By Ryan McGeeney
U of A System Division of Agriculture
JONESBORO, Ark. — There was nothing easy about the 2024 growing season. But the winners of the 2024 Arkansas Irrigation Yield Contest, also known as Most Crop Per Drop, showed how efficiency can at least make a bad situation better.
IMPRESSIVE RESULTS IN A TOUGH YEAR — Forty-seven producers from 20 counties across the Arkansas Delta region participated in the 2024 Arkansas Irrigation Yield Contest, also known as Most Crop Per Drop contest, planting 58 fields of soybean, corn or rice. Six of those 47 contenders planted multiple crops or fields. (Division of Agriculture photo.)
Now in its seventh year, the contest challenges growers to maximize crop growth while minimizing irrigation inputs, a strategy that helps conserve both natural and financial resources.
Forty-seven producers from 20 counties across the Arkansas Delta region participated in the 2024 contest, planting 58 fields of soybean, corn or rice. Six of those 47 contenders planted multiple crops or fields.
Within the rice category are three subcategories for different production methods: levee rice, furrow rice and zero-grade rice.
Chris Henry, professor and water management engineer for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said that while there are financial rewards for succeeding in the contest, the real incentives are the lessons learned.
“The contest is an opportunity for farmers to explore their individual aptitude to reduce energy, water use, labor and improve profitability,” Henry said.
With the exception of flooded rice, each participating grower used at least one irrigation management tool, such as poly-pipe with computerized hole selection, soil moisture sensors or surge irrigation. Winners in each division are determined by their water use efficiency, or WUE, and how many bushels of a given crop they can produce per inch of water.
Frank Binkley, a row crop producer in Lawrence County, won first place in the soybean division with a WUE of 3.83 bushels per inch. Binkley said the field he entered in the contest is about 38 acres, part of a 1,200-acre operation that chiefly produces rice and soybeans. 2024 was Binkley’s fourth year participating in the competition.
“My first year, I got sixth place,” Binkley said. “The next year, things just didn’t work out very well for me. Last year, I was actually even more efficient than I was this year, but so was everybody else.
“It just kind of worked out for me this year,” he said. “With all the rain and weather issues, it could’ve been anybody’s game.”
Binkley said the contest has taught him how the use of soil moisture sensors and the UA’s mobile app, the Arkansas Soil Sensor Calculator, can help curtail unnecessary irrigation and help determine whether a given field can wait for an expected rain.
“If you’ve got a thirsty field that’s just not going to make it until the end of the week, a soil moisture sensor will help you water just enough to make it through to that next rain,” he said.
Jeremy Wiedeman, a Clay County row crop farmer, has participated in every Most Crop Per Drop competition since its inception. Weideman took first place in the corn division, with 13.5 bushels per inch of irrigation — the highest water efficiency yield for corn in the contest’s history. He said out of a 4,000-acre operation, he grows about 500 acres of corn in a typical year. The field he used for this year’s contest is 40 acres.
“It was a good corn year in general,” Wiedeman said. “Learning how to use and read those soil moisture sensors really teaches you how far you can stretch your irrigation.”
Russ Parker, program associate at the Division of Agriculture’s Rice Research and Extension Center, helps administer the contest. He said the 2024 contest was notable for how growers dealt with the harvest pressure at the end of the growing season.
“We had an abundance of early planting this year,” Parker said. “We’ve never seen so many crops in the ground so early, across the board. And that’s great, but it also means everything’s ready for harvest at the same time, too. All those crops had to come off at about the same time Hurricane Helene came through.”
About a dozen sponsors contributed cash and prizes, totaling more than $128,000, to this year’s contest. Those sponsors include The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Arkansas Corn & Grain Sorghum Board, the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board, RiceTec, Irrometer, Agsense, Seametrics, Trellis, CropX, Delta Plastics and FarmLogs.
2024 Crop Per Drop Contest winners include:
Frank Binkley Lawrence County First place, soybeans
Ty Graham Jackson County Second place, soybeans
Danny Gipson Mississippi County Third place, soybeans
Jeremy Wiedeman Clay County First place, corn
Matt Ahrent Clay County Second place, corn
Kelby Wright Cross County Third place, corn
Chad Render Jefferson County First place, zero grade rice
Mark Felker Crittenden County Second place, zero grade rice
Rieves Wallace Crittenden County Third place, zero grade rice
Cody Fincher Mississippi County First place, row rice
Rieves Wallace Crittenden County Second place, row rice
Ty Graham Jackson County Third place, row rice
Kelby Wright Cross County First place, levee rice
Jon Carroll Monroe County Second place, levee rice
Blake Ahrent Clay County Third place, levee rice
The Division of Agriculture offers a wide selection of courses, publications and online tools to help growers maximize irrigation efficiency.
Use of product names does not imply endorsement by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu/. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.