Improving the yield of early maize varieties has been a key breeding goal for plant geneticists and their efforts are definitely paying off with an exciting group of new additions to this year's NIAB Descriptive List. Angela Rhodes reviews the new entries and the top performers available to growers this season. Early maturing maize varieties have undoubtedly been the fastest growing sector of the market and the one where plant breeders have made the greatest strides. And the demand for high quality early varieties looks set to continue as environmental pressures force farmers to look more closely at harvest dates with the aim of getting crops off marginal land in particular by early October. Early varieties have also given producers in more marginalareas the chance to grow a high value second forage and breeders are likely to continue pushing at the geographical boundaries of maize production. Early varieties typically have a high starch concentration but lose out on yield to the bulkier medium earlies. This season's crop of new early varieties, however, shows what a major lift in yield has been achieved in a relatively short time.
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