game cover mixtures - Countrywide Farmers

12Game Maize“Choosing the right crops and getting advice onspraying has enabled us to achieve excellent coverfor our birds and a better shoot percentage.”“We have a 700 pheasant shoot on my sheep farm in the Gowerpeninsula. As the shoot acreage is small we have to be selective withthe game cover crops we grow. We chose triple maize blend becauseof its good holding ability and also because it stands so well. Nextto it we planted a strip of millet which works very well as it can betreated with the same sprays as the maize. It can be very windy hereso we use sorghum around the edge to cut down the draught in themaize. As can be seen from the photo the crops look really great!”Mr Ed John, Gower Peninsula November 2011Game Maize is still one of the mostpopular crops used for cover and feed.Nearly all maize varieties used forgame cover have at some stage beencommercial forage or grain varieties.As these varieties are superseded bynewer hybrids, stocks of those beingreplaced diminish and we carefullyselect the most suitable of these for ourgame cover purposes.The selection criteria a breederwould use for a new foragemaize are:High yield potentialMaturityResistance to lodgingVery good early vigourResistance to diseaseMost of these attributes are just as important for ourgame cover crops and as breeding evolves the varieties wesupply will continue to improve.Every year seems to be difficult for growing maize for onereason or another and 2011 was no exception! Most areasexperienced very dry conditions causing various degreesof plant stress, with some counties such as Shropshiresuffering from drought so badly that the plants resembledbrown cardboard. However, in those areas where rainfinally did fall, the crops compensated remarkably well.The brand ‘Late Shot’ has increased in popularity,producing an immature crop with unripe cobs at harvest,therefore not suffering from the damaging attentions ofbadgers and rodents. (see photo on p 13)For game cover purposes, a crop of maize can always berelied upon to provide the perfect hiding cover for game;birds can move easily through it and the cob will providevaluable feed.Variety selection is as important a factor as when andwhere to sow and we have a choice of five brands to suit alllocations and requirements.Biomass Maize varieties available