Releases Archive 2011

This year, AFBI-Crossnacreevy will be testing around forty varieties for both the open and plastic recommended lists.  We will be sowing these variety trials around mid to late April or as soon as the soil temperature is at 100C.  With a total of fourteen years of maize testing experience, the AFBI team are expert at finding the best performing varieties and their descriptions and production figures are provided in the new DARD Recommended List for 2011.

If your farm is in a suitably mild area and weather is favourable, the varieties recommended for open sowing may do better than expected and provide a more economic winter feed than a plastic crop.  If conditions are less than ideal and in less mild locations, the protection of a plastic mulch will give substantial benefits and ensure a fully matured crop.  Over the past ten years the plastic system has delivered around 8-9 t per ha more fresh herbage per year (2.6 t per ha DM) with approximately 8% higher starch content than the open system, but at a higher contractor cost.   The decision as to which system best suits a particular enterprise is a play-off between a willingness to accept more year to year variation in crop performance against investing in higher up-front costs for the plastic system.  What is clear, however, is that home grown forage maize will reduce the outlay on bought-in concentrates and with prices escalating this advantage is increasing.  Some farmers have looked at their feed bills this winter and wished they had a full clamp of maize silage like their neighbour. So don’t spend next winter being envious of how well the best varieties and good management have provided high starch and high dry matter forage on other farms.  Begin planning now with a copy of the DARD Forage Maize Recommended List for 2011.  Copies are available at your local DARD office or can be downloaded from www.afbini.gov.uk/reclists.

by

Dr Trevor Gilliland & Dr Eamonn Meehan

Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute (AFBI), Plant Testing Station, Crossnacreevy