Maize Watch 2022: Scottish grower prepares for bumper harvest

High dry matter (DM) and lower-than-average yields have challenged many maize growers in drought-affected regions this year.

But for Hugh McClymont, farm manager at Crichton Royal Farm, Dumfries, it has been a “fantastic” year.

“This is probably our best year for maize, with bulky crops and large mature cobs high in starch,” he says, anticipating “tremendous” yields of about 45t/ha with dry matter of about 32%.

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Mr McClymont began harvesting on Monday (3 October) to fill one clamp, but is waiting until mid-October for most of the maize crop to reach a higher DM to complement some wetter grass silage produced earlier in the year.

He is confident the forager will process the mature maize grains well, and his fields will travel with little soil structure damage.

Post-harvest plan

Immediately following harvest, the plough will chase the forager out of the field ready for drilling wheat for wholecrop. In this way, any available soil nutrients will be kept on farm, he says.

“We will then drill Italian ryegrass at 15kg/ha in July and use this as a green manure before the field goes back to maize again. My aim is always to be growing a crop 365 days of the year.”

The farm is using a range of forages so that as much feed can be grown on farm as possible to mitigate against the effects of climate change.

This includes red clover leys, which have been cut four times this year, optimising the production of energy and protein on the farm.

“We also haven’t used any bagged nitrogen since May and still filled all the clamps with quality forage – which is common to many farms in northern England and south-west Scotland,” he adds.