Grain maize

[Nick.]

Has anyone actually DD'ed some grain maize, as after talking to our neighbour today we might give this a go.
We have Claydon drilled a bit of game maize over the last few years, and plenty of fert seems to be the order of the day.

What crop would be good to follow, obviously it depends on time of year and conditions.
Would winter beans be better than wheat ?

He has just sprayed some maize off to bring harvest forward by three or four weeks hopefully.

 

[rob1]

Has anyone actually DD'ed some grain maize, as after talking to our neighbour today we might give this a go.
We have Claydon drilled a bit of game maize over the last few years, and plenty of fert seems to be the order of the day.

What crop would be good to follow, obviously it depends on time of year and conditions.
Would winter beans be better than wheat ?

He has just sprayed some maize off to bring harvest forward by three or four weeks hopefully.

How did you set the drill up, may try a bit next year,

 

[Nick.]

Rob,
Nothing tricky, just had the front tine about three inches deep, and always ran 7" A share to put the seed about 1.5" to 2" deep.

This was on a SR.
As said before the soil needs to be warm, I have gone a bit early before and it has struggled.
I am not the best at waiting.
This year it has got to be nearly 7 feet tall.

 

[rob1]

Rob,
Nothing tricky, just had the front tine about three inches deep, and always ran 7" A share to put the seed about 1.5" to 2" deep.

This was on a SR.
As said before the soil needs to be warm, I have gone a bit early before and it has struggled.
I am not the best at waiting.
This year it has got to be nearly 7 feet tall.

Thanks did wonder about using the bean shoot to get the seed a bit deeper but will try like that

 

[Great In Grass]

Thanks did wonder about using the bean shoot to get the seed a bit deeper but will try like that

Typical seed depth would be 3 to 5cm but more importantly drilling into soil moisture.

 

[Great In Grass]

Limagrain (LG) produce a 'Maize - Grower's Guide' I've attached it for upload if anyone is interested.

 

[Clive]

So who is it that runs the strip cat machines - I reckon this is the way to dd it ? Strip cat then precision drill into the strips ? Or could a precision drill unit be fitted to the strip cat ?

 

[Dan Powell]

So who is it that runs the strip cat machines - I reckon this is the way to dd it ? Strip cat then precision drill into the strips ? Or could a precision drill unit be fitted to the strip cat ?

Sly agri will sell you one. Best to drill as a separate pass as different operating speeds.


If you do get one, can you nip down the M54 and do some for us. £30/acre?

 

[Jim Bullock]

Has anyone actually DD'ed some grain maize, as after talking to our neighbour today we might give this a go.
We have Claydon drilled a bit of game maize over the last few years, and plenty of fert seems to be the order of the day.

What crop would be good to follow, obviously it depends on time of year and conditions.
Would winter beans be better than wheat ?

He has just sprayed some maize off to bring harvest forward by three or four weeks hopefully.

When we grew grain maize my plan was to follow it with winter beans then wheat, but we had a really wet November and December and had to follow it with spring rape, which was not ideal.
In an ideal world I would go winter wheat; (cover-crop) grain maize, winter/spring beans, winter OSR, wheat, wheat...back to cover crop followed by grain maize.. Unless I can find a good market for the maize it might just have to be substituted for spring oats..
But we are talking over six years down the road by which time nobody knows what the economics of any of these crops might look like... so my ideas are very much ideas, and I know for sure they will change, probably before I have finished writing this reply.!

 

[Clive]

Sly agri will sell you one. Best to drill as a separate pass as different operating speeds.


If you do get one, can you nip down the M54 and do some for us. £30/acre?

I think I would want to see it work on a smallish area before going mad ! I wonder if I could pay sly agri to do 40ac for me ?

 

[Nick.]

@Jim Bullock, how did you plant the maize ?
Did you place any fert with it ?

I would probably aim to put a starter fert and then top up with some broadcast.

 

[Great In Grass]

@Jim Bullock

I would probably aim to put a starter fert and then top up with some broadcast.

Why spread fertiliser where there is no maize growing, you will only encourage weed growth and there is one thing (amongst many) maize doesn't like is competition.

 

[Nick.]

Why spread fertiliser where there is no maize growing, you will only encourage weed growth and there is one thing (amongst many) maize doesn't like is competition.

You have a good point there.
I was told we can put fert through our drill and meter seed through a separate granular/seed hopper.
Best find out if it can meter maize too.

 

[jack6480]

I thought there was more to it than just swapping the header on the combine???

 

[Great In Grass]

Maize does well with either MAP or DAP down the spout at drilling.

 

[Devon James]

We have had a go with the stripcat this year. The technique has got massive potential IMO. Weed control has got to be spot on as well as fertiliser placement.
Timing of first pass also important for soil warming reasons.

 

[Jim Bullock]

@Jim Bullock, how did you plant the maize ?
Did you place any fert with it ?

I would probably aim to put a starter fert and then top up with some broadcast.

It was precision drilled with a starter fertiliser (into a min-till seed bed) then we broadcast urea after drilling..

 

[Simon Chiles]

If you want to dd maize for combining then this http://toucanfarmmachinery.co.uk/contact-us/planter-nx.html is probably the best tool for the job.

 

[Fuzzy]

I am thinking about growing a few acres of grain maize.
Can it be harvested with a normal combine header?

 

[Weare Cham]

I am thinking about growing a few acres of grain maize.
Can it be harvested with a normal combine header?

Nope.