Maize maturity increases rapidly in all regions
© Tim Scrivener Maize matured rapidly across all regions, meaning farmers are being advised to monitor their crops.
Neil Groom, technical director for Grainseed said: “It is not just crops in the best maize-growing counties that are close to harvest now, we have seen crops through Cheshire, Midlands and down in the South West, which will be ready this coming week.
See also: 6-step guide to successful maize establishment
“In my 20 years working with maize I have not seen crops mature so rapidly so everyone should be monitoring their crops now.”
Mr Groom said if maize has a lot of dead leaf due to the heat in the past week then farmers should chop their maize finer and use more horsepower on the clamp to increase compaction.
|
Site |
Drill date |
Height above sea level (m) |
Crop dry matter 13 September |
Increase from last week |
|
Petworth, Sussex |
6 May |
50 |
Harvested |
|
|
Harleston, Norfolk |
12 May |
30 |
26.1 % |
+ 0.8 |
|
Crediton, Devon |
3 May |
118 |
26.7 % |
+ 3.1 |
|
Ticknall, Derbyshire |
7 May |
67 |
24.3 % |
+0.1 |
|
Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire* |
5 May |
32 |
23.6 % |
+0.6 |
|
SRUC, Dumfries, Scotland (plastic) |
22 April |
45 |
24.2 % |
+3.5 |
|
SRUC, Dumfries, Scotland* |
22 April |
45 |
21.5% |
+ 2.3 |
|
* Variety Es Picker, all other sites are Es Ballade. Variety under plastic Es Marco. |
||||
“There is a case for using an additive if you have dead leaf where yeasts and moulds have colonised the dead tissue,” added Mr Groom, who said this should be applied at 1 litre/t or more to get good coverage throughout the clamp.
Those that have a long haul back to the clamp should consider using lorries to transport maize because they are cheaper to run than tractor and trailers.
In my 20 years working with maize I have not seen crops mature so rapidly so everyone should be monitoring their crops now Neil Groom, Grainseed
“Any fields more than 10 miles away are a candidate.
“This will also keep the harvester moving since modern harvesters can fill a trailer in a couple of minutes and a rule of thumb is you need a trailer for every mile that you are travelling.”
Bill and Chris Blake, sampling for Farmers Weekly near Crediton in Devon, have had some superb crops this year.
“We had a warm spring and the crop never stopped growing, we planted less acres this year since we had a lot of silage left in the clamp, but we will have to cut acreage again next spring,” commented Bill.
Chris said they already feed a high percentage of maize as forage in the diet and the high yields makes maize a really cost effective part of the diet.
“We need to use our home-grown forage as much as possible to allow us to minimise our costs.”