Maize- It's nearly ready, but for what...?

Six different varieties planted in trials at Petrockstowe, the latest maturing variety Nescio being about 2 weeks away from harvest, the earliest about a week away.

Down at Bude, the earliest planted material is almost ready, with Sapphire being cut yesterday 20th September near Poughill. Not sure what the drymatter level is but they always are first to cut in the area. The Beethoven at Cann Orchard on the south side will be fit to cut this week, the field on the north side next, is almost there, probably end of next week.

The Lorado is looking very good generally, eyespot is now entering a lot of crops in the area following the long wet spell, however with cob development so far on now I don't think this is going to cause any problems with cob maturity. I am confident we are going to see yields reaching 5 ton/ac on the best fields.

There is however a glut of unsold standing maize in the area, traditionally Bude has always been a very good area to grow maize, however buyers have been very scarce this year, even though the quantities of good 1st and 2nd cut silage are not there this year following the very dry summer, although most have bet the farm on 3rd cut giving enough quantity to see them through the winter. Cash flow seems to be the major issue affecting buying in maize silage this year, more so than in the past it seems, although with the latest small price rise offered by Tesco this last week, things my change.

Combining maize last year has now however effectively put a floor on the price of maize this year given the rise in wheat values this autumn. Effectively, maize is worth at least £400/ac regardless if it's for forage, or for grain/crimping and from a grower and buyer prospective it means a lot less storage space being required and less transport needed to move it from farm to farm. This from a buyers perspective could make cashflow decisions far easier to manage.

Now that there are two dedicated contractors, Phil Strout and Roy Prouse, fully kitted up to combine maize, growers aren't being forced into getting shot of standing crops cheaply, so it will be interesting to see how this developes further.

Lets hope the weather plays ball.......!