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For north Somerset milk producer Jon Bult, growing very early maturity maize is a key part of his dairy farming strategy at Collum Farm, near Weston-super-Mare.

It allows him to consistently underpin the ration for his 700 top-performing cows with a high-energy forage, despite some marginal land and the challenging growing conditions of recent seasons. 

Equally importantly, it means he can prioritise soil health on-farm by maximising the area of maize stubbles, which are successfully drilled with an overwinter cover crop.

In 2024, Jon grew 324 hectares (800 acres) of the very early maturity, high-yielding variety Gema, from Limagrain's robust and extensive UK screening and testing programme, and believes it is the combination of traits in modern varieties like this which will continue to make maize a mainstay at Collum Farm.

He says: "We are on heavy ground, loam over clay, and a lot of our land is marginal for maize.

"It makes absolute sense to opt for the earliest maturing varieties.

"We are feeding a forage ration which is 70% maize and 30% grass silage, with cows inside all year round, so we need both high yields and energy.

"We use modern varieties like Gema because the earliness is not impacting significantly on the yield potential, and it will deliver high starch, so it is ideal for our situation.

"We grow straight Italian ryegrass after maize and, being at sea level and with minimal risk of frosts, can typically drill this successfully as late as the end of October.

"In the past, we have been able to establish grass with relatively light cultivations, but with increasingly wetter conditions we had to cultivate deeper and deeper in order to achieve success."

Grain Maize 

In previous years, Jon has taken a proportion of his crop as grain maize, but this year has prioritised an earlier harvest by taking it all for forage to drill as big an area as possible with an overwinter cover crop.

He says: "To be successful in this changing climate, you have to evolve your tactics and be prepared to adapt.

As a straight overwinter cover crop, established after maize, the Italian, ryegrass qualifies for the Sustainable Farming Incentive action SOH4, which is currently worth £203/ha (£82.15/acre), but Jon says the greater value is in the benefits to soil health. 

He says: "Minimising soil erosion and nutrient losses is the main priority.

"We will terminate the cover crop in spring, then apply farmyard manure and slurry before going back into maize. 

"We will be growing Gema again in 2025. If we had the ground, I would like to grow more, including some grain maize again, but land is our limiting factor at the moment." 

"In an ideal season, Jon aims to drill maize for April 20, although it has been later in the past two cold wet springs, even as late as May 14.

He uses a standard herbicide programme, with pre-emergence applications for the earlier drilled crops.

He is routinely soil sampling his fields on a four-yearly rotation, and reports the key indices to be optimal, but is considering foliar applied nutrition as a possible development going forward.

The 700-strong milking herd comprises both Holstein Friesians, which average more than 12,000 litres per cow per lactation, and pure Jerseys, which average 7,000 litres/cow/lactation.

Sustainable farming incentive options for maize growers 

Establishing a winter cover crop after maize is recommended best practice, delivering multiple soil health benefits, but can also allow growers to access additional payments through the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), says Tim Richmond, maize manager for Limagrain Field Seeds UK and Ireland. 

He says: "The starting point is to grow early maturing varieties, to create as big a window as possible to establish a following crop. With the continuing success of maize breeding programmes, this can be achieved without any significant compromise on dry matter yield or quality" 

He points to the exciting newly listen very early variety, Duke, and brand new LG31. 152 which is expected to push the boundaries on earliness and yield, along with existing varieties on the Descriptive List, such a established favourites like  Gema, Dignity and Skipper. 

He says: "Duke will also have broad appeal for farmers across the maize growing spectrum. It is the latest LG variety to enter the Descriptive List and is a first choice variety on Favourable and Less Favourable lists, having performed consistently in trials and demonstrated an ability to produce outstanding yields of very high quality forage in a short growing season. 

Optimum conditions 

"Duke will give many growers the opportunity to drill later and still harvest in good time, exploiting optimum conditions and allowing time to establish a range of following crops." 

Undersowing maize is another potential SFI payment opportunity, qualifying under the companion crop action.

In addition to the payment, undersowing offers the advantage of the cover crop being established as soon as maize comes off, but it requires the right equipment, the right timing and the right combination of species to work well and avoid the risk of affecting the primary crop performance. 

John Spence, forage crop product manager for Limagrain Field Seeds UK and Ireland, recommends a Festulolium when under sowing at around six leaf stage, due to its drought tolerance and ability to establish in shade. 

If drilling concurrently with the maize, a mix including tall fescue and festulolium reduces competition for the maize.

In terms of winter cover crops to establish after maize, John says good value and fast growing options include Italian ryegrass and Westerwolds, as it will generally be too late for brassicas like mustard, rape or stubble turnips. 

Forage rye is an increasingly popular choice for farmers, with John reporting a significant uplift in sales of Limagrain's long established variety Humbolt. 

For a multi-species cover crop, forage rye with common vetch, as in LG Lift n Fix, provides the ideal combination of a crop which mops up residual nutrients while fixing nitrogen for future cropping.