Farmer Focus: Maize crop on track to harvest early September

As I write, Anna is clipping cows ready for the North Lonsdale show.

We don’t do as much showing as we did when we were a bit younger, as other commitments take our time now, but it’s something we have always enjoyed.

For us, there’s no financial reward, but supporting the local show and indulging in a bit of local rivalry makes for a good day out.

See also: Advice for creating temporary field clamps for maize

About the author

Tom Stable

Tom Stable and family, Ulverston, Cumbria, milk 350 Holsteins three times a day, producing milk for Arla and ice cream for their Cumbrian Cow brand. The 300ha operation, of which two thirds is rented, grows grass, maize and winter wheat and cows average 11,800 litres.

Read more articles by Tom Stable

Our sons Alfie, eight, and six-year-old Toby, are taking calves, which they also thoroughly enjoy, although with rugby, football, swimming, Cubs and more, they struggle to fit it in as much as we do.

The combine is on its way. This will be the earliest we have started combining, and unusually, the spring barley is ahead of the wheat, so that’s where we will begin.

Crops look OK, after a kind summer but a poor winter.

Getting an early start should give us a bigger window to get the sand slurry out, and allow us to drill the cover crops in much better time, which we have realised is crucial to their success.

The cows are still performing well, and our negative seasonality months are now out of the way.

Thanks to the increased volume from three-times-a-day milking, our price was held back to 41.92p/litre in July.

Things will flip now, so it’s important we keep it going as best we can through the positive months, August to October.

It has been a tremendous year for grass and maize so far, with the maize tassling the first week in July. Cobs are well formed now and should be on track for harvest in early September

I’m not sure whether to have a change of varieties to push it a little later and gain more bulk – for the past eight to 10 years we have grown it, we have harvested in that first week of September, and when it tassles in July, you think there’s so much summer still to go.

But we will have to be careful not to get greedy, as good establishment of the wheat that follows maize is crucial to the system, along with leaving the soil in the field when we harvest.

Fourth cut is growing well; fitting the forage in the clamps is looking like this year’s problem, which at least is better than having to buy it in like we did last year.