As the UK’s climate becomes more and more unpredictable, the country’s dairy farmers are increasingly looking to maize as a means of boosting variable winter forage production from hard-hit grassland.
With cold, wet weather often followed by periods of prolonged drought, milk producers are looking for varieties that can establish well in less than favourable conditions and reach full maturity with lower levels of heat units, says DSV UK’s Sarah Hawthorne.
“Dairy farmers have traditionally relied on several cuts of good quality grass silage in early summer as the basis for their winter forage, but this has been increasingly difficult in recent years.
“Even if it is possible to get on the land at the right time, the cold, wet winters preceding this can make yields and quality disappointing. The environmental pressure to cut back on nitrogen use is also a limiting factor.
“With this in mind, maize is becoming an increasingly essential element of dairy rations with developments in plant breeding helping ensure a larger area of the country than ever can reliably grow the crop.”
When it comes to the UK’s dairy rations, energy content of the maize is all important, as this drives both milk yield and quality, but this is dependent on the crop reaching full maturity, she explains.
“In the more variable growing conditions we now have, varieties that can achieve this maturity with a reduced number of heat units, are increasingly in demand. Crops that cannot reliably reach 30-35% DM and an ME of 10.5 MJ/kg DM are of little value to milk producers.
“Fortunately, modern genetics are delivering this ability to mature fully in more adverse conditions without the major yield sacrifice seen previously.
“JOY, for example, is one of a new generation of ultra early maize varieties capable of establishing reliably in a range of challenging conditions before growing strongly to deliver high yields of starch energy at harvest.
“Based on a robust flint genetics, DSV hybrid maize varieties like JOY are really quick to get going, even in cold conditions, and move quickly through flowering and cob fill.
“While starch content is exceptional, this is balanced by high forage production, so it’s the ideal partner to grass silage in forage-based TMRs and other rations.
“Ironically, what started as a tropical crop that was viewed as difficult to grow in the UK just a few decades ago, maize is now proving to be a more reliable crop in many parts of the country than our indigenous grasses.
“Over the last five years of repeated episodes of high rainfall, drought and widely varying temperatures, strong early maturing maize varieties have been the backbone of high performance dairy rations.
“They’ve provided the country’s high yielding dairy cows with a highly cost-effective home-grown feed with all indications suggesting this is a situation that can only increase in the future.”