Maize Watch: Bumper maize yields for many

Maize growers around the country are reporting very good yields this year.

“Contractors are chopping now in all regions. Yields are 44-49t/ha, which is very good compared with the long-term UK average of 40-42t/ha. Cobs are good due to the favourable weather at flowering in July and abundant rain throughout the summer,” says Grainseed’s Neil Groom.

See also: Maize trials show soil benefits of undersown grass mixes

“Anyone with average yields this year has probably had a problem seed-bed, capping because they drilled after heavy rain, or a hungry crop. Many farms have double the yield of last year.”

Neil says this maize will feed well alongside the abundant grass silages made this year, helping to considerably reduce winter ration costs compared with last year, when all forage yields were hit by the summer drought.

“It is important to undertake monthly forage analysis on all your forages and adjust the ration with your nutritionist so that performance can be optimised. Sample across the whole face and mix the sample well before subsampling and sending the sample to the lab,” he says.

Calvin van Rooyen, who samples for Farmers Weekly at SRUC Crichton Royal Farms, drilled one-third of his maize under film this year.

Two-thirds were sown conventionally, as he wanted to see if the farm’s use of film could be reduced.

“With our agronomist, Richard Bray, we selected Cito for the conventional fields. It is the earliest maturing variety on the Niab list and has been grown widely further west along the Solway Coast, where the Gulf Stream effect is higher,” says Calvin.

“Under film, we drilled Palladium, which has performed well in trials over the past few years and has given a high yield and high starch levels.”

Under film

Maize under film was harvested on 30 September in good conditions before last weekend’s storms.

Calvin is hoping the conventionally planted maize will be ready next week.

The two crops will be clamped separately, and he will be interested to see how they feed over the winter. From these results he will decide what to do next year.

“Our light, fertile soils allow the harvester to travel in most conditions, and the farm has drilled Italian ryegrass in the first week of November in previous years that has produced a good crop of grass in April before planting maize again.

“I will be looking to get the heifers out as early as possible before putting them onto the main grazing platform in March,” he says.

Devon harvest

Chris Blake in Devon harvested 3,500t of maize over two days from 23 September for his 650-cow autumn-block herd. It is being fed as a buffer following afternoon milking at a rate of 10kg a head, together with 7kg silage and 3kg wholecrop.

Cows are still grazing and will be housed at night once the weather changes.

“Yield was variable – good to below average. We had a hard spring, and some went into not-the-best ground conditions,” he says.

“At a guess, we averaged 16-17t/acre; some fields were below 15t and others over 20t. I usually budget on 17t/acre and, in a good year, we get over 20t. We haven’t analysed it yet, but are having to feed it now because we don’t have any left over from last year.”

In Derbyshire, Robert Parker was able to harvest his 20ha (50 acres) on 7 October in “perfect weather” and reports ground conditions were a lot better than expected. There was no compaction damage.

“I reckon we averaged 14t/acre – 2t more than usual,” he says. As he no longer has a dairy herd, Robert has clamped the maize to be sold by the tonne to a 250-cow dairy farm 30 miles away, delivered as required.

“We fed maize to our sucklers last year, but it is a bit of a luxury for them. High-quality grass silage and a bit of straw is perfectly adequate for Limousins and Longhorns.”