Where crimping maize has grown into guite a business

摘要

The majority of maize is harvested as forage maize but over the last two to three years there has been a growing interest in grain maize, and to avoid drying costs this is often crimped and treated with a clamp additive. Michael Finch reports. TypicalUK weather conditions can make grain maize expensive to dry. The alternative is harvesting maize grain at approximately 30-35% moisture, processing the grain with a crimping machine and clamping the end product like silage. Crimping gives an earlier maize harvest and removes the need for specialist dry grain storage. This is the route taken by Wiltshire farmer Tim Farthing who is crimping an increasing tonnage each year to provide high quality feed for farmers in his region. With a growing maize crimping operation he took the decision to sell his dairy herd last April and now runs a stand-alone enterprise with the resulting maize silage being fed to his own beef cattle and an increasing tonnage being sold to dairy farmers across the south-west and south Wales. South Wales has been identified as a key market for as Mr Farthing explains: "There is a shortage of energy for cow rations in that area where they can really only grow grass so it fits in well. There are some real benefits to be had from it."He went on: "We grow maize and we are also hoping to get more people to grow it for us and we'll be able to provide the harvesting, milling and storage facilities for it. We can then process it and market it for them, possibly on a cooperative basis."