Difficult Maize Year Highlights Importance of Variety

According to Robert Baker – maize specialist with Sherborne, Dorset based Pearce Seeds – while the cloudy, cool late summer and early autumn has delayed maize maturity, most crops are only a week or so behind normal.

“Crops cut in mid September have been coming in far too wet,” he says. “This will cause problems in the clamp from quality poorer silage characterised by much lower starch content, and palatability problems with very low pH silage, which will need buffering when feeding this winter,” he says.

“I have heard of 10t trailers bringing in 17.5t of silage and clamps that are so full with wet silage that they are already suffering from leakage problems with effluent pouring out of their sides,” he says.

“So, while it is tempting to get the crop into the clamp, farmers have to be mindful that they are sacrificing the best part of their yield by cutting maize that is too wet. They should hang fire and wait for the hard starch to mature,” he says.

Growers need to balance this alongside problems from eyespot. The disease has come in late and some leaves have so many lesions that the complete green leaf is now being lost in some crops. Worst hit region is Devon and in these crops it is a case of cutting and clearing the maize as soon as possible, advises Robert.

Double cobbing, due to stresses imposed on already struggling crops in July, is also a feature of the season and this again could adversely affect the quality if silage going into the clamp.

In terms of yield, Mr Baker says that this was virtually established at drilling. Maize that caught the warmer drier conditions of late April - early May got off to a good start and, provided soil conditions were good, have gone on to produce good looking crops.

Those drilled later say in the first week of May were less able to cope with cooler soil temperatures in May and waterlogging in June. They were slower to get through the ground, only emerging in mid-May. Plant populations were sub-optimal and particularly where soils are poorly structured, some have only grown to 3-4 foot height.

Lack of available soil phosphate – particularly where soil pH was sub-optimal at 6.5 or below – has also hindered these later drilled crops. “Starter fertilisers – such as Pearce Seeds MaizeStart a 17:35:0 plus trace element maize mix – have really helped compensate for this lack of early phosphate. You could see the differences at establishment and these are being manifested in terms of the yields now being produced,” says Robert.

“Variety choice has also been important. Whereas last year most varieties came through well and matured in good time, this year there is some clear differences to be seen.”

Large block maize variety strip trials established on Clive Snell’s, Sock Farm at Mudford, Yeovil, have confirmed real differences between varieties. And, while the proof of the pudding will come at harvest, Robert Baker is increasingly looking for earlier types to go alongside existing favourites such as Spartacus, Klifton, Crescendo, and Revolver.

“The pressure is on to bring forward harvest,” he says. “This ensures better management of maize stubbles to minimise soil loss, less pressure on the timing of manure spreading and faster turn round of the next crop be it grass or cereals.

“Spartacus is well liked and growers are likely to stick with it. Klifton is better on favourable sites and produces a good ME and starch content. We’ve some out on farm this year and it looks to be a suitable alternative to Spartacus. Katy also looks very promising,” says Robert.

Julie Goult of CPB Twyford, representing maize breeder KWS, highlights the importance of taking into account whole plant maturity when looking at earliness, yield and quality in new varieties.

“Silage quality is greatly affected by two distinctly different types of plant maturity,” she says. “Very early maturity scores can come from early senescence of stover, which often have less mature cobs, or plants that exhibit early cob development with ‘stay green’ leaf and stem.”

“Varieties such as identified Maturity Class 7 rated Klifton, Kadenz and Klaymore on trial in Dorset all showed good early cob development supported by an extended life of green plant material. “This helps produce some of the best possible quality silage in the clamp no matter what the season,” she says.

“Salgado will produce very high yields of highly digestible silage wherever you are in the UK,” she says. “In Maturity Class 7 on favourable and less favourable sites it produces the highest starch yields of any variety available.

“Klaymore on the Mudford site was behind Salgado, but has a better cob:stover ratio than Salgado. It consistently delivers high quality and good yields.

“Klifton, is already well known in the region and one of the earliest maturity class 7 varieties across all sites. Its early vigour has been particularly noticeable this year and this helps produce consistently high yields of quality silage.”

For next year, varieties to watch include Kokon, Kangaroo and Kadenz. And even further ahead Julie Goult is seeing some incredibly early coded material now entering the trial system.

“It appears as if some of the beneficial varietal traits of KWS’ southern European breeding programme are starting to be seen in next generation varieties now in UK trials,” she reports.