Roughage tour Corn - Week 21
Problems in silage maize due to drought and pests
The majority of the sown acreage of silage maize is now above. The drought of the last few weeks has resulted in poor attendance in some cases, but pests also appear to be a threat to the crop. Dairy farmers especially in the north of the country face challenges.
Dairy farmer Frank Rooker works in Aartswoud (NH). He participates in the Boerenbusiness Roughage tour† Around 200 cows are milked on the dairy farm. He has planned 16 hectares of maize in the construction plan. The maize was sown on April 26 and the emergence went well. Until May 17, when Rooker discovered that pests had damaged the maize plants. The dairy farmer himself thinks of rats, but crows or geese can also have eaten the maize. Rooker has therefore decided to re-sow the maize plots one by one on 18 May. Especially along the ditches and places where the structure of the soil was still coarse.
In the picture the corn plants from the ground by pests.
It is clear to see that the corn plant is drying up above the ground.
Here, Rooker's contractor is overseeding the maize in places on May 18.
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Vision roughage specialist
"Newly sown fields are always an enemy to the pests", responds Antoon Verhoeven, roughage specialist at Limagrain. "You often also see that the coarser the clod structure, the more susceptible the newly sown seed is to theft. So plots that are well laid out and have a nice seedbed significantly reduce the risk of pests. At the moment it can also seem that the emergence is low because the seed has not germinated in certain places, so first look carefully at the places without emergence to find out what exactly is causing this. Last week's rain can also make up for a lot for the crop if it has not yet sprouted in some places had sprouted."
Reuben van der Maas
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