Forage maize acreage up 30%: year-on-year

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​A leading supplier of forage maize seed is confirming a 30% increase in sales, year-on-year.

​Maizetech’s Robert Duncan explained: “Maize represents the forage crop option that can deliver the maximum levels of output per acre.

“Last year, growers were achieving yields of up to 17t of fresh matter. These are exceptional figures. However, growers, for the most part, can expect to achieve yield in the region of 15t/ac.”

A number of factors are driving the increase in Northern Ireland’s maize area. One is the use of the forage to drive the performance of anaerobic digestion (AD) operations.

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“However, many farmers who previously grew the crop now regard maize as a much more effective and reliable option,” Robert Duncan further explained.

“The availability of new compostable films has been a major step forward in this regard as has been the breeding of earlier-maturing maize varieties, which have been specifically developed to meet the growing conditions that predominate here in Northern Ireland."

He added: “Crop management techniques have also evolved to help secure better yields. One of these is the decision to apply only two thirds of a crop’s total nitrogen at planting.

“The remainder can then be delivered as a liquid fertiliser, along with manganese and zinc, once the crops have become well established.

“Liquid fertilisers can be applied using a standard, tractor-mounted sprayer. Nitrogen made available in this way can have a residual effect over a number of weeks. This is providing crops with a growth boost when they most need it.”

Weed control measures within maize crops are also becoming more effective.

Robert Duncan again: “A herbicide will be placed under the plastic at time of planting. A follow-up, contact herbicide can then be applied to tackle weeds growing in the exposed soil between the crop rows about a month after drilling.

“This means that farmers need only enter a maize field with a sprayer field twice after planting to ensure the highest standards of crop management.

“Maize is highly unlikely to succumb to any form of disease, which means the need to apply fungicides, is more or less, zero.”

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Robert Duncan is predicting a harvest date of mid-October for the earliest crops of maize planted out in Northern Ireland this year.

“All of this is very much weather dependent,” he stressed.

“Planting dates were held back to some extent this year because of the very poor spring weather.

“And some crops established on exposed sites were impacted by the cold and wet weather conditions that followed sowing.

“Maize crops need continuous heat. And they are getting this at the present time.

“There has been a great improvement in crop performance rates across Northern Ireland over the last week or so.”

Robert Duncan concluded: “The demands on agricultural land across Northern Ireland continue to increase. AD operators, milk producers and beef farmers all need forages of the high quality in sufficient quantities.

“Maize ticks all these boxes.”

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