Co. Armagh farmer Mark Lewis recently hosted a College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) business development group meeting.
The focus of the event was the growing and utilisation of forage maize within a year-round milk production system.
In 2022, Mark grew 18ac of maize for the first time. The area increased to 23ac this year.
On the back of last year’s crop Mark was feeding the maize at a rate of 10kg/cow/day from November through to the middle of the summer.
He found that while the maize was included in the total mixed ration offered to the cows, gut health improved, as did fertility.
“The plan now is to offer maize to the cows the year round. This is why I have increased the acreage of the crop grown in 2023,” he said.
“Last year the maize was ensiled in a clamp with one earth-banked wall. Spoilage was noticeable at that point in the silo as the feeding season progressed.
“For the coming season, a new wall has been built to replace the earth bank. The breadth of the silo face has also been increased from 22in last year to 29in at the present time.
“I am aware that exposing more of the maize to the air, particularly as the weather warms up in the spring and summer months, can lead to heating of the forage,” he added.
“However, the plan is to use enough of the silage on a daily basis to prevent this from happening.”
CAFRE dairy advisor, Alan Hopps, had prepared figures for the meeting which compared the costings of growing forage maize with a four-cut grass silage system.
These confirmed that maize is costing £58/t directly prior to feed out. This is assuming a 17t/ac fresh yield and a dry matter value of 30%.
The equivalent figure for the grass silage system is £67/t. This is assuming a dry matter grass yield of 4t/ha/cut.
“The big factor coming into play, where forage maize is concerned, is the fact that it is a one-harvest crop,” he said.
But as Alan Hopps’ figures confirm: The final yield achieved by a maize crop is everything.
The cost of production per tonne of dry matter ranges from £310 for a fresh yield of 10t/ac down to £170 for a 20t/ac crop.”
Following the presentations, the members of the business groups inspected Mark’s 2023 maize crops.
It was estimated that yields of between 18t to 30t/ac can be expected. The crops will be ready for harvest within the next fortnight.