The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine released a recommended list for maize varieties which can be grown in the open earlier this week.

Once maize plastic was banned from use, under the EU’s single-use plastics directive, the Department stopped trialling varieties under this plastic, but moved back to trialling maize in the open.

The Department is planning to carry out maize trials under compostable film, as well as in the open, in 2023.

The list is based on data from 2020 to 2022 and all three varieties are provisionally recommended.

Highest yielding

Resolute is the highest yielder on the list with a relative dry matter yield of 110. Ambition follows at 105 and Prospect comes in at 102.

Ambition and Prospect both score 99 for dry matter content, while Resolute comes in at 92.

The Department released a recommended list for maize varieties grown in the open.

Prospect has the highest starch content and is followed by Ambition and Resolute.

Ambition will be well-known to many. It was first recommended in 2015. It is a medium variety for earliness of maturity.

Medium variety

Prospect is also a medium variety, while Resolute is a late variety.

See Table 1 for full details of these varieties as well as dry matter percentages, starch content and dry matter yield figures from the control varieties.