Early maturing maize set to become more popular

• Challenging season delays harvest

• Still a top performing forage crop

• Range of factors need consideration

Growers are being advised to consider earlier maturing maize varieties after a wet season delayed harvest.

Maize remains the top performing forage crop for many growers – with potential for market growth under the Sustainable Farming Incentive. It has also become a key break crop for wheat, due to its ability to achieve high gross margins.

But with almost 70 forage maize varieties on the NIAB UK Descriptive List – and many new unlisted varieties in trials – it can be a challenge to select the most appropriate maize for a given situation.

The path isn’t always clear when it comes to choosing the right variety, says agronomist Jim Clark, of Hutchinsons.

“Maize doesn’t travel well, so what you often find is that varieties that perform well in one region of the UK don’t necessarily replicate that performance elsewhere due to differences in weather and soil types.”

Big improvement

“The agronomic standard of maize varieties has also improved tremendously during the last 10 years and, while that’s a positive, it also makes variety choice more difficult given there’s now a bigger talent pool for growers to consider.”

Mr Clark says he would trial 30-40 varieties when he began regional maize trials 20 years ago. Of those, about 6-8 varieties would perform well and go on to be recommended for on-farm trials with customers, he adds.

“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.”

A challenging season – including a lack of summer sunshine – delayed the maturity many maize crops this year. This was compounded by difficult harvesting conditions later.

“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. Many maize growers may even trade-off a small percentage of yield to lift their crops two or three weeks earlier if adverse harvest conditions continue to persist.”

Mr Clark says growers should also consider starch content and dry matter yield (DM) rather than focusing solely on fresh-weight yield. Other factors should include end market and the following crop – be it wheat, a cover crop or something else.

Nutrition strategy

“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.

Maize variety Hagrid – marketed in the UK by Elsoms Seeds – looks like one to watch, says Mr Clark. Trials by Hutchinsons suggest it is high yielding, with an excellent dry matter percentage, he adds.

German maize breeder Saaten Union has good links with Elsoms. It has a trials network of more than 70 locations – including three in the UK – across 16 countries with more than 6,000 trial plots.

Saaten Union product manager Daniel Ott says varieties which are bred in Germany and then prove well-adapted to UK conditions are a good starting point when deciding what to grow.

Stressful 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.”

For UK growers, Mr Ott says usage, maturity dates and yield are key factors. So too is an understanding that the UK climate may mean later harvest dates now becoming the new normal.”

“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,” says Mr Ott.

“SU Addition 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.”