Roughage tour Corn - Week 28
Corn is better on schedule than last season
The maize has had explosive growth in recent weeks. The right weather conditions helped with this. How does the crop currently look compared to last year and what are the reactions of the dairy farmers?
The first plumes are visible in the maize fields at the dairy farmers. Despite the difficult start, the dairy farmers see the maize recover considerably and there seems to be little evidence of growth retardation. Dairy farmers are currently experiencing explosive growth. "Apart from some emergence problems, which were mainly due to drought, the maize is growing well on schedule this season," says Antoon Verhoeven, roughage specialist in the Southwest Netherlands of Limagrain.
At the moment there are already maize fields that are not far from the 3 meter height. At the beginning of this week, Sander Vijverberg from Strijen (ZH) measured 2,8 meters and Silvain Kusters from Guttecoven (Li) 2,9 meters. Last season, 28 meters were measured in week 2,1 in Guttecoven, so a difference of 80 centimetres. The graphs below show the growth curves for 2021 and 2022. The other maize heights for week 28 are not yet known.
Below is the development of the maize height in 2021. The graph gives a slightly distorted picture because the graph runs up to and including August.
What is striking in the graphs is that the development in 2022 will be more explosive and faster than in 2021. This confirms the sometimes difficult start to the season. This is because the growth curve will certainly rise faster at the end of June in 2022 than in 2021. Last season the growth curve was much more even. This can be easily explained by the right weather conditions for maize in 2022.
The first cobs are currently taking shape at dairy farmer Silvain Kusters in Limburg. Below in the image the first flasks.
Reuben van der Maas
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