Maize: A break crop with a complexity of choice

Jim, who has been working successfully with maize growers in Cumbria and South-West Scotland for 15 years, still sees maize as the top performing forage crop with significant potential for market growth under the Sustainable

“Farming Incentive. He also feels it’s still the key break crop for wheat, due to its ability to achieve higher gross margins than most other crops. However, when it comes to selecting the right variety, the path isn’t always a clear one, as he explains.

“Maize doesn’t travel well, so what you often find is that varieties that performed well in one region of the UK don’t necessarily replicate that performance elsewhere due to differences in weather and soil types. The agronomic standard of maize varieties has also improved tremendously during the last 10 years and, whilst that’s a positive, it also makes variety choice more difficult given there’s now a bigger talent pool for growers to consider.

“When I began regional maize trials 20 years ago, we would trial 30–40 varieties from which possibly 6–8 varieties would perform well and go on to be recommended for on-farm trials with customers. Now, we have to look far more closely at year-on-year consistency, separating the very good varieties from the good ones by extending regional trials over two years before recommending a new variety to farmers.

“Following some challenging growing conditions for maize in recent years where a lack of summer sunshine has often resulted in the FAO maturity date of many maize crops stalling, many growers are once again facing difficult late season harvesting conditions.

“Given these weather patterns could become the ‘new normal’, I would certainly advise growers to look at earlier maturing varieties for 2025, given the potential weather problems when harvesting later maturing varieties.

“I can also see a future trend towards earlier maturing, dual-use varieties and predict that many maize growers may even trade-off a small percentage of yield in order to lift their crops 2–3 weeks earlier if adverse harvest conditions continue to persist in the future.”

Key statistics  

“When weighing up the key statistics on the DL, I’d also advise growers to look at both starch content and dry matter yield (DM) rather than focusing solely on fresh-weight yield. Other key considerations should be usage: grain, biogas or feed – and what you intend to sow after the maize, whether it be wheat, a cover crop or something else.

“If you’re intending to grow maize on rented land, then you must soil sample before planting and get the nutrition strategy right from the get-go. Ultimately, it’s all about what suits your farming system best and managing expectations.

“With results in from this year’s HLH maize trials it’s worth highlighting the new maize variety Hagrid, marketed in the UK by independent seed breeder, Elsoms Seeds. High yielding, with an excellent DM percentage it definitely looks one to watch,” he confirms.

Complexity of choice

Supporting Jim’s views on the complexity of varietal choice in the UK maize market, Daniel Ott, product manager maize international for German breeder Saaten Union, sees the strong historical link between successful maize varieties bred in Germany that then prove well adapted to UK conditions as a good starting point when selecting the right variety.

He adds: “As a leading maize breeder, Saaten Union have a trials network of over 70 locations, including three in the UK, across 16 countries with over 6,000 trial plots, so we know we have the right tools to breed varieties that can thrive in UK soils and climatic conditions. We also deliberately trial in locations where we can expect stressful conditions.

“For example, on very light and sandy soils, cold heavy soils and in sites with little annual rainfall to test drought stress during flowering.  Having access to a large, diverse range of new varieties, we are then able to tailor these varieties to specific end use markets such as energy maize, silage or grain.

“Whilst the number of the varieties on the UK DL is significant, in Germany we have 252 silage and 184 grain varieties along with many other EU registered varieties available to growers, so the decision-making process is just as, if not more, complex from a numbers perspective.

“For UK growers, usage, FAO maturity dates and yield are still key factors supported by an understanding that the UK climate may mean later harvest dates now becoming the new normal with growers leaning towards use of earlier maturing varieties.  

“Having experienced a lot of success in the UK with SU Neutrino, a high-yielding biogas variety, we have now successfully launched SU Addition, a multi-use earlier maturing variety that produces high-energy, highly digestible quality silage for feeding, biogas and corn-cob mix. It’s UK registered, available to farmers for the 2025 season and is specifically bred to perform consistently in UK conditions,” he concludes.

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