Maize yields look good with high starch values

摘要

Flowering dates are about 10 days ahead of normal indicating an overall earlier harvest date at record yields, predicts Lindsay Cousland from Advanta Seeds. "In some areas it could be as much as 20% more than normal yields," she says, adding that it is probably the best maize she has ever seen with starch levels also looking good. "Although it hasn't been a particularly good summer, it appears that the maize has grabbed the warmth of the day and has been little affected by the cooler nights," she says. Dairy farmer David Pearce from Worcestershire, who milks 200 cows on the farm which is one of the four sites used for trialling maize for Advanta, agrees that the yields of Crescendo are looking somewhere in the region of 20+t an acre and he is planning to harvest in the second week of September.