AgroPages-United Kingdom - Corteva's Maize Update for 2024-Agricultural news

Pioneer maize hybrid highlights for 2024

As the maize 2024 season approaches, Corteva introduces you to Pioneer’s key hybrids for this season.

P7179 - Extra Early

P7179 combines very good early vigour with extra early maturity and a notably high eyespot resistance score of 8. Across three years of PACTS trials, P7179 has given very high starch contents on both favourable sites (37.9%) and less favourable sites (39.2%). P7179 exhibits fast silk formation of the second ear often leading to more extensive pollination and extra grain set.

P7326 - Extra Early

This hybrid was once again the biggest selling maize hybrid in the UK in 2023 (source: 2023 FarmTrak™). This extra early maturity flint-dent grain textured hybrid has a great track record of reliability in many conditions. If you are looking for a hybrid with extra cold tolerance that will come to harvest rapidly on favourable sites, or a hybrid that will deliver yield and quality silage even on less favoruable sites, P7326 is proven to perform.

P7034 - Very Early

This dent grain type hybrid has been awarded the M3 (pronounced 'M cubed') status due to combining a built-in level of highly rumen degradable starch content along with a proven adaptation to cool UK growing conditions. P7034 can be harvested last, clamped last and fed first therefore, minimising the negative feeding effects often experienced when transitioning to fresh silage made from flint grain textured hybrids that are often very low in rumen degradable starch.

P7948 - Early

Only suitable for favourable sites grown in the open and under film, this hybrid has produced very high dry matter yields with an average starch content of 35.3%. An impressive hybrid for the right locations and situations, for both feeding and gas production.

Two additional hybrids to highlight are P7381 and P7647 which are new for the 2024 season.

Detailed agronomic descriptions of each of the hybrids available for sale can be seen below.

The table can also be viewed on page 7 of the PACTS book.

Click here to download the 2024/25 edition of PACTS

(Pioneer Accurate Crop Testing System)

Where ratings based on a 1 - 9 scale, higher rating indicates character is shown to a high degree

# Food and Agriculture Organisation; lower number indicates earlier maturity

* Rating derived from PACTS trials and UK Official Trials Results; TBC = To Be Confirmed

**Available only in Ireland

NEW maize herbicides: Principal^® Forte and Dragster^®

Maize growers can benefit from two newly approved and exciting post-emergence herbicides: Principal Forte and Dragster. Both represent new formulations for use on this crop. They can be used on forage and grain maize and deliver high levels of control of a wide range of both grass and broad-leaved weeds with minimal following crop restrictions.

Instinct^®: lock in Nitrogen to boost maize yields

As a crop, maize has traditionally been under-fertilised, and this is largely due to it requiring a significant amount of nitrogen - around half - post flowering. Nitrogen stabilisers slow down the conversion of ammonium to nitrate, preventing nitrogen loss through leaching and denitrification. Trials using Corteva's Instinct have shown a reduction in leaching of around 50%, and a reduction in denitrification through greenhouse gases of approximately 45%. This means nitrogen is kept in the soil for longer, and for a crop such as maize, this has a significant impact on yields, as it is available to the plant when it is needed.

Increase maize yields with BlueN™

BlueN is a nutrient efficiency biostimulant for use in a broad range of crops including maize. It contains Methylobacterium symbioticum, a bacteria found in nature, which fixes nitrogen from the air and converts it into usable nitrogen in the plant. BlueN provides a sustainable, additional source of nitrogen for the plant, ensuring the plant has access to nitrogen all season long.

Increase maize yields by 3.6t/ha with BlueN.

A grower conducted trial in the South West of England showed a 3.6t/ha yield increase with a corresponding increase in digestibility (D) values and metabolisable energy (ME). Increases in D values and ME will show improved ruminant performance i.e. live weight gain/animal/day and increased milk productivity/cow/day.

To find out more about BlueN, watch our short video "How to use Nutrient Efficiency Biostimulant BlueN on maize" here.