Forage Maize. Candir, Castro and Kadenz Maize Seed. Crimped, Grain and Forage Maize. Starch yield and whole plant diestibility versus whole crop dry matter and starch %. Feed value and Nutrition. Ultra early class 10. Maize silage additive treatment


Forage Maize Seed

Forage Maize Seed Our interest in Forage Maize seed arises from the belief that forage quality is key to the performance of high yielding dairy cows. Starting with the right variety of forage maize seed is the major factor which determines the nutrition of the forage maize when it is fed to the dairy cow. Feeling that many dairy farmers were not growing the best forage maize seed varieties available, Richard Webster Nutrition has teamed up with Oliver Seeds to supply a range of outstanding Powermaize varieties, which we believe offer clear advantages for the dairy farmer.
Why these new Powermaize varieties? The true value of a variety can be measured in terms of tonnes of digestible yield and tonnes of starch produced per hectare. As well as starch we select maize varieties for TOTAL DIGESTIBLE YIELD / ha. This represents the product of Dry Matter yield / ha and energy density of the whole maize plant, not just the starch content. Total Dry Matter Yield / ha is by far the biggest factor in determining the cost / tonne of dry matter of growing forage maize. Yet much of the UK market has become focused on growing relatively lower yielding Maturity Class 10 & 11 maize varieties prone to early die back. Far too much emphasis in the UK has been placed on whole plant dry matter and starch level. Quality and feed value is influenced as much by fibre digestibility as it is by starch. The range of digestibility on approved maize varieties can account for 1600 litres of milk per ha, or £290 / ha income. Cob ripeness is far more important than percentage dry matter of the whole plant, which is often influenced more by premature die back of leaves than it is by good cob ripeness. RWN Forage Maize varieties are selected for consistent high DM yield, and whole plant digestibility over a wide range of sites and conditions. RWN forage maize varieties are also selected for early cob ripeness with stay green characteristics giving a wide harvest window. This avoids the problem associated with many early maize varieties, of rapid die back producing excess dead material that is colonized by high populations of yeast and moulds, rapid dry down, over ripe grain, poor silage chop and poor consolidation resulting in poor fermentation and unstable heating silage.
Candir Forage Maize This impressive new hybrid maize is our flag ship variety. Candir is a massive plant with very high yield potential, very early cob ripeness, good starch levels, very high digestibility, excellent lodging resistance, good drought tolerance, wide harvest window, good vigour. Put simply Candir is my first choice forage maize variety to grow. Extremely early. Massive and simply stunning. Why use anything else?
On trials over several years Candir has consistently out-performed virtually every other variety grown in the UK. In the field we consistently see higher cob weights than other varieties grown along side. Candir has one of the earliest cobs to ripen. It can be one of the first varieties to cut or can be left on into a warm Autumn to put on additional bulk. I have never seen it lodge. Candir with its massive cobs, is the ideal variety for forage maize as well as for crimped maize or for grain maize. Candir forage maize has produced excellent yields at up to 900 feet above sea level. In our first year of growing Candir commercially in 2005 Candir out performed every other maize variety that we grew it against, in some cases by up to 50%, giving us yields well over 25 tonnes / acre. In the disastrous maize growing conditions of 2006 with seed bed and ground conditions between fields and within fields accounting for in some cases up to 50% yield reductions, Candir again has performed well against other forage maize varieties. If nothing else 2006 has clearly demonstrated that we need to pay much more attention to sub-soiling, seed bed preparation, crop rotation, fertilizer and nutrient requirements in order to maximize maize crop yields and to minimize growing costs / t of dry matter. Again in 2007, a very difficult season for forage maize growing, Candir has out yielded pretty well all other varieties that we grew it against. Candir has also consistently been earlier than most ultra-early maize varieties which it has generally out yielded by a fair margin. Candir not only out yields almost every other variety available, it is one of the earliest varieties available. Candir really is an extremely versatile multi-purpose variety. Having seen it's ability to out-perform other varieties it is difficult to find a situation where I would recommend another forage maize variety. The Next Generation of Forage Maize - (Castro, Adenzo and Kadenz) We are currently trialling three new forage maize varieties that look to be even better the Candir. Castro, Adenzo and Kadenz have similar characteristics to Candir in their potential to produce huge yields with very early cob ripeness together with good starch levels and high digestibility. In addition all three varieties have extremely good early vigour.
Castro produces enormous yields, with an early cob. Used widely in Holland and Germany, Castro is grown for its reliability both for its potential to produce massive yields of bio fuel for bio-gas production and for it extremely high starch yields and excellent feed value for forage maize. Castro was the highest yielding variety on Oliver Seeds official trials in 2007. Adenzo in 2007 matched Candir for DM yield. Adenzo however has advantages in its superior early vigour and at the same time Adenzo has an even higher starch yield with an ME of 11.8 on NIAB data.
Kadenz almost equaled Castro's dry matter yield in the Oliver Seeds trials and on RWN field trials in 2007 Kadenz showed the best early vigour of any variety trialled with cob weights ahead of any other variety other than Candir. Not only is Kadenz an exceptional yielder, Kadenz is very early with a very high starch rating and a much higher relative digestibility than most other maize varieties. All three new Forage Maize Varieties, Castro, Kadenz and Adenzo look set to satisfy our selection criteria for reliability, early vigour, enormous yields, early cob ripeness, high starch yields, exceptional digestibility and energy yield per acre with good standing power without premature die back. With the cost of land, fertiliser and fuel increasing the cost of growing forage maize can only be controlled by growing higher yielding varieties. We are confident that these new forage maize varieties will prove far more profitable for farmers to grow than most other varieties currently available. Forage Maize Crop Preservation
Growing forage maize whilst being one of the cheapest energy feeds available to the dairy farmer still represents a very significant cost. Consequently it is important to pay attention to detail when ensiling forage maize to minimize both dry matter and nutrient loss from the silage clamp. Consolidate and seal the clamp effectively and always use an additive. For maximum feed value, forage intakes and aerobic stability we recommend treating all forage maize at harvest with Gold Shake Arable, our new state of the art wholecrop and forage maize additive. It really does work. We have seen Gold Shake Arable treated maize silage, remain stable, with no signs of heating and no signs of moulding for several weeks at a time.
Richard Webster Nutrition Ltd offers a full nutritional support package free of charge to our customers along with the most extensive range of high quality feed inputs available.
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