Maize 2019

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
Drilled a lot later than hoped for (second week of may) but no bad thing due to a cold snap around the first bank holiday but 85ac in and now out without too much damage despite coming out of grass

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DRC

Member
Mine was drilled on 30th April and has taken 3 weeks to emerge, which thankfully it did , as I was getting a bit concerned it’d been drilled too deep .
 

digger64

Member
a
Mine was drilled on 30th April and has taken 3 weeks to emerge, which thankfully it did , as I was getting a bit concerned it’d been drilled too deep .
why do you drill so early ? - its a big gamble re frost and pests its to expensive to get wrong we had 3 frosts about 14 days ago here
 

DRC

Member
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a
why do you drill so early ? - its a big gamble re frost and pests its to expensive to get wrong we had 3 frosts about 14 days ago here
Good question, which I’ve been asking myself . A combination of good conditions at the time and contractors in the area drilling for neighbours. Could do with this cold wind stopping now.
 
If the seed bed is already nearly there I would not worry about rolling it, I think unrolled lets rainfall percolate through the soil profile faster but obviously that depends on soil type.

I would always pre-em every acre of maize because its basically the best way to do it, the chemical arsenal for maize is changing and it is far better for the crop to have much lower levels of competition. It also helps keep the crop cleaner all season and will end up with a cleaner stubble at the end which may be important for people who want to put grass or wheat in behind it or those with long term weed burdens they are trying to manage. It is however more work for an agronomist to check maize repeatedly that has been treated pre-emergence. You can generally save a good deal of money on any post emergence application as the weed spectrum is much smaller and the weeds are always sensitised anyway. Also the cost of the yellow peril is so small I can't see any valid argument for not bothering.

I can tell instantly which maize was or was not given pre-emergence treatment just by driving past the stubbles in the autumn.
 

digger64

Member
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Good question, which I’ve been asking myself . A combination of good conditions at the time and contractors in the area drilling for neighbours. Could do with this cold wind stopping now.
we have always drilled late may even early june not necessarily by choice , but it comes up green and misses the sickly yellow phase out , seems to out yield other crops consistently according to our contractor at harvest
 
we have always drilled late may even early june not necessarily by choice , but it comes up green and misses the sickly yellow phase out , seems to out yield other crops consistently according to our contractor at harvest

I agree. The early drilled crops that come up and experience a cold spell never really get any further ahead by harvest. Better to get a crop in that comes up, goes green and keeps going, I am convinced they yield just as well and are more even stands as a result. I do not see any difference in harvest date which I believe is more a function of how much heat it received in the growing season and ultimately it's maturity class.

Very very few of the growers I know in my area would be growing anything less than an 8 in maturity and most of the serious maize growers would be in the 10-12 maturity classes. Mind, it does not help the job given that there is often a fair bit of back and forth when determining if a crop is fit or not. In my humble opinion I would say maize is best harvested at 35% DM and above due to the potential for acid loading of the rumen but that is very much a tin hat on statement...

I would not pay ant attention to the calendar when planting maize and instead focus on getting the right seed bed and conditions. In the United States at latitudes similar to ours you will not find many people trying to plant corn/maize in April as they are too aware of the risk of cold weather literally killing it.

DAP or starter fertiliser blends containing it have shown time and time again to give a much happier crop due to the accessibility of phosphate presented to the initial seminal roots beneath the seed reaching them fast. Better rooting and a faster moving crop are the net result.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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