Follow the maize – filling the forage gap

24 November 2025

Dry conditions affected both maize and grass growth in 2025. Shropshire farmer Mark Fitton spent a busy autumn getting silage stocks back on track.

After the hot, dry summer, Mark Fitton’s 35ha (86 acres) of forage maize was ready to harvest almost a month earlier than normal this year.

Harvested on 31 August and 1 September, and coming in at 20-21 t/acre (49-52 t/ha), yield was down on last year’s harvest of 23 t/acre (57 t/ha), he admits, and on his bumper 2023 maize crop, which saw 28 t/acre (69 t/ha). Nevertheless, Mark says he was satisfied with the result.

We tried drilling at a higher seed rate of 50,000 seeds/acre, compared with the normal 45,000 seeds/acre, in search of extra yield,” says Mark. “The season was clearly against us, but I think the higher seed rate helped. I’ll definitely do it again next year.

Like many farmers, Mark, who farms at The Farms near Whitchurch, faced tight supplies of homegrown forage for his 250 dairy cows, after grass was also hit hard by the drought. So he was keen to gather every square metre of the maize at harvest, and to minimise losses and wastage in the clamp.

With the crop harvested slightly drier than he would have ideally liked, analysing at 34.2% dry matter (DM), the dual-acting inoculant, Ecocool – designed to not only improve silage fermentation but also tackle the yeasts and moulds that cause heating – was used. This formed an integral part of ensiling, along with good consolidation with two machines rolling the clamp, and effective clamp sealing to keep out air. 

Grass silage

Normally, four or five grass silage cuts would have been taken on the farm by early September, Mark explains. However, grass growth was so badly affected by the dry weather that only two cuts had been taken by that time this year.

In response, cows were brought in and housed from mid-September to allow grass growth to resume with the arrival of wetter autumn weather, so that a third cut could be taken from the grazing and silage land. Cows were then back out again by mid-October. 

Housing the cows meant we had to feed quite a bit of the maize,” Mark says. “But we managed to mow every grass field bar one. We achieved 5 t/acre (12 t/ha), which doesn’t sound much, but we harvested 173.5 acres (70ha) in total, and it was nice, lush stuff. So it turned forage stocks around.

Ecosyl inoculant was also applied to help preserve the DM and quality of this silage. In addition, after the maize harvest, fast-growing ryegrass was sown on the maize land in the hope of a further silage cut. 

Mark says: “If we haven’t managed to harvest this before the winter closes in, we’ll put sheep on it over winter and get an early spring cut before putting it back into maize.” 

Helping farmers produce consistently better silage. Visit Cut to Clamp today.