Want to grow maize without plastic, but are too scared of poor establishment and yield.   New very early maturing varieties like Tomahawk available from Nickerson Direct, can reduce the risk, and will lead to more maize being grown without the aid of plastic across Northern Ireland in coming years.

With excellent early vigour and standing power, Tomahawk is a maturity class 8 variety, producing high dry matter and starch yields, even when grown without plastic.

“All the Tomahawk grown without plastic in the Province last year was harvested at the normal time at between 28 to 32% DM, and farmers were very pleased with the resulting forage,” says Forage Product Manager Simon Broddle. “It performed consistently, due to its excellent seedling vigour and early harvest maturity.”

Plastic options

For those who feel they could never drill without plastic, varieties such as the ever popular Nescio, LG 21.95 and LG 31.93, still reliably produce consistent crops of high quality forage in Northern Ireland.

However there are newer varieties coming along to consider such as Beethoven, also available from Nickerson Direct. At Maturity class 7, it is expected to be one of the highest yielding varieties in this group, producing around 17t DM/ha. It also has very high starch yields of up to 5.7t.ha.

“As with all crops it is vital that farmers choose a variety and a way of growing it that will suit their farm conditions i.e., weather, soil type, field aspect etc.,”

Mr Broddle advises.

“A few years ago no-one in Northern Ireland would have dreamt of growing maize without plastic – now advances in maize breeding are giving farmers greater choice in how they grow this exceptional forage crop.”

Tomahawk, Beethoven, Nescio and the LG varieties are all available through our sales team on

Freephone 0800 581847