NIAB Innovation Farm demonstrates the range of maize varieties now adapted to UK growing conditions and markets. Maize is a superb example of the success of plant breeding in adapting a sub-tropical crop to thrive under UK growing conditions. The crop has been adapted for a range of different food, feed and non-food applications. There has been a gradual expansion of the UK area in which the crop can be grown. There has been a six-fold increase in cultivation from 26,000 ha in the late 1980s to more than 160,000 ha today.
Varieties included in the Innovation Farm demonstration plots are:
Kentaurus
Breeder: KWS
End-use: Forage
Cannavaro
Breeder: KWS
End-use: Biogas
NK Baleric
Breeder: Syngenta
End-use: Dual purpose – forage and biogas
NK Falkone
Breeder: Syngenta
End-use: Grain maize
ES Marco
Breeder: Grainseed
End-use: Forage
Ambition
Breeder: Limagrain
End-use: Forage
Sweetcorn
End-use: Human consumption
