The lessons from corn season 2018

For the fourth year in a row we are talking about a growing season with extreme conditions. A cold spring, extreme precipitation, prolonged drought and heat and summer storms: it has all happened in recent years. What can you do as a corn grower to protect yourself against extremes?

The growing season started extremely this year: high temperatures and locally heavy precipitation. Where there was no flooding, the corn usually had a good start. The drought that followed broke all records, resulting in varying yields. You can control the following factors to guarantee your roughage yield:

Varietal choice of maize
With a smart choice of variety you will immediately make a lot of profit. In the event of a cold spring, drought and heat and a gloomy autumn, very early/early maize varieties are the most harvest-reliable:

• Early varieties produce their cobs and panicles early in the season, so there is no drought. The (very) early varieties had much better cob development this summer than mid-early and late varieties.
• Early varieties fully ripen in a cold, gloomy late summer and therefore achieve their maximum VEM per kilo of dry matter.
• Early varieties are ready for harvest earlier. An early harvest generally gives less chance of lodging, diseases and structural damage to the soil. Growers on sandy and loess soils must have sown the catch crop no later than October 2019 from 1, which is perfectly possible with (very) early varieties.

The yield potential of (very) early varieties has been enormously increased through breeding, LG 31.205 (very early) en LG 31.226 (early) for example, deliver 22,5 to 23 tons of dry matter per hectare in the variety list tests. That's more than many mid-early varieties!

Soil quality
The value of good soil quality is clearly visible in both drought and extreme precipitation. Healthy soils with a good structure and sufficient organic matter can store and drain more water, supply more nutrients and keep the corn vital and healthy for longer, even in extreme weather.

Prevent structural damage in cultivation: only carry out spring operations when the soil is sufficiently dry, ensure an early harvest with early varieties, and practice crop rotation with grass where possible.

Construction plan
Your construction plan can also be made extra harvest-secure. In this very dry year we saw clover, alfalfa and fodder beets grow much longer than grass and corn. These crops have much deeper roots and are therefore more resistant to drought.

For more practical advice in your roughage cultivation Contact your LG roughage specialist without obligation or look at www.lgseeds.nl

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