Drilling and sowing maize seeds
Maize seed should be drilled to a uniform depth and into moisture.
Soil temperatures should by 8C first thing in the morning for four to five consecutive days for maize to grow.
The last 10 days of April should see all maize drilled, but climate will obviously depend on location.
There is an old adage that says for every day that the crop is sown into the month of May there will be a 1% loss in yield.
With seed treatments likely to be banned next year (2020), farmers should drill deeper to avoid rook damage. Seed must be deeper than a rook’s beak and so should be sown into the seedbed at least 7-8cm.
To ensure correct sowing depth, growers should check behind the drill and uncover at least one-meter length of seed to ensure drilling depth and spacing are uniform.
When seed is drilled deeper the seedbed is likely to be colder so growers should expect delayed germination. To offset this, it may be worth taking soil temperatures at 7-8cm deep and drilling later into warmer soils.
Maize seed can come through from a deeper sowing, but if the soil conditions mean that it takes a long time to emerge, and then comes through into inclement spring weather, there will be losses.
All sorts of drills have been evaluated for maize over the years, but most growers come back to precision drills and 76cm rows. Maize needs drilling slowly with one seed delivered every 11-13cm.