Maize growers will reap the rewards of the world’s largest breeding programme, with the UK commercial launch of three varieties from Bayer’s Dekalb.

See also: What the three new additions to pulse variety list offer

Dekalb is well-known in the US and by UK oilseed rape growers. However, next spring will see the launch of the first three maize varieties from the company’s silage and biogas breeding programme in north-west Europe, which started five years ago.

Breeding progress

Bayer seed business manager Adam Nears points out that maize breeding has resulted in the area needed to produce 250kg of dry matter falling by 88% since the 1940s.

“And we want to bring these genetic leaps to the UK.” Farmers will now have access to traits from the US.

Seed-chipping technology enables breeders to genetically fingerprint every seed. They then use powerful predictive analytics alongside huge amounts of field performance data to identify the most promising crosses to make and lines to develop.

The aim is to produce high-performing varieties with good yield stability. They will be sold under the Silo Extra brand and there are three key traits for the UK:

1. Rapid delivery
2. Early vigour
3. Exceptional silage quality – not just quantity, but also improved cell wall digestibility.

New varieties

The three varieties, DKC2684, DKC3204 and DKC3218, are early/maincrop varieties with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) maturity ratings of about 200 heat units.

“All three varieties performed really well against current farm standards for both livestock and biogas production in our field-scale trials across the country over the past season,” says Bayer campaign manager Lizzie Carr-Archer.

Conducted under strictly commercial conditions with growers in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Shropshire and Yorkshire, they delivered average metabolisable yields up to 23% ahead of the farm standards from a combination of high yields, dry matter, starch content and cell wall digestibility.

But the real benefits to growers are yet to come, with a testing network that has expanded fivefold to over 100,000 plots in the past 20 years, delivering average rates of 2.5% energy yield gain a generation, she says.