Wexford company Maizetech Ltd is one of Ireland’s leading maize seed, sprays and film suppliers.
Maizetech, under the leadership of John Foley, works closely with seed suppliers and farmers to develop best practices for selecting and growing maize seed varieties to achieve the highest yield of maize for different areas of the country with varying weather, soil and crop conditions.
The Bunclody, Co Wexford located company is customer focused, providing independent advice to its growers and potential growers. Advice on growing all types of maize can be provided, forage maize, ground ear maize, grain maize and moist grain maize and suitable seed varieties recommended and supplied.
In addition, the company has pioneered the practice of growing maize under photo-degradable plastic in Ireland. Over 26,000 acres of maize is sown annually under plastic in Ireland, representing over 80 – 85 per cent of the maize crops, most of which has the backup support of Maizetech.
Maize silage is recognised worldwide as a high quality winter feed for livestock. The work of Maizetech and its partners has led to the release of maize varieties adapted to the colder North European and Irish climates and offers Irish beef and dairy farmers the opportunity to exploit the valuable assets of this crop.
The company was established by John and his wife Bernie back in 1992.
“I’ve been farming since the 1960s and got into the maize business in 1971 here on the home farm,” replied John when asked to trace the roots of the company. “I did remarkably well, growing and selling seed in the south east of the country, in Carlow, Wexford and Wicklow. There were good and bad years, a good summer meant great crops but the varieties were not near as good then as they are now.
“I’m a beef, sheep and tillage farmer but in the early 90s we had a look at new varieties and new machinery particularly in the harvest end of it and there was a big improvement. In ’91 we started thinking about growing maize again and got back into the maize business.
“In ’92 we struck a deal with Pioneer, the world’s largest seed producer, and that was the first break for Maizetech. We started distributing maize seed, herbicides and advice from then on.”
John continued: “Maize had become a very popular crop and there were some very good years but it was grown in the open at that stage so it was never regarded as a reliable crop.
“There were ups and downs but at that stage we started to develop a plastic system. I first laid plastic on my own farm in ’95 with a shovel believe it or not! The results were fantastic and that really sparked it off.
“In ’96, we laid the first plastic by machine, using the Samco drill and plastic which was made in Gorey. In fairness when people saw how reliable it was, the acreages started to rocket. It went from 200 in ’92 to 50,000 acres by 2000 and peaked at 70,000. It has come back down since then for a variety of reasons.”
Maizetech Ltd. has identified suitable maize hybrids and developed agronomic methods and in-field support practices that helped growers integrate the system of growing maize under film into their farming practice.
The system for growing maize under film involves sowing maize corn seed, spraying a pre-emergence herbicide and laying a thin layer of degradable plastic film over the soil. The process is made simple and quick using the Samco drill, which features the X-Tend principle.
This unique system combines three different machines working as a one-pass operation. Many contractors are available with Samco drills, so farmers should have little difficulty in getting someone close at hand to lay the seed and film for them.
The Maizetech supplied plastic is a micro pin-holed photo-degradable film which is supplied by the roll. The thin plastic film creates a microclimate for the maize seeds as they germinate and grow. The film protects young seedlings from poor weather conditions and late frosts by increasing the ambient and ground temperature. This provides a cost effective method of delivering higher quality and higher yielding crops.
Independent trials have shown the effectiveness of growing maize under film and the practice is now well established in Ireland particularly with hybrid seeds such as Justina and Benicia. Other high yielding hybrid seed varieties such as P8200, P7905 and P7892 have been identified and found to be suitable to cater for different parts of the country and end-user aims.
By growing maize under film, planting can commence as early as the second week of April, even in northern parts of Ireland, with yields ranging from 20-28 tonnes fresh weight per acre.
Very much a family affair, John and Bernie are joined in the running of the business and farm by their sons, Sean and Dermot, and their combined efforts has resulted in Maizetech growing from strength to strength. The northern part of the country is well served by two hard working agents, Robert Duncan in Antrim and Stanley Livingstone in Armagh, who keep stocks of seed, film and herbicides and offer advice and support to customers. Just south of the border in Clones, Co. Monaghan, Hugo Maguire has worked from the very early years of plastic development to pioneer and promote maize growing in that part of the country and still continues to be actively involved.
“We’ve seen a bit of a downturn in maize acreage over the past three to four years but we hope to see an upturn in the coming years,” John explained. “It’s hard to put your finger on the cause of the downturn but the milk quota situation definitely held it back. That has now been abolished so we’re looking forward to seeing an increase in acreage.
“95% of our business is repeat custom and we’re always on the lookout for new customers too of course. We always try to look after our customers to the best of our ability. We provide them with advice and the variety to suit their situation. They keep coming back so they must be pretty happy with how we treat them.”
Meanwhile, Maizetech’s ‘Secure Cover’ is the simple way to save silage. The Secure Cover is placed over the polythene silage sheet and requires weighting only at the edges and joins. Secure Covers’ special construction ensures that the silage sheet remains in place on the silage pit by dispersing wind gusts.
Secure Covers also maintains the silage sheet in close contact with the silage surface, helping to prevent bird damage of the silage sheet and preventing birds from feeding on the silage face. Strong and secure, Secure Covers are made from the highest quality, finely knitted, UV stable polyethylene mesh. Secure Covers are so strong that they can also prevent damage to the silage sheet from cats, dogs, people and even cattle.
“That has been a growing market for the past nine to 10 years. We brought them in first to eliminate the problem of birds picking at the plastic but they are used a lot more for other reasons and they have also eliminated the need for tyres.”
Contact John and the team at Maizetech to obtain the most suitable maize varieties, seed and herbicide supplies backed up by the company’s outstanding support and advice network.
Maizetech
Coolmelagh
Bunclody
Co Wexford
Tel: 053 9377715
Mob: 086 2438683
Fax: 053 9376317
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.maizetech.ie
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 10, November 2015
