Fleming and FAR Maize

Russell Fleming is a lower North Island director of FAR (Foundation for Arable Research), a maize grower and partner of a three-generation family business in grain contracting, storage and sales. Recently FAR extended coverage to maize grown for silage (mostly by dairy farmers) as well as grain and it has published a booklet called Best Management Practices for Growing Maize on Dairy Farms.

Russell has 100ha of river terraces at Rongotea, on the western bank of the Oroua, which he has cropped most of with maize every year since he bought the farm 25 years ago. This year the maize is very slow, around 15cm high, after cold and wet spring. Crops sown in October and November are very patchy and may have to be sown again. However, it follows two really good seasons which created a local surplus of maize grain, some of which is still in storage awaiting sale. Because this season is shaping up badly, the stored grain will hopefully be cleared at good prices. Russell aims to get maize crops up to fence height by Christmas, using up to 96 CRM (comparative relative maturity) hybrids with mid-maturity. Maize grain is harvested for sale to poultry and stockfeed feed manufacturers, including both Inghams and Tegel. Fleming family holdings in the Manawatu amount to 320ha, most of which is cropped.

Three generations of the Fleming family are involved with a grain contracting, storage and sales business, based on SH1 at Oroua Downs on the Himatangi straight between Sanson and Foxton. The business was started more than 50 years ago by Russells father David and his uncle Robert, and now Russells cousin Jason and son Dion work in the business, which employs six full-time employees and part-timers during the summer season. The business has three combine harvesters, a silage chopper, two planters, a self-propelled sprayer and various other machines and vehicles. Most of the maintenance is carried out by family or staff members and the grain drying and storage complex of 8000 tonnes was home-built.

The business involves growing, harvesting, drying and storing maize both on their own account and as contractors for a number of farmers. This involves growing maize on a range of soil types for both grain and silage and coping with a range of microclimates. In addition the contracting business is involved in baleage, maize silage harvesting and trading, harvesting of other cereal crops and transportation.

Last season it planted about 1800ha of maize, including family holdings, and dried 13,000 tonnes of cereals and 15,000 tonnes of maize grain.

Fleming Bros has combines with yield mapping technology, worked on GPS, and one auto-steer tractor for sowing. This enables minimum tillage and strip tillage, to reduce soil compaction. They now aim to have all maize harvested by the end of May, to avoid damage to wet soils in winter.

Russell has a 12-year involvement with the maize research committee of FAR, plus five years as a director representing the lower North Island. He is also on the strategic research committee, established last year to make applications for funding, including the Fast Forward Fund, now replaced with the Primary Growth Partnership. He has hosted maize growing trials on his Rongotea farm, involving nitrogen use and the development of a yield and nitrogen calculator called AmaizeN, which cost about $1 million to develop. Around 70,000ha of maize is grown annually in NZ, one third for grain and the rest for silage. Under the Commodity Levies Act, FAR now collects a research levy of 90c per 10,000 maize seeds sold, which is $7.20 per bag of 80,000 seeds (enough to sow just less than one hectare) and this brings silage farmers who grow maize under the FAR. In this the third year of that inclusion, FAR has published the Best Management Practices for Growing Maize on Dairy Farms in September. This resource aims to provide all of the most topical information on maize crop preparation, management and harvest in one easy to access guide. Topics range from improving pastoral dairy farming using maize silage and liaising with contractors and technical advisors to understanding the drivers of maize yield, site selection, soil preparation and nutrient input. There are also chapters on crop monitoring, harvest and post-harvest management, the maize forage trading code of practice and record keeping.

Authors of the book include FAR's maize and soil research co-ordinator Andrea Pearson and FAR researcher Mike Parker, DairyNZ Farm systems specialist Chris Glassey; Plant and Food Research Scientist Paul Johnstone; Genetic Technologies forage specialist Ian Williams; and Environment Waikato sustainable agriculture coordinator Gabriele Kaufler.