Grass and Forage Production module takes students to Frontier

Student Llewellyn Evans writes:

Despite the steady trend of soggy weather plaguing Shropshire throughout the autumn of 2024, the 2^nd year BSc (Hons) Agriculture students caught a rare sunny day for their visit to the Frontier Maize trial site just outside Market Drayton in early October as a part of their Grass and Forage Production and Utilisation Module.

With an initial welcome of hot drinks and doughnuts, we were quickly assigned to groups to move around the demonstrations hosted by Frontier, LimaGrain and Lalleman. With the variety of companies represented, the entire production cycle of Maize from variety breeding to silage storage was effectively communicated.

The presence of experienced Agronomists and Consultants ensured that high-quality topical and relevant information was provided.

This was evident not only through the description and evaluation of various Maize varieties throughout the trial talks but also through a clear and detailed discussion of the use of cover crops and undersowing with grass.

As we moved around the demonstrations in small groups , specialists were available for 1:1 chats to directly answer any questions we had from the meaning of ‘FAO’ numbers to the implementation of SFI’s alongside a Maize Crop.

LimaGrain’s excellent talk about the trial period for a variety prior to entry onto the market as a product, and their breakdown of the key qualities of a maize crop added great depth to the information on display.

With a generator whirring in the background, LG’s NIR analyser highlighted key discussion points on the cell wall digestibility of maize, its starch levels and ME levels. These concepts were explored further by Frontier talking about the use of Maize crops and the potential yield of milk that a hectare of maize could produce.

The representative from Lallemand went into depth on the importance of a tidy clamp and the possibility of using a forage inoculant to preserve the energy stored within the clamp and ensure that the silage is consistently appealing to stock.