Guinness World Records™ title: Highest Wheat Yield

Date: 24.07.2020

The Highest Wheat Yields in the world are coming out of the Canterbury region in New Zealand, including Eric Watson’s 2020 Guinness World Records title. What makes this region so special?

Eric Watson’s incredible feat of growing a world-beating wheat crop. On 17 February 2020, Watsons’ big Case IH harvester muscled through his paddock of outstanding Kerrin wheat situated on his farm at Wakanui, near Ashburton, and harvested what is now an official Guinness World Records™ title for the Highest Wheat Yield ever grown.

The stunning 17.398-tonne per hectare yield surpassed Eric’s own previous world record of 16.791 tonnes per hectare achieved in 2017. Eric paid tribute to the support he had received from the team put together to support this record attempt, but especially from David Weith of Bayer and Paul Johnson of Yara.

What makes this story even more incredible is that Eric and David, with an eye on the future, applied inputs with a focus on sustainability to achieve this record. It’s Eric vision that the future of arable farming globally lies in higher yields obtained from the same amount, or even less land and with sustainable inputs and less of a footprint.

While the honour of the Guinness World Records title lies with Eric, he hopes this achievement will draw attention to the great work done across the plains of Canterbury by New Zealand’s skilled and professional arable farmers.