Drilling Date: Ideally mid-April to early May, early drilling improves dry matter yields, grain content and drought sensitivity.
Soil Temperature: Consistently at 8˚C at sowing depth.
Sowing Depth: The seed must be sown into moisture usually 35 - 40mm.
Starter Fertiliser: Significantly improves establishment by speeding up initial growth especially on nutrient low soils, whilst improving maturity, dry matter and starch yields. Proven as a crop investment.
Growth Fertilizer: Vitally important for maize yield & quality (see table opposite) consider Efficie-N-I routine.
Seed Dressing: See treatment options (treatment legislation is likely to change again in 2024).
Seed Rates: Optimum seed rate of 45,000 seeds per acre yield of energy & starch (Silage).
Weed Control: Due to maize’s lack of competitiveness in its early growth stages effective weed control is imperative to avoid crop failure.
Maize Eyespot: An increasingly common fungal disease affecting continuous maize at temperatures below 27°C. It will also affect harvest dates, starch levels and feed values. A preventative spray in mid July will control any potential occurrences. Combined with Efficie-N-I application.
Harvest Maturity: Immature harvesting reduces energy and starch yields by up to approximately 30%, adversely effecting silage performance.
Dry Matter: Forage - 30% - 35% Maximum animal intake, Digestor - 27% - 31% Maximum for anaerobic digestion fermentation
Chop Length: Forage Long Chop - 12mm - 15mm for rumen digestibility, Biogas Short Chop - 7mm - 10mm for extra surface area, Very Wet - 20mm - 25mm to reduce effuelent, Very Dry - 10mm to improve clamp compaction
Grain Cracking: To ensure maximum energy utilisation the corn cracker must be correctly adjusted to completely shatter all the grains to a powder.
Feed Out: Leave the clamp sealed for at least 4 weeks allowing the silage to stabilise and the grains to soften to maximise feed energy.
Lallemand: Crop and Condition inoculants deliver high quality forage for both livestock and anaerobic digestors.
