempt to get the northeast corner of the field not to wash out during the growing season after rainfall, but it wasn't working. Often, the field experienced enough standing water to drive a small boat and motor across.
Doyle met our PrairieFood team at an informational meeting where aerial drone footage showed how two PrairieFood Slurry applications of 40 gpa over two years were able to help greatly reduce standing water after heavy rains. He decided he wanted to try it on his own fields, with the goal to see if PrairieFood could help eventually reduce the amount of standing water in the northeast corner that was prone to flooding.
Doyle applied 40 gallons of PrairieFood Slurry Product per acre on his NE 40 acres in April of 2024. When a heavy 9 inch rainfall occurred after application, no standing water appeared. Doyle's corn came up normally and held on all season – a big change! “I would get one crop off of those acres every 4 years…and the yield on that portion was always dragging down my overall field average.”
At harvest time in 2024, Doyle was able to harvest 151.6 acres of corn that averaged 230 bushels per acre – an additional 18.1 harvested acres than the prior year, brought into production by PrairieFood. At $5/bushel, this equated to over $20,000 return on a less than $5,000 investment.
In Doyle's own words, "The PrairieFood definitely unlocked something in my soil. We believe the short chain carbons were able to feed and bring back some of our dormant native biology. I’m looking forward to applying it on more acres this year.”
