Combining maize
- Thread starter Badshot
- Start date
- Location
- Surrey/ Kent Border, UK
Weald Granary used to have a maize pool or at least contract dried and marketed maize. It might be worth giving them a call to see if they still do and whether they could market it for you.
kiwi pom
Member
- Location
- canterbury NZ
Don't know what it's worth but talking to my brother in the UK, he said they were selling the wheat they had and combining the maize to put through their beef cattle, as they had full pits of silage left and didn't really know what to do with it.
So maybe not worth much.
I did have that thought yesterday, I have some space there too.
- Location
- West Sussex
We used to do a bit of combined/dried maize 8 or 9 years ago. Merchants always had a home for a small amount. Value was always said to be feed wheat + £30/t (the approx cost of drying it) until wheat had a decent year and the £30 seemed to disappear quickly.
Don’t underestimate the effort of drying it from 30%. Had to put it through the drier twice, huge amount of steam and moisture through your sheds makes dust stick to everything but you get a lovely sweet smell of popcorn floating across the yard!
Used to end up with about 3.5t/ac dry off terrible land, far better than any cereal but we always did huge soil damage and never got wheat in after.
Don’t underestimate the effort of drying it from 30%. Had to put it through the drier twice, huge amount of steam and moisture through your sheds makes dust stick to everything but you get a lovely sweet smell of popcorn floating across the yard!
Used to end up with about 3.5t/ac dry off terrible land, far better than any cereal but we always did huge soil damage and never got wheat in after.
- Location
- Surrey/ Kent Border, UK
Call me if you want someone to harvest it. I know a contractor in the SE with a maize header on his combine.
- Location
- S.E
^^^this
Weather at/after harvest decides on following crop.
Good potential. Need earlier harvested varieties
With a proper maize header and a big drier. Not much grown in Britain other than in the south. Beware of attractive looking gross margins that do not allow for 10-15% moisture extraction post harvest. In livestock areas propionic acid treatment of the wet grain and a silage clamp to sell as stock feed may well be more attractive.
Jam Tomorrow
Member
- Location
- Hardy Country
and beware of substantial fusarium infection in the following wheat crop
Would barley be better?
- Location
- Surrey/ Kent Border, UK
Apparently, if you combine it in April it doesn’t need drying.
For what? Fusarium, maybe. Margin, no. We only grow maize as a break crop for the following first wheat, not because it stacks up particularly well as a crop in its own right.
Small comfort! That's probably true but you'd need a sound rotation to avoid a lower farm margin. What would you grow after maize that would fill that slot and give you a good first wheat entry afterwards?
Weare Cham
Member
- Location
- N. Devon
I think @MattR was referring to corn on the cob that you put on the barbecue?
Bogweevil
Member
Not a stupid question - either by hand or there is a cob picking machine, either way it will need preparation the packhouse. I understand some large scale producers around Chichester and on the Isle of Wight have such machines and the machines are quite vigorous with the cobs.
Short season of use in the UK, but perhaps shared with the companies Spanish producers. I hope they clean it well when it comes back from Spain to keep the rootworm out!
Very popular PYO crop near London especially with expat Americans and Asian families - the whole family turns up and fills the car boot with cobs
Bogweevil
Member
Reckon, never seen one though.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
The Dutch have the coolest farming toys.
Barfoots are one of UK's bigger commercial producers & it looks like they have one...
Barfoots | Cultivating Excellence
We grow, process, pack and market a range of fresh produce.
www.barfoots.com
Weare Cham
Member
- Location
- N. Devon
And the best coffee shops.
