Early in the maize planting season late last year a number of growers in Waikato and Northland reported stunted crops post-germination, prompting some to replant crops before mid December.
Pioneer’s investigation team head Raewyn Densley said a number of growers have been identified with the afflicted maize seed and it has been isolated to a seed treatment issue.
“But at this point in time everything is pending an insurance claim so it is difficult for us to add anything further,” she said.
Given the scattered nature of the crop failures it is difficult to quantify the area of crop affected.
Kaipara farmer Jason Smith said his crop failure was almost 70ha with some parts of the plantings emerging then failing to grow any further.
“We considered replanting but we got outside the planting window and it simply was going to be too much risk if we were to try and do that.
“This is maize for grain so the length of time between planting and harvest is long, as late as June, and there is a lot of water to go under the bridge yet with this crop.”
He estimates his loss could be as great as 30% but it will be at the flowering stage the extent of the failure will be seen.
“The yield is likely to be very variable within the crop with flowering happening at different times so it is going to be difficult to know exactly what our yield will be.
“It’s like having a crop within a crop and we won’t really know the full cost until harvest time.”
Smith said Pioneer has been very forthcoming over the problem with company representatives spending a significant amount of time trying to understand the issue affecting specific hybrids.
Rural contractors have indicated the issue has not been a major one for many clients.
Densley hopes that despite the problems some had the exceptional growing conditions this summer will go some way to counter the losses.
“What we do know is maize is quite capable of adjusting to crop density and the season will only help that.”
The issue was a unique one for the company but Pioneer is investing a significant amount of time and agronomy expertise to fully understand the problem.
