Planting maize early comes with a health warning

Maizetech’s Robert Duncan takes up the story: “Late season frosts could still severely damage plants that break through the plastic over the coming weeks.

“The optimum planting period for maize in Northern Ireland is from the middle of April through to the third week of May.

“But, of course, the upside to early planting is that crops can be harvested earlier with yields and crop quality maximised. This is assuming the weather plays ball.”

Last year saw record acreages of forage maize grown in Northern Ireland. And Robert Duncan believes this figure will hold up again in 2025.

He further explained: “A lot of maize was grown last year because many farmers had run-out of other spring planting options because of the very wet weather earlier in the season.

“As it turned out, some maize crops were not planted out until June. But, on the back of what happened in 2024, we are now seeing many farmers committing to maize because they recognise the nutritional value it can deliver for stock.”

An average crop of maize will produce 16t tonne of fresh weight forage per acre at 30% dry matter and 30% starch.

Robert Duncan again: “But significant numbers of crops can go beyond this level of performance.”

He added: “Last year saw a number of maize crops not reaching full maturity, again because of the later planting dates.

“June was also a tricky month, from a growing point of view. But even these later sown crops have performed extremely well at feed out.

“There were quite a number of very average grass silage crops made in Northern Ireland last year. Dairy and other livestock farmers have been finding that maize is the perfect forage balancer for mediocre grass silages.”

Another advantage associated with the growing of forage maize is the fact that the crops are a tremendous sump for slurry and other organic manures.

Ease of management is another driver these crops: once planted out, they require minimal attention until harvest.

Another factor boosting the production of forage maize locally is its suitability as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion (AD) operations.

Robert Duncan continued: “Maize represents the forage crop option that can deliver the maximum levels of output per acre.”

He concluded:

“Forage maize is now a much more reliable crop option. 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.”