United Kingdom
March 20, 2025
Despite traditionally being regarded as a niche crop in Scotland due its requirement for warm soils and long hours of sunshine, an increasing number of growers north of the border are successfully harvesting maize as a reliable source of winter forage for livestock.
“With careful planning and attention to detail, early maturing maize varieties can produce consistently high yields of dry matter, starch and easily metabolisable energy,” explains Tim Richmond, Maize Manager for Limagrain Field Seeds UK and Ireland.
The latest generation of ultra early varieties means maize is now a viable forage crop for some Scottish growers.
“Thanks to significant investment in maize breeding programmes, Scottish growers now have the option to grow maize without having to drill crops under plastic and without automatically having to sacrifice yield or crop quality in order to secure a safe and early harvest.
“In fact, many growers in Scotland, typically in the Borders but also further north, have achieved good yields from varieties such as Gema, Dignity and Skipper, all of which are able to produce cost-effective crops in a shorter growing season. In the right conditions, all three can be drilled in May and harvested successfully in October, leaving sufficient time for a following catch crop such as forage rye to be grown before the next maize cycle begins. And with the next generation of ultra early varieties such as Duke which has an even shorter growing season, yield, quality and earliness of harvest are even easier to achieve.”
In addition to a variety which matures early and can therefore be harvested in favourable conditions, and which has a high lodging resistance rating to enable it to cope with unfavourable weather conditions, the key to growing a good crop of maize in Scotland is to ensure crops are drilled into a well-prepared seedbed which has warmed to at least 8oC for at least five consecutive days.
“How well a crop performs at harvest ultimately comes down to how it was cared for in its infancy,” Tim continues. “Even the very best genetics can’t compensate for poor soil preparation, a lack of nutrients or seed which hasn’t been drilled to the correct depth, so attention to detail and selecting the right location is vital to ensuring the crop’s success.
“A sheltered location with free draining soils and preferably with a south facing aspect will be beneficial, with growers also advised to work with an experienced maize contractor and agronomist before jumping into growing maize for the first time,” Tim adds. “And growers should also do their own homework to make sure they’re using a suitable variety. The first port of call should be to study the independent data provided by the BSPB/NIAB Forage Maize Descriptive List to create a shortlist of potential varieties, but growers can also access free tools such as the LG Seeds Maize Manager App to determine which variety or varieties are suited to their specific location.”
The LG Maize Manager App simplifies the decision about which variety to grow.
The Maize Manager App uses the latest trials data and postcode-specific Met Office data to calculate Ontario Heat Unit accumulations for the specified location and processes this information to recommend relevant varieties. In doing so, growers can easily select the optimum variety for their location. The App also features a Sowing Manager tool which calculates the optimum seeding rate for the chosen variety, and a Maturity Manager to determine if the selected location is likely to receive sufficient heat units to grow maize and to advice the optimum date for harvest.
“Growers can also find most of the information they need in the LG Maize Variety Selection Guide,” Tim concludes. “As well as making maize variety choice simple, this handy guide also provides a wealth of crop establishment and nutritional advice, as well as some key pointers in terms of bird, insect and disease control.”
More info
For the BSPB/NIAB Forage Maize Descriptive List, click here
To download the LG Maize Manager App from Apple, click here
To download the LG Maize Manager App from Google Play, click here
To view the 2025 LG Maize Variety Selection Guide, click here
Species
