Roughage tour Corn - week 34
First corn field harvested, drought is cutting in
The maize cobs continue to ripen at a rapid pace under the current weather conditions. The drought is taking hold, as can be seen from the first plot of maize harvested from the Boerenbusiness Roughage tour.
The ripening of the cob is in top gear and so the maize is at dairy farmer Silvain Kusters in Guttecoven (Limburg) already more than ripe. He started the harvest on Monday 22 August and the first impression is dry, but not the wrong stock. According to Kusters, ripening has gone very quickly lately, so he has decided to chop all his plots. Earlier he wanted to wait a little longer with the slightly later plots.
"You decide how fast it matures"
According to Kusters, the maize harvest should not have lasted longer. "The maize here is so ripe and dry. According to the maize samples, the Roughage Tour plot has a dry matter percentage of 40 to 42%. Another plot is 35 to 36%, but I estimate that everything is slightly drier." Kusters had previously planned to chop the plot with a lower percentage of dry matter later this week, but his planning changed when checking the plots. "You are surprised when you see what can happen to ripening in 2 days. Especially with the warm weather forecast that is coming, I therefore do not dare to leave the maize any longer. You also take the heat with you into the silage when you Thursday harvest".
Despite the drought, the yield seems good. "It's really dry, but looking at the cobs and yield, it's pretty good under the current conditions. We'll silage it and put the driest pit below and the slightly wetter one above it, so the damp can pull down a bit." .
In the coming days the mercury will rise again towards the 30 degrees plus, which means that the maize will ripen much faster. In Guttecoven near Kusters, plots have already been harvested with 40% dry matter, which is (emergency) ripe. Other maize fields are also maturing rapidly, as can be seen from the dry matter percentages of the other dairy farmers of the Roughage Tour.
Jesse Torringa
© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.
