South Africa's grain producers set 11 new records in maize, soya beans, wheat and sunflower at the 2026 Grain SA Grow for Gold National Yield Competition, whose winners were announced in Muldersdrift on 22 September, Farmer's Weekly reports.

Entries rose from 79 in 2025 to 110 — a 39% increase and the largest year-on-year jump since 2020-21, said Corné Louw, Grain SA's head of applied economics and member services.

Louw singled out dryland results from North West. Janna du Rand of Mareetsane produced 16.910 t/ha of maize, a regional record, and also took second and third place, while Izak van Zyl of Makwassie won the regional soya bean category with 8.046 t/ha. "These farmers do not have high-potential soils to work with, but somehow they achieve these high yields — they must be doing some things right," he said.

Under irrigation, Hannes Bruwer of Hopetown grew the competition's highest maize yield, 24.431 t/ha, with Pioneer P1197PW; Ernie Steinberg of Douglas set a northern irrigation wheat record of 13.992 t/ha with Agricol IS Tordo. "I never knew that yields like this could be accomplished in South Africa, and our farmers have done this two years in a row," Louw said.

The records comprised three in maize, six in soya beans, one in wheat and one in sunflower, where Stompie Olivier of Ventersdorp reached 4.863 t/ha with PAN 7180CLP. Danie Bester of Balfour, Mpumalanga, swept the Eastern Highveld maize category with 19.928 t/ha and set a soya bean record of 8.213 t/ha; he said the competition lets high-yield growers learn from one another.

The report was written by Jedrie Harmse for Farmer's Weekly.

Source: Farmers Weekly South Africa