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As winds of up to 130 km/h swept across the country, knocking over trees, cutting of power to 67,000 homes and causing the cancellation of day two of the Ploughing, last weeks’ Storm Ali caught the country off guard.
In addition to this, the high winds caused significant damage to a number of the country’s maize crops, many of which were just one-to-two weeks away from harvest. High winds snapped the stems of the crops anywhere from one-to-three foot above the ground, causing them to brackle.
Damaged areas range from small patches to entire fields in some cases. The worst of the damage appears to be concentrated in the northeast of the country and growers affected there are facing losses.
Agronomist Pat McGuinness, who’s been advising in the northeast area for many years stated that this was the first time he had seen damage of this kind in the area.
Maize area up
Maize crop area has increased by over 50% this year to around 18,000ha.
While this is a huge increase in one year, it’s worth remembering that in 2008 there were over 24,000ha grown in the country explains Dave Barry, grass and forage crop general manager with Goldcrop.
The extent of the damage was highlighted last week at the Goldcrop maize and beet variety open day in Co Louth were all maize varieties on display had suffered wind damage.
The perfect storm
Many crops were planted later than planned this year. This meant that temperatures were higher at the time of planting which, combined with good moisture levels in the soil, led to high plant establishment rates both with and without plastic.
As the weather throughout the summer suited maize crops particularly well, plant growth was accelerated and with a higher than normal number of plants per square meter, competition was high. This led to weaker stem strength in the plants.
With the cobs developing higher up in the plant than usual, this helped increase the lever effect leaving the crops perfectly exposed to wind damage, which occurred last week with Storm Ali.
Harvest difficulties
A problem with the damaged crops is that, while the cobs are ripe, in many cases the stems and leaves are still green and sappy.
Normally maize crops are harvested at 28-32 % dry matter but some of the damaged crops will have to be cut early, at 23-24% dry matter. While this largely won’t effect the ensilability of the crop, effluent levels will be higher.
One suggested solution to this problem when harvesting green, is the addition of citrus or beet pulp when putting the crop into the pit to soak up effluent, helping to retain feeding value.
When it comes to the actual harvesting of the crop, maize contractor Aidan Hand suggests that a six row Kemper Champion header with teethed rotors was the most suitable header for lodged maize.
When harvesting, he suggests following the direction of the fall and coming in from behind the crop. This would allow the header to catch the lodged plant and pull it in, minimising losses. Sappy maize crops could block the header however.
Potential losses
Based on an estimated fresh weight of 21 tonnes/ac at 30% DM valued at €53/t (based on a relative value of €250/t for rolled barley), this equates to a total crop value of €1,113/ac. Growers stated that at estimated field losses post-harvesting of 5-10%, this could equate to losses of €55-111/ac.
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